The Parenting Dare Blog

More Thoughts on Lent...

2/19/2021

Today's blog post is not written. I simply sat down at my microphone and recorded.

I did that because, truthfully, I have had kids home for days on end and I have not made the time to write this post. But I had some thoughts that I wanted to share, so I just shot from the hip. I hope you like this style of communicating.

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Preparing for Lent

2/15/2021

Lent begins Wednesday, February 17, 2021, and whether you are a Catholic or a non-Catholic Christian, it is a time to prepare yourself (and yours) for the Big Mystery: the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

Now, for sure, there have been some Lenten experiences in my life that weren’t really well thought out. I was most likely in survival mode with my little family and well, that was just how it was, you know?

But now that my 8 kids can all flush and brush all by themselves, it’s nice to sit back and actually PLAN how we want to enter Lent.

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The Most Powerful Force on Earth

2/12/2021

We (Lori/Eric Doerneman, mother/son duo at The Parenting Dare) are going to be delving into some deep areas this year, areas surrounding the challenges of raising children in today’s crazy world. Before we delve into those deeper waters, we thought it would be prudent to take a week or two and simply focus on the Heart of the Home: the mother.

One big theme we are going to be unpacking is how to parent from a place of love versus fear, which will change how you act and interact with your child/ren.

Listen to this blog! We are podcasting again!

Food, Mood and Being a Mom

2/8/2021

This year my son Eric and I are going to be going into some deeper waters with our ministry The Parenting Dare. We feel called to really delve and will be going through a blog series entitled “Raising Strong Children in Today’s World.”

Before we get there, I thought it would be wise to take a couple of weeks and just explore the inner landscape of us moms. If you think about it, stepping back and getting some things in order is important because how we feel about ourselves shows up in how we talk, act and breath in our home and with our most favorite people!

Friends! Listen to this post instead of reading! We are podcasting again! Yippee!

Transforming The Heart of the Home

2/4/2021

My son Eric and I have worked together in the ministry of "The Parenting Dare" and we both know it is time to go deeper with parents in the realm of raising strong kids in our culture. Before we go in that direction, we felt it would be prudent (because of all of the crazy that has happened in the last eleven months) to take a couple of weeks and attend to the inner hearts of MOTHERS.

This post is one in a series of four where I will invite you to look deeper into you.

The Deliverer Delivers

12/23/2020

What a crazy couple of months we have had around here, as Mama Lori got the ‘Rona in November. I could not taste or smell Thanksgiving dinner!

Then this month one of our daughters (living at home) tested positive. (Two of our adult children have had it, too.)

The past two months have been different….we’ve had to be on house arrest more than we would have liked.

The GIFT of a Large Family

10/9/2020

The year was 1999. I was sitting next to a friend on a bench at the Sedgwick County Zoo; we were watching our children hang like a bunch of monkeys on the fence near the giraffe exhibit.

I turned to my friend and told her that I was expecting child number four.

Her face froze. I could see her pull inward. And then she almost got angry and said, “I knew you would do this.”

And I was like, “Whoa...wait a minute...do what?”

“Have another child.”

For the Love of Your Mother

9/3/2020

Imagine that you are a mother of five great kids, ranging in age from 13 to 23.

You have been a consistent mother to them, loving them through the difficulties of growing up, while setting clear boundaries. You have built into them individually and collectively.

After all of the sleepless days and endless daytime activity, you can honestly say that you love each one more than you could have ever thought possible.

Why the Rosary?

8/7/2020

Several years ago, I walked into a room and saw a friend kneeling next to her son, who had just asked about the rosary. He had heard his cousins talking about it and he wanted to know what it was.

His mom quickly squashed his curiosity, saying that the rosary was “boring prayers that you say over and over.” I chuckled. And I had to admit, when I was young, that is how I used to think of the rosary.

Whenever my mom called us kids to pray the rosary, I usually stalled. I had a hard time leaving whatever I was doing to go pray.

The rosary seemed boring. Lifeless. Something to get through.

Fear is not of God

7/22/2020

Friends, for the past four or five months we have been experiencing Life in a much different way. We've seen our schools and churches close. We've been isolated in our homes. There have been lay-offs and shut downs. We've seen police brutality, rioting and looting. There is fear and panic circulating.

Fear.is.not.of.God.

It's just not.

How to get peace? We have to put God first in our lives. And we have to understand there is an enemy of God and he wants to steal, kill and destroy life.