Since our move, everyday is bringing new experiences, many firsts, often breathtaking. Last week we watched the first harvest moon in October since 2009 rise over the mountains as we watched from across the Columbia River. It was thrilling. Literally squeal-inducing from several of our children’s perspective. “I see it! I see it!” Other days we often go down to the river. It is always there, but always new. It.. Read More
Friends, How to capture the essence of the largeness of the tiniest details that completely reinvent our days is sometimes—beyond words. I’m writing to you from a different state, address and perspective than I last wrote. This past month, in my mind I’ve written you a hundred thoughts. My hands, however, have been a wee preoccupied; working to unpack, and recreate the warmth of “home” for my family of eight. Today,.. Read More
I have often made the mistake in my thinking and operating as a mom that if I am not doing it “perfectly” then I am not doing well enough. The other day I sat around the table with my kids, after a previously sad day. I could feel we were all still on the mend. The day before one of my children just flat out decided there was something he.. Read More
It’s here! The hush of the evening after a brimming-with-life day aaaand!! the second edition of my first book came in the mail! I didn’t say much about it this summer. There’s been so much happening and much to learn I hardly knew where to begin, but I’m excited to unpack a little at a time this journey, tell you more about what I’ve been learning and all the good.. Read More
“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” ― Mother Teresa It would be a fool’s way to come to the end of my day despising the little things, the little ways. But I do. It would be a sorry sin to say, “no thank You” to the adventure of diaper changing, feet washing, tear kissing or frigidair stocking, thinking somehow an adventure “out there”.. Read More
From exploring Corbin, KY (Cumberland Falls) to driving through the Appalachians in TN (Cherokee, Pisgah, and Great Smoky Mountains National Forests) to NC to exploring the wonder of the OCEAN on the Atlantic coast of South Carolina to exploring Charlotte, NC “the Queen City” (that WOW reminded me of Overland Park, KS) to a quick overnight in Knoxville, TN so that we could go exploring Big South Fork National River.. Read More
“The essence of a thing is always elusive, hidden. The dream of art and prayer is to come nearer, even to slip through to dwell for awhile…” ~ John O’Donohue, Beauty the Invisible Embrace
It would be too simple to say or think that all I do as a parent to nurture my children through the wilderness of sibling relations is head for the woods. Yet it is a very powerful, meaning filled way I can put feet on my prayers. And it’s not just for the kids, it’s for me too. Maybe me most of all? It’s at that mind numbing point (I.. Read More
Becoming an author…or a mother (in every new or repeated season of it)…growing, into anything really…it comes with tension. {insert 3 year old war cry for independence here} Atleast that’s what it sounds like at my house. Or, if I dig down deeper I’d tell you it looks like fear, worry and doubts, ugly cries that threaten breath, and bursts of laughter too far in between. The tension between “push”.. Read More