The last month has been a challenging month for me physically. I haven’t felt well with my fibromyalgia and because of that, I stopped exercising. When I visited the doctor she asked if I was exercising and I couldn’t lie.”I was all summer,” I...
We’ve left our momma cat alone for a couple of days, but today we climbed the ladder again and took a peek. We saw three beautiful little kittens and unfortunately one dead one. Of course, Mark wasn’t home and there was already a horrible stench so Kolya...
In my book My Heart’s At Home, I look at all the roles that home plays in our life such as Home as a Safe House, Home as a Trauma Unit, Home as a Rest Area…I think you get the idea. One of the chapters is Home As a Cultural Center and it focuses on home...
Last Friday I traveled three hours to speak to a wonderful group of ladies in Sullivan, Indiana. As I began to set up my book table, I realized that I’d made a terrible mistake. I had forgotten my books. A book table without books isn’t much of a book...
Tradition #5: With so many children and so many birthdays in our family we’re on the “every other year” plan for birthday parties. Each child may have a birthday party with friends every other year. On the other years they may have 1 friend spend the...
Since a birthday celebration has been a part of our week, I decided to make my August contest about birthday traditions. Every family has different birthday traditions. And many times we pick up ideas for our family from other families. So this week is dedicated to...
Yesterday was birthday day at the Savage’s. Our youngest, Austin, turned 12. My baby is getting awfully close to being a teenager!Austin has consistently made one request for a birthday present. He wanted a bunny. His older siblings had a two bunnies for several...
I stopped in my tracks as I read the sign standing next to two massage chairs in the middle of the shopping mall: RELAX, IN A HURRY! Are our lives so fast-paced that we even feel we need to relax in a hurry?Several years ago I learned about distinguishing the...
I simply said, “Erica, you need to see this sunset. You might want to take some pictures. It’s gorgeous,” and she got up off the couch and forgot all about the show she was watching.Earlier this summer I said, “Boys, have you thought about...
Does that picture creep you out? It’s a bit blurry, but there’s no missing the essence of the image.Imagine my reaction when I was getting a laundry load out of the dryer and discovered this “bug.”It seems that one of my boys picked up the...
This week has been an emotional rollercoaster. Mark and I dropped our two youngest boys off at church camp on Sunday afternoon. It’s their first time to go to camp and they were definitely nervous. After getting them settled, I got in the car and started crying....
I’ve had an interesting week. It’s been reminiscent of the days of diapers and toddlers when I would work all day but feel as if I’d accomplished nothing at all. In reality, however, I did accomplish many things—they just weren’t...
I slathered my boys with sunscreen as soon as we arrived at the pool. Then I put sunscreen on my face, my shoulders, my legs…somewhere along the way I got interrupted and the sunscreen never made it to my arms! I now have lobster arms that are so burnt they are...
When my friend Susan got to the empty nest season of life, she issued me a warning…”Be careful of those young adult years. That’s when your kids have bungee cords attached to them. They leave…they come home…they leave…they come...
Several years ago when our oldest son was a high school senior, my husband and I found out he had skipped school. We kept quiet, deciding that we would let him deal with the natural consequences of the school and once he got in trouble at school, we would administer...
