Seven Steps to Simplify Back To School

“Direction, not intention, determines your destination.” -Andy Stanley “Back to school” season is here, and we all have visions and intentions of easing seamlessly into the fall season. To make those dreams a reality, however, you will need to pause, reflect, and then...

The Summer Slide

People from my generation as a child of the 70s will all understand why you avoided the metal slide at certain hours of the day. As painful of an event as that could be, some children experience a different kind of pain with the summer slide, albeit not the one at the...

The Real Back to School List

Here we are, mamas, at the beginning of another school year. Backpacks and new shoes have been crossed off our lists. Headphones and what-in-the-world-are-My-First-Pencils — check. Haircuts and awkward photos on the front step the kids will cringe at in 10 years...

Muscle Shirts, Athletic Pants and Picture Day

On the morning of Picture Day, I found myself standing over my son as he lay sprawled across the carpet in utter despair. You see, I suggested he wear his blue-checked button down shirt with the coordinating puffy vest. He looks so very dapper, so handsome, so like a...

What NOT to Say on the First Day of School

Every year as August fades into September I can’t help but think about an incident from the very distant past: my entrance into the third grade.  When I was growing up we’d get a postcard in the mail every year just before school started, telling us who our teacher...