One of my favorite passages in C.S. Lewis’ fiction is from his book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. For background, Eustace is a wretched, spoiled boy who constantly complains and makes life miserable for himself and everyone else. He’s unexpectedly come to Narnia with his cousins Edmund and Lucy. The ship they’re on visits several islands, and […]

When we moved overseas in 2006, we sold or gave away virtually everything we owned. Personal items, baby books, and a few items we couldn’t sell and really liked went to my parents’ garage. Everything else? (Imagine me snapping.) Gone, just like that. We moved to a somewhat-grimy, moldy-bathroomed, garishly-embroidered-floral-couched apartment in the middle of nowhere […]

This is a guest post, written by my mom, Debbie. As we are currently preparing for a cross-country move, away from my parents, my husband’s mom, & much of our extended family, she had some thoughts she wanted to share. Visit her new website: TheButtonWoman.com. ************************************* Many of my friends and loved ones have commented […]

1. THEY ARE PRECIOUS AS BABIES. PRECIOUS!!! We built a pen out of the cardboard box from a deck box. We taped it to the floor in a trapezoidal shape so they wouldn’t have any 90-degree corners to run into (and get suffocated by the others, which apparently can sometimes be a problem with small […]

When we moved overseas in 2006, we sold or gave away virtually everything we owned. Personal items, baby books, and a few items we couldn’t sell and really liked went to my parents’ garage. Everything else? (Imagine me snapping.) Gone, just like that. We moved to a somewhat-grimy, moldy-bathroomed, garishly-embroidered-floral-couched apartment in the middle of nowhere […]

1. THEY ARE PRECIOUS AS BABIES. PRECIOUS!!! We built a pen out of the cardboard box from a deck box. We taped it to the floor in a trapezoidal shape so they wouldn’t have any 90-degree corners to run into (and get suffocated by the others, which apparently can sometimes be a problem with small […]

{Note: This article has been updated from its original publishing in Dec. 2008.} Today I want to share the ethos behind some big choices of my life. I’ve lived as an at-home-on-purpose mom for the last 13+ years of my life because I believe this simple truth: as a mom of young children, the best place for me to be […]

by Jess Connell · July 13, 2015 I’ve been a Pastor’s wife for three and a half years. The first two of those years, my husband was an administrative pastor, which was a very different thing from the counseling and discipleship pastoral role he has now. It’s not been very long, really, but it’s been long enough to […]

by Jess Connell · April 25, 2016 Discount grocery stores— this is currently my top budget-slicing method. At Costco, one basket costs us about $300-400. At my discount grocery stores last week, I got 3 basketfuls of groceries for just over $150. It takes creativity, and a little more time (we went to 2 stores, 45 […]

Well. I’ve been quiet for a couple weeks. And the truth is, I have things to say. I’ve got more to say than I’ve been letting on, and I’ve been listening too much to the gurus who give tips on how to write clickable headlines and how to curate your own message and why to […]

I guess I’m a slow learner. It took me lots of babies and births to finally start figuring it out. Our baby #1 (born in a hospital in Virginia) was in the NICU for a week, I had mastitis for a month, and then we packed up our apartment and moved across the country. WHAAAAT??! After baby #2 […]

Yay, it’s August! Nearly time for a new school year to begin!! We’re actually going into our tenth year of homeschooling… which is crazy! In January of 2007, we began curling up together, Ethan and I, with Sonlight books. We discovered the world together through books like Twenty and Ten (WWII– Nazis, rations, resistance), Understood Betsy (farm life, lifelong learning), A Grain of […]

It’s hard to discern sometimes, isn’t it? Especially the first time we face these things as a mom! Did he really hear me? Does she really understand what I’m asking? How can I know what I should/shouldn’t expect. When do our children know enough to start obeying us? For us, obedience starts long before they’re speaking, and […]

by Jess Connell · July 13, 2015 I’ve been a Pastor’s wife for three and a half years. The first two of those years, my husband was an administrative pastor, which was a very different thing from the counseling and discipleship pastoral role he has now. It’s not been very long, really, but it’s been long enough to […]