by Janel Breitenstein | Sep 19, 2017 | Africa, discouragement, encouragement, enduring love
My house is (blissfully) quiet now. I sit at my clean wooden table. My stomach is comfortably satisfied. My kids are actually adjusting remarkably well to school life—something I couldn’t have anticipated after five years homeschooling them in Africa. (Adjusting so...
by Janel Breitenstein | Sep 14, 2017 | closeness and intimacy, closeness; intimacy, compassion, conflict, difficulty, discouragement, Discussion Questions, emotion, encouragement, enduring love, fear, helping others, love, methods, practical, Questions to take your relationships deeper, relationships, stress
The other night, one of my kids was at his finest. It was as if a switch had been flipped. He went from easy-going to stonewalling us, arms crossed, resolutely stubborn. And man, was I getting the stinkeye. Though his attitude was not without consequences, God was...
by Janel Breitenstein | Sep 13, 2017 | children, fear, Ideas, kids, methods, Parenting, practical
It’s happening. After eight years of homeschooling, this year, all four of my children strap on their backpacks and head down to our local public school. Aside from the schooling comments that inevitably hit the comments section–I tell you this because,...
by Janel Breitenstein | Sep 9, 2017 | community, compassion, current events, difficulty, discouragement, encouragement, faith, fear, helping others, Home and Hospitality, prayers
Like you, my heart is twisting as all eyes turn toward Hurricane Irma, which has already devastated the lives of so many in the Caribbean–and soon followed by Jose and Katia. With this morning’s earthquake in Mexico, the pummeling by Hurricane Harvey, and...
by Janel Breitenstein | Sep 8, 2017 | Africa, challenging, difficulty, discouragement, encouragement, failure, Gratitude
I padded downstairs to shake my daughter’s shoulder, waking her for school. But instead, she woke to my “Oh, no.” ‘Cause that’s generally what you say when you see liquid pooling in the hall in the half-light, oozing from the laundry-room-slash-pantry. That was the...
