Mindy's Non-Adventures

We all know by now that we're not supposed to compare ourselves to others, right? I mean, that's the message we preach in Christian circles, mom circles, homeschool circles...those are pretty  much my circles at the moment.  Maybe this isn't the message everyone else is getting, but I certainly get the "Don't compare your life to someone else's highlight reel" meme weekly on my facebook feed. And we love it. I mean, we don't live by it, but we love the ideal. In all areas of our lives but one, we are supposed to ignore what everyone else is doing and simply do our best to the glory of God. That's enough. But in what one area does this not apply? I say we preach the exact opposite when it comes to suffering and pain. Comparison is king when it comes to suffering.  We're supposed to be stoic in the face of difficulty. "I can't really let fill in the blank get me down because so and so is dealing with fill in the blank , and that...

Some of you might not know this about me, but I actually homeschool my kids. I know, I know. It's shocking. I just got back from my yearly homeschool convention trip, and it was amazing as always. This year was especially good for a couple of reasons. First, I actually had a budget to BUY something! It's always more fun to buy the books I need and want instead of caressing them lovingly before putting them back in a stack only to be picked up by some other mom that surely won't enjoy them as much as I would. I bought a few things that I'd been thinking about since last year's convention. So that was exciting. More importantly though is that it really helped me get over my homeschool slump. I'll let you know something else about me that's going to be fairly scandalous and shocking. We've moved a lot in the last few years. 5 1/2 times.  The half could also be considered an extended move since it took a month from start to finish. It's been somewhat....

After 12 1/2 years of traveling with kids, I've learned that certain things are going to happen nearly every time. This weekend's trip was no exception. So here's a rundown of our weekend trip to grandma's and Great Wolf Lodge with kids that exemplified the family vacation pitfalls. Kid #3 started with cold symptoms the morning of Trip Day 1. Kids always get sick when a trip is involved. On Sunday morning and Day 2, we went to church with our friends before going straight to Walmart to buy cold medicine for the ever worsening cold that Kid #3 chose to get just to spite me. I also needed to buy a toothbrush because I forgot Kid #3's toothbrush. I always forget his toothbrush. I'm sorry for whatever dental problems you have later in life, Kid #3. You can blame me. An hour or so into the drive, Kid #3 announced he was sick and started gagging. Because I expected vomit (I always expect vomit from someone) I managed to catch everything in the Wal-mart bag and av...