Poop. Doodoo. Dump. Turd. Peepee. Urine. Tinkle. Wee. Whatever you want to call it, I’m seriously over it. How many nicknames can we give it before my kids start to care? How long does it have to cling to their bodies before they’re ready for it to land elsewhere? How many low-riding diapers does it take for the bowels to move themselves on over to the toilet? My twins are three. Yes, three, and nowhere …

I TIMOTHY 4:14-16 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. I was aces in chemistry in high school. And biology. And calculus. And physics. And all the …

I can no longer go into the therapy room with my kid. If I’m there, he’s done. Forget walking. Forget tasting new foods. And you can definitely forget using his communication skills. When he spots me, he thinks the work day is done. He can sit back and relax because I should instinctively know what he needs. And he’s right. I usually do know what he wants to say before he says it. But letting …

I was at the beach recently with my toes in the sand watching my three-year-old twins attack what they thought was a live crab. It was actually a carcass. They are savages. With the breeze and the birds and the reef in the background, I couldn’t make myself care. This was the first time I’d sat down on a vacation in five years. With three kids under five, sitting wasn’t an option. If I could …

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20th, 1969 and then spent two and a half hours making footprints on a surface no foot had ever touched. Not a bad way to spend a summer afternoon. So, on this July 20th, let’s celebrate the innovation and curiosity of the men and women who’ve given us a close up to space, that mysteriously cool world beyond our own. Click the fun fact …

Remember summer as a teenager? A bowl of Lucky Charms with the windows open at 11 a.m. and lunch and a boom box by the pool in late afternoon. Evening would stretch into tomorrow without a thought. Summer was one long endless day – and it was glorious. Fast forward to summer now as a parent of young kids: breakfast at 6 a.m. (probably still Lucky Charms), parental lifeguarding at the pool for hours, and …

To quote Pete Seger, “where have all the flowers gone?” Seriously. Where? The more I take my kids to the park, the less we see, well, the park. Let me preface this by saying I love teenagers, but… Click the picture to read how I’ve lost all my cool vibes on Her View From Home. *Linking up with Meg, this sunny summer Monday. It is, of course, perfect park weather. Tell me your best park …

ACTS 2:25-28 David said about him: “I saw the Lord always before me.     Because he is at my right hand,     I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;     my body also will rest in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,     you will not let your holy one see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life;     you will fill …

There are dead armadillos all over Nashville. Their armored bodies litter the roads. Everywhere I look, a tail hangs limply over a curb. It’s the armadillapocalypse. But this is opossum country. Don’t armadillos belong in Texas? Don’t you think they’d be more at home in the scrub brush? The armadillos weirded me out, so I went to the internet…to be more weirded out. Apparently, armadillos are the status quo now here in Tennessee. There are …

I’m 18 and 2,000 feet in the air. The wind gusts have me clinging to the canvas hand-holds like grab bars on the subway, the consequences of letting go much worse than a collision with a sweaty neighbor. Heat waves from each fiery blast into the 55,000 cubic feet of balloon above me force me to turn my face outward. And outward is everything. Rolling hills unfold like cirrocumulus clouds with ripples in the green surface below and …