The Home – All things hearth and home, from marriage to homeschooling!
Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing the prize for this giveaway. Winner will be randomly chosen and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a copy of…
I’ll Do Better Tomorrow, I Promise ~ Giveaway Read the words of this delightful book and tell me if you’ve ever had similar experiences: I’LL DO BETTER TOMORROW, I PROMISE Dear God, are you still awake? Have you got a minute or two? You’re pretty good at understanding, and I really need to talk to…
In honor of my youngest’s fifth birthday today (crazy!), a list of ways to show your child that you love him. There are as many different ways to show love as there are different kids. And that’s a lot. So this is obviously not an exhaustive list. Please note that since I have four…
Being a mom of four boys (currently 11, 9, 7 and 5), I hear things like, “So you gave up trying for a girl, eh?” “Are you trying to go for a whole team?” “Um, they’re all yours?” “Just kept trying for that girl, didya?” the old “You know where babies come from, right?” and…
I can’t remember the last time I’ve written a poem! Today, while snuggling and kissing my almost five year old (how is that possible?!), I had to stop to write this down, because it just hit me. I love hearing their giggles and laughter. I love that they still love kisses (well, at least he…
Homeschool Day is September 12, and to mark the occasion, Dolphin Tale 2 opened in theaters. I had heard of Dolphin Tale, but had no idea there was a homeschool connection with it. It turns out that the people who run Winter’s aquarium are a homeschooling family!
Disclosure: I did receive a complimentary copy of this unit study / curriculum, in exchange for an honest review. We are a homeschooling family consisting of Mama, Papa, 4th-almost-5th grade boy (Jeremiah/Jerem/JT/J1), 2nd-almost-3rd grade boy (Josiah/Joe/JB/J2), Kindergartner (Jamin/J-bug/JZ/J3), and preschooler (Jace/Jacey/JIP/J4). The big boys and I have recently been using the first Homeschool Unit Study in the…
What do you do when you want to have some fun family time, but you’re strapped for cash and need to stay close to home? Sometimes just seeing things written down in list form can give me ideas, so I hope this little list is helpful to you in spending more quality time with your…
Most parents know that they need to teach their children how to manage their money. Perhaps it’s because they have had to learn the hard way through their own mistakes because their parents did not pass on the information to them. Maybe it’s because they have struggled financially for a long time. It could be…
Jerry and I stayed up too late last night to watch Gifted Hands. I’d planned to go to bed when he turned it on, but it pulled me in and I watched the whole thing. I feel glad that I did, because I have to say, it was probably one of the best movies I’ve…
Thanks to my sweet and beautiful sister-in-law for this tip! This is the recipe she uses and said it works great. It was originally found on an image on Pinterest, with no credit. I tried a google images search and came up with nothing. What do you say about an all natural sunscreen, with no…
Sometimes (a lot!) it’s the kids who teach a lesson. My boys give me ideas often, and this is the most recent. Boys are something else. No matter where they are, they can turn playtime into a game of war. Have you caught your boys playing war lately? Today we were at the school playground,…
I was blessed to receive a copy of the book Just 18 Summers by Michelle Cox and Rene Gutteridge. From the back cover: “After the tragic death of Butch Browning’s wife, Jenny, four families begin to realize how precious—and fleeting—their time together is. Each is at a different stage in life: Butch is facing single…
hello. a fellow infertility struggler manda linked to this on her site. i feel i should do the same. what not to say to an infertile couple. even if you think you’re being kind and sensitive, some things come out wrong, or are at least received wrong!!!!!!!
i found out the pregnant woman who works in the infant room (next door to me in the toddler room) tried a whole year before she got pregnant. wow. i never knew. i just thought it just happened. sometimes i get so caught up in myself i forget that i’m not the only one who has the problem of infertility.
manda also had a few questions that i’d like to answer – replying to people’s insensitive (or just plain ignorant) comments.
1. “I wouldn’t give up my twenties for ANYTHING. I can’t believe you are stressing about infertility at 25 (a few years ago)! What if God wants you to wait until you are twenty-eight?”
first of all, i have always wanted to be a mother. i wanted to begin my family when we first got married. for a while after we COULDN’t get pregnant, i thought God was punishing us for not trusting in Him to plan our family. i have since reconciled this. anyway, children are blessings from the Lord. why would i not want to be blessed????
2. “Be glad you don’t have kids right now. Kids can be such MONSTERS.” or “You’ll never want kids again, after watching mine.” or this is what i get all the time: “You can have my kids if you want some so badly.”
as if kids are always perfect, and i should expect perfection. no, kids are humans, just like us. and NO i don’t want YOUR child, i want MY child, from an infant, to love and teach as i want him to be raised!
3. “If you stop trying, you’ll get pregnant right away.”
that is NOT how infertility works!!!! trying too hard causes stress, which can’t help, but it won’t change infertility. infertility is just like cancer or a sickness – it has to be treated, not ignored!!
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well enough of that for now. i need to be going.
God’s blessings unto you,
jenn
