Lincoln

Grace-Based Parenting and Redirection

Redirection as a behavior management technique worked well when my boys were early toddlers. I’d point out a plane in the sky so they’d drop their fascination with that sharp nail in the driveway. I’d talk up a game of hide-and-go seek to get them to stop fighting over blocks.

Then, two things happened: they got a little bit older, and I got a little bit lazy. (I meeean, I had a few good reasons.)

I didn’t want to come up with something cool and exciting every time I needed to get them from Point A to Point B. I just wanted them to listen to me and respect me. Done. End scene. I was tired. Continue reading “Grace-Based Parenting and Redirection” →

April 26, 2017 3

Peer Pressure

I absolutely love watching my boys interact in different scenarios. It helps me learn more about them, and sometimes it just makes me laugh.

This morning we went to a playground near Trader Joe’s. The idea being that once they’d had a chance to play, they’d be more affable at the grocery store and MAYBE hungry enough to be interested in healthy stuff. Continue reading “Peer Pressure” →

April 1, 2017 2

Christmas in the Year of the Octopus

Well people, Christmas + chemotherapy is a lot. A lot of joy, a lot of togetherness, a lot of planning, a lot of interest in napping. But we did it!

I have so many things I want to write about related to Christmas this year. However, I really have been so durn tired. Too tired to write the things I want to write. So, I am going to capture the highlights in pictures, lest I forget some of these funny, special moments. Here they are. Continue reading “Christmas in the Year of the Octopus” →

December 29, 2016 7

All of the Lights

Exodus 13:21-22: By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

I find this image incredibly comforting. Continue reading “All of the Lights” →

December 3, 2016 12

God’s Highway: The Latest on Our Treatment Journey

A few weeks ago my dear friend Rebecca recommended the new album by Sandra McCracken, called God’s Highway. When I did a quick Google search to learn more about it, the first result I clicked on was this video where Sandra tells a story about the title track. Here is what I heard: Continue reading “God’s Highway: The Latest on Our Treatment Journey” →

November 11, 2016 7

Being a Mom With Cancer

During my college course SMAD 256: Principles of Advertising, our professor organized us into groups and we competed to have our campaign chosen by the University Health Center. I will say that the class was challenging and a little stressful, but in a fun way. Once, as my group (which happened to be comprised of all women) met to brainstorm logos for our “agency,” one woman confessed, “Guys, I don’t know why I’m doing this. All I want to do is be a mom.” I remember looking at her wide-eyed, shocked. Continue reading “Being a Mom With Cancer” →

September 1, 2016 6

Lincoln Breaks My Heart A Little Bit

(Tearful, at the end of an off-kilter day with lots of comings and goings) “Mama, if Pop-Pop and G-Mama leave and Dada is at the fire station and you go to work and Hyatt goes to the library and Ragland and Rambo go to the pet store, I’m gonna be lonely.”

June 24, 2016 2

Boys ‘Round Here

Bed in Summer

by Robert Louis Stevenson

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day? Continue reading “Boys ‘Round Here” →

May 26, 2015 1