[This post originally appeared two years ago on Tim Fall’s Blog.]
![By Nikola Tesla [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://ellenmandeville.com/wp-content/uploads/Tesla_Colorado_Springs_lab-magnifying_transmitter_with_metal_ball.jpg)
Category Archives: Family Life
Let The Sweet Slacker Slide By?
I recently made this comment, which I’ve edited slightly for this post, in a Facebook discussion:
I was due for severe consequences in my 12th grade English Literature class. I should have been given a failing grade, and I probably would have had to retake 12th grade — not completely sure, but it’s likely. However, the teacher showed leniency and allowed me to pass and graduate. Continue reading Let The Sweet Slacker Slide By?
Writer Mom Haiku
Dishwasher running
Washing machine laundering
Cursor blinking, waits
I stand with Ahmed’s Parents, too #IStandWithAhmed
When my daughter was in fourth grade, we went out target shooting. She found a bunch of shotgun shells on the ground and stuffed many in the pockets of her jacket. They were still there when she went to school on Monday… Tuesday… Wednesday…
Silly me, I didn’t think anything about it. Turns out they were dribbling out of her pockets in the hallway. When a teacher figured out where they were coming from, my daughter got a stern talking to about it being “not cool” and I received a concerned email. I responded via email profusely apologizing for my obtuseness.
And that was it.
Photo source.
Bike To Work & School Day — 100% Participation
Today is Bike to Work Day and Bike to School Day in Idaho’s Wood River Valley.
And it’s raining. *whimper*
Hmm, since my writing office is at home, I’m already at work! But… but… that would be wussy. Terrible example for the kids.
“You’re coming, aren’t you, Mom?” asked my daughter.
“Yes! Yes, I am,” I replied.
So, my business had 100% participation! And so did our family.
I am back home now. Pockets unloaded of swag, my wet bicycling things are hanging to dry. And I’m back in my fuzzy robe, warming up. All in a day’s work, play, and parenting.
Review: #SmallTalk, by Amy Julia Becker
[Expert from my review published in the Featured Articles at BreakPoint.org.]
Vehicles of Grace
As a parent of two children, I often 
wondered during the days of nurturing infants, toddlers, and young children what was being accomplished in my own life. It is hard to fathom that one is learning anything while wrestling, yet again, a kicking, screaming, angry baby in order to change his or her poopy diaper. Yet during one of these wrestling matches, I had an epiphany. “I do this to you, Father, don’t I? I kick and scream and am angry at you while you are simply cleaning me up.”
I remembered those days while reading Amy Julia Becker’s new book, Small Talk: Learning from My Children about What Matters Most. The book caused me to remember how good things can emerge from the hard but ordinary everyday moments.
Amy Julia Becker is perhaps best known for her articles about family life and Down syndrome at Christianity Today, the New York Times, and other outlets. In “Small Talk,” she invites readers even further into her life as a parent. Rather than a how-to or an advice book, Becker has penned a memoir to encourage and support others traveling the same path. She conveys great truths with brevity and poignancy. Using words that are seemingly simple, Becker crafts a narrative that is simply elegant.
Read the rest of the review at BreakPoint. org.
Teachings of the Church Filtered Through Parents
We find out what we really believe when it’s time to teach it to our children.
Continue reading Teachings of the Church Filtered Through Parents
Trusting God’s Promises Leads to Depression Diagnosis
The women were coming and I would never be ready on time.
My children were still wee young things. It must have been the Holy Spirit’s leading that had caused me to successfully get a women’s Bible study up and running in my home. Those who know me well, know that thinking of, organizing, and following through on such plans is completely unlike me. Many times on Bible study day, I recall waking up in the morning, standing in my kitchen, and wondering how I would ever be ready on time. The perpetual pile of papers was always there to accuse me of being a homemaker failure. Taking care of my children and getting hot drinks ready for a group of women daunted me. And that was the extent of my responsibilities: faith life, husband, children, home. Nothing major, nothing extraordinary, and I was overwhelmed.
What is wrong with me? I often wondered.
Continue reading Trusting God’s Promises Leads to Depression Diagnosis
Mountain Rescue: Beowulf Lessons Remembered
Menacing, dangerous, and deadly are the themes surrounding green in the Old English epic poem Beowulf. Listening to J R R Tolkien’s The Hobbit on CD during our Tahoe road trip, conveyed the threatening nature of gloomy green as Bilbo and the dwarves traversed Mirkwood Forest for seemingly endless days. Literature depicts life. In the modern world it is still no light matter to embark on an apparently easy, short jaunt into the green landscaped wilderness.
Continue reading Mountain Rescue: Beowulf Lessons Remembered
Costly ADHD
Multiply Janine’s story by a few million, toss in some variations, and soon you’re talking real money–at least $67 billion and maybe up to $116 billion. That’s the estimated U.S. workforce productivity loss due to ADHD, according to a 2004 survey* conducted by two of psychiatry’s most widely cited researchers: psychiatrist Joseph Biederman, professor of psychiatry at Harvard University and head of the adult ADHD program at Massachusetts General Hospital, and psychologist Stephen Faraone, director of medical genetics research and head of child and adolescent psychiatry research at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University.
“ADHD is one of the costliest medical conditions that we have,” Biederman told the American Medical Association in a media briefing for the survey. “The impact on quality of life is extraordinarily profound, from marriage to friendship to ability to make a living.”