When you receive a gift card, do you want to spend it right away? Or save it for something special? Well, let me tell you, it's hard on kids to wait. After all, they want think they should be able to spend money or gift cards the moment they receive it.
Especially my son. Especially if it's for a place that has donuts or ice cream. Or both.
Needless to say, the gift card he'd received way back on his birthday in August was burning a hole in his pocket by the time Christmas had come and we still hadn't used it.​

Our congregation participates in a program each Spring called Lads to Leaders. The convention is over Easter weekend and it's huge. Basically, it's a program designed to encourage children to learn about the Bible and to learn how to be leaders in the church as they grow up.
There's scripture readings and memorization, Bible bowl, artwork, and then things like song leading and speech. Among a ton of other options.
We've participated the last few years, encouraging our kids to get out of their comfort zones, try something new, and study the Word of God. And we've probably learned just as much as they have, honestly.

How well does your significant other know you? Well enough to plan a surprise party? Or well enough to NOT plan a surprise party?
Guest author, Regina Rudd Merrick is chatting with us about what her husband did for her last birthday. I think a lot of us resonate with this.

​When you write romance, you try your best to think of the MOST ROMANTIC situations your characters can be in.
Here’s the problem, though—most of the interactions between people who love one another are the little, day-to-day things and the occasional spark of inspiration that make up a life.
 I will fully admit that my husband is the romantic in my marriage, but when your love language is acts of service as mine is, no amount of hugging, gifts, or words of affirmation are going to do it for you regularly.
That’s why last year, for my birthday, my husband chose the best birthday present I could have ever imagined.
A weekend out of town.

Late each fall, I talk through options for things my kids can ask for as Christmas gifts. Things they really want or things they need. We try to limit the requests to reasonable items, though they're not always reasonable, because they're children. Regardless, this last year, as I was talking with them about it, we were struggling to come up with items to add to my son's list. All he really wanted was a skateboard.
(He got one, by the way--and pads to go with it.)
Well, a few months before, he'd decided he hated using body wash. He wanted to use a bar of soap. I happened to have some fancy ones that I had been given as teacher presents, but never used since I prefer body wash. Who cares if my seven-year-old smells like Tropical Breeze or Rose Petals, right?

As babies grow, one of the first things they do which delights us all is to try on their parents' shoes. Of course, as babies, those shoes are way too big for the tiny feet slipping into them. Growing further, they might still test them out every now and then, just to see how much further they have to go before the shoes fit.
I can't remember borrowing my mom's shoes much when I was a teen. I've always had fairly small feet, and hers were a bit wider. But I'm sure I did a few times. I know I did it with her jewelry. ;)
Fast-forward to marriage, and I borrowed my mother-in-law's shoes a few times. Though her feet weren't quite exactly the same as mine, either. Then, when she passed away six years ago, I inherited any of them that I wanted/could wear. Some of those are wearing out now, and it makes me sad to be losing yet another piece of her.

Just before my son's second birthday, he came down with croup. It's a disease that causes you to have a barking cough, sort of like a seal's bark. And it's miserable to listen to. From then on, he's had an inhaler, because it seemed to trigger asthma in him.
Each winter, he would start coughing again. Nothing productive. Just a little cough here and there that wouldn't go away with any medicine. Finally, a few years ago, the doctor prescribed a daily inhaler for him instead of just the "rescue" inhaler we'd had.
This was a steroid he could take twice a day, although for over a year now he's only been doing it in the evenings unless he's sick. It's not always fun, but he also wasn't getting his yearly cough.