I believe that our 15-year-old son may be going into hibernation or something very close to it. We have to call him about 50 times to wake him up in the morning, and when we do succeed, he just nods off again. Quite often, I will check on him to see if he is doing his schoolwork. I will see him typing on his computer and being satisfied that he is working, I will walk away. Then, 15 minutes later when I look in on him, he will be sleeping right on his keyboard. Even his brothers, who also like to sleep, are getting disgusted with him. I decided to do a little research and found... more

Maybe it is because I homeschool my children, they feel they can share intimate thoughts with me. Maybe it is because I am mostly a stay at home mom and spend all day, every day with my children. Perhaps it is because I sometimes share information with them, especially the teenagers that they don’t think I should share. I don’t know the exact reason why my children share very personal information with me, but they do. I would have never had these conversations with my parents even when I was a teenager. My children would not have these conversations with Super Dad and they get embarrassed... more

A family that I love made a trip to Michigan recently. They came back to raise support; they have decided to become missionaries, in Kenya. They will be living in one orphanage parenting the children there and over seeing five orphanages. Part of their responsibilities will be feeding 800 children a day, utilizing two one-burner charcoal grills. There are 150,000 orphans, under the age of five, caring for themselves and younger siblings in Kenya. They didn’t go looking for this adventure, but it found them. Seeing them brought back old memories and emotions.

The... more

Three of the girls and I sat in the stands tonight cheering for brother Ty during his floor hockey game. Unfortunately, our cheering him on wasn’t enough, his team was only able to score one time. The opposing team couldn’t seem to miss a shot. Ty’s team should have had an advantage. The opposing team twice had members in the penalty box for high sticking, which made them short a player for several minutes of the game. Big brother Ty seemed to be everywhere blocking shots and sending the puck across the floor back to the forwards.

Ty is one of little sister Ami’s... more

What binds the brothers together with their dad at this time of year? The love of hunting that they share, of course. The brothers can be seen with their dad practicing with their bows and shotguns for weeks before the opening day of bow season. If I look out the back picture window, I can see them sticking arrows into life-size realistic deer targets with precise bowshots. They sight in their shotguns by shooting at paper targets affixed to five-foot round bales of first cutting timothy hay.

The boys return to the house with their dad and with smiles on their faces. If they were shooting guns then they all sit in the living room to clean and polish their weapons together. They discuss... more

Yet another one of my babies is turning 18. Today is Shea’s birthday, “Happy birthday, Shea!” So far, all of our children have moved out during the month of their eighteenth birthday. Shea has been talking about moving out for a few months. I suppose I should be happy that we have managed to equip our children for independent living by the time they turn 18, but I’m not. I am not ready for him to go, and neither are his little brothers.

Oh sure, he has his moments. Like when he decides to beat one of his brothers to a pulp. When I open up his bedroom door and the floor is... more

Today is Ty’s birthday and he is quite proud to be eight years old. He has been counting down the days for the past two months. Mom, “Now how many more days do I have until my birthday?” Each day he thought of a new gift that he absolutely could not live without. He even convinced his brothers and sisters that they should give him gifts, as well. Of course, convincing them wasn’t too difficult, because he is everyone’s favorite little brother.

I was a little surprised when two of his older brothers each purchased him a $30 gift. Considering their limited... more

I decided to jump on the Love Thursday bandwagon as I have photos I would love to proudly share. I agree with the concept that there is enough negativity and complaining in the world...why not have some positive vibes out there as well? The kind that make you say "Awww" instead of "ugh"?

This photo is of my sons Ben and Caleb. Ben-on the right-came home from China at 4 1/2 years of age over 6 years ago. His brother Caleb came home from China just 3 months ago.

From the time Ben had... more