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 […]
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 […]
What is it you want? Don’t take the easy way out.
“Don’t focus on your fear of burnout; remember to stay open and receptive so that you are filled up with love and energy from God, and from that you can pour out onto everyone around you. Don’t withhold. If you feel yourself drying up, it is because you aren’t connecting with God as your Source as well […]
Practical Principles Form The Backbone of Parenting: here are 3 of mine
We Know So Little About Being Human So there’s nothing new under the sun, after all. Here, a mother’s sense of lostness in the upbringing of her children. From Formation of Character, published 1925: ‘I daresay experienced people get to know all about it,’ said Mrs. Clough; ‘but the mother of even two or three […]
Being Present and Embracing Life For What It Is
Riverbanks The Willamette (will-AM-et) River winds behind the backdrop of my childhood memories, and now it is winding into the memories of my children. It feels surreal on some level, to be back here with my children and living within a half mile of her banks. The scents are heady: water, douglas firs, blackberries; the baking rocks beneath […]
Bind This Parent’s Heart
Put On 80 lbs of strawberries and a sister who makes me get things done. “Tomorrow’s the day,” Heather said in a message. “It will be over 100 degrees all weekend and the last of the berries will be gone. Be ready by 8:30. We’ll pick tomorrow and jam on Thursday.” For as long as […]
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” […]
The Secret Grief of Miscarriage (survivor songs #15)
Today, in honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, my friend Holly spills oceans of courage as she shares words that remember her children Pearl and Valentine, words that remind us that grieving is healing. “…the moment I allowed myself to open up, be vulnerable, talk, and truly mourn over the lives of my precious little ones I […]
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 […]