Using the 5 Love Languages to Save Families

by Christie Perkins

I’m a nonfiction junkie. I love reading self help books and text books. Yep, I’m a full on geek. And I also like a light clean romance book. You know the kind, the kind where the discovery of real love is realized…not just that state of the twitterpation station of life.

using-the-5-love-languages-to-save-familiesSo with my atypical spectrum of book likes, my friend gave me the perfect book: The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell. A perfect mix of knowledge and how to discover and express real love to your kids and family. Not just to be infatuated with our fabulous (and crazy driving destination) families but how to show them that we love them.

So geek it up with me.

Families need a little more love, a little more connections with one another, and a lot more work. So, no matter your situation: divorced, separated, happily married, existing in the same room with a legalized paper that indicates your married, single, with kids… or without, take a look at what Gary and Ross have to say. I’ll get to the details of that in a minute. But, I have tried a few of these simple techniques and have found a little more cohesion in our family. I liked the results.

Because no family is exempt from attack and every family is worth saving, no matter, no what! Continue reading

How this Baseball Coach Taught Me to Coach my Kids

by Christie Perkins

I have learned a great deal about coaching kids through others. Sometimes kids fall. Sometimes they mess up. Sometimes things don’t go quite right. Our response is crucial to their learning process of who they are. Of the many great coaches we have had in life, one moment stands firm in my mind. I feel impressed to share it with you today, not last week like I was going to.

Someone needed this today.

We all have coaches in life. Sometimes we are the coach. Sometimes we are the player. I learned something great through one of my boys’ baseball coach. I believe it is key to how we coach our kids, especially when they mess up.

“She turned to the sunlight And shook her yellow head,And whispered to her neighbor_ _Winter is dead.”(3)It was pouring rain. But we were playing ball anyway. Too many games have been cancelled this year already. And since the game started out dry that was good enough.

I huddled under layers of blankets with the denim quilt as my oversized poncho and hair destroyer. Lovely. The afghan wrapped around my arms and legs kept me mostly warm with frequent blasts of cold air finding its way through the holes.

Sly comments about a holey blanket in this mad weather kept coming back to me. Again, and again, and again… and I could see the obvious mistake. They were absolutely right. Continue reading

An Email From Heaven

Run, Run, Run As Fast As You Can

by Christie Perkins

ROADTRIPLast year, at this time, I was only about 6 months free of cancer treatments. The toll on my body was still in full effect. I was tired but happy (as anyone knows who has ever gone through chemo knows that true happiness is the ditching of chemo treatments).

I knew my energy levels so I was certain that I wasn’t going to run the “pink race”. It’s a 5k/1 mile walk to raise money for local breast cancer patients. One of my cancer friends is the 5k head hauncho. But, the alligator tears from my 3 year old who wanted to run for mommy had me at the line up. Continue reading