by Donald Hanna I moved to an old family ranch in the mountains of Colorado from Minneapolis about two years ago. It has been quite an adventure being out here. The ranch is a shadow of what it used to be. When my granddad had the place it was thousands of acres. Now it is just forty. When … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: August 2015
Pressing the Red Button: Thoughts on Entering Puberty
by Dena Douglas Hobbs My family and I went to see Inside Out recently at the movie theater. It was a wonderful film shedding light and wonder on the thought processes of a child. At the end of the movie as the main character Riley turns twelve, her brain gets a new control panel equipped … Continue reading
James 1: Being Slow
by Joanna Harader Scripture: James 1:19-22 (New International Readers’ Version) My dear brothers and sisters, pay attention to what I say. Everyone should be quick to listen. But they should be slow to speak. They should be slow to get angry. Human anger doesn’t produce the holy life God wants. So get rid of everything … Continue reading
Fitting In
~ by Julia Roller A few years ago, I was out for a walk with my son and we happened upon a little playground we’d never visited before. He hopped out of the stroller and started to play. After a few minutes of having the place to ourselves, several cars pulled up and moms … Continue reading
The View From the Back Seat
by Corey Fields I took the risk of asking my children, who are in second grade and kindergarten, what kinds of things they remember my wife and I saying and doing while they’re in the back seat of the car as we travel from place to place. We do a decent amount of driving, between … Continue reading
Beginnings and Endings {and Melancholy and Hope and Apprehension and Nostalgia}
~by Jill Clingan Yesterday was a day of endings and beginnings for me—for us as a family—and this morning I feel a strange mixture of melancholy and hope and apprehension and nostalgia. . Yesterday afternoon I drove my daughter to her last piano lesson with her beloved piano teacher, Yona. Yona was my piano teacher … Continue reading
On Stories, Sadness, and Spoilers
by Jennifer Mills-Knutsen (This piece tries to avoid giving away exact spoilers for Harry Potter, but there are hints. I’m guessing that six years after the book’s release, most adults have already read it or don’t care.) I was pacing in the living room. My son had been making his way through the Harry Potter … Continue reading
Making Excuses
by Joe Greemore The girl simply would not stop singing! In the car, in her room, living room, backyard, bath time, you name it. Our middle child was hopelessly addicted to mental reruns of “Let It Go,” “This Little Light of Mine,” and any other familiar-to-her-ears tune along with any particular combination of words, anywhere, … Continue reading
Packing It In
by Christine Gough A few weeks ago, we loaded up and hopped on a plane to the Bay Area. It had been two years, to the day, that we moved to Oregon from California, and our boys, now 4 and 8, had yet to return for a visit. Our eldest would be jetting off the … Continue reading
Boys are Gross
by Erika Marksbury Scene One: My seven-year-old and I sit in front of the big window that looks out over the backyard, watching the dark gray clouds roll in. He hears thunder in the distance and muses, “It sounds like the clouds are so hungry their tummies are rumbling.” It’s all I can do to … Continue reading
Practicing Families 