Deanna Doss Shrodes

“So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.” 2 Peter 1:12 My daughter and I were doing some shopping in Grand Turk last week on vacation. As we went from store to store, the owner or salesperson would quickly move to greet us, and point out their inventory for sale. “Necklace! I have many necklaces! Bracelets, for lovely ladies like you…handbags, right here…” they would say. In store after store, we experienced the same thing as is common when you are shopping at different ports. We entered one shop and there was no one there to greet us. I was shocked. I immediately sprang into action, to give “the spiel” we were missing. “Necklace! I have many necklaces! Bracelets, for lovely lady like you…handbags, right here…” I quipped to Savanna.  I got the, “Mom, you’re so silly,” vibe from her.   “Hey, the lady’s not here to give us the same spiel we’ve already heard and point th...

If we're not careful, we can go from being our child's advocate to exerting undue interference that renders them unprepared for adult life. Yes...this REALLY happened... Years ago at our church , we had a pastoral staff member in their late twenties whose mother from out of state contacted my husband and me -- TWICE -- to tell us how she thought her son's work issues should be handled. Apparently she didn't agree with some of our decisions. We were absolutely dumbfounded.  Needless to say, the interference on the part of the staffer's mother only made things go from bad to worse. Opportunities for Growth... Giving children opportunity to gain experience in solving problems of all kinds begins not when they turn 18 or 21, but all throughout their growing up years. Living in the era of helicopter parenting , many children and teens miss opportunities to learn problem solving skills. During the course of my children's school years we have had relative...

  "If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much." ~Jackie Kennedy Today I take time to dwell on how great it is to be a Mom. I think about that all the time, actually...not just today. I've done a lot of things in life but nothing compares to being a mother. I have four kids...one in heaven waiting for me, three on earth. I know, two of them are not exactly "kids" anymore. The first is a 23 year old youth pastor. The second is a 22 year old senior risk representative at Capital One. The third is almost an adult. Yet they will always be my kids...my babies. I enjoy them so much. This photo above is them sitting by the Christmas tree throwing packing peanuts in the air after opening their gifts. As usual Jordan and Savanna threw them and Dustin sat there wondering why they were doing it. I am so proud of them. Yes, they are caring human beings who have accomplished wonderful thi...

I can hardly believe my baby turns sixteen years old tomorrow. Her birthday is April 21 but we had her party this evening. I always wanted a daughter. And nothing compares to the blessing of her. So grateful for sixteen years, with Savanna Rose... Yeah, so...I'm a princess. My brother STILL enjoys making faces behind me when I'm taking a picture... Cupcakes, cupcakes and more cupcakes Friends of all ages came to celebrate  Ready to serenade me? Hanging out on the patio Yeah, so we had a few cupcakes. Alexa, Cheyenne and George stopped in to give their love and well wishes! Chillin...  Once it got dark Savanna and her friends gathered around a fire on the patio. Part time princess, part time ballerina...Multi-tasker Beautiful girl...we love you

So, here's all we had to concern ourselves with, here in the past 24 hours... I sat in front of the fireplace and wrote to my heart's content in the quiet, while occasionally glancing out the window. Love the change of scenery while I write. Jordan was king of the mountain. Savanna made snow angels. We stayed in this beautiful place. We watched two movies last night. Made dinner, did the dishes, tidied things up, sunk down into a bath. Slept. That's all folks...  

It's been a while since I've written anything about my kids. Okay, so it's actually only been since October 29th. A lot of people comment about how amazing my kids are. No argument there. They rock. Mostly not because of me. I've actually made a ton of mistakes. Nevertheless, people ask me, "how do you raise kids that grow up to be Christians? How do you guide them into developing Godly morals that they actually keep into adulthood?" I don't claim to be an expert and beside the point, I've only raised three kids. Well, I've actually raised two to adulthood and one to teenage years to be perfectly technical. But these are five things that have helped us thus far: 1) Don't just talk about Jesus. Live Jesus. It's more caught than taught. 2) Love the heck out of them. Love covers a multiude of sins . I'm a terrible sinner at times , but I sure do love my kids.  3) Go to church with them, don't just drop them off. And once y...

 "There she goes again..."  I buried my face in my husband's shoulder, uncontrollably laughing, trying to get myself semi-under control, (I never get fully under control, lol) as we were out to dinner last night. Our former children's pastor, Trinity Mackley, came into town and stayed with us for the last two nights. We went out to dinner -- he and Larry and I along with Jordan and Savanna. In our conversation which was quite delightful, I was reduced to cry-laughing. This happens often. I laugh so hard I sometimes fall off the couch. Or leave the room. Or bury my face in a tissue. I've had passersby thinking I've had too much to drink, when I wasn't drinking at all. One time somebody offered to call me a cab. In all seriousness. That made me laugh even harder. My kids are used to it. They just say, "there she goes again..." and shake their heads in amusement. They get a kick out of the fact that I laugh at my own stories and jo...

The kids a few years ago on vacation in Pittsburgh Let me give a word to the wise to parents who wish to raise children who grow up to have Christian character and good values... get yourself a blindfold and a good pair of ear plugs. You'll need it to block out what family members and friends who don't share your values will say. "Isn't Larry kind of harsh with him?" "Are seventeen spankings in a row really appropriate? Do you really think that's going to work? Isn't that just doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? That's kinda insanity if you ask me..." "You aren't letting him participate in drum line at school because they practice on youth group night? How much church does any one kid need? I'm sure he will get positive experiences being a part of the drum line too. How is that really any different from a youth group?" "Why does your summer revolve around youth camp? I...

Fifteen years ago today my life changed forever when this amazing girl came into the world.  I was so happy, I praised God out loud from my hospital bed and I really didn't care what anybody thought. Before we had a girl, I wondered if the thrill of having a girl once you had one ever wore off. Nope. It never does. She wants to celebrate with Greek food today. Just another thing I love about her. 

A lot of people tell me how great my kids are. I agree, they are pretty stellar. ;) The above picture is of three of them. A fourth is in heaven waiting for us. Once my boys were eighteen, I regretted not having even more kids. The reason is because I was amazed at how well the boys turned out despite all my mistakes. And, I realized a lot of what we always believed about raising Godly kids before we even had kids really does work!  As a parent it takes many years to see results. "Training up a child in the way he/she should go" takes a lonnnnng time. Once I saw those results, it was too late to have more. Larry is fine -- quite satisfied with our three. I on the other hand, always tend to believe that, "Too much of a good thing is...wonderful." ;) I have a confidence now that I didn't have when they were younger. Because quite honestly, I didn't know for sure that they would share our values or serve God when they grew up. I only prayed my guts ou...

People who think they know it all drive me crazy. I rarely hang around with people like that because they just tend to frustrate me.  But that's not why they're dumb.  Today we took Savanna to Juniper Springs in the Ocala National Forest. Larry took this picture while we were there. We spent time walking on the trail that leads from Juniper Spring to Fern Hammock Spring . I saw "boiling springs" for the first time, standing over the bridge looking into the clear water.  I've never seen water this clear, even in the Carribbean.  It was pretty amazing. Looking down into the water it looked as if it was boiling at the bottom. This was fascinating to me and I just stood there and watched.  I learned that "boiling springs" is from water turbulence on the top surface of a body of water, indicating the force of a high discharge from a spring vent below. I love learning new things. I've heard it said, "when you're through learning, you're t...

Sometimes kids can get emotionally lost for lack of a better phrase, or a parent-child relationship can deteriorate when parents allow the needs of one child to overshadow another long term. For instance, let's say you have one child who is either sick all the time, or always getting into trouble. Obviously you do spend time helping that one. And you should. But what about the others? A well child, or obedient child can get lost in the fray while a parent focuses in one one kid long term, and that can have lasting ramifications. In our case we have three children and two of them are now young adults, ages 21 and 22. Although they are both of age and have full time jobs and responsibilities, they are both unmarried and still at home and very much a part of life as a family of five. In the midst of  that, Larry and I are often reminded we are still raising a 14 year old. We don't want her childhood to get lost just because our two boys are grown. So it's important to La...

Why would people go to a movie hours ahead of time and sit and wait in a dark movie theater? Those who have never read The Hunger Games books may wonder about this. In fact, I know people are feeling that way. I've already received e-mail from a friend this morning asking, "what's the deal with this movie? I saw what you wrote about it last night on Facebook. Explain it to me..." (They were not criticizing, simply wanting information to see if it was something they should read or see with their kids.)   After working very late every night this week trying to catch up on work, I topped off my exhaustion by fulfilling a promise to go to The Hunger Games premiere with my family. It was a promise I was excited to keep. Although really tired, I was never tempted doze off during the movie. Having devoured the books after my son nagged me into reading them, I was counting the days for this moment!  I thought we would leave at 11 pm to go over to the theater which was o...

What do dirty underwear and inspiration have in common? This weekend we worked on re-doing our laundry room.  It's not really a room. It's more like a tiny passageway between the house and the garage where the appliances sit. But I was intent on changing it. Before yesterday it was a few feet of space big enough to hold a washer, dryer and ironing board and had eggshell colored walls that had plenty of smudges on them.  The walls and baseboards are freshly painted, in brand new colors. I don't know what my laundry walls are going to say, but it will be something that moves me and my family toward the new season that God has for us. I am firmly against painting it and putting up a little sign from a craft store or Cracker Barrel that says something like "Soap 5 Cents" or "The maid is off today...do your own laundry."  No offense to all those of you who have something like that in your laundry room but it doesn't speak anything to me. Frivolity...

Check out my hair...could there possibly be more of it?  It was more like a mane than a hairdo. ::giggles::  Do I look tired?  I was!  I had just given birth, and I was nursing all the time, not to mention running after two active boys.  And as you might notice, I was married to the guy from The Wedding Singer ...hahahaha!!! I still hadn't lost all my baby weight and wanted to hide behind my handsome boys. The baby is 14 now and many are wondering why I still haven't lost the baby weight. And I know, I know...we're all in matching shirts.  Some of you might be ready to send this photo off to Awkward Family Photos. What's awkward to some is precious to others.  Okay, it's precious to ME.  Notice that Savanna even had a color coordinated hair bow to match her tie dye shirt.  Right now she'd say, "Motherrrrrrrrr...what WERE you thinking?"  She is praising God that she can now dress herself.   What's the point of this ...