how UNCONDITIONAL should LOVE be?

I’m currently in a mental battle that has been going on for the better part of a year. “How unconditional should love really be?” Or maybe the better question, “Does unconditional love equal unconditional relationship on the other person’s terms?” I’m hoping not. What if that person is a child of yours? Still hoping not. […]

Summer of Six

I’m one of those moms who loves summer. I think it’s because we homeschool, but I honestly can’t remember if I loved summer when my kids were in school. I love that there aren’t lessons to plan and papers to grade and this expectation that we should be doing school. I feel like it’s my […]

The 6th Love Language

I think I discovered my new love language—a weekend alone at home. (With 2 other extended family units living on the other side of the kitchen, I’m not technically “alone,” but I have no humans for whom I am responsible besides moi. This pseudo-alone situation also feeds my extrovertedness where I need other people, for whom […]

Asparagus Redemption

#fail. That’s what I thought when I happened to walk around the side of our house a couple weeks ago and saw the above disaster scene. This is evidence that we 1) never got around to clearing out the asparagus bed last fall and 2) let it go to seed before actually harvesting any this […]

Foto Flashback Friday

Mia’s dance studio is all a-buzz about this year’s production as the theme and costumes were just posted. We’re ecstatic that she’s been asked to play Tinkerbell in Peter Pan. It’s a relatively small part, but it involves a special Tinkerbell costume AND a dramatic death. What more could an aspiring stage star ask for […]

How brain imaging changed our lives

If you haven’t read this post, start there. So, we’re using brain imaging, now what? I think the most important impact brain imaging has had for us is mindset and expectations. When we were analyzing symptom sets before brain imaging, we were doing our best to conclude why things were happening, but his inconsistent symptoms […]

The Secret to Solving Behavior Problems

I’ve always been a skeptic when it comes to mental health diagnoses. Diagnosing by symptom cluster seems so inaccurate. Even more alarming is that those symptom clusters are often self-assessed…by a person with a mental health struggle. <scratching head> Does anyone else see the irony in diagnosing a person based on self-assessment who is a […]

Foto Flashback Friday

Life these days is very full (read: busy). It’s mostly a good busy though. I’ve been more intentional about what I say, “Yes,” to, and I’ve pruned some things that I was doing out of obligation instead of purpose and calling. I’m part of a business group who is being coached by the amazing Amy […]