It’s 5:52 a.m. when I finally drag myself out of bed. Without turning on any lights I shuffle to the kitchen and push the brew button on the coffee pot, then curl up on the couch under a quilt while the scent of coffee permeates the air. I doze for a minute or two while…
{I’m trying to look up}
“For every look at self, take ten looks to Christ.” ~Robert Murray M’Cheyne “So I gaze on You in the sanctuary to see Your strength and Your glory.” Psalm 63:2 “When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless until I entered God’s sanctuary.” Psalm 73:16-17a Yesterday I sat at my desk and wrote…
{what I learned in May}
May wrapped up in a hurry over here, and I found myself wrestling two kids and a full grocery cart this morning on a very hot first day of June. The upcoming month is a busy one for my family as it’s birthday month for 3/4 of us, and our calendar is already full of…
I follow close to You
I’ve been feeling a bit empty lately. A steady stream of writing and pouring out has left me scratching my head and staring at intimidatingly blank pages in all my journals and notebooks. Sometimes the words don’t come, no matter how hard I press down the pen. So I go back to what fills me…
{giveaway + gift for entering}
Last Thursday, I talked to you about all the books I’ve been reading lately. While looking through my stacks, I realized I have two copies of Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. I’d love to gift my extra copy (brand new, hard back) to one of my readers! To enter the…
{what if hospitality isn’t your gift?}
Every Christmas during my childhood, my mom threw a gigantic party for her friends. She wrote out long lists of chores for my sister and me, although mostly I did them by myself because my sister had a gift for disappearing when it came time to do any housework. (Not that I’m bitter.) We cleaned…
{the one where I talk about all the books}
Whenever someone outs themselves to me as a non-reader, I frantically try to find some equilibrium between panic and restraint because what I want to do is make twenty seven book recommendations in crazed, frenetic succession. As a small child, I read for fun. For. Fun. (Nerd alert.) My husband could be found dribbling a…
{on love and loss and going home}
Knotted up in my regrets and my losses are the gifts of love and life that I only have because of the regrets and the losses.
To the Brink: a Tribute to Parents
The first eight months of our youngest son’s life epitomized uncertainty to me. I rocked a baby against my chest every night, a solid fragile weight pressed next to my heart, not knowing if I would ever be able to call him “son.” It was the riskiest version of love I’d ever known. As every adoptive parent…
{Saturday morning levity}
Everything has been a little heavy here lately, so for laughs… Things I have done this week: *Taught fourteen piano lessons (one absence) and held in laughter for two solid hours on my last work day because the excuses for not practicing were so ludicrous. Although, that one about not having a piano anymore was…