Sunlight sparkled on the translucent ice enveloping the landscape. Gleaming dollops of white drifted across a cerulean sky as the day broke shimmering and clear. A fresh morning; a new beginning. We received some glorious answers to prayer this week. For years, it seemed like...
The last few weeks have found me fighting the "winter blues." Coming off of the high of the Christmas season + getting back into a homeschool routine + some really cold, dark days have left me feeling more melancholy than usual. One day in particular, it...
It's January and my kids are running outside after snow flurries, praying for a big snow. Meanwhile, I'm thinking about dinner - again. Summer is so easy - throw a bunch of meat and veggies on the grill and call it done. Winter sometimes finds me...
I ran quickly through Six Flags Great America, chasing my ten year old daughter, Grace, and my sister in law Lisa, who both had caught the roller-coaster bug. It was only a few days after Christmas and happened to be a warm-ish day for Chicago,...
Reclaiming Our Peace “I just want to be peaceful, Mama.” Me too, baby, me too. “I just want to be peaceful” is Penny speak for “I just need to curl up on the couch with you and read a book,” or “I need be alone in...
Where does Thanksgiving find you this year, friend? Perhaps you are bursting at the seams with joy, brimming over with praise to God for all He has done this year. On the other hand, maybe as you gather with others this year your table is...
My eight year old daughter came to me with tears in her eyes: "Momma, I have a headache." This was her third headache this week and by this point I was standing up and taking notice. In typical "Mom fashion," I began to ask her some...
I am a member of a church that practices sacramental Confession. I wasn’t always. My family were Southern Baptists, and I was baptized, as a teenager, into the Reformed tradition, so I know all the theological objections to the idea of confessing one’s sins in the...
A few weeks ago, our church family walked through a great tragedy. A newly married man in our congregation experienced a fatal fall while hiking on his honeymoon on the Hawaiian island of Kawai. In the days before he was found, the members of our...
A faint gurgle of toddler laughter drifted up the stairs as Penny danced and giggled with her Mimi. The sound was music to my ears as I nursed my sweet son before his nap. I cradled my growing boy (97th percentile for height!) and studied...