Category Archives: Family Life

In These Dark Days

Posted on by
8

January can be such a difficult month in parenting.  The days can be dark and long.  Much of the U.S. has been under sub-zero temperatures, and that can make days with small children rather long indeed.  This can be the kind of month where mothers are feeling tired, cranky, even depressed or overwhelmed.

This is a good month to focus on the importance of warmth: warm thoughts, warm deeds, warm and gentle hands, quiet voices, warm clothing, warm foods. 

This is a good month to make sure you, Mama, are at  your peak physical and mental health.  Get those Vitamin D and thyroid levels checked; get screened for depression if you think that may be a possibility; menu plan for nourishing food.

This is a good month to tweak your rhythm or change it entirely.  What will your older child do whilst your younger one is trying to go to sleep?  What will you do to get out physical energy if you are stuck in the house because it is literally that cold? 

This is a good month to revisit singing and music to warm the atmosphere of the home.  Some of you have emailed and asked about music resources.  Here are a few of my favorites (if a book, also includes CD’s because I know some of you may not be able to read music!):

This is a good month to do some story-telling.  Try Suzanne Down’s Juniper Tree Puppetry website and sign up for her email newsletter:  http://junipertreepuppets.com/blog/

For inspiration in story-telling, how about this book by Nancy Mellon called “Body Eloquence”?  http://www.amazon.com/Body-Eloquence-Power-Awaken-Energies/dp/1604150289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296213082&sr=8-1

This is a good month to do some some art with your children.   Pink and Green Mama reads this blog and has 400 projects on her website here:  http://pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com

This is a good month to get ready for February festivals!  How about getting ready for Candlemas (https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/01/29/the-magic-of-candlemas/),  Chinese New Year (https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/02/09/chinese-new-year-in-the-waldorf-home/) or Valentine’s Day? 

Many blessings,

Carrie

At What Age Should Children Attend A Place of Worship?

Posted on by
31

I have gotten this question several times in The Parenting Passageway email, so I looked up this exact question on the Internet.  Honestly, I  didn’t find much about this topic other than a few message board questions and an article about taking your child out into the hall of the church and PADDLING them when they misbehave!  (Really?! Insert my look of complete and utter HORROR here!!)

I am sure the way parents feel about this are going to be all over the map, but I thought I would throw a few things out there about this topic and maybe you all can add your experiences and thoughts to the comment section below………

I think if having a community of faith is  really  important to you, truly important to the family,   then you will make it work.  I don’t think it is so much the age of the child as it is the commitment and feeling of the parents.  If you,  as a parent,  feel so comfortable in your place of worship, that this is the place that helps you to be and become a better human being, that this is a place  of love and warmth and community, then your child will feel that as well and you will help guide your child as to the appropriate behavior and actions for that place and time.

My current personal case in point is our little fifteen month old who has no choice about attending church.  He has to go because we can’t leave him home with the dog, LOL.  He doesn’t understand the liturgy or notice the colors of the church changing with the liturgical seasons.  He doesn’t have the prayers or responses memorized.

But I think he knows this place that we go to twice a week.  He knows it is a place where the  adults love him and there is music and beauty and wonderful smells.  It is the place where every week  he is smothered in kisses by my African American friend as she says, “If he grows up to marry a black woman, this will be why!” and kisses him until he falls over laughing.  This is the place where my Polish friend speaks to him in Polish and helps me chase him down the hall.  It is the place where he hangs out in the choir room as we watch his big sisters practice singing (and the place he runs down the hallway to if he escapes out of anyone’s arms!  And then he stands there utterly disappointed if no one is singing at the time).  It is the place of meals, and the place of The Plastic Popcorn Popper  in the nursery that can sometimes entertain him for up to ten minutes as I quietly run in and out of the mass to hear his sisters sing in focused concentration and then pick him right back up again.  I think he knows there is something special and wonderful about this beautiful place where silence is respected but the people still have a twinkle in their eye and a love for the smallest of God’s kingdom.

Don’t get me wrong.  Getting small children to a place of worship, at least in my household, is no easy task.  Take Sunday – I forgot the baby’s shoes and my husband had to drop us off and go home for them, there were the inevitable tears surrounding The Doing of The Hair, the inevitable tension of trying to get to church early for the oldest to practice singing in the choir for the mass,  the waiting impatiently of the other children whilst the older one practiced.  On the car ride home, there was the loud singing  with the even  louder antagonizing remarks between siblings  and even the baby joined in with loud screams just to be heard over the din.  It was like watching our own circus and  my husband and I just laughed until I had tears rolling down my face.  (I think you had to be there to hear the comments Smile) With small children and a place of worship one needs to have a sense of humor, just like one needs to have with small children and life!

So, that leads me to this next point:  one needs to find a place of worship that understands and respects children.  A place where the leaders of the place of worship have a twinkle in their eye when dealing with families and children, a place where the people you attend services with have not forgotten about this task of raising small children, a place where the educational programs and activities take into account the developmental stages of the children. 

So, perhaps it is not so much the age, but how you feel on the inside regarding the doing of your spiritual life, and the place of worship itself and how they view small children.

Looking forward to hearing what all of you think, and sharing any FUNNY stories about your children in your place of worship would be a wonderful way to brighten up this day that is so cold and dreary around much of the U.S.!

Much love and many blessings,

Carrie

An Oldie But A Goodie: Five Things Every Parent Needs

Posted on by
5

This is an older post that I found and thought it was worthy enough to re-print for all my new readers.  So here is my oldie but goodie post of the week!

These are five things every parent needs to have right now; these are the keys to parenting!

Compassionate Connection :  Connection is the number one tool to parenting and to discipline, to that guiding of a child throughout these years at home.  You get it by choosing to connect with your child, by  choosing to view you and your child as being on the same team instead of being against each other.  You get it by choosing to love your child as you guide them over the bumps of life and development instead of being mad at them for being immature and making mistakes, which is what small children are and what small children do.

Kindness :  Kindness in the home is of utmost importance.  Your small child is watching everything you do and say and how you treat other people, including how you treat yourself.  Do you have boundaries for how other adults treat you?  Your children are watching this!  Boundaries is a part of being kind to yourself and to others.

How do you promote kindness in your home?  How do you model forgiveness for yourself for being human?  Try this one for ideas:   https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/05/03/kindness-in-your-home/

Gentleness:  Your child always deserves to have gentle hands.  If you cannot be gentle with them, you must take a parent time-out.  You can set a boundary, stick to a boundary, and still be gentle and loving.  It is possible!  You can parent peacefully!   See here for one of the many posts about this on this blog:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/01/05/an-emergency-how-to-how-to-parent-peacefully-with-children-under-age-9/

and here:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/08/17/raising-peaceful-children/

Patience:  Many parents will ruefully sigh and say, “I am not patient enough with my child.”  I agree it is important to have patience regarding the day to day and minute to minute interactions with your child; I have many posts about that,  but the kind of patience I am really talking about right now  is being patient with the process of DEVELOPMENT. This means not rushing a child out of childhood, and being willing to set boundaries to preserve that child’s innocence in early childhood and in the grades of school as well.     Understanding developmental stages and having realistic expectations for each age is vital.  There are many posts on this blog about this, all the developmental stages are currently covered from the age of twelve months through age nine.  There are also many posts regarding  babies under the “Baby and Toddler” header.  Here is one post regarding patience for your reading pleasure:

https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/10/15/the-power-of-patience-day-number-18-of-20-days-toward-being-a-more-mindful-parent/

Maturity:  Having a baby and a small child in the home SHOULD cause a change in your lifestyle.  Please do not use the fact you are breastfeeding and can carry your child in a  sling as an excuse to drag your child to all kinds of adult places with no rhythm in sight.  Why should your toddler  behave while you have coffee with a friend?  Why should your small baby sleep through the night when biologically they are not there yet?  Why should your toddler or younger preschooler willingly separate from you when they consider themselves to be a part of you?    Have the maturity to know that this is a season, this too shall pass, and that these early years of childhood are remarkably short.

A Positive Attitude! I have written about this repeatedly.  Here are a few back posts for your reading pleasure: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/09/19/day-number-three-of-20-days-toward-being-a-more-mindful-mother/

and here:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/06/17/the-power-of-being-a-positive-mother/

Simple parenting entails just these five steps to start.  A great beginning!!

Many blessings,

Carrie

“Friends and Lovers” by Julian Sleigh

Posted on by
3

My dear friend Lovey from over at Loveyland lent me this book.  I really wanted to write a review for you all but am finding it a bit  difficult as it  is the kind of book where so many things are profound you want to underline every other sentence and tab the pages and ponder what the authors says.  (Okay, I guess that is something of a review right there.  Smile)

This book is called “Friends and Lovers:  Working Through Relationships” and is written by Julian Sleigh who is a priest in the Christian Community, the renewal of religion that in part accepts the work of Rudolf Steiner and celebrates the traditional seven sacraments in renewed form.  Steiner’s work is referred to here and there in this  book, but I think even if that is not your worldview you will find much sensitive food for thought in this book.

This is not a huge book, about 191 pages total.  There are 24 chapters in this book including:   Setting out, Being a complete person, How am I doing?, Openness, The dynamic of affection, Friendship, The wonder of the soul, Helps and hindrances, Soul-mating, Forging bonds, It takes work to be social, Feeling, Not for myself, The way of love, Exploring the feminine, On being a man, Confiding, Sexuality:  a very personal matter, Creation or recreation?, The question of marriage, The music of marriage, Difficulties and challenges, From rapture to rupture, The community of the future.

The author begins this book with the description that there are “warm places in every person’s soul” that can be filled with feeling for others, and those others have awareness of these feelings.  How then do we become able to master interacting and communicating with others in harmony?  How do we relate to ourselves and how do we use this as the basis for relating to others?  How do we harness and tame anger and anxiety in our interactions with others?

One of my favorite parts of the book is about friendship.  On page 37, the author writes, “A friend is a person who is prepared to suffer in support of you:  to suffer for you and sometimes even to suffer because of you.  Your friend will give you space within his soul, and carry you in this space.” 

Another of my favorite ideas from this book is that relating to one another is a discipline and how feelings are part of our emotional life but feeling (as in willing, feeling, thinking) “is a stream of spiritual force that enters our soul when we are at peace with ourselves and with the world around.” 

There are some wonderful lists peppered through this book; the nine things for success in relating to others comes to mind as well as the 22 causes of possible break-down in a marriage.

The author talks about the crisis at age 28 that many people go through, adjusting to the first pregnancy,  infidelity and divorce and much more.

All in all a very interesting read! Has anyone out there also read this book and have any comments on it to share?

Here is a link to it on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Friends-Lovers-Working-Through-Relationships/dp/0863152678/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295545806&sr=8-1

Many blessings,

Carrie

Celebrating Three Kings’ Day

Posted on by
4

Merry Christmas to my Russian readers!  Many blessings on the Feast of The Theophany to my Orthodox readers!  And Happy Three Kings’ Day to those of you celebrating!

I wrote a post last year about Three Kings Day for your reading pleasure:

https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/01/12/the-magic-of-three-kings-day/ 

We celebrated today by leaving our shoes out on Twelfth Night and awakening to wondrous gifts left by the Three Wise Men this morning; we changed out our Nature Table to reflect The Three Wise Men as our theme for beginning to mid-January; we made a rice pudding and put three beans in it representing the Three Wise Men for those to find for good luck for the year.  We made stars for each of the three children with their names on them in glitter and have some beautiful origami stars hanging in our school room that my dearest friend made me for Christmas.  The one thing I did not get to do yet was to bless our home or take down our Christmas tree, so I am  running a bit behind there.  Smile  That is okay with me though  as my time right now is being devoted to chasing a toddler and homeschooling. 

I also was pleased to see a new “Three Kings and Epiphany E-Book”  from Eileen Straiton from Little Acorn Learning, Jennifer Tan from Syrendell and Jodie Mesler from Home Music Making over at Little Acorn Learning:  http://littleacornlearning.com/index.html  The beautiful star on the front cover of this e-book is like the strands I currently have hanging in my school room!  I am looking forward to reading it and planning out ideas for next year!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season, and I am looking forward to a wonderful 2011 with all of you wonderful mindful mothers!

Many blessings,

Carrie

Rhythm For the Irregular

Posted on by
30

Stuck on trying to get a rhythm going?

I think this happens quite a bit, so here are my quickie top ten tips for developing your own rhythm:

1.  You must get yourself to bed and shoot for the same time to go to sleep every night.  Use an alarm clock and get up even if you are tired.  Sorry, I know folks will really disagree with me here, but I think if you cannot start the foundation of waking up and going to bed, then the rest of the day is off-kilter.  Just my opinion, feel free to disagree.  Smile  My thought is you can always catch up at quiet time/ nap time, but to start to get in the habit of sleeping and waking times.

2.  Plan to do this for forty days.  Yes, forty. We have all heard it takes twenty-one days to establish a new habit, but in many religious traditions forty days is a number referred to again and again.  Try it for forty days.  If you miss a day, just jump back in….

3.  Which brings me to this point:  you are developing your own will.  Your own will is and can be stronger than your irregularity as a person if only you let it.  Try this back post:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/04/30/the-adult-will-and-how-to-develop-it/

4.   Regular meal times is the next step.

5.  Work in baby steps, go slow, get in-person encouragement.  Do not go to the  family and friends who will say, “You have tried this before and it never has worked for you!”  Go to the  family and friends who love you and who will say, “I know you can do this!  This is the first step toward wonderful things!”

6.  Write out your day on paper even if it is just the baby steps.  If you need to, you can cross off the flow like a list whilst you are putting these habits into place and your body is getting used to the changes.  But, keep it very, very simple at first.

It may be as simple as:

Tuesday –

  • Up, dressed, breakfast
  • Clean up dishes
  • Inside play
  • Snack
  • Tell story
  • Lunch at 12
  • Clean up dishes
  • Quiet time/ nap
  • Outside play
  • Everyone helps with dinner preparations
  • Dinner
  • Clean up dishes
  • Bed

7.  Believe in yourself. It can be so challenging when there is an area one has worked consistently to improve and yet it is still a challenge.  Know that you can do this!

Here are a few back posts on rhythm:

https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/11/04/back-to-basics-rhythm/

https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/03/13/baby-steps-to-waldorf-rhythm/

https://theparentingpassageway.com/2008/11/17/changing-your-rhythm-with-the-seasons/

Many blessings,

Carrie

Happy 2011!

Posted on by
20

Thank you to such a wonderful 2010.  The Parenting Passageway’s readership has grown in leaps and bounds, and 2011 promises to be an interesting and exciting year.

Here is my annual New Year’s wishes for my dear readers, reprised for 2011:

I hope this is the year you are “good enough”

I hope this is the year you have more joy than ever before!

I hope this is the year you investigate your faith and find a faithful community to join and pray with.

I hope this is the year you have the cleaner, more organized home that you have always wanted.

I hope this is the year you fall in love with your spouse or partner again and again.

I hope this is the year you will ENJOY your children and have FUN with them.

I hope this is the year you will learn some new skills and enjoy the process.

I hope this is the year you will start telling stories to your kids instead of reading them all.

I hope this is the year you are outside and active as a family in all seasons.

I hope this is the year you sing to your children and teach them singing games.

I hope this is the year you draw closer to your own family; your own parents and siblings.

I  hope this is the year you spend time with the friends you hold dearest.

I hope this is the year you take a vacation, no matter how short and close to home.

I hope this is the year you start a garden.

I hope this is the year you set the tone in your home and become the Queen that you are.

I hope this is the year you will be the most gentle parent you can be.

I hope this is the year you forgive yourself.

I hope this is the year you become healthier by exercising and eating healthy foods.

I hope this is the year for all your dreams to come  true.

Thank you all so much for reading my words and for all the gifts you bring here and  to your own families.  You all bring me so much joy each and every day!

In Joy, and Happy New Year!

Many blessings,

Carrie

The Fifth Night Of Christmas: Saddle Your Own Horse

Posted on by
4

I recently saw this very inspiring trailer about 100-year-old great American horsewoman Connie Reeves, an inductee of the American Cowgirl Hall Of Fame who is still riding horses and assisting at a summer camp to teach young girls how to ride. You can see the trailer for yourself here:  http://www.americancowgirl.com/film.htm.  

In one part of the trailer, Connie says:   “You gotta saddle your own horse” and the woman next to Connie says something to the effect of you have to stand on your own two feet, you gotta saddle your own horse.

Own your life.

Be happy with your life this year and if you are not happy with your life, then change what you need to in order to be happy.

Know your values and your priorities and shape what you are doing with your time around that.  I find a Family Mission Statement and a Personal Mission Statement to be really helpful.  Here are some ideas for getting started in that process:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/05/08/creating-a-family-mission-statement/

Something to always keep in mind as you plan your time, though, is to include how you are going to help someone else.  How will you connect into a community larger than yourself and what part will you play in that community? 

How will you build a wonderful community that your child can be a part of?  How will you reflect that in how you spend your time?  For example, if I have a choice between two activities for my family, I am going to pick the activity that involves the supportive community I have built up over a random class or event every time.

How does your life give you energy? I once worked with a brilliant pediatric orthopedic surgeon who told me how much energy he got from his work.  He loved it (and, I might add, he was really good at it!)

Sometimes parenting, especially parenting small children, can feel more like an energy drain than an energy booster. Parenting of small children can involve endless rounds of feeding, clean-up, diaper changing/bathroom trips.  What is your attitude in all of this?

Please never, ever lose sight of the fact that by what you do you are shaping the next generation.  What you do sets the stage for the adult your child will become.  It will not all be perfect and nor should it be.  None of us are perfect.  But show your children the striving, the learning and most of all the JOY.

Plan fun family things.  Grab all the children, throw them on the floor and smother them with kisses (in our house, our gigantic dog helps).  Laugh! Tell jokes around the dinner table!  Hike and be in nature.  Use humor in dealing with challenging behavior. 

Get energy from it all.  Saddle your own horse.

Many blessings,

Carrie

The Fourth Night of Christmas: Protecting The Innocence And Opening The Door

Posted on by
3

Today is The Feast of The Holy Innocents.  Christians around the world mark this day in recognition of King Herod’s order to massacre all infant boys under the age of two in Bethlehem as he raged against the Christ Child being born.  Many families take this time to say a blessing over their own children.  Tonight would be a wonderful night to pray and meditate over your children as they sleep for a little bit; revel in their faces and the young men and women they will grow up to be.

One thing that strikes me on this day is that we must do a good job of protecting our children’s innocence.  This is something that is getting lost in our culture as adult life, adult speech, adult dress, adult ways of  educating, are being brought down to the smallest in our society.

I find what we say to children to be of primary importance.  If you have children under the age of 7, ask yourself if what you are about to say to them is something they really need to know.  Is it pictorial and imaginative, what you are about to say?  It is an order, or can you just take the small child by the hand and help them do what needs to be done?  Have you crafted a rhythm so your child has an order to his or her day?

Here are some back posts to help you with this idea of protection and how to talk to small children:

https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/04/01/talking-in-pictures-to-small-children/

https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/08/19/using-our-words-like-pearls/

and this gem:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/05/11/does-your-child-know-what-is-best/

Help in stopping to give small children so many choices:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/07/06/a-waldorf-parenting-perspective-wont-choices-strengthen-my-childs-will/

This is one of my favorites because no one talks about this:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/02/26/how-to-talk-to-your-seven-and-eight-year-old/

One thing we always think about in Waldorf Education is what impact education is going to have upon the health of child once they grow up and become an adult.  This is why we work to protect the twelve senses (and if the twelve senses are new to you, and you scratching your head and saying “I thought there was only five!” you can use the search engine to find the back posts).  One important way to protect these senses is through warmth, and through sleep and quiet/rest times.

Here are two back posts regarding sleep:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/07/14/part-two-of-a-waldorf-inspired-view-of-sleep/  and here:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/07/13/a-waldorf-inspired-view-of-sleep/

Here are some thoughts on the Early Bedtime:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/05/25/the-early-bedtime/

But perhaps the flip side of this and  what we also need to talk about is how to open the world up gradually.  I see many Waldorf parents who take protection so seriously and they extend that pink protection bubble of Kindergarten way beyond the appropriate time.

I am certainly not advocating a “Child Gone Wild” approach for a seven-year-old, but the point becomes there is a time to start answering questions, there is a time to talk about life’s issues, and yes, a time for media and computers, a time for reading newspapers and the like.  The door must open at some point as you prepare your child to live in the world.    I feel actually the ages from 9-14 are the harder ages in which to discern what the balance of protection and opening the world up should be.  I guess that is an entirely different post though!

Happy pondering protection and opening up gradually to the world,

Carrie

The Second and Third Nights of Christmas: Sacrifice and Generosity

Posted on by
6

The Second Day of Christmas is often connected to St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian faith (you can read more about this Saint, venerated in Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran traditions here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Stephen).   Good King Wenceslas  is also often mentioned in connection with this day(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_King_Wenceslas).  He was a King who went out on The Feast of St. Stephen’s and gave alms to the poor. I am sure many of you are familiar with the traditional song about Good King Wenceslas.

The second and third days of Christmas are ones in which  I am left thinking, pondering and meditation on the role of sacrifice and generosity in parenting.

What can you sacrifice this year in order to be a better parent, a better homemaker for your family?

Sacrifice is not a popular term these days.  People want to have children.  And then they are faced with reality when they realize it is difficult to take your “before children” life and add children and stir.  I wrote about this in my blog post “Raising An Inconvenience” here:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/07/13/the-mini-rant-raising-an-inconvenience/

Here is part of that post:

“Mature love and parenting involves you putting your child’s welfare ahead of your own.  I have said it before, and I will say it again: children are messy, noisy, learning, immature.  They don’t sleep like an adult, they don’t reason like an adult, they take a long time to mature and develop (and 7, 8, 9, 10 year-olds are still little!  So I am talking 21 years of growth and development!).  They get sick, they laugh and cry at the wrong times, they fall down, they fight with each other and with you. 

They are also wonderful.  They will show you a spiritual world that you may have forgotten existed.  They will say the funniest things.  No one will love you like a sweet child.

Adjusting to having an infant can be challenging; it can be difficult.  I am very sympathetic to mothers needing support and help.  The choices we make in these early years set the foundation for discipline, for the school years, and later for the teenaged years.  It should make one stop and at least consider different choices rather than just decide on something because it is easiest.  You cannot take your “before children life” and just add children and stir.   Having children should change your life, don’t you think?

As mothers and fathers, it is our privilege and our responsibility to provide our children with a childhood they hopefully won’t have to recover from.  No matter what we do, our children will go their own way as they mature and grow in early adulthood.  But, it is our job to give them the footing to start.  It is our job to guide.  And I don’t know about you, but the development of my children’s  physical, emotional, academic and character is worth me being inconvenienced any day or night of the week!”

Maybe this is the year and the time for you to sacrifice something else: negativity and complaining.

Here are some back posts regarding being a positive mother and promoting kindness in your home:

https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/11/29/cultivating-gratitude-the-inner-work-of-advent/

https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/09/19/day-number-three-of-20-days-toward-being-a-more-mindful-mother/

And probably one of my all-time favorite posts, this one on Kindness: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/05/03/kindness-in-your-home/

This is the year for you to be GENEROUS with your family.  Be generous with your love, with your smiles and hugs.  Be generous with your laughter and joy.  Your children and family are here to make every day blessed, not a burden!  Be generous with the amount of time you spend with your family, be generous with your graciousness as you take care of your home and your family.

Be generous with yourself.  I see mothers who are so, so very hard on themselves!  Why?  Be kind to yourself, be easy with yourself.   Forgive yourself, move forward and show your children how to do this. 

Try these back posts for help:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/03/18/no-comparison/  and https://theparentingpassageway.com/2008/11/27/forgiving-ourselves/

You are being called to serve!  How are you going to do it?

Much love and many blessings,

Carrie