Beyond Bringing Up Boys

I don’t have a GPS system on my vehicle—I do have Samuel, thankfully, who was blessed with an excellent sense of direction—but when he is not with me, I get lost. Often. And in search of a familiar landmark, I’ve wished many times to have something to point me in the right direction. It was cold Christmas Eve morning when I awoke and headed up to the “attic.” I planned on grabbing a box and heading back to the warmth of the wood burner to wrap a gift. I picked one that looked to be the perfect size but when I pulled it out, it felt heavier than I expected. I opened it to discover some letters that I had received over the course of a year...20 years ago. I love letters and rarely throw them out…they bring back memories that would otherwise be long forgotten. But I was surprised that these letters had lasted so long. I knew that several of them were painful and those months had long been replaced by almost two decades of delightful memories. I opened the box and sat Indian-style on the...

Okay, I’ll admit that unless you are grandma of one of these boys, you'll be yawning or worse. But since their grandmas do read these too, this is for them. However, you're welcome to join the brag fest if you'd like. Today is the 100th day of school. Samuel is beautifully decked out in a flag shirt with 100 star stickers, put on by his daddy! You will see that Samuel finally has a new grin. His teacher finally pulled out that snaggly tooth last week. I did NOT have the stomach for it but and his daddy tried unsuccessfully. But the para-pro in his class has 2 boys and must be an expert. She extracted it and bagged it up for the “tooth fairy!” Last week was awards chapel at school. Both boys received awards for running 10 miles and reaching that goal sometime in the first semester of school and they only get to run one morning a month. These awards are cumulative so Samuel could easily make into the 50-mile club. It is unlikely for Zach because this particular award en...

First of all, the “snow” event was a “no” event. A whole lot of hype for nothin.’ (that’s for my father-in-law who recently blatantly accused me of speakin’ like a southerner which, of course, I am not). He is going deaf. We got a skiff of snow but since the temperatures were so low, there was a lot of concern about black ice. It was a great excuse to make chili and play games. We had a lot of fun until things got a little wild. Anybody with boys know what I am talking about? Church services were cancelled on Sunday and so David and listened to 5 services from our “home” church in Kentucky and our favorite pastor, Dr. Robert Whitaker. We were inspired and challenged to keep the faith! We also spent the weekend transforming our kitchen cabinets and we are about 90% finished. Tomorrow the guys will return to school. Seth will wander around most of the morning seeking for them and missing them like crazy. I considered going to MOPS tomorrow but I am involved in another Bible Study ...