Tag Archives: changes

Easter Traditions and Marriage

It is a tradition of our marriage not to eat meat on Good Friday. We traditionally have salmon patties for lunch or dinner on Good Friday. So does our daughter and her husband. At our current church we have hot cross buns after the service. The same thing used to happen in another church we belonged to in Sydney. I don’t, since I’m gluten free. No-one seems to have a produced gluten free hot cross buns. I can’t be bothered making them just for me. One year Mick and I attended a church in the rural area where we lived. … Continue reading →

The Trials of Switching

Did you ever have a really honest teacher? Someone who didn’t try to hide the chinks in their armor? Someone who pointed out more than the glossy surface but also the underlying cogs, axles, and inevitable grease that made the whole thing run? In short: Did you ever have a teacher who taught you about teaching? At first this may seem weird but I realize that I’ve had many teachers like this. My fifth grade teacher who would open class with a magic trick, close it with cheesy jokes, and teach us amazing (and amazingly related) things in between; my … Continue reading →

Making Changes as a Single Parent

Making life changes are hard for most people. Add to that being a single parent and it is no wonder that many parents stress over big decisions. Every decision we make as single parents affects the lives of our children. While that is true for all parents, those of us who are single don’t have anyone else to share the decision with. When there are two parents in a household and they choose together to make a change, they support each other. For single parents, we must be strong enough to make a decision and follow it through. While we … Continue reading →

Time and the Wind and Work of the Holy Spirit

Last week my husband and I took a day out of the busyness, as we sometimes do, to just enjoy being together and being out in God’s creation. We went a little further down the coast, enjoying the beauty of the beaches. I snapped lots of photos. I’m particularly keen on photos of water washing over rocks. It’s interesting to see how much the rocks have been worn away and shaped by the waves and also by the wind. Sometimes it can be a bit like that in our Christian life. When we first come to believe in Jesus we … Continue reading →

Allowing Kids to Change the Way Things are Done

We all know how this goes—we are the parents and we know what is right and good and our children need us to guide and teach them. Sometimes, however, our kids have some ideas of their own. Sometimes, they even have some pretty darn good ideas about how to make things better or change the way things are done. This is when we parents have to set our pride aside and allow our kids to have influence—it is good for both of us! There is a difference between letting a very young child run roughshod over the family and permitting … Continue reading →

Consumer-Driven Changes

In the business world, changes can come from myriad directions—in our small businesses, we may need to make adjustments because of a change in our schedule, shifts in our families, or even natural disasters can affect how we do business. One of the realities that we have to adjust to is when those changes to our business or industry come from the consumers. Our customers and clients can be strong forces in pushing us to do business differently. These are those consumer-driven changes that I wanted to write about. There are many factors that influence a market—even a small market … Continue reading →

Feelings do Pass

When we are in the midst of strong emotions and feelings, it can seem as though things will never change. Overwhelming feelings like depression, frustration, regret and others can really take hold of us. It is important, therefore, to remind ourselves that everything changes—all feelings do pass and even if it feels completely overwhelming today, it will likely change tomorrow or the next day… Single parents do not have the market cornered on strong, overwhelming feelings but I have yet to meet a single parent who does not wrestle with occasional bouts of pretty heavy emotions. For some odd reason, … Continue reading →

Letting the Child Decide when He’s Done with Something

I cannot count the times that parents have lamented to me about two sides of the same issue—they are either upset that their child won’t give up something—a bottle, pacifier, sleeping in the crib, diapers, training wheels, etc., or they are upset that the child WANTS to give up something—the bottle, pacifier, sleeping in the crib, diapers, training wheels, etc. Instead of letting our child determine when he or she is ready to give something up, we parents seem to think we should exert more control and be the ones who choose when the child is done. In my opinion, … Continue reading →

Consider Restructuring Time Management

Again and again we talk here in the Single Parent’s blog about how important time management is to the function of a single parent family. Many of us pride ourselves on being able to juggle multiple tasks and keep all sorts of balls in the air. Our concept of time, however, may not be meshing with our family’s needs. If your child is balking at certain times of the day, or you are having power struggles or a hard time fitting in the things that you really want to do together, it might be time to consider restructuring your time … Continue reading →

Change the Way You Scrapbook

Scrapbooking is an every changing industry. As scrapbooker’s we strive to learn new techniques and find new embellishments and ways to adorn our beautiful scrapbook layouts. Sometimes we stray from the original goal of preserving our memories and sometimes we remember to keep the focus on the photos. Recently I picked up a copy of The Big Picture by Stacy Julian. While it was published a few years back, and I had glanced at it numerous times and really liked what I saw, apparently I was only scratching the surface of what the book would mean to me. I began … Continue reading →