She stood there smiling at me, in the basement of the church where we both were visiting. It was a genuine smile, a relaxed smile, not a forced “I have to smile at you because I’m the evangelist’s wife” smile. She had three or four small children in tow, and they were climbing on everything in sight, as were mine. Continue reading “If Mama Ain’t Thankful”
This blog post is going to be conversational in nature. That’s because it was an actual conversation that happened via texting recently, between myself, my younger sister Rachel, and my Mom. Rachel’s first child is not yet school age. My sister-in-law Esther pops in at one point as well! These ladies have kindly given me permission to publish our conversation here.
Rachel: Mom and Jennifer, what age did you start first grade? And did you do a year of learning to read before first grade, or did they learn to read in first grade? Continue reading “Homeschool chit chat: readiness of the child, state laws, and the question of October birthdays”
Every fall brings crunchy, tasty apples, sometimes boxes of them! We eat them whole. We eat them cut up into slices. I like them chopped up in vanilla or plain yogurt, or on cereal. We usually make a few pans of apple crisp to eat with vanilla ice cream. After doing all that this year, we still had some apples Continue reading “Homemade Caramel for those Fall Apples”
After reading my last blog post, about working alongside your children, Steve said, “There’s a spiritual lesson in that.”
Here’s the truth he shared. We have One who comes alongside us, too. As followers of Christ, we’ve all been given jobs to do, many of which seem beyond our abilities. Our Master hasn’t left us alone to figure it all out ourselves. He’s given us Continue reading “A thought from Steve (with Fall pictures!)”
An adorable little freeloader enters your world. First, he creates mounds of laundry and dirty diapers. Not long after, dirty dishes begin to multiply. Then suddenly, the entire kitchen floor becomes sticky and grimy in 1.9 seconds of your back being turned. Books and knick knacks litter the floor, because your little freeloader has also become a little ten-month-old tornado. Continue reading “How to Begin Training Good Workers (spoiler: Don’t say “Go clean your room”)”
Yesterday, I met precious little newborn Isaiah. Today, I met precious little newborn David. I’m sharing this poem in honor of these sweet boys as well as their brave and beautiful Continue reading “A Sudden Guest (The gift of new life)”
The loveliness of the Shenandoah Valley welcomes the change of season a little more each day; days of late summer mixed in with days of early fall. Katelyn and I have been enjoying the scenery on the drive to and from the farm where she and Ethan work on a butchering crew. So we took a drive out that way the other day, to try to capture some of it on her camera. Yellows and golds are some of my favorite color tones, both inside my home and outside of it. Goldenrod may be Continue reading “Golden Tones of Late Summer (with kids crying in the background)”
And we’re off. Another school year is underway. The getting-ready phase is always a crunch and a scramble, a holding-of-breath type of phase, and then when we actually arrive at the first day it’s like a sigh of relief. It’s like we can breathe Continue reading “Getting started, and two delightful books”
Somehow, taking on the role of wife and mother causes our fears to rise to previously unknown levels. We don’t know what the future holds for our precious loved ones whom we so strongly desire to protect Continue reading “God Is In Every Tomorrow”
This little nip of fall in the air puts me in the mood for baking. One of the great things about starting school this coming week is that homemade bread is part of our daily school routine. We made some bread the other day, and subsequently realized how much we had missed it over the summer.
One of the unavoidable little details about raising a family Continue reading “Making Bread, in Pictures, with Recipe”
Treasuring Home 