Since we are almost through the Christmas season and contemplating a new set of resolutions as we look forward to a (hopefully) greatly improved 2021, here are the four home items that our family has decided we just can’t do without.

Our Solar Journey Begins
After years of paying for electricity, we’re now overly concerned with not paying for electricity (especially while we are going to be paying off the solar panels for awhile). We know that for the first couple months of solar ownership we are going to be dealing with shorter winter days and cloud cover more days than not. But we’ve learned that even on cloudy days when it isn’t storming, we are still producing electricity. We’ve also learned that we can control our usage and hopefully we will finally develop the better habits we’ve been telling ourselves we were going to do years ago.

I Just Want to Love Watching Them Play
I believe there are important lessons in having our kids play but not making it the central focus of their lives or the lives of the entire family. We still need to make space for family vacations, summer jobs, worship, academics, and yes, general leisure. I believe that one of the reasons that we struggled so much as a society when everything initially shut down due to COVID-19 was that we had been running ourselves ragged, and nowhere was this more true than in our overscheduled family lives.

Raising Forgiven Sinners, Good Humans
I want my kids to see morality as following Jesus’s example and not just acting as perfectly as possible. I want my kids to embrace the idea of “good trouble” and understand that doing the right thing isn’t always considered the socially appropriate thing. I don’t want them to believe that sacrificing for saying they are followers of Jesus is enough; I want them to be willing to sacrifice for being like Jesus. I want them to love mercy and walk humbly.

Building a New Bar
The Coronavirus Home Improvement Chronicles – Part 3 Truth be told, we were actually talking about moving. It wasn’t that […]

Then We Made a Bed
It was so good to sleep just a little closer to the ground on a solid bed with a pretty headboard behind it. A 10-year dream had finally come true.