3 Great Reasons for Bible Time with Daddy

It was always our hope to have a time every day from "day one" where Jonathan could read the Bible to our children. Once we actually had a baby, we realized the idea of having a routine from "day one" was a little far-fetched, but somewhere around the 3 or 4 month mark we were able to start the routine of reading The Beginner's Bible to our daughter in the evenings before bed time. Occasionally she falls asleep before we get to Bible time, and that's okay, we put her in her crib and let it be. But I love the sight of my husband sitting with my little girl, reading her Bible stories while she reaches for the pages and tries to get them in her mouth.

Here are just a few of the reasons why we decided to make this "Bible Time" a priority from the beginning: 

5 Reasons Why My Kids Can Watch "Frozen" Over and Over Again

As a little girl, I had a few movies that I watched over and over and over again for years.  I would act out the movies, sing the songs, and pretend to be the main characters for days on end. The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, and Cinderella, among a few others come to mind. I feared that there might be very few, if any, movies made in my kid's lifetime that would be positive enough to let them watch so regularly. So many movies today have such worldly messages, negative themes, or even just crude humor that it is hard to imagine letting my children watch them. But when I recently saw Frozen, it completely surprised me by its awesomeness and positive messages.

Before you read the rest of my post I should warn you, THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT SPOILERS! If you haven't seen the movie, go out and see it, and then come back! I really do not want to ruin this for you, so please go see it before reading on.

Without further fuss, here are 5 reasons why I love this movie, and why I would let my little girl (and other future children) watch it as often as they like:

Why I Decided to Give Up TV

When I saw the line up of celebrities for this season's cast of Dancing with the Stars I was excited. It looks like such a great season. There are even celebrities I have heard of before - including Meryl Davis and Charlie White! Who wouldn't want to watch that? But just before the season premiere, I made a decision to stop watching TV, or at least seriously cut back on my TV time. I love DWTS, and I have watched every season since 2007, but I have decided not to follow this season - because of my daughter.

From the Other Side of Infertility

The title of this post is misleading. I do not know if there is truly an "other side" of infertility. I'm still making up my mind on that one. We were diagnosed with infertility, we went through lots of testing, we tried a couple different treatments, and then, by God's grace and blessing, one of them worked when we were least expecting it. Now we have a beautiful, clever, spunky baby girl who is five months old today. She lights up our lives every single day, and every day when I see her I am reminded of God's goodness and how blessed I am.

So then, the infertility part of my life is over, right? Is it? I don't know. I certainly am happy right now. I certainly have what I wanted. I feel like the past two years changed me significantly. I met so many other women online who were going through the same struggles. I learned what it is like to go through something this hard, what it is like to have people not understand, and what it is like to have no idea what God is doing or where he is. And now I have a baby, so that chapter should be done.


I feel like what I am about to say next I say at the risk of sounding ungrateful, or of leading people to think I am not happy or content with my life right now. I promise, I am incredibly conscious of how blessed I am, hugely grateful, and I've never been happier. But I say this because I want anyone else who has felt this way to know that they are not alone. I say this because I don't think it's fair to women who are still struggling for me to just forget about that part of my life or go on as if it didn't happen.

The part of my life where I struggled with infertility may be over for now, but here are some things that have changed, and that will probably never go back to the way they were before:

It's Not About Baby Wearing

The other day I was out for a walk with my daughter. She was in the stroller, was content, and was happy to look around her at everything. Being an October baby, she hadn't had much of an opportunity to see the outdoors until the past week or so. After what seemed like a winter that lasted forever, it has finally been warm enough to get outdoors comfortably, and we were both enjoying the sunshine.

I walked past another mom, out with her baby, and she was wearing her baby in a carrier. I am almost ashamed to admit that the first thoughts that ran through  my head went something like this, "Oh no, I'm sure she's judging me for having my baby in a stroller and not wearing her! She probably thinks I'm a horrible mother. I wish she knew that I love having my daughter in a carrier, but it hurts my back too much. I wish I could tell her about my back surgery when I was a teenager." And then of course I realized how ridiculous I was being... she was a stranger. She surely doesn't really care about my stroller or my baby-wearing woes, and I'll bet it never occurred to her to judge me either.

Whew! When did I get so insecure and defensive?