8 years ago today, we shaved my son’s head. The alopecia was spreading, and within 6 weeks, he went from a full head of dark thick hair, to losing all of his hair, right down to his sweet eyelashes.
Not long after that, he was diagnosed with celiacs, and was put on a diet for 2
Quick story in which my mom teaches me about loving people.
When my big sister got married, they pulled away from the family a lot. In hindsight, she was the oldest daughter who did too much for all of us, and her husband helped her put down boundaries with us, and it was new and
Fun fact. My sister is a teacher at a fancy-shmancy school down in California. Years ago, I visited her classroom, thinking we were going to talk about farming or something, but apparently my sister rewards her kids by telling (embellished) stories of my spunky antics as a child.
My mom, ever the pragmatist, has plans for who gets what after she dies. (She’s not dying.) When asked, I said that I wanted her white jade necklace. Her older brother brought it back for her from South Korea years ago. I have so many memories of her wearing it when I was growing
I remember some years ago, we were at a family reunion, and my great aunts and uncles and my mom’s cousins would always address my kids first. They’d get down on their level, hold their faces in their hands and marvel at them. When the child felt fully seen, they’d then say hi to
So, apparently on TikTok, there's a kid, who was really into octopus, but he lived in Oklahoma or something, and his dad got a big aquarium, and he got him an octopus as their first family pet, but it was way harder than imagined, but they just kept doing more and more, and then
The pastor who did our premarital counseling died about 2 years ago. The thing I remember the most was when we were talking about family expectations. Did we intend for me to stay at home with kids, were we fine with me working? We both gave a unanimous agreement for me to stay
I watched the father who sat in front of us today manage his squirrelly kids by not reprimanding them, but rearranging the seating so he was sitting in the middle of them, and they all just leaned into him and relaxed, and there’s just a whole sermon there.
21 years of marriage today
17 years farming
5 residence moves
6 kids
2 miscarriages
19 years parenting
14 years homeschooling
3 churches
3 dogs
4 sheep
Hundreds of chickens
Questionable number of cats
Over a dozen marathon ski races
Road trips
Tractor dates
Writing
Mentoring
I remember when each of my great aunts and uncles died, I thought “who will pray for me everyday now?”
Then I realized, that’s now my job to pray for the next generation.
I remember about 6 mos into our marriage, where I was trying to be super submissive and default all decisions to my husband, he said “what’s the matter with you? I married you because I think you’re really wise. Why are you keeping that from me?”
It changed everything.
I bought my 7 yo a new backpack at the beginning of the school year. Then when winter came, most of the students used a big reusable Aldi grocery bag for snow gear. Then they stopped using backpacks and just use the Aldi bag for everything. And now the snow is gone.
So, my son’s
As our 3rd kid is 15 and starting a new school this fall, he asked if he could have some friends over sometime. And I said his friends are pretty much always welcome over, and if he gives me a heads up, I’ll have better food available.
This is my 3rd teen and I have learned that
A few years ago, a town about 30 minutes from us had a huge number of Somalian immigrants move in. I don't know how it came about. I know they were brought because of the turkey plant there was struggling in a big way. Like many small towns, finding workers is a huge
Today at church, one family sat in the 2nd row--not their normal row. That pushed the family who normally sits in the 2nd row to the 3rd row--our normal row. So we sat in the 4th row, and the older couple who usually sits behind us was like "what's happening?"
It was chaos.
I spent a couple hours chopping up all the things for homemade wild rice soup, cooked in my biggest pot. My 19 yo daughter’s friends swung by. Then we added more chairs to the table, and some people stood and we ran out of bowls, so some people ate out of Tupperware or mugs. They
So, my mom made canned green beans. I didn't like canned green beans. (As an adult I now know I love them fresh and steamed.) But they were brownish and slimy. I wasn't allowed to leave the table until I ate them. That night we had chocolate cake for dessert--my favorite. I
Fun fact. My sister is a teacher at a fancy-shmancy school down in California. Years ago, I visited her classroom, thinking we were going to talk about farming or something, but apparently my sister rewards her kids by telling (embellished) stories of my spunky antics as a child.
Why do they have all these women’s conferences called “awaken” or “awake” or “revive” or “alive.”
I want to host a conference called “rest” and women will come, and they’ll get a pillow and blanket on check in, and we’ll just all nap.
15 yo son: Sorry about my attitude this morning
Me: you were upset you couldn’t go somewhere. I get it
Him: but still, I’m sorry
Me: honestly, I’ve been waiting for your teenage rebellion to start. If you have a mild attitude some random Tuesday, we’re doing ok
Him: roar.
A teen girl broke up with her boyfriend citing "theological differences" and when I asked her what they were, she showed me a text he sent after the breakup that said "Sorry I said I had more of the Holy Spirit than you because I'm a man. I've since found out that's not true."
My 11 has been grieving the loss of her cat for almost 2 years now. She still brings him up, almost daily. We will probably get her another cat this summer. We’ve been talking to her about it, and she is very specific about what she wants in her next cat, and how she wants to go
I was recently at a church event where we were put into small groups, and we were sharing what God has been doing. A woman in her late 70s openly said she’s been in counseling this year, and she’s learning how to respect her kids’ boundaries, and she said it’s been amazing.
After 8 months, our contractor left today.
Home renovation complete. Flip flopped the kitchen and dining room, gutted down to the studs. Replaced and added windows. Brought wiring up to code, by basically doubling our capacity, digging in a new electrical line. New kitchen
My grandpa was a church planter.
He lost his mind to dementia the last few years before he died. He went from room to room, telling people about Jesus and praying with them.
His brain was stuck doing that.
It’s how I want to go.
Young mom: how do you do it all?
Me: I don’t.
Young mom: but it looks like...
Me: no.
Young mom: so...
Me: I rotate things that I drop. Sometimes the dishes don’t get done. Sometimes the writing doesn’t get done. Sometimes I just never see friends...
Young mom: oh.
During this morning’s hymn, “There’s Power in the Blood,” every time we sang the word “power” my 5 yo son struck a superhero pose, and I’m convinced it pleased the Lord.
My mother in law told my daughter that she saw cranberries in my fridge last time she was at my house and she’s really worried I’m bringing cranberry sauce, because someone else is bringing cranberry sauce.
So now I want to bring cranberry sauce and recruit all my sisters in
Our oldest son was a colicky baby, screaming 4 hours straight every night. Even homeschooling him was tough--nothing came easily, as he had ADHD so bad. An advisor of ours suggested I give him breaks every 15 minutes to go be active outside to help him focus. So I told him to ski
Someday, when the kids are all grown,
and we are cleaning out their rooms
full of memories—
missing their presence
we will discover
where they put all the nail clippers.
Parked at the grocery pick up today, I let my 6 yo sit in the front seat and look at the controls. He pointed to the button with the red triangle on it and said “what does that do?”
Me: that’s blows up the truck and ejects you way in the air.
His eyes got big.
Then he pressed it.
Young adult in church: “I don’t want to be set up in a relationship. I just want one to happen naturally.”
Old ladies in the church: “got it. We’ll make it look natural then.”
Dear Christian parents everywhere:
You don’t need a devotional curriculum. They’re not bad. They’re just extra.
Just read your kids the ACTUAL word of God. Like, a chapter a day, their whole childhood, then talk to them about it.
You don’t even have to do crafts with it.
@Mamatoboys76
Oh yes. The whole table family found out about it. But I don't remember being punished. I remember my whole family laughing. (Youngest child.)
“Do not be anxious about anything”
should not be read in the tone of
“being anxious is a sin and you are being a disobedient naughty child if you are anxious.”
It’s meant to be a comfort, not a threat.
My older brother loves to gift each of his nieces and nephews $100 for Christmas, regardless of age, and see what chaos ensues. My kids go crazy over this tradition. Watching them each decide what to do with $100 is fascinating.
But this year my 2 younger girls (11, 13) are
Church lady comes up to me and my college daughter: “can you do this thing quick?”
Me: so sorry, I can’t do the thing.
Church lady: but everyone else can do the thing. It’ll be quick.
Me: so, sorry you’re going to have to do the thing without me. Why don’t we schedule a time
When my kids were little, I asked an older mom with a bunch of kids how she kept her house clean/managed chores. She said when all her kids are working, the whole house gets clean in 30 minutes tops. I was astonished at this.
Over the years, I’ve done various chore systems to
Young woman from church texted “is tonight a good night for me to come to supper?” Yep! Shepherds pie is on the menu. She came over, played with my kids for about an hour, to get her kid fix, then had supper with us. Then 2nd young woman from church texted “can I swing by real
I've made a lot of mistakes, but I have nearly 4 teens now, and I've learned a lot the hard way, and see other parents around me with less kids who are just getting to that stage make the same mistakes I made, so I want to share what I've learned.
If you want to teach your kids
8 yo: why are we always the last to leave church? You guys talk too much.
Me: because in my family growing up, we were the last to leave church, and in Daddy’s family, they were the last to leave church. No one ever taught either of us to leave church. We don’t know how.
Finally saw Encanto today.
Have we already had the conversation about the prophet who was accused of making bad things happen, so he went into hiding inside the home, trying desperately to fix the cracks he foresaw were coming?
Because...I have to sit with that for a bit.
My mother in law loves to go to the concert association events at the Center for the Arts. It’s hard to go to concerts since her husband died.
She invited my 18 yo son to go with her tonight.
He came downstairs showered, shined, suit and tie.
He understood the assignment.
My brother is flying to the Philippines right now where our dad is in the hospital. Internal bleeding and organ failure. We are finally at the end. 5 years ago, when he was diagnosed with alcohol induced liver failure, they said he had weeks to live—maybe a year or 2 if he did
My pastor was at church today.
That may not seem unusual, but my lead pastor has been on leave for the last 1.5 years in order to fight leukemia. Due to the chemo, he’s stayed home, away from germs. He was in the hospital last week. They sent him home…
I was watching "West Wing" again last night, and the mind blowing "Two Cathedrals" episode.
When he's walking up the aisle of the cathedral after the funeral, brokenhearted, grieving, and yelling at God in Latin--I looked up the translation. He basically says "to the cross with
Whenever I share with my husband some of the enraging hyper trad-wife stuff I see on the socials, he always points out every couple espousing that stuff has been married less than 10 years.
“They are still dealing in ideals. Life hasn’t hit them with anything yet.”
Don’t get
I just want to put it out there that my skinny little Ramona-Quimby-like girl full of spunk, who my husband calls my mini-me, has chosen her instrument for 5th grade band:
She has chosen the tuba.
The tuba.
#theologybyingrid
I made a statement on FB about the fact that Pence was wrong to replace “Christ” with “Old Glory” in his speech while quoting scripture. Our hope is not in the flag.
Pray for me, because apparently correcting a politician about where our salvation comes from means I hate babies.
Quick shout out to
@WheatonCollege
who had a protocol in place, that when my daughter found out her grandpa died, set her up with a counselor, emailed all her professors to have her assignments held, and arranged for rides to the airport for us.
In all the chaos, it meant a lot.
I think I might be uniquely qualified to say this. (I have 6 kids from age 8-20)
I have had a medicated hospital birth.
I’ve had an unmedicated hospital birth.
I’ve had a home birth.
I’ve breastfed.
I’ve pumped and bottle fed.
I’ve formula fed.
I’ve sent my kids to public
After watching the “Shiny Happy People” I’m shaken. There are so many stories I want to share, from mission trips I’ve been on as a teen, to the homeschooling circles I’ve been in, to the women I’ve mentored, and held, and cried with them. Gothard infiltrated so many
So, when we were first married, and dreaming of our family culture, one thing that was important to Knut is he wanted the ability for either of us to ask someone over for supper without having to ask the other. Just an expectation of a generous, open table. He wanted to be able
Young woman from church texted “is tonight a good night for me to come to supper?” Yep! Shepherds pie is on the menu. She came over, played with my kids for about an hour, to get her kid fix, then had supper with us. Then 2nd young woman from church texted “can I swing by real
My 12 yo girl: “my math teacher sent me home with extra practice. I’m not getting adding negative and positive numbers together.”
Also my 12 yo girl: “huh. If this word was in Latin, with this spelling it would be a second declension nominative singular noun. That’s funny.”
I cannot stop thinking about this. She was the last woman I ever imagined to say such a thing, but she then tried to convince all her little lady friends at the table how good counseling was.
When I say that I'm passionate about mentoring women understand the fullness of the gospel, this is what I'm talking about. They get the whole gospel. They get the fullness of the Holy Spirit. They don't have a fractional faith.
Just learned that our 11 yo daughter brought some long handled landscaping clippers to church today to clean up some of the brush by their play place outside.
“It only took a minute” she said, as she casually put them back in our garage.
14 yo: can we stop by the ice cream shop? I have gift cards from my confirmation.
Me: fun! Yes. But I can pay for the other kids. That’s your gift card.
14 yo: no, let me do it. “In this family we’re generous.”
The first 5 years of parenting, I parented like the Wilsons. We had taken a class. We were so determined to parent "God's Way." We parented with all law and no gospel.
I cannot express the deep remorse I have for the mother I was during those years. Watching the videos floating
On the flight home, my seat mate started talking with me, and found out I was coming back from a work trip where I shared “about God.”
“Seriously? I’m so excited I sat next to a Christian, I have so many questions!”
3 hours of sharing the gospel.
Pray for Ethan headed to NY.
Kid: can you help me memorize this for my program?
Me: sure!
Kid: I’m struggling to remember this part.
Me: ok, maybe we can say this in a singsong way like this…
Kid: [stares]
Me: or maybe we can make up these actions to help remember?
Kid: [stares]
Me: come on…let’s do
“I know it’s not popular, but it’s time for tough talks, ladies. It’s time for me to say some things that will make you feel uncomfortable, but this is the Word of God.”
-every retreat speaker right before she says a bunch of legalistic junk that is not in fact, in the Bible
Church lady: it’s been fun following David’s skiing. He’s been in the newspaper a lot!
Me: he has! It’s exciting. He’s worked so hard.
Church lady: do you scrapbook?
Me: no. I’m a bad mom with that. I’d love to, but I just don’t have the margin to scrapbook for my kids.
Confession: I made a fresh strawberry pie from my own strawberry patch, with a real lard crust and a thin layer of cream cheese.
My husband and I ate it over a few days, after the kids went to bed.
So I made a 2nd pie to share with the kids.
But we didn’t. We ate that too.
I was thinking this morning about when my oldest son was 1st grade. Not yet diagnosed autoimmune stuff below the surface. Uncomfortable in his skin.
Sitting in Sunday school was miserable for him. We had a meeting—the grown ups in charge. We didn’t even have a name for his
My take on the deconstruction movement is that there was a whole generation of American Christians that was taught a hollow Christianity based on their behavior. It was a season of the church where we settled for a Christian culture, instead of actual Christians, because it felt
To those asking for the recipe, I just usually look up "wild rice soup instant pot" recipes on Pinterest, get some ideas and wing it. I used my BIG Instant pot (not my regular size one) though it could be done on the stovetop as well. It's different every time, as soup making is
The glares I got at the grocery store today...
Wow.
It was enough food for my family for 3 days, plus what we have in our freezers at home. The clerk actually said I wasn’t allowed 2 cartons of eggs, and no one needs this much butter.
I tried explaining I have 6 kids.
One worker in the field came having read the whole Bible in a year.
Another worker had only read the New Testament in a year.
Still another worker had only listened to scripture being read aloud during church.
Then the Lord of the harvest paid them each the same wages.
All the grandsons loved to constantly test their strength against their grandpa who was strong as an ox.
Standing by his casket as a family, my older kids were sobbing.
My 6yo: Mom, if I slapped Grandpa as hard as I could, do you think he'd feel it in heaven?
Me: Stop it. No.
My pastor was at church today.
I’m crying in gratitude, and I’m crying in grief of what this means. He’s stopping chemo, and he’s here to be present and give hugs for as long as he can.
It may be a small thing, but as we were planning to transition our kids from homeschool to private school this year, our 9th grader was insistent he wanted to go to the public school. He’s usually laid back, but he kept pushing. We listened to his reasons, and they were well
Feel free to skip all this.
After 14 years of homeschooling, my 4 youngest are schooling elsewhere. 2 of my kids are in private Christian school and 2 are in public school.
It’s been such a range of emotions these last few weeks. My husband wanted to discuss making the switch 5
@Emschocolate
She doesn’t want any dang kitten. She wants to get to know a litter of kittens and get to know their personalities first. Plus, we’ve had major home construction going on that would scare the daylights out of a cat. Gotta finish that up first. But I appreciate you rooting for us
Just a reminder that my parents once bought one of my sons a case of scotch tape for his birthday when he was 8 or something. It’s what he asked for. I think it was the best 4 days of his life.
We have now entered the season where everything I buy will be saved for stockings.
New toothbrush? Stockings. Socks? Stockings. Here’s hoping Daryl enjoys his new Ziplocs, forever stamps, and baking soda.
You may not see it coming, but there will come a day when watching birds at the bird feeder outside your window will become one of your favorite parts of your day.
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@courtneyellis
Thanks for coming in because you had all the symptoms of having a horrible disease. But without taking any tests, let’s just assume it’s perimenopause. That’s probably the most likely.
I’m in the male-only ordination camp, but I also think that Jesus isn’t going to yell at a bunch of women in heaven because they talked about him too much.
I don’t know the theological term for that position, but that’s where I’m at.
Epistle outline:
Grace.
I thank God whenever I remember you.
Hold fast to the gospel.
For the love of everything holy, stop being stupid.
Timothy says hi.
My sister told her family she really needed some time in quiet. One of her twins posted this on her door and she found it when she came out. It’s just so awesome:
Them: the world is mocking us.
Me: Like Christ has said they would.
Them: We need to make them stop.
Me: "They know not what they do." That's what Jesus said when he was mocked.
Them: We need to stand up or Christianity will perish.
Me: God will preserve his church.
Them: But
So, if you’re a guy, and don’t want to be friends with a woman, that’s fine. I don’t even force friendships on my kids. You’re fine. At least try to actively see them as sisters, not sexual objects.
But if you’re a pastor, you either have to be ok giving pastoral care to women,
Ingrid (10): Mom, what do you think heaven is like?
Me: Well...
Ingrid: Because we talked about a book in Sunday School about a guy who saw heaven, and then came back wrote a book about it.
Me: [sigh] Seriously?
Ingrid: Yeah. His name was John, I think.
Me: Oh. That's ok.
As this was my last year of homeschooling (except my high school senior this next year) and my 4 younger kids are going to various traditional schools, I’ve been doing some major processing.
When we started homeschooling, 14 years ago, we got the side eye from several people. I
Our son’s high school ski coach gave each of his graduating seniors this stamped post card with a hand written note saying they can call him anytime if they just need some encouragement.
We don’t deserve coaches.