It’s only Monday morning, and this week is already wearing. me. out. For real, y’all. All the volunteer commitments and kid nurturing, wifing, housekeeping, writing, speaking, email-answering and befriending have clustered up into BIG DEADLINES this week. I’m not complaining, but as I look at this week, I’m seriously wondering… Who will do all that...Continue Reading
5. It’s National Lutheran Schools Week! For one week a year, Lutheran School kids get to ditch their uniforms for to dress up like their Favorite Storybook Character and like a hippie from the ’60s. The really good news about this? If your kid goes to a Lutheran School, they probably wear a uniform the...Continue Reading
For the past couple years, ever since Chronic Fatigue flattened my life into a pattern of sleeping and more sleeping, I’ve tried to eat healthier. To understand what that means, I’ve read a bunch of books about where our food comes from, about the typical American diet, and about how to prevent cancer, autoimmune diseases,...Continue Reading
The kids’ school has a Talent Show every year at the end of January. The four Hergenraders perform a “show” (using this term very loosely here) just about every night in the living room, so the promise of an actual stage and an audience not related to them sounded like the very best way to...Continue Reading
I hope you and your family are fever-free, virus-free, bacteria-free this week. We have not been so lucky around here. We are on our fourth week of fevers, viruses, and bacteria. Thanks to a sloppy diagnosis, some unneeded antibiotics, and an ugly virus, these past couple days have been especially frustrating for our family. Sam,...Continue Reading
It happened exactly one week ago when we were eyeball deep in December to-dos. Elisabeth came down with a fever the morning of her class Christmas party. Poor kid never misses school, unlike her siblings she doesn’t even want to miss school, and now she would have to miss her Christmas party. M was working from...Continue Reading
1. The Sound of Musicis my all-time, absolute favorite movie. But, wow, you just don’t realize how slloowwwww it starts until you watch it with your three-year-old and six-year-old sons. 2. Nor do you realize how much Maria and her nun friends discuss the plusses and negatives of Maria at the Abbey. I had coerced...Continue Reading
We are up to our halos in Christmas Programs around here. Tonight all the kids are in the church’s Christmas program. Tomorrow night, they’ll all in the school Christmas program. You know what Christmas program practices are like? They are that hour before we have company come over to our house. They are stressful chaos....Continue Reading
Traveling with kids–traveling with four kids, one too young to carry his own stuff–is an ordeal. They want to help with all the packing, and unpacking, and transporting, but they don’t know what they’re doing. And they have crazy ideas, like stuffing all the bags full of toys, and rollerblades, and pita chips. So, now...Continue Reading
Traveling through the Southwest for Thanksgiving Break has confirmed we have two kinds of kids: those who believe a cactus is sharp and those who have to touch it themselves. Kids who touch the cactus are also the ones who feel my hot curling iron, who pick up the hotel phone hundreds of times to...Continue Reading
