How can we avoid letting feelings rule our lives? 3 minutes of encouragement on that, after having a feelings-heavy day, yesterday:   https://youtu.be/It4vOJ-t5XA As always, let me know what YOU have to say, in the comments. 🙂

Rising up this morning, I turned to Facebook videos before God’s Word. Mistake. Now the fears swirl: What is America’s fate? Economic decline? ISIS infiltration? Wicked leadership? Secularization and moral debasing beyond what already is the case? Same-sex marriage, LORD? Spitting in the face of the beautiful God-designed picture of marriage of Christ and the Church?… […]

A reader asks: Q: Jess, what about when my husband is glued to his phone/laptop/ research for work constantly? Even when we eat meals together his smartphone is nearby in case any notifications pop up. He keeps music/talk shows playing in his headphones continually and actually does close to nothing around the house (with the exception…

One mom posed this question after reading my article, A Child Left To Himself. Q: I have two little girls (2.5 and 10 months). I would love to hear how you manage this [keeping kids near you and watching and training them throughout the day] practically and still get things done! When you say they are near are they… […]

I am just a white mom. This is what goes through my head as I think about the recent race-centered wounds in our country. I am just a white mom. I’m scared to even write about this.  I feel inadequate and not strong enough. What can I do? I don’t have the soul strength to “lift” the…

We learned a lot last summer when we backpacked the 93-mile Wonderland Trail, including: how to cook on a tiny stove (smaller than the size of our hands) with white gas how to make really TASTY one-pot meals, from grocery-store-bought food how to condense food and packages into easily-transportable portions If you’re learning about hiking, or wanting some […]

It may sound like a headline from Cosmo, but I know the surefire way for you to have the best sex ever. This isn’t a list of 20 tips, or 8 spine-tingling things to do. No, this is better because it applies to anyone, anywhere, in any relationship. Here it is: Have sex the way the […]

Five-month-old Luke is crawling now… or at least scooting very purposefully. And with every scoot, we get inches closer to a collision with two-year-old Theo’s self-orientation. Theo, our funny, introverted, snuggly, more-than-a-little-bit-opinionated boy has had two and a half years’ “reign” on the throne. By that I mean, more often than not, things go his way. Or he […]

We learned a lot last summer when we backpacked the 93-mile Wonderland Trail, including: how to cook on a tiny stove (smaller than the size of our hands) with white gas how to make really TASTY one-pot meals, from grocery-store-bought food how to condense food and packages into easily-transportable portions If you’re learning about hiking, or wanting some… […]

Happy New Year! Today, let me share with you some of my favorite easy-peasy meals for the hard days. These are the things I make when I want to pull out the paper plates, or use as few bowls/pots as possible. For days like… today. 🙂 When we’ve been going-going-going and I just want something easy and… […]

Sometimes when people long for the good old days, they’re remembering something that didn’t exist, fabricating entirely, or even just wistfully only recalling the good (but forgetting the accompanying bad). But when it comes to the way children behave toward their parents and toward adults nowadays, there really is a significant differencebetween what the average mom puts… […]

“[SHE] MAKES HER ARMS STRONG. SHE PUTS HER HANDS TO THE DISTAFF, AND HER HANDS HOLD THE SPINDLE. SHE OPENS HER HAND TO THE POOR . . . SHE IS NOT AFRAID OF SNOW FOR HER HOUSEHOLD, FOR ALL HER HOUSEHOLD ARE CLOTHED IN SCARLET. SHE MAKES BED COVERINGS FOR HERSELF; HER CLOTHING IS FINE LINEN…

Q: “With 4 children ages 10, 6, 2.5 and 15 mo, the discipline and training (especially of the 10 year old, who has a propensity for argument and complaining and always seems to thinks she knows best) could seriously interfere with normal, everyday activities like supper, bedtimes, homework, etc. Am I looking at this the […]

Hiking with toddlers and preschoolers is quite different from hiking with older children. Especially if you’ve been an avid hiker with only adult-sized people, you are going to have to dramatically change your expectations. Nonetheless, hiking with 3-6 year olds really *IS* possible, and you can even ENJOY your hike together. We hike often with…