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cartoon holiday webcomic

Mother’s Day Breakfast in Bed Alternative

I don’t consider myself a good cook. Like Charlie Brown, I can basically make popcorn and toast. So I was always searching for a Mother’s Day breakfast in bed alternative.

I think the two boys in this cartoon have a good idea!

Mother's Day Breakfast in bed alternative. A boy is on a phone and says, "Hello, Pizza Palace? For Mother's Day, would you deliver breakfast in bed?"

On the other hand, my son is an outstanding cook. He knows how to prepare a fantastic breakfast. I remember one Mother’s Day when he triumphantly prepared a breakfast fit for a queen. The only problem was that it was also fit for a king and several of their attendants. That was a BIG breakfast!

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children's ministry CHOG News Christianity Community Mother's Day Newsletters

Baby Dedication and Mother’s Day

This year, I got to write an article about baby and child dedication in my church tradition. Tomorrow, in many churches, there will be a connection between baby dedication and Mother’s Day.

Baby Dedication and the Heart of a Mother via CHOGNews.org
Baby Dedication and the Heart of a Mother
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single panel cartoon webcomic

Mom’s to do List Cartoon

What parent hasn’t had to deal with a to-do list a mile long? My wife has always been a go-getter. Undoubtedly, she inspired this mom’s to do list cartoon

Mom's to do list cartoon. One boy has a scary mask. The other says, "That's nothing. When I want to get scared, I look at Mom's to-do list."

 As amazing as it may seem, there is a cure for the super busy parent. It takes intentionality and discipline. But it is possible. The big challenge is learning to say no when the world seems to be asking us for the moon… and then some!

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K! Magazine Kidzmatter Magazine Magazine motivation Parenting Cartoons teaching

The Best-Laid Plans Never Go as Planned

Cartoon of two people waist deep in water. A woman says, "I've learned there is a fine line between potty training and preschooler vandalism."
Published in "K! Kidzmatter Magazine"

If the last two years have taught us anything, we have learned that the best-laid plans never go as planned. There are circumstances and surprises that come out of nowhere. In fact, we may be tempted to utter along with Curly, “I’m a victim of circumstance!“

Children and the Best-laid Plans

I thought I had life all figured out until I had children. Planning was easy when my wife and I started our lives together. For the most part, we were on the same page and had similar goals. But when we had kids, I discovered they didn’t always share the same goals like when was the proper bedtime, how to behave at restaurants, and when was the optimal time to begin potty training.

Cartoon of two people waist deep in water. A woman says, "I've learned there is a fine line between potty training and preschooler vandalism."
Published in Kidzmatter Magazine
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Christmas holiday

Christmas Through the Eyes of a Child

There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child. Erma Bombeck

Ah! If only we could always see Christmas through the eyes of a child! I can relate to Erma Bombeck’s quote.

“There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.”

Erma Bombeck

Erma Bombeck Quotes. BrainyQuote.com, BrainyMedia Inc, 2021. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/erma_bombeck_124420, accessed December 18, 2021.

When we were children, Christmas was always a magical time of the year. We had big wishes for amazing toys. Many of us reasoned if we just got our act together between Thanksgiving and Christmas, hopefully, Santa wouldn’t notice our behavior the other eleven months of the year.

Then we grew up. Some of us got naughty while others remained nice. It seemed to be so easy for those made of sugar, spice, and everything nice.

Naughty and Nice Photo
I must have been naughty in 2014, while my wife remained nice.

Christmas morning is a little different when you are grown up and spent the night before deciphering assembly instructions, written in questionable English. Many a Christmas Eve, early Christmas morning, I would be squinting in the low light while the TV proclaimed midnight mass from the Vatican. It made it very difficult to get mad and throw things when the Pope was blessing everything and everyone.

Now, not only am I grown up, but so are my kids. And there aren’t any grandchildren yet. It feels like a bit of a Christmas desert these days. There are no toys under the tree. Instead, there is a surely cat (she’s not a Christmas present. She just likes to lay under there and chew fake pine needles). And this year, there won’t be excited kids getting us up to announce the obvious; that it’s Christmas morning.

Is it as sad as Erma Bombeck proclaimed? Perhaps not. I still have a very nice, beautiful wife that just oozes Christmas spirit. She knows just what I need, even though I had no clue. Who would’ve thought I was out of tube socks anyway? I sure didn’t!

My hope for you is that if you have young children, it will be a wonderful magical Christmas for you this year. If not, may you be able to reach back into time, reminisce about a few Christmases long ago, and see it through the eyes of a child. I think that’s what I’ll be doing with my sugar and spice wife.