Rage Against The Minivan

Over the past couple of months I've been having Shortcake create yearly photo albums of our family. It's something I've been wanting to do for years . . . but the piles and piles of digital photos on various computers makes the task daunting. I take way too many photos and I'm terrible about deleting and organizing them, and going through to find the yearly highlights seemed overwhelming. Shortcake had a genius idea: most people already have a highlight reel on social media. This was certainly . . .

This post was sponsored by VSP Direct I love giving gifts, but I can also get a little stuck with trying to choose the right thing for each person in my family. I want my gifts to be thoughtful but also practical. I want it to be something that delights, but also something that will be used. And I also want it to be something that lets the receiver know I've given thought to who they are and what they need. I never would have thought of giving someone insurance, until I heard of VSP . . .

After nearly a decade of sitting in the therapist office as a marriage and family counselor, I'm pretty comfortable talking about sex. And I'm pretty comfortable talking to my kids about sex as well. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they are comfortable talking about it, too. We have frank and open conversations in our house about all things human sexuality, from puberty to consent. But the kids are still very squirmy about it . . . and often try to cut the conversation short. There is an . . .

Here are some of things I read this week that made me think. (These are just snippets – click on the title to read the whole thing). From Across the Country, Gifts of Tiny Houses Arrive for Standing Rock from Jane at Yes! Magazine “Winter was on its way. The Standing Rock community’s tents and summer tipis would not work in 20-below weather. A call went out from the Red Warrior Women’s Media Collective for donations of winter housing, something the rural Oregon forest community knew it . . .

This post was sponsored by Illustrated Advent Calendar December tends to be my busiest month, work-wise. It's also just a busy time of year, with tons of holiday things going on at school and in the community. In all of the bustle of the season, it can be hard to carve out space to reflect on something more meaningful. For a lot of Christians, an advent calendar is a way to set aside time each day to reflect on the spiritual aspects of the holiday season. It's not a tradition I grew up . . .