Category: marriage

Patchwork Post {September 2021}

Published on by Jennifer3 Comments

So much to share! I’m popping in with some various links, ideas, and news!

Rise and Worship Album

We’ve listened to this album countless times since Joshua brought it to our attention early this year. Refreshing, convicting, artfully done, worshipful, Christ-honoring. I want to fill our home with this kind of soul food.

An idea for children’s artwork

Children go through (sometimes lengthy) stages of wanting to create various types of art. What to do with all the masterpieces? You hate to throw them away, but can’t line all your walls with coloring pages held up by painter’s tape, either. (Side note: Painter’s tape does work well for temporarily hanging art work.)

I have ended up stashing the artwork papers in a “file” (using that term very loosely) and then going back to the collection on various occasions. Does someone need a letter sent to them in the mail? Or a birthday card? Do big brothers need a care package? We pull out the stash and look through. Such cries of delight as my young ones find treasures they had forgotten about. They select the perfect one, we write some words on it, and voila! Ready to go! Now to gather up the artwork spread out all over the floor…

~a small sampling of our current stash~

History Recommendation
In my February Patchwork Post, I recommended a history book. Unfortunately, I will have to retract that recommendation, since the denominational and doctrinal ideas ended up being just too distracting from the history we were setting out to learn.

Now THAT’S a fish!
Sammy has been fishing as much as he possibly can, lately. Here’s a 4 pound bass he caught while out with his Uncle Tim. (Uncle Tims are just the best. Everybody needs one– and we are blessed with one on each side of the family!)

Continue reading “Patchwork Post {September 2021}” →

The crisis nobody is talking about (as deadly as the worst pandemic)

Published on by Jennifer2 Comments

We are blessed with beautiful parks in Illinois. Every town here has them, and in general they are well-kept and inviting. We went up to one for Memorial Day. We wondered if we would find an open grill, but we needn’t have worried. These peaceful Illinois parks are sometimes a little too peaceful. Where are all the people? In particular, where are all the children?

This playground has tall metal slides, the kind I whizzed down when I was a child. It has a giant wooden “hamster wheel”… it goes around and around when you run inside it. The park has swings, basketball courts, a batting cage, lovely pavilion, knobby and knotty trees, a merry-go-round, monkey bars, softball field… you name it. It even has a pond where Sammy caught 27 fish. No joke! (No worries, he threw them all back.)

All of this, and almost no children running around.

All afternoon, it bothered me. This nice park in the middle of this quaint American town…. but no people? We saw about four people all afternoon (on Memorial Day, no less), until late in the afternoon a couple came with their little boy to fish, and sat beside the pond. Of course, they would do this at the exact time that I was making a fool out of myself trying to rescue Toby’s football out of the middle of the pond by creating waves with a giant plastic jug (but I did get the football out). 😄

Continue reading “The crisis nobody is talking about (as deadly as the worst pandemic)” →

Can we please let the men be men

Published on by Jennifer5 Comments

“Stop being such a man.

You’re not allowed to be a man to the very core of your being. Don’t you know that? Just stop it. I mean, it’s fine to be a man, but please don’t be a MAN.”

This message is coming at our husbands and sons with gale force these days.

I know this problem is nothing new on the scene today. This is one of the many sad results of the out-of-control feminism of the past several decades. Men are stripped of their manhood in every arena of society. The consequences of this de-masculization are probably more far-reaching than any of us realize.

Here is how I have seen it playing out lately–

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Real Life Romance

Published on by Jennifer3 Comments

The picture on Instagram spoke volumes. It grabbed me immediately. (I wish I could give credit to the person who posted it, but I have no idea who it was now.) A mom and a dad were sitting in the front seats of a minivan, holding hands. The pic had been taken by a child in the backseat. The lady posting it said one of her children had gotten ahold of her phone and taken the picture. She discovered it later. She said that she and her husband always held hands when they went places as a family in their minivan.

This, I thought, is real life romance.

You have the fairy tale kind of romance, and then you have the real life kind.edit9The fairy tale kind of romance is Continue reading “Real Life Romance” →

On the way into Bethlehem

Published on by Jennifer4 Comments

We parked. The whole family piled out of the van, donned coats and hats, and began to wade through a sea of vehicles. Strains of Jewish music floated over the fence from across the road. Who knew that the local “Bethlehem Village,” hosted by several area churches, drew such a crowd? 

With two littles in the double stroller, we moved quickly before they could start deciding they didn’t like being in the stroller after all. A parking attendant called out, “There’s a place to cross the road about half way down.” Continue reading “On the way into Bethlehem” →

Dear Young Ministry Wife- Part 1

Published on by Jennifer2 Comments

Dear Young Ministry Wife,

You have embarked on an adventure with your husband, serving in Christian ministry side-by-side. Like any adventure, there will be victories, challenges, disappointments, unexpected twists and turns, and no doubt you will both gain wisdom and experience along the way. It’s not a journey for the faint of heart.

You may feel nervous. Excited. Wondering if you will be able to be a “good” ministry wife. Maybe you are dreaming of the possibilities Continue reading “Dear Young Ministry Wife- Part 1” →