bena

When my kids were younger, leaving the house took the coordination of a well timed symphony.  Everyone had to be rested, fed, toileted, diapered, or entertained.  I often brought books with me and used to carry a small pack of crayons in every purse.  More importantly, I never left the house without a snack for

My husband and I are trying to eat better.  A few weeks ago, we went out to have steaks.  When my husband was ordering his sides, he decided to skip the loaded baked potato that he would normally get, and he ordered a sweet potato instead (you know, to be healthier, while you’re eating steak). 

Job is one of my favorite books of the Bible.  (Does that make me crazy?) It has all the makings of a great novel- character establishment, conflict, villains, and a happy ending.  When God finally answers Job, the prose is so beautiful. It reads like poetry.  The imagery is so vivid and moving. This time,

My neighborhood is an entire ecosystem.  Behind our house, there is a farm with cows and a donkey.  There is a pond on the farm that is home to some ducks.   On the street behind us, several of the homes have chicken coops.  We’ve caught two snakes in our garage and found a few turtles

If you are not signed up for our Old Testament reading plan, I would encourage you to do so! Taking the entire year to read just the Old Testament has been really great.  Every time I read the Bible, I “find” something different. Earlier this year, we read through Exodus.  In Exodus 19, the Israelites

I love Christmas. (I know it’s April, but bear with me!) I am usually ready to start decorating the house in October- as soon as the first flash of cold breeze hits.  My husband has a hard and fast rule that we don’t decorate until after Thanksgiving, and since I need his muscles to drag

I am not a Karen. I just wanted to make that clear before I share my story. Knowing that I was going to have a few medical expenses this year, I put money away in a health care spending account. If you don’t know what that is, it’s like having an account that you can

My kids had fall break last week, and we had the chance to get out in nature for a few days.  We spent an afternoon hiking in a national park.  It was great weather to be outside- slightly overcast with a cool breeze.  We had another family with us and our kids enjoyed exploring the

Last year, my family and I had the opportunity to go on an RV trip.  It was quite an experience.  We were fortunate to go with another family who were well versed in the art of RVing.  They basically planned everything out, and we just tagged along. We rented a rather large RV to accommodate

One of the prayers that I pray over my kids is that God would reveal himself to them in a very real way.  It’s the only way to seal all of the ‘Christian’ things we do- going to church, serving, reading the Bible, family prayer.  If we do all of those things, but they never