First up, Mary Connealy on Seasons of Life. She’ll share her journey to publication and beyond and we’ll chat about those seasons that come and go–too quickly! You can check out a guest post by Mary, Seasons of Life, and then be sure to tune in on Friday for Parent Talk, or grab the podcast at the bottom of this post as soon as it’s available!

There’s a giveaway! You can enter to win a copy of Mary’s In Too Deep simply by leaving a comment here, at the Seasons of Life post, or by RTing a promo tweet!

Next, author, Carla Stewart, and I will talking about lies and forgiveness–leaving things in the past. Why is it so hard? How can we do it once and for all–or can we? 

Stardust is the story of a young mom who’s unfaithful husband drowns in the bayou of East Texas in 1952. Shortly after she buries him, Georgia Payton inherits the derelict Stardust Tourist Court from a distant relative. Faced with opposition from the aunt who raised her and others in the town, Georgia breathes new life into the cottages.… continue reading

In many ways I measure my writing life by my youngest child, the fourth of four daughters. I typed, “It was a dark and stormy night” (well…my version of it) for the first time the year Katy went to Kindergarten and my first book released the year she graduated from high school.

All those years writing, laboring in mole-like anonymity were frustrating. I pursued publication to the best of my ability all that time. It’s not like I was WAITING for her to grow up. I just couldn’t get published.

I started out alone (so very, very alone!). No internet…well Al Gore had already invented it, but I didn’t have it at home. One computer that our school had thrown out. An Apple e2, I think it was. It had NO MEMORY. Get that? If the lights blinked you lost everything that you hadn’t saved to a disk. NO MEMORY. Can you believe they even bothered to make the stupid things when they couldn’t remember anything?

I had this file of floppy disks, they held one or maybe two chapters on the whole disk so a book was a big stack of disks.… continue reading

Choose HER is about just that. Making the choice to CHOOSE HER. Choose to have a relationship with your mom–instead of shrugging her off and assuming she’s there to make your life miserable. Moms, it’s about choosing to embrace your teen for the beauty she possesses and bring her unique qualities to the forefront, glowing in response to the creation she is in Christ Jesus.

You know what saddens me? So often, I hear from Moms who can’t wait until the teen years are over, and from teens who cry, “I hate my Mom!” But, oh, how that grieves the heart of God who has knit the two together in love and purpose. He gave you to each other. In much the same way a married couple should fight for a healthy relationship, so should you, Mom and daughter.… continue reading

I have often heard my mom tell people that homeschooling is for every child…it’s just not for every parent. What she means is that every child can thrive in a one-on-one tutoring type instruction. It simply makes sense. Place a child with a caring instructor who can tailor his or her learning to the needs of that child and the child will learn and excel.

However, not every parent has the discipline, patience, endurance to make homeschooling work. I love my kiddos. Adore them even, but there are still days that it would be a lot easier to send them to a school. Fortunately, my kids would still do fine in a regular classroom environment. Yet we choose to keep them home even as we discuss the options available to us.

Why?

• Homeschooling is a calling. It may not be a forever calling…I honestly don’t know…but I know this is where our kids are supposed to be right now.
• It allows our kids to accelerate at their own pace.
… continue reading

That may seem like a lame question to ask a bunch of teenage girls, but there are actually as many answers as there are girls themselves. Contrary to what it looks like in every teen-focused magazine you see at the grocery store, not everybody is having to make major decisions about which prom invite to accept (have you noticed?). Wherever you are on the subject of boys, you’re probably pretty normal. Which means you aren’t alone. Which means you are neither a geek nor a boy crazy wacko. Let’s prove it.

Below you’ll find six scenarios. Read ‘em all. Then put a number between 1 and 6 next to each one, according to how much it’s like you – a 1 being closest to you and a 6 being like the farthest thing from your mind.

BTW, be totally honest. There are no “supposed to” answers here and besides, what good’s it going to do to answer like you’re somebody else?

Here we go:

_____ Girl A.   “It seems like every girl I know is obsessed with guys, but I’m never the one to go, “Okay, that guy is HOT!” I’m just not into them, you know, and I’m fine with that until I get in a situation where that’s all anybody can talk about.… continue reading

Nicole: I’m so glad you wrote. I think it’s so wonderful—and too rare—that you can recognize your mom’s hard work and dedication. Single moms have it really rough because they have to bring in money to support the household plus care for you kids and hopefully have some fun with you, too.

It would be my guess that your mom doesn’t get much time to pamper herself. What if you gave her a spa day? Wake her up with breakfast in bed. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, even a bowl of cereal and a cup of cof- fee would be enjoyable. Tell her the day is all for her to relax. No work. You can give her a manicure: massage her hands with lotion, file her nails, paint them a pretty color.… continue reading

Loyalty is an important part of relationships with friends and family. What does loyalty mean and how far show it go? Does it require that you support people even when they’re doing something wrong and/or dangerous, or does loyalty actually require you to stand against those things for your friends’ sake? In other words, in order to be loyal, does it mean you have to turn a blind eye to bad behavior, or does it mean you should lead your friend into righteous living?

Those are questions that will arise in various forms over the teen years, and it’s something you should prepare for now.

To begin that preparation, in true HOT BUTTONS fashion, tell your teen this story as though it’s really happening to him/her:

You’re really close to your cousin and he confides that he been smoking pot. He assures you it isn’t a lot, but encourages you to give it a try. He offers to set you up with some. What do you do?

Present the following choices to your teenager:

• Cool! You’ve been thinking about giving it a try. Now you can!
• No way. You want no part of trying it, but your cousin can do whatever he wants to.
… continue reading

Apparently it’s a very rare penguin. One in a zillion, according to the article. Wow! One in a zillion! Nobody has ever seen one! The article teased and said that he was very underdressed for a penguin (no tuxedo) and “look at those legs!” Evidently his legs are much thicker than your average penguin. Poor guy. Not only is he under dressed but he’s also got fat legs – sometimes I can relate!

We tend to call it an oddity – you know, when something doesn’t fit in with it’s surroundings or it isn’t like the others of its kind. It’s odd – it doesn’t belong. Poor penguin.

Seriously, this bird is one in a zillion and we feel sorry for it? It’s had articles written about it for crying out loud! How many penguins can say that? It will go down in history and be studied for generations.… continue reading

• Their husbands forget to call and say they’ll be late.
• Their mothers-in-law spend time with them because of the grandkids.
• They will always be the size they are—unless they get fatter or shorter.
• Their children get rashes that won’t go away and even the school nurse and pediatrician don’t know what caused them.
• They will never be in charge of the remote—unless it’s to change the batteries.
• They dribble stuff on their favorite blouse right before an important meeting.

The big difference is, they live with hope and expectancy, balanced by a passion for being in the moment and choosing to dwell on the beauty of what they’ve learned from their past. They don’t actually escape their troubles. They don’t suddenly win the lottery or experience complete physical and emotional healing. They don’t always enjoy restored relationships.

Nope, they face Monday morning just like we do. They run out of gas (literally and figuratively) just like we do.… continue reading

Yeah, it’s a bit of work. And hard sometimes. Dry. Dare I say boring on occasion? But so are many other cool things in life.

How many of you play a sport? Or a musical instrument? It’s work, right? Drills, repetition and practices are not knock-your-socks-off exciting. It’s the same-ole, same-ole. It’s doing the same move, the same scales over and over.

To be good at anything, even video games, you have to practice. You have to give yourself to the “thing” you love so much.

Good grades requires study. The top level on a Play Station or favorite video game requires persistence, playing day in and day out.

To stay in shape or build muscle you have to be disciplined.

Everything good and worthwhile in life requires devotion, discipline and above all, desire.

So why do we think sitting down to pray should be easy? Simple? Why do we think prayer should just “come to us” like a ray of light in the midst of our busy lives? Why does it seem anti-Christian to block off a time each day or every other to pray?… continue reading