This Thanksgiving was different because this year is different - and so are we.. Like our celebration, our relationships went deeper rather than wider this year.

The photos say it all. What you won’t find pictures of is a Thanksgiving Minute-to-Win-It competition and a toddler turkey relay (because of the sheer madness in the moment). ‘Tis the season to do the things you’ve never had time for before and to go all-in to create memories for time you won’t ever get back. And can we all take just a minute to celebrate how beautiful the toddler turkey artwork is? Great photo booth backdrop!ings you’ve never had time for before and to go all-in to create memories for time you won’t ever get back.

I set up a studio on my bathroom floor last night- the only space in my house available to film a live teaching! I strategically positioned myself to keep the toilet and missing drawer knobs off-camera, and I spoke to moms around the world about the miracles I have seen.

I’m the queen of efficiency. It’s a blessing and a curse. Everybody at my house knows if you can’t keep up with Mom, you might just get run over. (Including Benjamin’s ball..)

Days are calculated to the minute. Months are planned in advance. I rarely do one thing at a time. Lifa enters the kitchen like a soldier marching in to receive orders, and Chris stays out.

It’s Thanksgiving in America today. Wherever you live, I hope you give thanks. It changed my life, redeemed my hope, and infused my home with joy. Life may be hard today, but God sets the table for you in the presence of your enemies. (Psalm 23.) Find one thing to be thankful for today. And watch this video!

Thanksgiving was our first holiday as a married couple. At least it was to me. It is not a recognized holiday in South Africa, and Chris could easily unrecognize every holiday! He was under great stress from work when I mentioned its approach. (I still haven’t mastered the art of timing important conversations!) He was overwhelmed already, and hastily responded, “I don’t want to deal with it!” I cried over a bowl of leftover chili on the 4th Thursday of November that year. (Not our newlywed moment.)

We’ve got a major pandemic on our hands over here, guys. I think it’s more contagious than COVID. It’s “the problem” pandemic. My home was recently caught it, and it drove me bananas.

A VERY widely accepted sentence starter in Cape Town is, “*The problem is…”* You hear it everywhere you go. Lifa unknowingly started engaging conversations as a platform for his problems.

I stopped eating sugar three years ago. Yet I keep making those dadgum No Bake Cookies every year as though they are the recipe for joy. The great news about 2020 is that we get a fresh start on EVERYTHING. We get to re-think how we do things and why because every.single.thing. is different.

It is harder than ever to make a decision in this age of unlimited access. Ideas and opinions fly from every direction, a thousand miles a minute. It’s not just family and friends putting in their two cents anymore. It’s the whole wide world. I can EASILY spend all the time I have to play looking up the best activity for kids. I spend all the time I have to read or write looking up helpful resources I’ll never utilize…

We all know 2020 has been a very different kind of year. As I think ahead toward this holiday season, I see that I am different too. In a year of forced isolation, I have nurtured a stronger faith, healthier marriage and wider community than I could have imagined. 2020 pulled out the weeds, slowed down the traffic, and kept us home to do the hard work. We get a fresh start for the holidays. All the old rules and old ways are out the window!

When I was a freshly-degreed young woman, testing the waters of adulthood, I looked life straight in the eye. I knew where I wanted to go, how to get there, and nothing would stop me. I did not, however, factor in life. People, circumstances, sin, suffering, and all of my ickly-prickly shortcomings.

I recently went to a mall to pick up a gift for a friend. I had a toddler strapped to my body, a mask on my face, and bags in each hand. I glanced at a window display of women’s clothing and thought, “That is a store for grown-ups.”

It can be draining to be the safe one, the one who always gets the worst of someone. To keep giving them your time, care, compassion, kindness and love, when they’ve spent all of theirs elsewhere. Your kids. Your spouse. Your whoever. The people that feel safe with you often give their best to the world and bring home what’s leftover. But you know what? I don’t want my boys to bring their emergencies and intimate needs to the world.

I’m still thinking of GoGo’s life and the way it changed the trajectory of mine. (See GoGo’s tribute here.)

Every day you can turn on the news and see how one person changed another person’s life with evil. It’s the people not featured... the moms and dads and teachers and gogos... who choose good that are changing the world for better.

You were the first GoGo I knew, so I called you “GoGo” like it was your name... so everybody else did too. It took me years to find out your actual name.

You took me into your home and loved me like I was yours long before we knew how to verbally communicate with each other. You took Lifa into your home and loved him before I did.

I always had great friendships while I was a student. I grew up learning how to make friends in intentional, Christian environments. That led me to making choices toward intentional, Christian friendships when I was in college and graduate school. It was those friendships - the ones where I chose to be intentional with other Christian women - that changed my life and helped me learn how to have a real relationship with Jesus.

Yesterday I shared that I was trying to think of a few small steps to change my overall direction - to keep priorities in order and my head on straight. Tomorrow I am experimenting with “No Phone Friday”.

Have you ever tried to make a change with no idea how to start? But you knew you needed to change? Whether it is health, marriage, family, or a bad habit, big changes are daunting. The minute I look at the whole enchilada of transformation awaiting, I feel overwhelmed and would rather curl up into a ball than start that ever-so-tricky and usually unrewarding step one.

Hello from Sleep Regression City! Little Jam and I are having regular late-night rendezvous in the nursery. The last two weeks have been a bit of a blur. I’ve grasped for quiet times with my Bible as much as I could, but have hardly cracked a page. Lifa (who does not sleep like a baby, but sleeps like a normal human being who sleeps all night) gets up at 6am every morning to have an uninterrupted quiet time.

Invasion of privacy doesn’t really exist in the Ladd house... because there’s not much privacy to invade. Chris and I share passwords to everything and copy each other in on emails or messages to a person of the opposite sex. All of Lifa’s online chats and access to devices are routinely checked. We see what kids are talking about, how they communicate and what is shaping their worldviews. Because of that, I want to say this to all the grown ups in the world:

Do you know the infamous “afternoon slump” as intimately as I do? The one that makes you turn to afternoon coffee, even though you know you shouldn’t and it won’t even help? The one that makes eyes so heavy, voices so cranky, and dinner so hard to make?

I turbo through my mornings with amazing efficiency, trying to get dinner made and the day’s tasks done before the afternoon slump hits (which also happens to coincide with every other human’s time of greatest need). My turbo mornings inevitably leave me even slumpier in the afternoons.

I’ve recently asked a few friends this (potentially very weird) question. Chris and I have always had as very defined evening routine since we started our marriage with a 7-year old. It’s that “after the kids go to bed” time of day that we haven’t nailed.

It’s very valuable to Chris to have time to unplug in the evenings. He relaxes by stretching out on the couch, going quiet, and watching TV or videos. Those are all of my least favorite things. I crave “plugging in” with another adult. I’d rather go to bed early, trading unwinding for actual sleep. Screens and shows overstimulate me and drain me. Do you see the issue here?