Here are 13 natural ways to stay healthy in wintertime. 🙂 These are simple, easy, FREE ways you can boost your family’s health. Teach our kids (from very young) to cough on the inside of their elbows. Even 2 year olds can learn to do this, rather than into hands or just out into the ether. This lessens the […]
abortion – Jess Connell
There have been seven times in my life I’ve personally heard the words, “it’s a boy!” 1. In July 2002, following a painful, long delivery, after fearful words were spoken about meconium and the baby didn’t breathe for a long while, I heard, “it’s a boy!” as an afterthought before the NICU team whisked him away…. […]
baby food – Jess Connell
Hi there. I bet if you’re reading this, you’re a happy mama with a cute baby you love… I can relate to that. Luke Ebenezer (A.K.A. Lukearoni, Lukey, cutest-baby-in-the-whole-wide-world) is our 7th baby, and like I’ve done for all 6 babies before him, once he was ready to start eating solids, I started making the food…
Pondering Middle-Aged Naomi – Jess Connell
Lately, tired, hopeless, Old Testament Naomi has been running around in my brain. For those of you who HAVEN’T had Naomi running around in your brain, here’s a brief run-down: We meet her in the Old Testament book of Ruth. Jewish woman, in the time of the judges (no kings, not much societal order) Because […]
criticism – Jess Connell
It happens in the grocery store aisle, when someone else’s children are behaving better or worse than your own. Or in the church nursery, when your child bites another mom’s toddler, or vice versa. Or at the park, when, after being called, your child (or hers) runs in the opposite direction. But where it’s really… […]
comfort – Jess Connell
“O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You; My soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” ~ Psalm 63:1 ~ In our 6 years overseas, we experienced a number of challenges: my husband inexplicably collapsed (all but unconscious) for 5 days,…
seasons of life – Jess Connell
8 kids is a lot. It’s not “19 and counting” or anything, but it’s still a lot. The bigger our family has gotten, the more I’ve had to up my game when it comes to swapping out sizes and finding good organizing solutions for clothes. Here’s what standing in line looks like when I take my youngest… […]
writing fiction – Jess Connell
I’ve always thought of myself as pretty brave. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know but I looked to the externals and deemed it so: moving around the world, multiple times, as a growing family keeping having babies even though it HURTS (!!!) every time, and makes life harder quitting my dream job and moving to… […]
self-control – Jess Connell
One major struggle of women who have a hard time transitioning to the “empty nest” time seems to be that they never really thought their kids would be gone. They didn’t really think of their kids as future adults. Parenting wasn’t thought about in terms of raising MEN and WOMEN. It was just “my baby”, “my little… […]
curriculum – Jess Connell
I’m so excited about the Bible study curriculum we’re using this year. Well. OK, in order for it to be true, I have to take out a few words from that first sentence. It should read: I’m so excited about the Bible this year. There, that’s better. Because this year, our “curriculum” is very simple. It’s not really a curriculum…
rudeness – Jess Connell
Q: I am amazed by how I am noticing *already* eye rolling, sighing, attitude in general from my 5 and 3 year olds. We have zero tolerance at our house for disrespectful attitudes, and we also require obedience (“you obey Mommy the first time, with no sass.”). I am starting to notice especially with my…
theology – Jess Connell
You are a theologian. And I am too. We may each be a good one, a subpar one, or a heretic, but we can’t get away from *having* a theology and bringing it to the table with each day of mothering. Who matters most in our theology? For many moms, the person who matters… […]
gender & parenting – Jess Connell
Q: how differently should boys be parented vs how girls are? Examples would be, I know that boys don’t like to sit still. They need to be physical, to run and climb and use up all of their excess energy. What tips could you give a new boy mom as to how to deal with… […]
Feelings of Home – Jess Connell
I exited Wal-Mart into the bright of day, still stunned by our conversation. The cashier and I had moved one another to tears: “I left L.A. years ago,” she told me. “Never thought I’d stay here. All my family’s there. I’ve only got my husband here in Texas.” Her smile was strained as she typed in […]