“What’s your last name?” He asked it abruptly, somewhere in between his story of revival in the South Pacific during the last years of The War, and his story of planting a church in Salem in 1957. “Hey now, wait a second. I think…I think I feel a nudge to ask you this. What’s your […]
Earthed In Jesus (survivor songs #9)
If you haven’t read Rachel Kathrine’s post “The Widow,” well, it really is very good. I think perhaps I’m enamored with her peek at Jesus and the Widow because writing Survivor Songs has so far been for me an exercise in sacrifice. I perceive poverty; I feel as though I have so little to give. In a temple filled with rich writers […]
Jealous For The Children
I am up early with the sunrise. The baby has been pushing her night-time wakeup further and further into the A.M. hours until this morning her cries are heard at the first blush before dawn. It is good. Sometimes the rest I hunger for on this last and sabbath day of the week is not sleep, but […]
Living Bravely: the mosaic is wrought through pain
What if Jesus doesn’t want to keep us from pain? What if the Hard Things and Broken Places are where we come to know the Lord? What if he is growing within us a heart full of courage? What if he wants to grow this within our children as well? On April first, just before I […]
A Whole Year Has Passed
We had family visiting for eight days, and then we landed on Easter weekend. Easter, and with it Grace’s first birthday; tomorrow, Easter Monday with Judah turning nine. Nine. Who is this child, nine years old, and too big for Thomas the Train? I stood picking through birthday decorations in an over-lit Walmart with tears dripping […]
Dear David
Remember when we were just you-knows, just barely falling in love–more than dating, but not yet engaged– and we would email back and forth from California to Salem? I would sit at my parents’ computer desk all that excruciating summer, blushing deeply if they came into the room. I hung on every word you wrote. […]
School: How We’re Doing It
I wrote this post months ago as a follow up to this homeschool update. While this is no longer a true representation of our day, I want to publish it just to have on record. I am so, so, so thankful that the intense season of life referenced below has come to an end… As I mentioned in a […]
Homecoming
He made it in time for Baby.
Homeschool: An Update
The past few years the kids and I have followed Ambleside Online’s scheduled homeschool curriculum, with great enjoyment and success. So when we came into this deployment year I weighed a few schooling options, and ultimately decided to stick with Ambleside despite its heavy reading load. After all, we knew the rhythm, we liked the […]
Whipped Cream on Top
I went to Starbucks tonight and was served by a long-haired, bushy-bearded man wearing a khaki pleated knee-length skirt, old-school Doc Martins, and 1990’s-style crew socks scrunched just so. These are the things that remind me I am no longer in Oklahoma. The boys and I went out to breakfast today. They crowed over their […]