by Shannon Popkin | Dec 20, 2013 | Gifts, Holidays, Wisdom
Some women are hard to shop for. They just are. You weave through the store, muttering, “Nope. She won’t like that. Probably not that, either. Or that.”Last Christmas, you spent far more than you budgeted on something that you had no idea whether...
by Shannon Popkin | Dec 17, 2013 | Family
“Will she believe me–that I’ve done nothing wrong? As the wife of a priest, I’m sure she’s heard plenty of excuses…”As Mary rushed to see her cousin in the hill country, her mind was surely occupied with measuring out each of...
by Shannon Popkin | Dec 9, 2013 | Holidays, Mistakes, Wisdom
I was a new wife. He was my new husband. And I returned his Christmas gift.It was a jewelry box–one of those big wooden ones–and he spent a fortune on it. But he encouraged me to take it back if I didn’t really like it.I thought I was being...
by Shannon Popkin | Dec 6, 2013 | Gifts, Holidays, Parenting
When I arrived at our elementary school’s Santa’s Secret Shop, my son had already been assigned to shop with another mom. So, I rushed over and said, “I’m here! Sorry I’m late…” After she handed him off to me, he confided,...
by Shannon Popkin | Dec 4, 2013 | Kids' Perspective, Parenting
A young mom recently told me about the day her three-year-old had been playing with his cousins. A report came to the moms that he had hit one of his cousins, so she called him to her side and said, “Honey, we don’t hit our cousins. We have to be...