The Amazing Race

By Christine Thomas

Lately my days have been an exercise in scheduling. With four children involved in sports, music, tutoring, rehearsals, and youth groups, not to mention the bustle of the holidays thrown in the mix, I spend so much time in the car that my right foot brakes and accelerates when I sit down to eat at home, although I usually grab a snack on my way out the door.

In between this endless shuttling to and from commitments and appointments, I make an occasional pit stop at home to throw in a load of laundry. Every day feels like a live TV show in which I’m an actor who must hit her mark or the program is thrown off track. Consequently my mind is always racing as I mentally contrive the order of each day.

When describing my harried life to a friend, she passed along a word of advice which helped her during one of life’s hyper-busy seasons.

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Tickets For Two

By Christine Thomas

“Your Mom and I talked and we want to do something different for Thanksgiving this year.”“ Oh really, like what?” I said gripping the phone tighter. “We want to take you and Jim, and Joe and Amy, to the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving Day.”

My Dad’s offer was simple and appealing, but at the same time it put me in a familiar place, stuck between two good decisions. I twirled around the logistics of his offer like a Rubik’s cube. We were planning to spend Thanksgiving at my in-laws. If we accepted, my Dad’s offer where would everyone stay? Should I cook a turkey meal?

“Wow Dad, that’s really generous,” I said weakly. “Jim will probably want to go, but let me check and I’ll call you back.” As predicted, my husband wanted to go. He thought his parents would understand why we couldn’t make it. “Let me call my Dad.” I picked up the phone, and then set it back down. “Uh-oh, what about the kids?” If we were comic strip characters, we would have question marks above our heads. Realizing we couldn’t leave the kids home alone, and not knowing who would babysit on Thanksgiving Day, I insisted that Jim go without me. I could tell he wanted to say yes, instead, he made an announcement.

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Marriage: Fully Decorated

By Christine Thomas –

If the décor in a couple’s bedroom is a reflection of their marriage, then we must have been headed for divorce court. The summer I noticed our dingy walls and faded bedding was the season I realized my relationship with my husband was bland, boring, and barely alive. Lorne and I needed an extreme room and marriage makeover. Stat. Read more

Home Management

By Christine Thomas –

What do people need the most besides money? Time. While we’re not all earning the same amount of money, everyone is given an equal amount of time. It’s the great equalizer, no respecter of persons. Like money, you can either waste it or save it. In caring for a lively family of six, I’ve learned to incorporate a few shortcuts in my daily management duties that actually put more time in my schedule.

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Mommy Markers: How parenting milestones get Camouflaged in day-to-day living

By Christine Thomas

While cleaning the bathtub recently I noticed that all the toys were gone. Oh no! I must have absently grabbed the plastic basket filled with floating ducks and dolls for our garage sale weeks earlier. As I wiped my sponge along the smooth porcelain rim that day, I realized the small clues of raising small children were disappearing from my home.
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