I always have these grand plans to write a real End Of Year post with all sorts of newsy bits, observations and deep thoughts for the next year. But then I sit down at my computer and suddenly all the words go away. So instead of observations and lots of words, I’m leaving 2016 with…
Happy is the new perfect
As an outsider, we tend to judge moments of messy faces, meltdowns and mid store bribes on a scale of how perfect each mother is. We say things like “I’ll always” and “I’d never” and we mean it too. We mean to give our future children the very best. And from over there it is…
Why I love March {plus a reading challenge update}
I absolutely love March. Winter is finally over, and spring in Dixie land is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Redbud, tulip trees, dogwood, daffodils, violets and fruit trees all burst out one after the other. It’s like a grand celebration of warmer days, sunshine and new things. I get to…
to a new year
Twelve years ago, I wrote my first blog post. Blogspot was brand new, and I’d never heard of wordpress. Or blogging. I opened a new draft and wrote “Let’s see what this does.” For these 12 years, that’s pretty much been what’s happened here. I’ve written, and learned. I’ve shared a lot of crazy words,…
Until Morning
She fell asleep today. As the clock struck out the first hour of the new day, her last breath breathed out. No more pain. No more struggle. Just rest. Quiet, peaceful rest. The next thing she hears will be the sound of trumpets. The next face she sees will be Jesus’ face. The next thing…
A week gone wrong
My week went all wrong. Monday morning dawned with the extermination team knocking on my door giving me five whole minutes to grab our stuff and leave again. This time I had to be gone for 6 hours at least. Well, I grabbed everything I needed for Charlotte and me to spend the day at…
Just for rest
It was one of those days. The kind that start our by lingering in bed late, staying in pajamas all day and sipping “coffee” curled up on the couch together. We’ve had crazy weeks. Weeks low on sleep, higher on stress and busy. And I’ve been tired. So tired. But today, we loaded up on…
GreaThings 2014
For years now, I’ve filled November with one theme: gratitude. I’ve shared thankfulness with you all and I’ve been blessed by your words and stories of your Great Things. Of all the things I look forward to on my blog, this has always been up at the top. But this year, I almost decided to…
The Beauty of Broken—a book review
“There’s no such thing as a perfect family.” If I’m honest, I don’t like that sentence even a tiny bit. If I’m still honest, I’ll admit that it is true. We’re all a little broken. Either by our choices, by our parents’ or grandparents’ choices, or sometimes just because life is broken. It’s ugly. It’s…
a tradition is born
It’s been a while since it’s looked like Christmas here. Last year we were in California. I had only just dragged in the Christmas Boxes when we got our tickets and I had to drag them back out to the shed again. The year before that I had worked a super stressful job and was…
