Know God. Live Big.
Matt came home in the 4:00 hour, which means we had to catch him up on our Hallmark movie plot. “You’re not going to believe this,” I said to him, “But this girl has gone to a country that ends in “-ovia” and has fallen in love with a prince who is about to be crowned king, except she doesn’t… Read More
“Give me the estimate and let me see if I’m still breathing after I see it,” I said to the carpet guy at Home Depot. We were going to have to replace all of the carpet in our rental house. Slowly he turned the monitor and pointed to the number. “Okay then,” I said calmly. Inside: Oh my word! We… Read More
For Christmas, we all chipped in and got Aunt Noanie a rocking chair and ottoman. The men went to work putting the chair together, even though Luke said he wouldn’t help if it required an Allen wrench, and it did. (He was all talk.) While they worked, I took the chair padding out of the wrappers. When the guys finished,… Read More
One thing I’ve loved (and hated) about the principal I work for is that he has really pushed me to do important things in teaching that I have not wanted to do. If I had been left on my own over these last five-plus years, I never would have grown so much in confronting students and parents with difficult conversations…. Read More
It was a little over one year ago that we quietly started having the conversation about how we could best serve my husband’s mom and aunt. His mom is a widow, and she and her sister (who is single) have lived together in a house for a few decades now. It was getting hard for them to do the lawn… Read More
Did I ever tell you about the Judean hills Matt and I saw outside of Jerusalem? They came with real live bedouins leading sheep. “See those circles?” our guide said. Yes, we had noticed the spirals going around each hill and had wondered about the unique geology. “Those are paths that have been worn over the years by shepherds leading… Read More
Two things happened on Saturday, December 1st: I woke up hyperventilating about all there was TO DO and how much it was going TO COST and how many people there were TO MAKE HAPPY. Matt and I walked to the window, as the sun was just coming up. “Snow!” I said. Big flakes were softly covering the earthy. Lovely. Let’s… Read More
You know what I was doing at 4:45 last evening? Setting the flameless candles. At 2:30 I rushed home from school, changed into work clothes, and started pulling Christmas boxes out of the crawl space. (By the way, I took two ibuprofen before going to bed, because it’s not smart to go from watching hours of Hallmark movies for a… Read More
Come up with me, to a rooftop café (that I’ve fabricated in my imagination, but it really is lovely.) I’ll sip a hot mocha latte, single shot, skinny, half-chocolate, no whip. You may order whatever you would like. My treat. From this calm, slow, meditative place, let us look down on the hullabaloo that is the American holiday season. See… Read More
Wouldn’t you say that guilt is an interesting accoutrement to the classic Christian “quiet time” of spending time reading the Bible and praying? I recently talked to some women who felt guilty because of their Bible study habits or lack thereof. Where does much of this guilt come from? I’ll tell you where –it comes from not having any actual… Read More