3 Things Every Parent Should Tell Their Kids

This week's blog assignment is without stating obvious concerns like the importance of faith and family, share three things every kids should learn.

#1 - Avoid debt - I don't mean debt that is beyond our control. I'm talking about debt that is the result of our choices, wants, and desires. Don't buy things unless you can pay for them. Save up for big purchases. Save for a rainy day. Have a financial buffer. Want less and be content with what you have. Debt is a hole that is hard to get out of.

#2 - Live simply - Set margins and boundaries. Learn to know when enough is enough. Learn to enjoy simple pleasures. Learn that less is more and do more with less. Spend less time on things that don't matter so you can spend more time with the things that do.

#3 - Learn to make white sauce - This should be part of a standard High School curriculum. A little flour, a little water, and a wire whisk can take you to yummy places. Soups, gravy, and sauces here you come. You'll never need to buy Cream of Mushroom soup again.




(I can't seem to get Blogger to accept the MckLinky Blog Hop code and I don't have time to mess with it anymore. If you want to read more Blog Hop entries click over to The Riggs Family Blog for instructions.)

Perfect Timing

Eleven years ago, we decided Sunday, September 27 would be the worst day for our youngest daughter’s birth. My husband had to preach and friends who could watch our other children would be out of town. God, please—any day but the 27th.

Sure enough—labor started at 2:00 a.m. on the 27th. God, I complained, This is no skin off your nose, but it’s a lot of skin off mine. Why today?

We found someone to stay with our younger children and dashed to the hospital. Thank goodness Keith could drive like a maniac in the middle of the night.

“Great,” Keith groaned. “We’re being pulled over.”

As another contraction gripped my body, I knew every second counted. “We don’t have time to stop,” I said.

Keith jumped from the van and yelled at the police officer. “My wife’s in labor.” Thankfully he believed Keith and waved us on.

I’d assumed frantic hospital dashes with laboring women were products of Hollywood’s imagination. I’d had six babies before without rushing to the hospital. The shortest labor so far was four hours. Apparently it wasn’t in my genes to spit out babies.

Or so I thought. I breathed through another contraction and looked at my two scared daughters Kiah and Erica, ages nine and seven, and knew if I delivered in the van, they’d never want children. “You’d better drive faster.”

“I’m going 70.”

Another contraction tightened, close on the heels of the last one. As the vise grip eased, I gasped, “Go faster.”

Sioux Center Hospital was 45 minutes from home. Would we get there in time? I breathed a prayer of thanks when we arrived.

Drats, the maternity ward was on the second floor. My friend was born on a hospital elevator. I didn’t want that experience, so with the logic of a woman in transition, I took the stairs.

I stopped for another contraction and noticed the time: 4 a.m. A nurse whisked me to a room. She quickly and efficiently dressed me in an indecent hospital gown.

My midwife, Belinda, rushed into the room. After a quick check, she calmly pronounced the baby breech and paged a doctor.

I looked at Belinda in panic. Breech babies usually meant Caesarean births and I didn’t want one. Some doctors deliver breech babies naturally—would she? “What do I do?”

“Calm down and push.”

That I could do. Before the doctor could get his gloves on, I pushed out a beautiful baby girl.

The clock read 4:17 a.m.

Thank God for a breech baby. I’m convinced that’s all that kept her in until we reached the hospital. Because things went so fast, Keith was still able to preach that morning.

Lani could have been born any other day, but God wanted us to rely on Him. He is not confined by our schedules, fears, or limitations. He knows our needs and is in control.

We chose where to have her, but God chose how and when.


Happy 11th Birthday, Lani Renee Vik

The mind of man plans His ways, but the Lord directs His steps. – Proverbs 16:9

Think Quotes, It's Friday

Friday fun sponsored by Lori Poppinga at Life, Love, and Laughter in a Large Family.

Happy 20th Birthday Kiah

Kiah's Birthday

Bossy Sisters and Broken Glasses

A summary of my life from birth to High School in 1,000 words. 

Turning 50 causes one to evaluate. Am I where I should be? Did I zig when I should have zagged? Did I learn what I was supposed to learn?

My Dad spent four years in the air force. On September 11, I was born in Spain. Thanks to Osama Bin Laden, I have one of the most famous birthdates in American history.

Mom says I ate meals with them and then crawled over and ate with our Spanish neighbors. Perhaps being born in a different time zone explains why I’m late so much.

Being the oldest child of two oldest children, the oldest of my three siblings, and the oldest cousin on both sides, I have bossed people around my whole life.

We moved often, living in eighteen houses in eighteen years. Through second grade, I lived in Southern California’s Mojave Desert. I remember cactus, Joshua trees, church, our Volkswagen beetle, measles, matching Easter dresses and a one-time freak foot of snow.

At age six in Vacation Bible School, I learned that Jesus loves me and I believed with all my six-year-old heart. Faith is simple enough for a child to understand but complicated enough to spend a lifetime learning about.

At age seven, my grandparents showed up at Christmas with a HUGE rectangle cardboard box with my name on it. Learning to ride their gift, a new shiny green bicycle, proved difficult. I fell over and over again, developing a good case of road rash, until that magical moment when I finally got it.

I soon learned about the laws of gravity and stupidity when my girlfriend and I tied our bikes together. Great fun until she went one way, and I went another. The resulting crash put a tooth through my chin, leaving a faint lifetime scar.

In third grade, we moved ten hours north to Vallejo, California to be close to my Mom’s family.

A flunked school eye test showed I had inherited Dad’s poor vision. Before glasses, trees had a general shape. After glasses, I could see branches and detailed leaves.

I worked in my parents store for 50 cents an hour to pay for a stylish pair of plastic blue gingham cat-eye glasses, which looked impressive when they broke down the middle and Dad joined them together with a piece of wire.

In fourth grade the neighborhood bookmobile provided a portal to the sphere of books, knowledge, and the outside world. With the discovery of chapter books and Nancy Drew, I began a lifelong love affair with the written word.

The fascinating world of books helped offset the reality of my world. A world of having parents who worked hard but never got ahead. Who loved us but fought with each other all the time. Of moving almost every year. Of always being new and making friends and getting used to things, and then moving again.

Grandpa gambled, smoked, and drank. He was a gentle drunk, so when he had too much drink, he’d sleep it off. He loved us and we loved him. He made each of us eight cousins feel special. He called my sisters and me princesses and treated us as such. He teased, told funny jokes, played dominoes, and gave us special nicknames and money for candy. We each spent a week with my grandparents every summer and they spoiled us.

After two years in Vallejo, we moved an hour north to Sonoma County where we lived for the next fifteen years, though we still moved around.

We moved my 8th grade year. A painful experience as classmates teased me about my big nose and dark blue plastic “cat-eye” glasses.

High school was a mine field, and by God’s grace, I made it, for the most part, safely through. I had fun times, but between teenage drama, numerous poor decisions, acute self-consciousness, flunking the driver’s license test twice, and accidentally driving our old Ford Falcon station wagon through the neighbor’s garden, I’m really glad all that is way behind me.

From my Spanish neighbors I learned that things are more fun with friends. In church I learned about faith. Learning to ride a bike taught the value of persistence and being careful who you tie your bike to, because if they go down, you probably will too.

Moving frequently taught me to be flexible, resilient, not to hold tightly to things, to go with the flow, to adapt, and not take things for granted. Movers live optimistically, viewing moving as a new beginning, not another ending.

Unfortunately moving that often makes one cautious, slow to develop attachments, and reluctant to dig in and settle down.

From Grandpa I learned the world is far from perfect and good people do bad things and life is rarely as black and white as we’d like it to be. Not all my alcoholic relatives were gentle drunks and I developed an aversion to alcohol.

I learned that God answers some prayers and doesn’t answer others. That our families shape and form us, and while He fixes some things, some things won’t be fixed until we get to heaven.

God is sovereign and has been there all my life, working things together for His reasons, for His glory, for my best, in His time, and in His own way.

Faith, family, and friends. The Big Three. Was learning. Am Learning. Will always be learning.

One day God will take me home and I won’t ever have to move again. After a lifetime of learning, I’ll enter a portal to a new world. One with a perfect Father who knows and does all things well. A place with no tears, teasing classmates, bad eyes, ugly glasses, poor choices, or broken lives.

Immersed in love so incredible we humans can’t begin to comprehend it, I will finally be where I should be and the learning will have just begun.

Think Quotes, It's Friday

(Think Quotes, It's Friday - weekly fun sponsored by Lori Poppinga at Life, Love, and Laughter in a Large Family.)

Random 50th Birthday Thoughts

Forgive me for revisiting this subject, but a person doesn't turn 50 every day. I was curious what happened the year I was born and discovered that in 1959:

Dwight Eisenhower was president

Alaska and Hawaii became states

Sleeping Beauty and Ben Hur were released.

Barbie was invented

Craylola sells a 64 crayon box

Guggenheim museum is built in New York City

St.Lawrence Seaway officially opens to shipping.

Fidel Castro becomes dictator of Cuba

Women in Nepal vote for the first time

The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence

What things cost in 1959:

Yearly Inflation Rate USA 1.01%

Average Cost of new house $12,400.00

Average Yearly Wages $5,010.00

Cost of a gallon of Gas 25 cents

Average Cost of a new car $2,200.00

Movie Ticket $1.00

Loaf of Bread 20 cents

I liked these musings of Paul Daughertry of the Cincinatti Enquirer

People called and asked, “Do you feel 50?”

No idea. How’s 50 supposed to feel?

If you’ve played pro football, 50 probably feels sore and looks like Advil. Age is the one arena where the rest of us have the edge on athletes. At age 52, Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea. Mike Ditka had plastic hips.

At 50, Ford had invented the assembly line, Roosevelt was elected president, and John Updike got the Pulitzer Prize.

On the other hand, at 50 Pavlov was just a guy with too many dogs in his backyard, Ronald Reagan was an out-of-work actor, and Samuel Morse had virtually given up on the invention he called the telegraph.

Our friend, John Peckham gave me the best birthday insight. - "If we're going to live forever, 50 is just a drop in the bucket."

Top 11 Favorite Summer Moments

This list has eleven items instead of the normal 10, because I like odd numbers way better than even.

Anyway, here goes...

1. Meeting my mentor – After a year and a half of taking a Christian Writers Guild’s online writing course. Turns out Joyce Ellis is even nicer in person.

2. Lunch with Iowa girlfriends in June – A welcome break from the 30 kids we have between the six of us.

3. Herbster beach – A magical relaxing sun-drenched July afternoon with Keith, the Cahoots, and our two dogs.

4. Labor Day Boat ride to Madeline Island – Friends treated our family, sans Keith, to a fun boat ride and a wonderful day of swimming, eating, playing, and smiling – as in ear to ear.

5. Summer baptisms – Keith baptized five people from church in Lake Superior. Beautiful weather, special time.

6. Duluth Harbor cruise – Keith and I did the tourist thing and had a great time with friends from church

7. New kittens – Stubby and Chubby

8. Dinner with Andrew & Rachel when we visited him at camp - Cute is seeing my son and his sweet girlfriend fix dinner together. My boy is in love and is growing up and shows me honor and respect which means the world to me.

9. 25th Anniversary party – A fun evening with family and friends.

10. Meeting Joanna Schriever for the first time - Our friends adopted a sweet little girl from Ethiopia

11. New (to me) bread slicer - a friend bought this for me at a garage sale. I'll never have crooked bread again. Is this cool or what?

Turning 50

Today I have reached that important milestone of turning 50. I found this material on the internet last year but don't remember where. I hope that bad habit doesn't get me into trouble someday.

You know you’re turning 50 when:

You start losing hair in the places you want it and getting it in places you don't.

You're coming home from a night out with your spouse and you realize that the young people are just getting into the shower to get ready for their dates.

You can remember useless bits of trivia but not what you came in the room for.

You start carrying tweezers in the car.

You find yourself scanning the obits for people your age.

You're proud of your lawn mower

You hear your favorite song on the elevator

You wonder why everything is in such fine print.

There are numerous advantages in being fifty –

just ask any eighty-year-old

Think Quotes, It's Friday

(Think Quotes, It's Friday - weekly fun sponsored by Lori Poppinga at Life, Love, and Laughter in a Large Family.)

10 Signs Your Child Might Be a Teenager - By Erica

1. Every sentence begins, contains and ends with: umm, soooo, like, whatever, so yeah....

2. You can only enter their bedroom with a hazmat suit and God's blessing

3. You can have an entire conversation, and then realize they weren't listening to a thing you said.

4. They talk about weird things you've never heard about before, like SpaceBook, or even worse Mytwitface. Also cellphones become superglued to their hands and the only way to keep them from listening to their Ipod is to hide it and tell them the dog ate it.

5. Food doesn't last more than 22.78 minutes in the fridge.

6. They suddenly become willing to cooperate with you, but only until you drive them where they need to go, They alternate between declaring their independence and asking for help.

7. They develop an earnest, burning desire to pierce, dye, and tattoo.

8. They ask you for your opinion...and then do the exact opposite.

9. Along the same lines, they think your IQ falls somewhere in between Kermit the Frog and Elmo.

10. And finally, they begin to spend so much time in the bathroom they might as well live in it (Although girls are more prone to this than guys)

Disclaimer: Sometimes a rare kid won't openly display these symptoms. In that case check for fever and count your blessings.

Learning About Love

I know his class schedule, what bus he rides, and where his locker is.


At age fourteen I live for his smile and waver between hope and fear.

He rescues me. The other kids circle, choose, and pair up. No one likes to be left standing alone. Certain that I am unworthy, wonder of wonders, he chose me. 

He is a few rungs higher on the social ladder yet reaches down for me. Why? I have no idea.

Though fun and exhilarating, I can’t relax. I hope this will last but I’m afraid it won’t. I hope he likes me as much as I like him, but I’m afraid he doesn’t.

There are prettier girls out there. Surely he has eyes. There are smarter, more popular, talented and athletic girls. Why is he with me? Is it just a matter of time before he figures out what I already know?

The longer we stay together, the more it will hurt when he leaves. The unknown is too scary to consider. So with the flawed logic of a child who is much too young to be dating, I decide that it’s safer to hurt myself than to let someone else do it. I walk away, not one, not two, but three times.

I look back now and know that I was fragile and needy and no amount of love and affirmation could fill the hole inside.

We were too young to know what love is.

Letting a child mess around with love is like letting a blind person drive a car. Sure they can drive, but they can’t see where they’re going, there’s sure to be a crash, and someone is likely to get hurt.

There’s no way I could know at fourteen that love is more about giving than taking, more about the inside than the outside, more about doing good than looking good. Love does not need another person to make me feel good about myself or make me complete. It doesn’t run and hide when things get hard.

Thirty-five years later I know that love is day after day, year after year doing dishes when you’re tired, doing laundry when you don’t feel like it, going through childbirth, cleaning up puke, forgiving stupid words or random acts of insensitivity, living in a white house when you wanted tan, letting go of hurts and resentments, biting your tongue, taking vacations to places you don’t want to go, having different opinions, and laying aside personal preferences for the greater good.

Love clips toenails, empties bedpans, helps after surgery, and cares for a loved one with Alzheimer’s.

Love takes out garbage, mows the lawn, bakes bread, makes special desserts, sends cards, comforts, laughs, plays, encourages, tends wounds, juggles schedules, dreams, celebrates, and makes and keeps promises.

Love promises to stay together no matter what, rain or shine, good or bad.

I learned about love from the one who loves me best.

You see, God rescued me. Though I’m unworthy, He reached down and wonder of wonders, He chose me.
He invaded my life, filled the hole, completed me, and took away the fear. He gave me a solid foundation and the emotional wherewithal to build relationships in healthy ways. I quit looking in the wrong places for that which only God can give.

I don’t have to wonder how He loves me. (unconditionally)

I don’t have to wonder how much He loves me. (Completely)

I don’t have to wonder how long He’ll love me. (Forever)

He loves me, and surrounded, filled, and blessed with that amazing love, I am free to love.

Let the smile of your face shine on us, LORD. You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and wine. I will lie down in peace and sleep, for you alone, O LORD, will keep me safe. (Ps. 4:6b-8)

Unfailing Confidence

I. Maker of the morning,
Keeper of the light,
Singer of the sunset,
And guardian of the night.

Steadfast and unchanging
A rock, forever sure.
Ageless love unfolding
Illuminant and pure.

Presence of the Father,
The person of the Son,
Power of the Spirit
Forever three in one.

II. God of healing comfort,
Source of love divine.
Grant me understanding
And ease my troubled mind.

Sustain me, loving Father,
Closely hold me in your hand.
Help me see the scattered fragments
Are all pieces of your plan.

Make me know your fullness
Make your presence known.
Work in me, until I be
Content in you alone.

III. God of ageless glory,
Infinite, almighty,
Counselor, the Prince of Peace.
Supreme in majesty.

Center of the universe,
Beginning and the end.
Above, below, around, beside,
Unfailing confidence.

Think Quotes, It's Friday

Found this quote on the internet and thought it funny. Sorry I don't know who to credit. Picture is of yours truly in one of my better moments.

(Think Quotes, It's Friday - weekly fun sponsored by Lori Poppinga at Life, Love, and Laughter in a Large Family.)

One Problem, Three Solutions

I am always learning something from my friend, Lori Poppinga, over at Life, Love, and Laughter in a Large Family She is perky and quirky and I've never met anyone like her (which I had to explain to her was a compliment).

We've had lots of fun and among other things are blogging buddies. She even lets me invite myself over to her house for waffles for breakfast from time to time. This has gotten trickier since I moved eight hours away but I managed to eat waffles twice with her this summer. She has this cool waffle flipping machine like hotels that serve free breakfasts have that I try not to covet.

Anyway, I enjoy her writing and wanted to share a blog post of hers. She explores three mothers' responses to a pressing problem. Please hop over to her blog to read One Problem - Three Moms, Three Solutions. Tell her that her favorite Wisconsinite sent you.

Blog Hop - Favorite Baby Photo

The Blog Hop assignment this week is to post a favorite baby picture either of me, my children, or somebody else's children. I found this picture on the internet but don't remember where, so hopefully I don't get sued for using it. It just makes me smile every time I see it. Thanks for stopping by.