Mother, father, and brand new baby are all doing great! Suffice it to say, we are all completely smitten and madly in love with this little boy. Welcome to the world, Walker! You are much loved and we thank God for you.

Thank you on behalf of the Walkers (Casey’s family) and the Courtneys for your support, prayers, and celebrating with us over this precious new life. We cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for Walker (and his amazing parents)!

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. (Psalm 127:3)

A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon the amazing talent of The Piano Guys (pianist, Jon Schmidt and cellist, Steven Sharp). I saw a link in my Facebook newsfeed for a YouTube clip called “Love Story meets Viva La Vida and have been a fan ever since. If you haven’t heard it, you can check it out by clicking here. (Note: This is not The Piano Guys YouTube channel.) They basically merge Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” with Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and the result is a stunningly, beautiful work of art. It became a huge YouTube overnight sensation and rightly so.

Well, The Piano Guys are back with another song that is sure to make you smile. And their back-up dancers will make you smile even more. In a world that is often filled with bad news and depressing headlines, I found this absolutely refreshing.

I saw this picture on Pinterest and thought of my oldest fur-child, Lexie. Lexie has …. how can I say this gently? Lexie has …. issues. Depending on her mood (which can change on a dime), she will either greet you with wet kisses and roll over for a belly rub OR bare her teeth and behave like a pit Yorkie. I believe the medical community refers to this as a “personality disorder.” In our house, we refer to it as “psycho.”

Anyway, every time I look at this picture, I can’t help but laugh. I thought I would pass it along to you to brighten your day. Chances are, you’ve encountered someone a cute furry animal, who matches this description.

Have a great weekend!

Bag packed: Check.

Nursery ready: Check.

Car seat strapped in back seat of car: Check.

Camera battery charged: Check.

New 16 gig memory card for camera that holds over 1000 pictures: Check.

Family members’ phones on highest ringer volume possible: Check.

Birth of most adorable grandchild on the face of this earth: Pending.

We are on standby and down to the final stretch as we anxiously await Walker’s grand arrival into the world. Isn’t his nursery absolutely adorable?! I took this picture of Ryan and Casey just yesterday. Note the packed bag in the bottom right-hand corner! Let’s zip that bag up and get this show on the road!

Speaking of Ryan and Casey, they wanted me to pass this note of thanks along to those of you who have cheered them on in this journey:

“Thank you so much for the encouragement, advice, and well wishes you have given us as we await Walker’s arrival. Most of all, we appreciate your prayers. They are much needed, since I (Ryan) have no idea what I’m doing! We cannot wait to see what God has in store for us!”

-Ryan and Casey

And from this soon-to-be grandmother (name still pending): Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for loving my children and celebrating the blessing of little Walker. I will never forget your kind words of support and encouragement. Ever.

I posted this priceless clip of my oldest son attempting to hold a baby back in May, 2008. Given that my son is now expecting a son of his own ANY DAY now, I thought this would be fun to re-post. Consider this a prayer request, perhaps? My son is in the blue shirt and on the receiving end of the baby. His friend, Parker, is in charge of the pass-off. Clearly neither one of them has ever held a baby before. The very patient baby in this clip belongs to our youth minister, Dusty and his wife, Ashley. Their “baby,” (Hudson) is 3 years old now. He also happens to be the ring bearer in my daughter’s upcoming wedding next month!

While you’re sending up a flair prayer for my my son to improve his baby-holding skills before Walker’s arrival, toss in an extra prayer for my daughter-in-law Casey. She is, shall we say, quite uncomfortable and utterly miserable at this point. She has an appointment to be induced on Saturday, November 19th, but her doctor informed her at her last appointment this past Thursday that she likely won’t make it until then. I personally think it would be kind of cool for Walker to be born on 11-11-11! Regardless, we can’t wait to meet this little blessing.

 

I found this quote while surfing around on Pinterest and thought it was worthy of sharing. I pinned it to my Pinterest board with the caption, “Should be posted in every home with kids.” (Sorry to the non-Pintys who are struggling w/ the Pinterest lingo!) In a culture where so many parents appear to be more concerned with being their child’s friend than their parent, I found it refreshing.

UPDATE on 11/8/11: Thank you so much for all the wonderful suggestions! I have it narrowed down to a few that are my favorites! We’ll see if the little fellow will agree or rename me all together. Our winner for the drawing is Abby: http://www.lifeatitsfinest.com/. Congratulations, Abby!

Sorry for the lapse in blogging, but things got a bit crazy as I was wrapping up my fall speaking events and trying to juggle my wedding to-do list! I had my last out of town event this past weekend (Memphis) and now, my full attention will be devoted to the arrival of my first grandchild, Walker Ryan (in about 2 1/2 weeks) and my daughter’s wedding (in about 6 1/2 weeks).

Thank you so much for your amazing suggestions for Ryan and Casey in the last post. We so enjoyed reading them! As a thank you, I thought it would be fun to do a give-away! Today’s give-away is made possible by Lil Light O’ Mine who kindly donated two items (in the picture above) which would be wonderful for those of you with young children (or grandchildren!). I am so excited about these two items because 1) they were created by one of my blog readers and 2) both items are based on principles my husband and I used in our own home when our children were young. Here is a description of Lil Light O’ Mine and what you will win:

“Lil Light O’ Mine™ was conceived with a mom’s style and a child’s heart in mind.  It is something we hope shines through in everything we create,” said Courtney DeFeo, the company’s founder.

The company debuts with two new, original products – ABC Scripture Cards and My Lil Money Jars™ – each designed as learning instruments for children that can also be displayed in the home as décor.  Through this offering, Lil Light O’ Mine™ is aiming to create a new category in the marketplace by developing products that combine the best characteristics of inspirational merchandise and children’s educational materials with the sophistication of stylish home goods.

“In order for our children to absorb important life lessons, they need to experience them every day,” added DeFeo, a former marketing professional and stay-at-home mother of two young children.  “Traditional teaching materials get put up and toys and books get put away.  So, we tried to create products that can that stay out in the home and become a regular part of a family’s day-to-day life.”

ABC Scripture Cards are comprised of 26 tastefully designed 5×7 cards that feature easy-to-remember Bible verses from the NIV translation.  Each set comes with a 5” easel that will allow for a simple, elegant presentation option and a magnet for display on a refrigerator.

My Lil Money Jars™ features three 5” glass jars that sit inside a custom-crafted wooden tray, which is available in white, green or pink.  This product is designed to teach children the importance of dividing money into three important groups – Giving. Saving. Spending.  An easy-to-use chalkboard label is affixed to each jar so families can customize their own labels.

So, here’s how this will work. Toss out your best suggestion for a potential “grandma” name for yours truly and I will return the favor by entering your name in a drawing to win the two above items. I’ll announce the winner on this post one week from today and we’ll contact you by email. Good luck!

I realized this morning that little Walker Ryan Courtney is due to arrive into the world exactly one month from today. Of course, we know that babies rarely show up on their scheduled due dates, but it’s safe to say the little fella will be here in roughly, a month. Casey is one of those cute, pregnant people who from the backside doesn’t even look pregnant. She said she feels HUGE, but she showed up at my house one night last week wearing her pre-pregnancy Nike shorts tucked below her belly. Having gained 68 pounds in my first pregnancy (oh, yes I did!), I marveled at her ability to pull off this feat five weeks out from her due date. Suffice it to say, I could not have gotten the shorts past my swollen ankles, much less over my backside. I craved Taco Bell non-stop throughout my pregnancy with Ryan, so perhaps that had something to do with it. As for pictures of my final trimester, let’s just say the evidence has been destroyed.

Casey had a “milk and cookies” themed baby shower a couple of weeks ago and I was beside myself over the things you can get for babies nowadays. In fact, my trip to Babys-R-Us will be a post in and of itself at some point. I had not set foot in the store for probably a decade and let’s just say, the whole experience left me with many questions.

Speaking of baby showers, I thought it would be fun to shower Ryan and Casey with baby advice from…YOU! What is/was the one baby gadget or trick of the trade you couldn’t live without in the newborn to six months phase? Whether it’s a pacifier brand or a sleep-inducing strategy, please share your wisdom with our new mama and papa to be. (And Walker’s behind-the-times grandma, Mimi, Gigi, or whatever-my-name-will-be!)

 

 

Dear Seventeen Magazine,

Shame on you. I was recently tipped off by a friend to the smutty tagline on your October cover: “Be his best hook-up.” Are sales so low that you feel you have no other alternative but to take the Glamour low-road? Congrats to you for figuring out a way to make money off of the masses of insecure teenage girls who are so desperate for male attention, they’re willing to settle for the wrong kind of attention. I just have one question for you: Will you be around to soothe the emotions of the girls who follow your advice to “be his best hook-up”and as a result, end up being branded as “the school sluts?” Of course you will, because that is part of your money-making m.o.! The minute I read the subtitle, I knew we could expect follow up advice in a future issue related to repairing a tarnished, teen-girl reputation. Lo and behold, if your November cover didn’t prove me right! Right there in the bottom right-hand corner of the cover:

Clearly, you’ve embraced the oldest marketing trick in the book: When you can’t base sales on quality, resort to the below the belt tactic of encouraging insecurities in your customer base. Then step in and offer to fix the very insecurities you helped create! (Similar to the articles that encourage a healthy body image that are sandwiched right between the air-brushed images of emaciated fashion models that represent .001% of the female population.)

Strangely, you began your mission of reaching young women with a quality product. Take for example, this Seventeen magazine cover from April, 1950:

Note the simple sub-title: “Girl meets boy.” Maybe I’m reading way too much between the lines on the cover, but it appears that the boy on this cover didn’t expect the sweet girl in the yellow organza dress to initiate a hook-up. At first glance, it appears he’s reading her POETRY. And not touching her. And overall, showing her the utmost of respect. Whew, I’m sure glad the women’s movement and sexual revolution swept through in the 1960′s and 70′s and put an end to all that chivalrous, poetry-reading nonsense! I mean, nothing says “girl power” like a modern-day hook-up, right? Am I missing something here? Do you seriously consider this progress?

Anyway, I just wanted to stop by and tell you I’m on to you. And I have a hunch other moms are beginning to recognize your never-ceasing, anti-empowerment agenda and will, in the days to come, cast a vote with their wallets by canceling subscriptions, say “no” at the check-out, and use their daughters’ back issues to line the gerbil cage. And you wonder why your sales are down…

Comcast Corporation recently announced the findings of an Internet safety survey to assess the general knowledge, attitudes and behaviors among U.S. adults and teens. They found that nearly “two-thirds of parents (66 percent) and teens (61 percent) believe they are in full control of what they post online and can take it down whenever they want. In fact, most parents and teens do not understand the reality that what goes online, stays online.”

That’s one reality an ex-cheerleader in Emmaus, Pennsylvania learned the hard way. In 2008, she and one of her friends posed in their underwear in front a mirror, snapped the picture and sent it to her boyfriend (at the time). She said she and her friend did it because they thought it was “cute.” Well, you probably know what happened next. The “boyfriend” eventually became an “ex-boyfriend” and did what many ex-boyfriends are doing these days: He shared the photo. But this ex-boyfriend didn’t just share it with a few friends. He posted it on an X-rated web site. Real piece of work, this guy is, huh? The article further warns:

Officials say most teens don’t realize how risky sexting can be and what a dangerous and unforgiving place cyberspace actually is. T. (the victim) agreed: “Girls have to know they’re gonna be out there no matter what if you take the pictures.”

T. said the website in question has been taken down many times. She says that after she learned about it during her freshman year, she would periodically check the site to make sure that no pictures of her or her friends were on it.

She learned from friends about a month ago that her photos were back online. “I didn’t think that many girls from EHS would be posted after mine (were posted). I kept hearing people talking about it and saw it on Facebook,” T. says.

T. has also been in contact with another 2011 grad whose pictures appear on the site.

Her friend, C., who is working toward her teaching degree at a Pennsylvania college, sent T. a text message yesterday related to the photos. T. said her friend is concerned about how the pictures may affect her teaching career.

“She’s really worried,” T. said. (Click here to read the rest of the article.)

Here’s the deal: Until parents realize that their little angels could be the subject of a newspaper article entitled, “Ex-Cheerleader Talks About Town’s Teen Porn Scandal,” they will not put sexting at the top of their list of necessary conversations to have with their daughters. Further, until parents realize that their darling sons could play the part of the lame ex-boyfriend in this story who uploads the pic to the World Wide Web, they will not put sexting at the top of their list of necessary conversations to have with their sons. The truth is, a lot of kids are doing this, including our church kids. Take for example, two heart-broken moms who just recently contacted me after discovering their own sweet daughters were sexting boys. One mother contacted me on Facebook and shared:

“I have read your books and raised my 15 yr old daughter in a Christian home and I am just devastated….. I just found out she sent a pic of herself topless to some boy she likes and now he of course, has forwarded to a few friends and it somehow got posted on Facebook.”

Another mother recently emailed me:

One day I felt a nudge to go on my daughter’s Facebook page – I have her password. I wasn’t home at the time, but I had my laptop with me. I logged onto her account and while I was looking through her chat messages, some started coming in (she was online at home at the same time). She was chatting with a boy from church and the next thing I know, they were talking about “ripping off their clothes” to “show each other they cared.” (It was with a playful, flirty attitude.) Sex was also mentioned. Well, you can imagine how I felt sitting there reading that.

Background – my daughter just turned 15, has been brought up in a loving, Christian home, home schooled, we taught her purity through Family Life Today’s Passport to Purity. When her father and I confronted her, she said, “Mom, I’m just kidding. It’s a joke.” I was so stunned and shocked that my little girl was saying these things. I found out that she had also done the same thing the weekend before while at a friend’s house on her friend’s cell phone. My daughter doesn’t have one (we had been considering it but after this happened, I don’t know when she’ll get one).  Her friend told her that she shouldn’t be doing it, but she said it was no big deal. The reason I’m writing you is, she still doesn’t see what the big deal is. I talked to her friend last week and she told me that my daughter doesn’t think if she were presented with the situation again, if she would be able to resist sexting again.

The truth is, not a one of our children is beyond a moral fall of this nature. The more our children are exposed to the message that this kind of behavior is the norm and “no big deal,” the more likely they are to engage in the behavior. Like I’ve said in many of my books, it’s not enough to say, “Don’t do this because God says it’s wrong.” We must sit them down and take the time to go over the “why” behind God’s standards, as well as the long-term consequences that can occur, should they choose to ignore God’s standards. Consequences that could include their picture being posted to an x-rated porn site for perverts to ogle for the remainder of their days. Or a porn trafficking charge on their permanent records.

Mercy, we live in tough times. Fortunately, our God is bigger than any of this nonsense. And His grace is plenty enough to cover the sins of those who stumble. I for one, am living proof of that truth. Chances are, you are too. Let’s be sure to remember that when talking to our kids about stumbles of their own.

Now, go talk to your kids…

 

 

 

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