• Operation Bullyproof

    While Jess still felt that her karate skills were more than good enough to handle the situation at hand, Ben and I decided that a bit of bully-stopping self-defense training was in order. (For the full story read this first – Girls Can’t Play Soccer). After discussing it together, we came up with a three step process to follow: Step 1: Keep a straight face and use a stern, strong voice to say, “Stop that. It’s not a game. I don’t like it.” Step 2: If they don’t stop, give them a second stern, clear warning. Step 3: If they still don’t stop, punch them as hard as you can.…

  • Girls Can’t Play Soccer

    For most people, moving in the middle of the school year isn’t easy. Jess, though… she took it all completely in stride. She has always been one to “just keep swimming.” As soon as we knew we were moving, we did our best to make sure the girls understood why we were leaving. It wasn’t just something that we wanted; they needed to know that God was sending us. There was a real purpose to it… not just for Ben and I, but for the girls, too. They just had to find out what it was. For Jess, that was enough. The day I dropped her off at her new…