Braiding her hair in the dark felt like taking up a mantle, here I am, playing the mother. Almost a decade of being a mama to daughters, and in my heart I am sometimes still the girl. I fished out nightgowns for dolls, tucking the freshly clad babies up against a three year old’s shoulders, […]
And She Treasured These Things In Her Heart
Okay, so yesterday I woke up early, groggily whipped out a “Wednesday in the Word” post (which is a terrible name, by the way, but shows just how uncreative I am when it comes to the pressure of titles) while fielding the complaints of two fever-ridden kids and watching Daniel Tiger. That was oh, 6:30 […]
The Commonness Seems More The Miracle
Sacred Smallness, Real Life is Now There are almost 100 unpublished posts in my draft folder, and a erroneous click of an arrow brought this to the top of the tier today. It’s at least 2 years old, but it made me smile. The only thing I’d add to the romantic musing is that while the […]
This Is What Remains (real life is now)
The past several days have been difficult – not in their entirety, but overall. When I started this series, I had a sense of some things that might come our way mid-month and they did. Other unexpected things piggy backed on those, and so for five days we seemed to weather one crisis or challenge […]
Weaning: Sacred Smallness, Real Life is Now
(post #8) see list of all posts here I have a few posts on Spiritual Boundaries going – one completed – but I need to sit with them awhile before I post. I’m not quite brave enough tonight. “Is your whole series to be about boundaries?” my husband asked. “I don’t know. I didn’t intend […]
Shake Out And Play, Mama
(October post #4) see list of all posts here Shake Out And Play, Mama I can’t place, quite, the stars that flash in your pinched up eyes – you dart between our hearts like songbirds do to skies. You roil in laughter – high pitched, belly winsome Puck to Shakespeare’s day; Ever-merry, you: an Otter telling my heart to […]
The Gift Is In These Walls
The gift is in these walls, a bit musty from food frying and a bit dirty from child-hands running across old white paint. The gift is in this air, fresh morning air chilled, sucking in through windows with wood smoke and sandalwood oil, afternoon air warming through window-plates of glass and through the steam of […]
Grace, Grace and Parenting Fails
My crowning parenting moment did not happen when I dropped the futon on all ten of my toes. Sometimes I’m pretty certain they learn all their worst behavior from me. “Oh grace, grace, God’s grace…” I sat there on their beds after the catastrophe of an evening was through, after all the “I’ve had enough” […]
“Where Do We Go From Here? God Have Mercy” – a Marriage Startup Podcast with Leslie and Laura Camacho (survivor songs #27)
Today Laura Camacho joins up with her husband Leslie to offer a follow up to yesterday’s post (When Does Comfort Come, survivor songs #26). Leslie and Laura host a weekly broadcast called The Marriage Startup Podcast and today they are sharing a special edition of the podcast put together specifically for Survivor Songs. It is such an honor to host […]
When Does Comfort Come? – mourning while parenting a child with invisible special needs (survivor songs #26)
When Does Comfort Come? by Laura Camacho _______________ _______________ I’m writing a note to my 9-year old daughter’s school and I can’t stop crying. Every word feels like a sob. I’m coming off as calm on the page, but beneath each sentence lies soul crushing exhaustion and heartache. She needs to have Wednesdays off […]