I can hardly believe how much different my life is now; how different my dreams are; how different I am!
Category: Laughter, Tears, and Our Teen Years
What a Bright Orange Lamp Can Teach You
No One Else
THE TEEN YEARS: Our Generation is Expected to Fail. Why?
Moving On
There Is No Season
By McKennaugh The Christmas season is a time of cheer. A time to give. A time to make others smile. Right? Okay, for lots of us, it’s a rush through department stores to find the perfect gift. Or, for those who don’t care about the perfect part, frantic shopping on eBay (little Charley doesn’t notice […]
Adventure of a Lifetime: Homeschooling on the Road
By McKennaugh “Okay, now, where do you want your picture?” The two teenagers kneel together next to the outlet and stick their fingers up above the other’s head. They wiggle the playful finger ears and the camera clicks. No one else would know what this spot in the house meant to them. Nearly a decade […]
Girl. Boy. Friend.
Laughter, Tears, and Our Teen Years, by McKennaugh I turned to the lady behind my mammoth cart of groceries and gave her an apologetic smile. I know how aggravating it can be to wait behind a person that has 99 items. She smiled back and burst into conversation. Tossing cereal and vegetables onto the belt, […]
Pursuing Dreams (With the Help of a Volkswagen, a U-haul, and Some Hay Bales)
by McKennaugh I happened upon a bunch of old papers from quite a few years ago. There were scribbled pictures of “Herbie cars” (Volkswagen beetles) drawn by my little brothers and I with “Texas or Bust” flags attached to them. Tucked in with the Herbie pictures was something I had written about how we wanted […]
Just Try It!
A Four-Year-Old’s Gift
Laughter, Tears, and Our Teen Years, by McKennaugh This past week, I brought my two youngest brothers to a playground down the road that belongs to a church. I pushed the four-year-old on the swings for a little while (picture loud giggles and “More!”) and soon I was feeling a little bored with Austinville’s only […]
60 Seconds for Our God
Journey of the Wood Thrush
A Quarter of America’s Children: Missing Forever
Laughter, Tears, and Our Teen Years, by McKennaugh There are times in our American history that we remember shamefacedly. Times when we whipped blacks until they bled; when we made them into our slaves. We said they were not humans, and, somehow, still thought we were righteous and justified before God. Why we believed he […]
Stop Crying About Toothbrushes
Desks, Theft (scratch that, we were just recycling), and Other Aspects of Homeschooling
by McKennaugh There are a few setbacks in homeschooling. One of those is not having a desk. Kids enrolled in public school don’t think about not having desks, because, well, they take them for granted. But, most of the time, homeschooled kids don’t have them for three reasons: #1 Their parents can’t afford to purchase […]
Best Friends Forever
Laughter, Tears, and Our Teen Years
by McKennaugh Today was another reminder of how we can’t understand someone completely, even if it’s someone we’re close to. During supper, we were having the same old conversation, joking on and off, speaking, but not really saying anything. My dad was talking about what he did at work, I was chatting about something so […]
Why Us?
PLEASE READ THIS AND HELP ME…
by McKennaugh TWO CHILDREN’S LIVES DEPEND ON ME AND I CAN’T SAVE THEM ALONE. Dear Friends, My column is called Laughter, Tears, and Our Teen Years. Well, this month it’s on tears. Yuri and Viktor’s tears. Some of you may have read Teri Olsen’s article that spoke of my site www.ukrainianorphans.com and the children that […]
On Growing Up…
Laughter, Tears, and Our Teen Years, by McKennaugh Next week, I’m turning 16. For some reason, 16 seems… well, old. Maybe just because I can drive, but it still seems different than my other birthdays. Strangely enough, it’s like it was just yesterday that I was playing “imaginary friends” with my brother and building my […]