The 18-month-old has learned to scream, at the top of his lungs, “I want that!” because his 3-year-old brother has modeled that for him. They’re the typical grandkids at that age, and we send a constant barrage of instruction their way. Be kind. Ask him nicely. Can you share, please? Let’s not scream at your…
When I was younger, I devoured books by Grace Livingston Hill. Almost all of her stories were the Cinderella type, except instead of sleeping in the cinders by the fire, the main character was living through the Great Depression. I remember reading about a heroine who was able to make a fashionable hat out of…
Matt and I turned down the lights, curled up underneath a gargantuan fuzzy blanket, and settled in to watch The Boys in the Boat for the first time a few nights ago. I was so deeply moved by this movie. I do NOT endorse it, because it did have some foul moments. But I experienced…
My mother-in-law bought me a beautiful book for my birthday (hello 55). It’s called Teatime Discipleship, by Sally Clarkson. Sally writes about the tea, finger sandwiches, and candle she sets out on her tea cart when she has a friend over. “Beauty is God’s calling card,” she says. Last week we had a few friends…
A percussionist at heart, I was taught to pound the ivories. Dad was never happy when I played the piano at church unless the piano was shaking. Every head bowed and every eye closed was replaced with every toe tapping and every heart pulsing. “Louder,” he would say. “Put some Christy into it.” In college,…
Matt just dropped a pretty penny at Michael’s, to get a picture framed for me. A month ago, I came across a work of art, and the story behind it is what God used to encourage me to start writing again. Matt bought me the print for Christmas, because it was so deeply meaningful, and…
For two years now, I have been the office assistant at a small compounding pharmacy. I’ve learned that the pharmacists I work for have doctorates, which was new information to me. People come in all day long to pick up their medications, but they also seek medical counsel for everything from rashes to pain in…
This last year was marbled, like a good cut of beef. There was a lot of stress and pain, but there were also many choices I made that were greatly beneficial to mind, body, and spirit. I thought I would share my list, with the hopes that it will encourage you to look back and…
“Grandma, grandma, grandma,” says the three-year-old. “Up, up, up,” says the one-year-old. These two boys are not silent until they get a response from me, and I always respond–sometimes in the way they had hoped, sometimes with a “not now” and sometimes with a firm no–but usually with the response they had hoped for, because…
Wrapping Christmas presents is like painting. I don’t mind doing it, but oh how I hate getting started. Pulling out all of the supplies feels like a herculean task in a season when Christmas tasks already feel overwhelming. “I need some encouragement to wrap presents,” I told Matt one night. Seeing my fatigue and…
I have not set my pencil to scratch on paper for a very long time. Traveling through something hard for a few years has required different work of these fingers: gripping the rail of the path with white knuckles. I walk forward in dark fog, slowly and cautiously moving one foot forward at a time….
Kalispell, Montana averages 151 sunny days per year. We were in the middle of one of our long winter stretches of inversions, which means days stretch into weeks, with nothing but cold temperatures and gray skies. Vitamin D becomes nothing but an old memory of summer long gone. Moods start to match the weather. Everyone…
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