Jay Payleitner Blog

Time for a Little Big Picture Thinking. Dear Friends (especially Moms and Dads): Trusting God to take a cruddy experience and use it for good is a theme that arches over […]

Dear Friends: Our kids are watching. How we respond to this crazy season is going to impact how they respond to any crisis in their own lives for decades to […]

Are you quarantined with your teenager and they’re barricaded in their bedroom? Ask yourself, Mom and Dad, “Why do I feel like I cannot enter my teenager’s bedroom?” That barrier is invisible, but […]

Quarantined with your kids? Here’s the final lockdown lesson that also sneaks in some valuable life truths. Phew. That’s five “lessons with layers.” Hopefully, these five brain-engagers met a need this past week. And perhaps […]

Quarantined with your kids? Here’s the fourth of five lockdown lessons that also sneak in some valuable life truths. It’s Thursday. If you missed—or want to pass along—any of these “lessons with layers,” the best option is […]

Quarantined with your kids? Here’s the third lockdown lesson that also sneaks in some valuable life truths. Hope you’re enjoying my lessons with layers. The takeaway on Monday was to to teach our kids to […]

Quarantined with your kids? Here’s the second of five lockdown lessons that also sneak in some valuable life truths. I’m a fan of lessons with layers. For example, yesterday we talked about how counting the squares on a checkerboard can lead […]

Quarantined with your kids? Here’s the first of five days of lockdown lessons that also sneak in some valuable life truths. I’m a fan of lessons with layers. For example, enjoying a rainbow with your kids can lead to […]

Dear Friends: Several years back, this item appeared on a Payleitner family shopping list: “shower curtain for the boys’ bathroom.” It would be nothing fancy or extraordinary. Our four boys […]

I rarely notice squirrels. When they climb Rita’s birdfeeder and scatter sunflower seeds all over the corner of our patio, I curse them mildly. But if I see one perched on […]