A Dad’s POV on Unplanned Pregnancy
When Ty found out he was going to be a dad, it was not in the way he had imagined. The news of an unplanned pregnancy hit like a tidal wave. Equal parts love, fear, and uncertainty.
A Random Act of Christmas – Mother to Mother
If you are able to, find an opportunity to spread a random act of kindness this Christmas season. You could touch someone deeply and change their life for the better, creating a ripple effect of paying it forward. This time last year, a kindly gentleman rescued me at a busy ...
6 Tips for Spring-Cleaning a Home
Looking for motivation to declutter your home? These 6 tips for spring-cleaning your home might help. The holidays have always been the best time to deep-clean the home, which often includes a cull of material possessions. But when you’re forced to isolate at home (as many of us have experienced), ...
Supporting Your Child Through a Trauma
Loss and grief are naturally part and parcel of our finite lives. This does not make it any easier. How can we teach our children to handle the pain? When my father passed away suddenly, I was quickly forced to understand how a traumatic event can tip a family upsidedown. ...
Parenting: Too Many Chiefs, Not Enough Villages
Parenting can be so all-consuming that we end up disconnected from other parents who need our support and who can support us. We end up becoming a band of lonesome chiefs with no communal village. How can mothers connect and support one another more during these vital years? Do you ...
Choosing to Join In When Your Kids Have Fun
Having fun with your kids sometimes means choosing to join them in their silly activities. The other day my girls emptied shredded paper all over the floor to play with it -- so I joined them! On Friday afternoon, I had Phoebe asleep in the swing while Esther and Magdalene ...
You Won’t Believe What Love and Nurture Does to Your Child’s Brain
Some parents worry that too much nurture can make children co-dependent. But the risk of too little is worse. You won't believe what love and nurture does to your child's brain. "I wish I hadn't cuddled my babies so much," said no mother, ever! It's probably one piece of parenting ...
Every Mother’s Worst Fear
What is your worst fear as a mother? Mine is losing one of my children -- and that's exactly what happened to me recently! I lost Magdalene at the shops on Monday, and it scared me like nothing else. One moment, she was standing with other children her age watching ...
On Having the Perfect Plan for Your Children
God's wisdom and plans are greater than ours. It is tempting to chart our children's lives for them, but even better is when we let God take the wheel – directing our lives and our children's lives too. Do you already have the “perfect” plan designed for your children’s lives? ...
Where Your Treasure Is, There Your Heart Will Be Also
What do your children value? Reflecting on the way children treasure the simplest things can teach us important lessons in life about what we treasure. My girls are obsessed with little bits and pieces. Their bits and pieces might be a compilation of parts from toys, Barbie accessories, bracelets or ...
Finding the Sweet Spot in Parenting
Parenting comes with so many challenges. But the biggest challenge of all is stopping to enjoy the joys – the 'sweet spots' – of parenting. This year has been one of the most challenging years of parenting for me. In some ways, I assumed this year would be easier because ...
How to Make a Chocolate Nativity Scene
It’s November, which means next month is Christmas. It will come sooner than you think. Here’s a Christmas recipe to tuck away, ready for the silly season. Recently, I had a crazy idea of creating a Christmas nativity scene out of chocolate. If I’m honest, I’m no food blogger. I ...
The First Person I Need to Change is Me!
The desire to change other people is natural but it will only lead to frustration. You will enjoy the most success and contentment in life when you focus not on changing people but changing yourself. If only my children were more helpful and cooperative… If only I had a smaller ...
Toileting Your Kids: My Most Embarrassing Toilet Story Ever!
Whether you're toilet-training your kids or just trying to survive an outing to the shopping mall, we all have an embarrassing toilet story to tell! We all have embarrassing stories we’d rather not re-live ... right? I have one or two that made my cheeks burn red. Okay, maybe it’s ...
Anger is Your Enemy, Not Your Friend
Anger feels right in the moment, but no child wants an angry parent. Below is some great advice on how to deal with your anger to become more effective and loving as you raise your kids. To be honest, I still struggle with anger sometimes, especially when I’m tired. Every ...
Tears in the Kindy Kitchen
I remember the conversation I had with my mum friends 3 years ago as if it was yesterday. Esther was 22 months old and every fortnight I headed to a friend’s house where a group of mums caught up with each other. I was sitting at the outside table, momentarily ...
Your Identity: You’re Not What You Think You Are
The question of identity -- who am I? -- is a huge one in society today. When everything is stripped away, what makes us, us? I went to a retreat once where the director used a reflection that stuck in my mind and bugged me for ages as I tried ...
Tips for Transitioning Your Toddler to a Big Bed
Here are some tips from an experienced mother on how you can succeed in transitioning your toddler from a cot to a bed. This post has been written in collaboration with Sleepmaker This year, Phoebe will be out of a cot and into a bed and I’m not sure how ...
A Wounded Heart: From Perfectionism to Peace
Let me begin this article by saying to you that the journey that healed my wounded heart has only ever happened once to me, and I believe it was for a very specific reason. I am by no means a spiritual visionary! The Healing of A Wounded Heart As I mentioned ...
We Just Want to Belong: Friendship
Although we all pursue it in different ways, friendship is a natural part of human life. It is critical that parents pray for their children to gain quality lifelong friends. When it comes to friendships I tend to be a drifter. I don’t actually have a best friend. My best ...
Perpetual Discontent: A Guide to Unlocking the Prison
When extreme perfectionism becomes embroiled in a family context, it invariably leads to deep discontent. This is part 1 in a series on perfectionism and how to find peace in the midst of it. When you get right down to it, most perfectionists are searching for peace. Basically, we want to ...
Don’t Turn Blessings Into Curses
Have you ever dreamed a dream, had all the steps fall into place and suddenly you’re living your dream and it’s nothing like how you imagined it? Welcome to Parenthood We dream of the baby, but have no idea how that little person will change the rest of our lives. We ...
Mothering Myths: Perfectionism
I honestly believe that a lot of the struggles with our children have to do with the pressure we put on ourselves. We have set the bar so high that we hate ourselves if we don’t get it ALL done today.
A Life of No Regrets
Have you ever shared how ridiculous a particular situation is with a friend to find that they think it’s crazy too but their predicament is actually worse than yours and you really have nothing to complain about? That happened to me on the weekend. Lately, I’ve been having little reminders ...
You Are Enough Because He is Enough
I contemplated whether to share a snippet of my “real life” today, but then I thought, that is exactly how other Moms can relate. Acting as if I have it all together is the last thing I want to portray. For those dear Moms in my Bible Study, they have ...
Making the Connection: Communication is Easy With These 3 Tips
We recently analysed the feedback from 400 participants in our online marriage preparation course. The results to the question, “On which of the following areas would you like more formation/education”, surprised us; the most requested item among eleven options was, ‘Improving Communication’. Communication and Relationships Why the surprise? Everybody knows ...
