Only the mother may pass. Behind the door of Jayme’s room (still hers in our hearts, even though she has a man and a mortgage now) lie growing mounds of Christmas treasures. Nondescript paper grocery sacks carry only a name on the outside but hand-picked stocking stuffers on the inside. On the floor in the…
Texas is a long way from Wyoming, and I could feel every mile. As a freshman without a car, I walked to church one Sunday night –me and my homesick heart. In one quiet neighborhood of older homes, I started past a house that had the front door open. Through the screen door, I could…
Of course, I had never even seen an olive tree before. Sagebrush and aspen trees were what I grew up with. But then we were in Israel, and there were olive trees everywhere, with ripe olives dropped and smooshed on the ground. One cool evening, we sat on stones while Arie (ar-yeah) Bar David gave…
Every once in a while I would splurge on that girl of mine and buy her a pomegranate at the grocery store. In Montana these are a rare and evidently precious fruit, based on the price –a special treat on occasion. But in Israel? I could not stop staring at an entire fridge packed with…
We were slouched on the couch, in a jet-lag stupor, when he leaned over to me and said, “You know what?” I let my weary head swing his direction. “What?” “Israel was great and everything, but I feel like I didn’t get to spend any time with the Lord while I was there.” “Seriously?”…
The plan was that I was going to go to Uganda and teach a women’s Bible study every morning. Finally I was leaving the arena of working with kids at church and was going to do “big people” work. It felt like arriving. End of the story: I stunk at that. Felt like one of…
There are two suitcases on our son’s bed upstairs. Come Saturday morning they’ll both have handles wrapped with airline tags reading “Tel Aviv.” The preacher and I have been planning this trip for months, but for some reason I’ve been keeping this close to my chest. I keep thinking, I need to tell my people…
Before I hit play on the DVD, I tell my students we’re going to watch the movie clip with Spanish audio and with Spanish subtitles. “There’s a problem, though,” I tell them, “because Disney hired one person to translate the audio and someone else to translate the subtitles. The words aren’t the same! They essentially…
“The most incredible thing happened on Friday night,” I told him, “just before I fell asleep.” “What was that?” he asked. “Well, I was filled with anxiety as I thought over my week of teaching, because my mind was doing its usual critical analysis of everything I did wrong. I was mentally rehashing all the…
I confess that I was at Jo-Ann Fabrics buying body parts for my Spanish class. Every year when Halloween approaches, I go on the hunt for some new visual to help teach body vocabulary. So far I have a skeleton (Mr. Bones), a pair of waxed lips, and, as of today, a giant set of…
My son has started vlogging, because there’s nothing else to do at college, right? But what a gift to this momma, who is at the tip-top of Montana while her boy is in central Texas. His Youtube videos give me a glimpse into his life every week, and he makes me smile. Recently, Caleb asked…
We are a lovely shade of purple here today. That’s the real-time air quality report color for Kalispell, Montana: very unhealthy –just a scosh under bright red, which is hazardous. Lungs are burning. Asthma inhalers are being used more often. We can look right at the sun in broad daylight, which is kind of funny…
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