mothering

The other day I was juggling a few different things when Claire needed some attention. Well, she didn’t “need” it. She didn’t ask for it. But you know when you just know? Sometimes I act quickly on those nudges. I drop what I’m doing and go give love. (And it’s…

Mother’s Day this time around was one I won’t soon forget, nestled in a hospital room with my Lucy, entrenched in the heat of mothering, trying my darnedest to harness my “inner-Linda”…the part of me that I search for often, that part of my mother who I hope runs through…

My sister and I were talking the other day about the tricky balance between pushing kids to love what you think is so important for them to love, and just loving it enough that they gravitate to it too. Do you know what I mean? I think my parents did…

This spring I fell head-over-heels in love with family walks. It all started because we were heading out on a big trip shortly after school got out.   Man oh man do I ever have a whole slew of things to say about that (I am grateful every single day).…

The other day, right out of the blue, Elle sent me these pictures: …and they made me so happy. Just look at that pure delight in those cute faces. …and the sister-love. They were from Claire’s last soccer game of the season. …the one I ached to be at but…

Hi Shawni!  I have been following and loving your blog for about six years now. I need your advice.I have two kids 20 months apart and I just barely found out I’m pregnant. The gap between my 2nd and 3rd will be 18 months. This wasn’t my plan at all,…

Sorry in advance that this is long.  I should do a whole separate post about Lucy and her first try skiing…and probably other stuff in this post too, but I’m putting it all here so I can find it easy when I want to reminisce about this week. So buckle…

I keep thinking about this young mother I saw leaving Walgreens a while back. She was carrying a baby and she had a toddler clinging onto her leg in a state of frantic bawling.  I’m not talking whimpering, I’m talking howling.  The mother couldn’t move.  Yet there was something in her…

Elle’s friend is an exceptionally incredible singer. I’m telling you, she’s so good that pretty much every time I hear her I’m brought to tears.   She has recently teamed up with this really cool organization called “Cinematic Pop” which is founded on the premise of mixing classical music with…

When girls turn eight in our church they get to start going to “Activity Days,” (they get to meet with all the other girls in the congregation and do activities based on ideas from the Faith in God program here.  It’s a pretty darn fun way to learn how to strengthen their…