It always happens on Monday morning. Always. An hour before we leave for work, my toddler wakes up and gets incredibly clingy. He wraps his tiny arms around my neck and pleads, "Mommy, don't go to work! Don't go to work!" a hundred times. Little teardrops trickle down his cheeks and pierce my heart in all places. As always, we try all things to calm a child's clingy heart while we keep an eye on the unsympathetic clock----We cuddle for half an hour while we explain the day's schedule. We …
Things I’m Learning, A Birthday Reflection
I wholeheartedly agree with these insightful words by Erin Loechner on birthdays: "I've always loved birthdays for the perspective they provide. Like New Year’s Day, birthdays are a chance to celebrate the passage of time, the wisdom gained. But with birthdays, there are no resolutions to shame and guilt ourselves into changing the pesky details of our lives that make us into perfectly imperfect human beings. Instead, they're mile markers we pause and wave to as we pass by, leaving past …
A Simple and Minimal Home
Two years ago, we stretched our faith and purchased our very first house. It was a feeling like no other when we were given three sets of keys in a small white box that allowed us access and ownership to the three-floor, three-bedroom house we had just committed thirty years of our lives and hopes into. A life of excess Before living the dream, we were hopping almost every winter season from one apartment to another until our little boy was born. The last apartment we lived in was full …
New Year, New Intentions
New Year There is something noble about writing down your goals, intentions, resolutions or whatever you call them, on the first of January, or even before the old year passes the crown to the new. I had always aimed for the same in the past seasons of my life, but I have also been learning this truth: that you get to choose your new year, your goal-setting period, that it will always feel new no matter what time of year when you have a change of heart. And so after the two weeks rolled by fast …
What is a Great Day Trip with a Toddler?
It begins with this. You wake up your toddler at 6 AM-ish on the weekend. Barely opening and scratching his eyes, he says grumpily, "No driving, sleep pa!" which means he isn't ready yet. You then comfort and lock your child in your arms, and both of you succumb to extra hours of bliss, off to Dreamlandia while the daddy practices grace and patience on the impending late start of this trip. It's Not the Destination; it's the Journey You wake up shortly before 9 AM deciding you will hit the …