"Mommy, did you see me?" my nine year old daughter asked expectantly as she ran up the stairs after her gymnastics class. She has been working hard on perfecting her back walk-over and wanted to know if I saw that today she had finally nailed...
If I am being honest, I didn’t want to write this today. In the face of a new year, I have been praying for weeks now for a theme to carve out for the next 365 days. Instead, all I could think about is how...
I took the ornaments from our Christmas tree one by one. I threw away cookie crumbs and wrapping paper, vacuuming up the disposable elements of Christmas in our home, all the while contemplating the decrescendo from a major day of celebration. A couple of days of...
I took the hand-made houses that my Grandmother cross-stitched with yarn out of the box as we began to place them on the mantle. It was her "Christmas village" - a delightful little community including a church, store, and homes that she would display each...
Hi Ladies, I am so excited to introduce you to my friend, Laura Taggart, one of the wisest, godliest women I know with some great advice for us on reducing holiday stress as we head into Christmas this weekend. We've spent a lot of time this...
I want to be Imogene Herdman for Christmas. In the past, I’ve always identified with Mary. We’ve been pregnant a lot around Christmas in the past decade. Pregnant, or grieving the loss of an unborn babe. I think of her physical feelings, and her discomfort. Her emotions...
"You need a break - a chance to really get away and rest." My husband's words felt like refreshing water to my parched soul and yet I immediately began to state all the reasons why this was simply impossible: homeschooling the kids, regular commitments, and...
How much do you know about your family history? As a young girl, I remember listening while my great-grandmother, born in 1900 to an English immigrant and his wife, sat in a puffy blue recliner weaving together stories about the "way things were" in the rural Midwest. My...
I opened the news app on my phone to see the breaking news of yet another powerful leader who has been found guilty of sexual harassment in the workplace. I read the story and sighed with anger and sadness as I thought of the many...
Advent season is my favorite.I am usually in a daze of wonder for the whole of December. Star stricken by the Divine humanity. It is a well from which to draw all year long.The clearest memories I have of Christmas as a child are threefold. I...