Outside the daylight fades. Inside the five of us gather around the dining room table to play a board game. I went for a long walk with my boy earlier, and he chatted to me the entire hour. We stopped and talked to neighbors, allowing...
I remember the prayers. It was the first time in our nine-month-old marriage that I wished we owned a television. I’m not sure I would have wanted to watch the carnage in real time, though. It was enough to turn on NPR and hear the reporter...
Why haven’t I written a blog post for two whole months? In case you were worried, nothing is wrong at all. Life is beautiful and I’m blessed in so many ways. While I was writing this post, I kept having these little doubts in the...
In June, we took the road trip of a lifetime from Ventura, California to our home near Scranton, Pennsylvania. To read about the beginning of our journey, see this post. Now, here's the rest of the story. Glacier National Park We left Seattle and drove east. Finally,...
In the course of my life, I don't think I've ever had a month quite like June 2018. After spending half a year living in Southern California, we sent most of our stuff home on a moving truck, packed up our Yukon with the essentials,...
Almost my entire life, I’ve been a country girl from the northeastern United States. My first seven years, I lived in a Connecticut suburb of New York City, but after that, my family moved “home” to Northeastern Pennsylvania, and there I’ve (mostly) stayed. During college,...
Looking back at everything I’ve said over the past two months, I imagine my heavenly Father chuckling at me—in a loving way, of course. “Oh, she thinks this is a reward for learning contentment. She's in for a surprise!” Well, maybe it is partly a reward for...
I love a good campfire. It’s my favorite part of any camping trip. And once in a while, we have a campfire in our own backyard. It’s lovely. The scent of woodsmoke wafting in the breeze. The crisp fresh air growing cooler as the sun...
[caption id="attachment_16732" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Photo by Septian Simon on Unsplash[/caption] “Why am I so ugly?” I said to woman in the mirror. Then I kicked myself (figuratively) because I know. I know I ought never to say things like that. Not out loud. Not even silently to myself. I’m...
Summertime appears to be the season during which I realize the need to savor every moment. Maybe it’s Myquillin Smith reminding me that we only get 18 summers with each of our children. I have eight left with my eldest. Last August I wrote about...
