This has been a long time coming… … and I’m SO excited to share episode 1 of the Mom On Purpose podcast! (Scroll down to listen here, or click to listen in iTunes.) Each Mom On Purpose episode features an imperfect-but-growing mom who will share one or more intentional decisions she’s made to benefit her home and family. I’m […]

PODCAST UPDATE: The winter break is over, and Season 2 of the Mom On Purpose podcast starts back tomorrow, February 1st. And the interviews (and I mean both the topics and the ladies I get to talk to!) have been incredible. I’m SO excited to share them with you! This season is going to be FABULOUS. Make sure […]

As of today, that’s how many days have passed since the day I was born. I used this nifty calculator to figure it out. We could do that with all sorts of dates. How long have I been a believer? How old is my son/daughter? How long do we have left with them until they turn […]

Last week it hit at once, unexpectedly. The wearying combination of both physical and emotional tiredness. We’ve had a busy couple months with life and ministry. I’d been schooling faithfully since our daughter was in the hospital, and that probably contributed, too. But the thing that had given the biggest gut-punch was that one of those […]

Q: my son Caleb, who will be 6 next month. He is an extremely outgoing, active, almost hyperactive, little boy who talks non-stop and (perhaps because he’s the oldest; perhaps because that’s how he’s wired), is obsessed with the idea of being “the boss.” Overall, he’s actually a relatively compliant child, but lately I’ve noticed this […]

We’ve been in this position before. Almost 17 years ago, Doug & I left our former life in the expensive D.C. area, with our 5-week-old in tow, certain that we wanted for me to be the one to stay home, but with no other plan other than a 1-bedroom apartment that we’d called ahead and reserved. […]

Romans 12 challenges us to righty, soberly assess ourselves and our faith. “I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”  ~Romans 12:3 Amidst non-stop workweeks, exhausting weekends, kids that need daily correction and meals, sin and sorrow, never-ending […]

Cranford‘s delightfully absurd Miss Pole (an unmarried elderly woman who had hardly ever talked to a man) said, “My father was a man. I think I understand the sex.” Well, as a mom of 7 boys, 15 years in, I think I actually *do* understand more about raising boys (at least *little* boys) than the average […]

The other day, we got a new couch. It’s the biggest one we’ve ever had, and meets my one requirement for a couch. A Connell couch needs to: comfortably hold our whole family so we can all snuggle up for a movie or a read-aloud when we want to. This used to be easy to […]

Q: “I need some serious advice here. My daughter is 9 years old but ever since she was very young like four years old, she has been very discontent. Nothing we try ever seems to make her happy. It’s like nothing is ever good enough. She takes little interest in any kind of extracurricular activity. […]

Today I went in to the kitchen and immediately had to stifle a groan. I knew the minute I took a step, the bottom of my feet would be covered in crumbs. My heart felt tired, like “didn’t I JUST clean this up?” “Isn’t this, basically, the exact same mess I’ve cleaned up dozens, hundreds of times before?!” […]

{This article has been updated from its original publishing in 2008.} There is something that bothers me and seems to get lost in the whole infant feeding/sleeping debates, and even in the debates about certain parenting methods. These debates cloud the real issues at hand regarding child training. And it is possible that those who […]

{This is the 4th article in a series about modesty. But this fourth and final part is where I fear this discussion could get tense. Because with modesty (just like the original text goes beyond a mere discussion of heart and attitude to specifics like “gold” and “braids”), it’s not just about the heart. Our […]

For many years of my life, I was a slave to potty training with the little kiddy chairs. We’d tote them around the house, dutifully emptying out the little chamber underneath the plastic seat multiple times a day, even for the tiniest drops of pee (for which we’d clapped and cheered, like the good potty-training […]