Whole Heart Devotion

"Schoolhouse Rock" was one of mine and my husband's favorite educational past times.  Bob Dorough, writer for "Schoolhosue Rock," was a genius when he put educational factoids to quirky music and cute cartoons.  From the preamble to the Constitution, to parts of speech, multiplication facts, how electricity works, and much more, Mr. Dorough slyly disguised learning and actually made it fun! Like all good parents, we passed this educational relic on to our kids.  One of our favorite songs from "Schoolhouse Rock" is without a doubt " Conjunction Junction ."  Its jazzy rhythm easily gets stuck in your head for the rest of your day ( sorry in advance! ).  This song teaches how conjunctions mechanically work in a sentence and what their purpose is.  The conjunction 'BUT' is one that we use all the time to connect two sentences or a clause to a sentence. "I like pizza,  BUT  I don't like olives on it." "I want to...

In high school and college, math was my preferred subject.  I loved statistics, solving equations, and seeing how math could be used in everyday facets of life.  As I entered the education field, it would be no surprise that I would geek out over math terminology being used to describe how young children interact and play with each other. The term "parallel play" describes a level of play where children play adjacent to one another, but rarely interact with each other.  You might see them glance at their peers, and their play activity might even be influenced by those around them, yet play is still approached from an independent standpoint.  This type of play is quite opposite of cooperative play where children choose to intersect with their peers by playing games or participating in dramatic play (housekeeping, playing school, etc.). As I think about my life and the relationships I am involved in, I am not that different than a child.  I am very selec...

As I take the last bite of a pint of Blue Bell ice cream (which by the way was the best ice cream that ever landed in my mouth - see picture below for the flavor), so many thoughts about the past week flood my mind.  The first was rather insignificant -- I realized that I have never eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one sitting before tonight!  Ice cream is always my go-to comfort food, but I didn't realize how badly my body expected that physical treat during times of distress!  You never know how much you want something until you can't have it -- and ice cream clearly doesn't last when left in a freezer for five days without power. Perhaps my other ponderings will be more reflective and less  self-serving  . . . ~ The goodness and benevolence of people’s hearts is always a refreshing breath of fresh air during natural disasters. In our typical world of self-centeredness, times like these remind me that there is good in everyone.  From...

This day.  This glorious day.  It seemed like an eternity away when we heard that the protocol for treating leukemia in boys required almost three and a half years of chemotherapy.  It felt like we were facing a mountain of days and the only way to get to the top of it was to take one baby step at a time.  Thankfully, we are about to take our last, and most beautiful, step. Today is Camron's final day of chemotherapy at the hospital.  While he will have about ten more days of oral chemo to take at home, the days of getting his port accessed, getting needles crammed into his spinal column, and having chemo ( life-saving poison ) run through his veins are soon to be over.  I wish I could adequately put into words the sheer joy that this day brings our family, but I don't think it's possible. I would love to tell you all about the boy who has been the focus of all of your prayers and support over the past three and a half years, but I'm not going to....

An after-hour phone call from your pediatrician on a Friday night is typically a life changing phone call.  When words like "leukemia" and "children's hospital" are accompanied by the imperative, "You have to go tonight,"  you are then certain that this phone call is most assuredly a life changing moment. When your inquisitive and fear-filled twelve year-old is going back and forth between asking a hundred questions on the ninety minute car-ride and making numerous desperate pleas to turn around and not to take him to the hospital, you wonder how to break it to him gently that his life is getting ready to take a drastic turn. When you steal away to a family bathroom in the hospital with your spouse and fall to pieces in each others arms so that you can stay strong in front of your sick child, you determine in that moment that he will never see fear in our faces. When support comes in the form of dear friends who sleep in waiting room cha...

I recently vied for a coveted "Mom-of-the-Year" award when I took my tween daughter to a concert where her absolute favorite artist was performing.  Truth be told, my husband and I felt that the trip was well-deserved as she has sat back and graciously watched her brother receive a plethora of trips, gifts, and attention due to his sickness.  I wouldn't trade that special time with her for anything.  I was surrounded by thousands of young girls singing their hearts out about twiddling their thumbs and doing things on purpose -- just Google " Sabrina Carpenter " and you'll see what I'm talking about! As we made our way to Charlotte that Friday afternoon, I wondered if my little fuel-sipping Prius was going to sprout wings and start to fly.  I was blown away by the breakneck speeds that people were driving down the interstate, giving no attention to speed limits, construction zones, or merging traffic.  To keep from getting run over, I felt the need ...

If you walk into a Bath and Body Works store, you will become quickly overwhelmed with what seems like an infinite number of scents.  Each scent is transmitted in various forms, like lotions, sprays, hand sanitizers, wall plug-ins, candles, body washes . . . the list goes on and on!   As the vast majority of the population has made the shift from bar soap to liquid body wash, that is one thing that has yet to change in my house.  I suppose that everyone has their "thing" that must remain constant. From Jif peanut butter, to Tide detergent, to Levi's blue jeans, some people are absolutely married to specific brand of household items.  One of my husband's undeniable affections is towards white Dove soap.  He remains completely faithful to his age-old friend, and I don't see this love affair changing anytime soon! I guess we all have our preference in soaps, and from Japanese Cherry Blossom to the white Dove beauty bar, there certainly are no shortag...