Photo: Scott Ballem Teaching your kid to read can test even the most patient parent. When I think about how much time my husband, Scott, and I spent c ...
 Photo: Olivia Mew ?Yes? Leah Rumack, mom of one ?Wow,? said my friend, impressed, as I spooned Moroccan-flavoured chickpea stew into my then 10-m ...
Most parents have had bath-time struggles with their kids at some point. Whether it?s a problem transitioning from playtime to bath time, fear theyâ� ...
This year has certainly been a mix of blessings and challenges. Faith kicked off the New Year by getting another UTI. Along with that, she somehow man ...
Some people start their Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving. Not us! We actually wait until about the second week of December, when we go to t ...
Last week on the 25th, Faith celebrated her 20th birthday, which means she is no longer a teenager! That morning as we drove to her day program, she a ...
This past weekend, Faith and I both got to experience the Medora Musical together - for the first time ever! We went with my dad and sister. The ...
When my dad told me he\'d like to see Pembina Gorge sometime, I told him I had never heard of it. (I don\'t feel bad as I know many other North Dakota ...
Faith and I had the best 4th of July ever! We started the day bright and early to go to the parade in Mandan. We haven\'t been there for many years, s ...
Faith loves going to plays, musicals, ballet performances, and other events in which her friends perform. When she was younger, I thought attending th ...
It\'s hard to believe that Faith is 19 years old and has never had a major illness or extended hospital stay since she was in the NICU. The only other ...
Yes, it\'s true that Faith has been celebrating her birthday ever since last week! I mean, a girl only turns 19 once, right" And this is the last offi ...
Here it is the first day of August and one thing is certain: last month was a busy one! Both Faith and I had some important appointments, plus she had ...
Today I thought it was quite fitting that on my one year anniversary of my new pacemaker, I was wearing a 24-hour Holter monitor! It\'s not because I\ ...
When I had asked Faith a while back what she wanted to do for a graduation party, she told me, "a day at the park."Â I knew it was a little risky pl ...
A snowy Century Ave. Last Tuesday at this time, most of North Dakota was getting blasted with a historic blizzard that lasted 3 days. We have experien ...
Just recently I was able to go away for the weekend - for fun! For the first time in 18 years, I was able to travel to another city, stay overnight, a ...
Every year in May, Faith and I run into the same problem. It\'s hard to focus on school this time of the year! I know most families are probably in th ...
Finally, on November 4th, the day the elevator in our building was fixed, I was able to take Faith downstairs so she could check out her new van! It h ...
Oh. My. Goodness. What a month! It\'s certainly been challenging, but thankfully there were a few bright spots to help us through. At the very end of ...
Faith in her "new" van in 2011It was back in August of 2011 that we got our first accessible van. Before that, we had a purple special needs car seat ...
As I\'m writing this blog post, it is currently 25 degrees outside. With the windchill, it feels more like 12 degrees. That\'s cold for October. Even ...
Grandma Dorothy holding me at 5 months of ageIn February, 1974 when my mom took me home from the hospital, she thought she had a perfectly healthy bab ...
At the beginning of 2018 I had come up with the idea to post an inspirational meme for every day of the year. I called it #365DaysOfInspiration. Part ...
I know I have said this many times before, but I can\'t reiterate how thankful we are for the Inspire homeschooling group that Faith joined. Not only ...
In the past when Faith and I have done her annual Thankful List, I would write down the items as she told them to me. This year, I thought it would be ...
Summer. It sure doesn\'t last long in North Dakota. And since Faith started school earlier this week, I figured it was a great day to reminisce about ...
This December has definitely been a fun and festive one for our family! Normally we don\'t get too crazy over the holidays, but this year we did a few ...
On Facebook this month, I did a #30DaysOfThankfulness and posted each day what I am thankful for. I wanted to compile my complete list in one spot - s ...
For the past couple of years, I have posted Faith\'s thankful list on Thanksgiving.Before I get to her list, I just want to say how very thankful I am ...
Last year I had a tough time getting used to the idea that my daughter had somehow turned into a teenager. This year, I\'m having a hard time believin ...
We got married on Rosh Hashanah (which is the Jewish New Year). So because our day wasn\'t going so well on the 7th of September, which is the day we ...
I?m not usually one to want summer to linger. And yes, I get that as a North Dakotan, this does make me a little strange. Usually, I cannot wait for ...
It can be hard for Faith to try new things. She loves routine, which makes it hard to adjust to change. While that?s true for many us, it can be nearl ...
Despite the fact summer officially began only a few days ago, for us, it feels like it actually began in May. Since we\'ve begun to have such wonderfu ...
At the end of March, I found myself heading east on I-94 with my parents, leaving my husband and daughter behind. An hour into our trip, my husband c ...
FUN FACT: Did you know that on any given day of the year, 17.7 million people around the world are celebrating a birthday"In my immediate family, my b ...
It\'s hard to believe but the holidays have come and gone and once again we\'re saying hello to another new year. Honestly, I\'m NOT going to miss 20 ...
Every year I try to get Faith to come up with a thankful list so that we can remember what Thanksgiving Day is all about. But really, though, Faith is ...
Faith turned 13 on October 25th. We celebrated her milestone birthday a week ago today at my parents house, which has become the official family party ...
Ever since I began this blog (back in 2009), I\'ve always had the faith verse from Hebrews 11:1 on the header. But as of late, I feel the passage fro ...
Twelve years ago in late April, we were given the dreaded news that our daughter had spastic quadriplegia - the most debilitating form of cerebral pal ...
For the past couple of years instead of making New Year\'s resolutions, I have instead chosen just one word to focus on throughout the year. (I got th ...
One of Faith\'s favorite things to do is call her Auntie Johanna (Joh for short) and listen to her cat, Ruby purr over the phone. (Faith also likes to ...
At the end of the year, I usually do a "Year in Review." This year, however I decided to do something a little bit different. After poring over photos ...
