Announcing -- parenting unrehearsed

Thanks to the intelligent and gracious feedback from so many kind people who joined in with the Will You Be My Tribe? conversation, I'm ready to announce a new blog series.

[drumroll please]

un-re-hearsed — adj (of a play, speech, etc.)

not having been practiced in advance

I might also add off-the-cuff, in no particular order, results may vary.  For the next six(ish) weeks I'll share here once a week -- off the top of my head -- a few practices we may have learned in our twenty-one years of parenting four children.  Unrehearsed as we we were giving birth to four new human beings before we'd had our six wedding anniversary.

In the spirit of the unrehearsed random-ness of parenting, the order of the series is based on the order in which I've received questions from you -- my kindest reading friends.

For example, our first week (next Wednesday) we'll jump right into the deep end with this question from a new friend in Falls Church, VA:

Q:  What kind of advice, resources, input can you share about all the media/technology decisions we need to make for our kids?  How can we guide them without letting our anxiety get in the way?

This week we're packing up and sending out both of our sons to college and new living quarters.  What I'm trying to say is that I'm too busy parenting this week to write about parenting, but I know you'll understand.

In the meantime, would you consider two places to join me in this conversation:

1. Read the article I wrote for Think Christian related to this subject of shepherding our children through media choices: Christian Tablets and Cultural Engagement

2. Join the conversation! In the comment box below, tell us what sort of questions you think about each day as [1] a parent of children OR [2] a friend of parents of children. If you prefer, you can email your questions to me instead.

Now, I'm going to the store to buy more Kleenex. Truth be told, I've been crying all week long because of the beautiful people in my life who call me Mom. I'll be back next week, God help me, to share what I've learned about shepherding kids through media.  

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*Thank you to the lovely Lindsey from Lindsey Davern Photography for capturing the hilarious -- and unrehearsed -- family photo I'm using for this series.*