Category: Faith & Encouragement
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What’s Cookin’ on the Back Burner?
Her hands pat my thighs in an increasingly urgent pattern, my legs numbing under the repetition. I’ve been tuning her out for a half-hour because I need to make some progress on dinner. I stand at the stove. The big cast iron lid clatters down on a huge pot of rice. I’m trying to be […]
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Lessons from the Sofa Hole
I don’t always enter a room thinking I’m the smartest person there, but that night, I am sorry to say, I did. The pub’s high wood paneling, coved ceiling, and large picture windows framed the friendly atmosphere perfect for the people gathered for trivia night and I walked in with soaring confidence. I joined my […]
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Lessons From a Restricted Diet
Dinner at our house has always been idyllic. Not “June Cleaver” perfect, but I’d make a simple meal, and the family would eat it—or at least try it—regardless of individual opinions about peas or soup. In general, I rotated a small number of easy-to-make meals, all of which were nutritious enough to serve but appealing […]
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The Table on the Go: Grace When it’s Needed Most
The text message flashed up on the screen and took my breath away. Cancer. My precious friend, a mom of two little girls about the same age as my kids, had been diagnosed with breast cancer. First, I hit my knees. I pleaded with God to flood her body with healing and for the peace […]
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An Unlikely Sacred Space
I show up at the sink to an insurmountable pile of dishes. Nothing is scraped. Nothing is sorted. My frustratingly small amount of counter space has been overrun with remnants of our previous two meals, wadded up napkins between plates, stray silverware, and pans that will need to be soaked. I pause and take a […]
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Cultivating Rhythms of Resilience
He seemed quiet and more reserved than usual. Something was bothering him and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I knew he needed new jeans— what thirteen-year-old boy doesn’t need another pair of jeans? So after school, I picked up my son and we made our way to his favorite store. On the way […]
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Strong and Brave
Long before I kept a box of pregnancy tests in my medicine cabinet, I had a Pinterest board labeled “Baby Nursery Ideas.” Social media has elevated nursery decorating to an art, or perhaps something more akin to an Olympic sport. When my daughter was born—our third child but the first girl—we were just about to […]
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A Quiet Christmas
They say “beauty will save the world”, and I know it’s true. I know how beauty stands alone in the dark, in the quiet, and holds out hope for redemption to a world looking for a fix. I’ve held it while the world has slept on and spun round and out of control. I’ve held […]
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Giving Birth in a Barn
Usually I can hide from my grief in the everyday life as a busy mom to my six, but at Christmas it is hard to hide, as much as I wish I could. It isn’t Christmas itself that I want to hide from, but the holidays bring a reminder of what I have lost, to […]
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When Pregnancy Isn’t Perfect
When I was pregnant with my first child, I was determined to have the best possible pregnancy. As a type A perfectionist, I immediately read and studied all available information on pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood. I gave up caffeine, walked for exercise, and did everything within my power to ensure that I would have a […]