Know God. Live Big.
Last year at this time, I was buying slate-blue house paint, along with brushes, and rollers. I learned how to caulk between siding gaps. Then I set up on the front porch of my mother-in-law’s house and did the first cutting in. Six weeks later, I finished painting the entire house (minus the top portions, which Matt handled on the… Read More
It was a Sunday afternoon, in the middle of March, when the email came for which I had been holding my breath, telling all of us teachers that we would be transitioning immediately to remote teaching. The next day we met solemnly at school, a chair space between each of us, to hear the action plan and then go to… Read More
The gate was just to keep people who lived farther up the mountain from using our road. It was nothing but a single metal bar, and we knew it was high enough to drive under. I can’t count how many times I sailed underneath that gate in my Ford Taurus. Until one day I was coming home, driving up the… Read More
How are we doing, everybody? Matt and I went to Lowe’s for a lawn mower spark plug on Sunday, him and me in face masks. Someone at church made them for us. I jokingly said, “Make sure his fabric works for a pastor.” She chose black skulls and flowers for him, if you need a smile for today. I’m pretty… Read More
Whew, I was Anne of Green Gables there for a bit, in the depths of despair. The world shut down, I moved to teach online school overnight, and an unwelcome fear and cynical hopelessness snuck up on me. As Anne says of despair, “It’s a very uncomfortable feeling indeed. When you try to eat a lump comes right up in… Read More
Saturday is always grocery day. In the morning, I go to the pantry with my cell phone and start filling in my three Google Keep lists with what we need from Costco, the grocery store, and the department store. Then I go out to the garage, where we keep paper products (a more valuable commodity than bread and milk these… Read More
I called one of the seniors from my Spanish class yesterday. Once I had explained that she wasn’t in trouble and we had a laugh about it, I said, “I’m sorry. I just called to say I’m sorry.” The end of senior year is when a student is supposed to be enjoying all of the final glories and enjoying the… Read More
I’m tempted to use the word “flabbergasted,” except I don’t think the cool kids are saying that these days. It describes how I felt on January 1st of this year, when I began my new role as women’s ministry director for our church and began another challenging project that I’m not at liberty to talk about. (Isn’t that horribly mysterious?)… Read More
I propped my stockinged feet up on the coffee table at our friend’s house, as our small group settled in for Thursday Bible study. We had a good discussion about feet on coffee tables and my friend let us know how nice this table was compared to the old one that all three of her children had teethed on around… Read More
Last night I quit. “I decided I’m not going to be women’s ministry director,” I said to Matt, from my flopped position on the couch. “Okay,” he said. “Is there anything else you’d like to quit?” “Nah, that’s good for now,” I answered. I made this announcement days before hosting my first event at church as women’s ministry director. The… Read More