Mary

Harvest
By Mary
This afternoon I sat in my shady corner of the deck next to our pool, and watched my kids splash into the water one by one. With only one child in the water, waves were small. But as more kids splashed and leaped their way in, the water got choppier, the waves bigger, the decibel level higher. (…)

Great Books for Parents
By Mary

If you're a book-lover like I am and still have a bit of Christmas shopping to do, might I suggest a few of the best books I've read over the years? (…)

Your Inner Child
By Mary
Yesterday while reading the blogs of friends, I came across this lovely post by Journey Mama, Something I Know Is True. If you haven't read it yet, do, OK? Often in the midst of my busy list-filled day, I forget the playful side of myself, the little girl. (…)

Empty Spaces
By Mary
A while ago a friend and I were talking about balance in life, and the curse of busyness. She was gently suggesting that perhaps my life would be easier if I left some open spaces in my schedule, blanks where nothing needed to happen. I knew that she'd learned that wisdom through her own struggles with time management. But at that point in my life, struggling between homeschooling, wedding planning, and a tight book deadline, I honestly felt that there was nothing in my life to cut. (…)

Don't Forget The Funnybone
By Mary
The other day my nine year old was having one of those terrible horrible no-good days. (…)

Family Game Night
By Mary

One of our favorite morale boosters is family game night. We’ve discovered a bunch of games over the years that are fun for large numbers of people. (…)

Soaring
By Mary

The other day my oldest daughter taught my four year old how to say the letter C. Now she can say 'cat', among many other useful words. (…)

A Roomful Of Hope
By Mary
Written October 5, 2008 in the Dominican Republic
This morning as I walked up an uneven set of stairs and stepped into the hubbub of my third Compassion project of the week, I didn’t know that this was the project that would touch me to the core. (…)

Celebrating Our Successes
By Mary
A while back something ‘mysteriously’ got broken at our house. I narrowed down the suspects to two, but could not get a confession out of either child. (…)

Because I Am Becoming More Enlightened By The Day
By Mary
Confession time.
Today, sadly, one of my children could be seen walking through the store with his/her coat on INSIDE OUT. And yes, I was aware of it. (…)

How To Avoid That Morph Into Dragon Mommy
By Mary Ostyn
If you’re a mom, you’re familiar with the dilemma. You ask your child to clear a path so no one dies in the night put away his toys. And then you wait. The kid doesn’t budge. (…)