Listen to this post, read aloud by Eve This is Part 2 of a two-post series. It picks up right where Part 1 left off. (A list of all “Ten Truths” can be found at the end of this post for reference.) 6. I can manage treats. Sugar is my biggest food temptation, so my…
Listen to this post, read aloud by Eve This is Part 1 of a two-post series. At first, people kept asking how I did it, so I told them. But many shook their heads in disbelief, as if what I said just couldn't be, because what I told them flew in the face of conventional…
Like a gift you didn't expect, like a smile from a grumpy grandboy after a nap, like a taste of chocolate in trail mix. When it comes to March, each fair day feels like this. I love the drama of March weather–sometimes winter, sometimes spring. It can be wild rain and wind, tornadoes and school…
When it was dawning on me that hubby Buck was in trouble and needed the ER, I had an awful thought, one I haven't admitted until now: I would have to miss my favorite class at the Y to take him, and I wasn't happy about it. I was putting on my shoes and about…
It sounded like so much fun, that I tucked the idea away in the back of my head. While raising kids, I’d read a magazine article about grandparents who held a Cousins Camp for their grandkids, while their kids skedaddled off to parts unknown. I've lived through twenty years and two knee replacements since my…
I hadn’t really wanted to get up when the alarm went off, but I did because she’d asked me to come. This was the daughter who’d recently begun to like me again, and I wasn’t going to miss it. Josie Love was in art school for the summer and had invited me for her mid-summer…
We remodeled bathrooms last winter, taking out an upstairs hall and adding its space to one bathroom, gutting a second, and updating a third. It was a project Alejandro promised to finish by late February, just in time for a women's retreat scheduled to be here. But February came and went and the retreat got…
Baby fever is real. I know, because I was burning up with it. I spent a year giving myself shots in my backside and putting lozenges under my tongue and graphing my morning temperature and demanding sex because my chart said to. And then, I gave up. No baby. But there was this achey, constant…
She got out of the car and loaded my suitcase in the trunk, a whoosh of stale cigarette smoke and ash exhaling with her, as if the car itself were trying to get a fresh breath of air. Debra, the Uber driver, slunk in behind the wheel, her head down, shoulders slumped. My goal was…
I don’t like to admit it, partly because it feels shameful and partly because I was raised not to notice it, much less confess it. I was taught to do exactly the opposite—to cover up weakness by becoming competent. (And if I couldn’t genuinely excel, I learned to lie about it.) As a mother, I…
No one made room for him, save the one who yelled, amidst hay and manure, blood and smells. And she prepared nothing, except to accept-- turns out was enough, she opened herself. The womb that bore him and the heart that said yes were filled with a Savior, to rule and to bless. "Prepare the…
I was swamped and decided to take the month off. While writing for my blogs and an online women's magazine are normal monthly activities, October was just too darn busy. At first, it felt like a relief to take a break, but after a while, it felt like I don't want to write anymore. In…
Everyday I’m not left in the dark, or floating in space, or without a bite or something to wear or air, I believe all over again what I’m prone to forget: God is good. His graces are daily. He brings up the sun, pulls tides, grounds gravity, gives food, changes seasons, allows me to work,…
What do you do when one of your best college friends moves to the beach? You round up the rest of the gang and head down to see her. This is just what we’ve done for the last several years, and it’s come in the nick of time for some of us. While we’re often…
This is a story about me and my baby, who’s now 22, and the misery we walked through together to find a love connection. It’s a story of our mutual failure, but it’s a story with a happy ending. I lived the miracle. I watched it change me. And then I watched it change my…
I’m awake and up before The Cowboy has gone to bed. It’s 1:21 a.m. and too darn early. I went to bed at 10, but I’m wide awake now. I’m afraid I’m getting weird. Unbalanced. And while I really love getting a jump on my day, I’m also afraid I’m getting pulled out of sync…
We had a threat of frost predicted for 2 a.m. Unsure of whether or not the pots I'd planted at church would make it--with Easter coming up, it seemed a shame to risk it--I grabbed garbage bags and shish kabob skewers and headed out. I hadn't bothered to unload the yard tools that were in…
Hit, crack, plop. Eggs are beaten; shells are tossed. It’s breakfast with toast and jam. (Forgot this week to pick up ham.) Fire in family room roars and pops. Just how I like it and not too hot. Another log? Please don’t bother. I’ll have to move somewhere farther. All at once, a face is…
Hardly churchy, much less Presbyterian, our pastor steps aside the Sunday after Thanksgiving rather than preaching and lets anyone who wants to, step up and tell what they're thankful for. David, age 8, thanked God this morning for getting to watch anime on his computer and for cars, "just for lots of cars," he said…
Dug up. Tilled. Hard words are augers Where they’re spilled. Does your hand hold the plow? Sow bitter seeds that fall? Planted with tears, will you bring a harvest after all? You see the harrowing. You hear when I call. No need to explain. You understand it all. Sprout me green From this soil of…
