The blog has been quiet for a bit, but hopefully that is about to change since the UPS man arrived yesterday. What does the UPS man have to do with my blog? Simple enough. He brought me a present from God. About a month ago, Elijah picked up the computer from the end table beside …
Category: Family and Friends
Under the Stairs, and the Storm that Wasn’t
The week after the hailstorm, tornadoes threatened to destroy Kansas. As dire weather forecasts poured in that Thursday, I moved restlessly about the house, putting things in order. I don’t know why I felt like I needed to tidy my nest—if a tornado flattened our house, it wouldn’t matter how clean the house was. But …
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Plenty of Room
On Mother's Day, I'd like to share a tiny piece of my family history with you. My mother did not have an easy life. She raised nine children, four of whom were deaf. Her gentle but tenacious spirit pressed through the difficulty to equip her children to live the best lives possible. She spent hours …
Hail, Friends, and a Stainless Steel Helmet
For all my rascally friends who are inordinately interested in how I look with a bowl on my head, here you go. Today the earth is bright and clean, and I'm not soaking wet, but in this picture I'm clutching the shovel that I used during the pouring rain and hail to dig a trench around …
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If I were homeless
If I were homeless, I would want to be treated with dignity and respect. I would want people to see past the street dirt and grime to my tender heart beating underneath. I would ache for them to know that I have feelings--hopes, fears, and despair--and that I am not cold and uncaring. Even if …
Family life
Most of the time, I am a diligent person. I always have work to do, and I get up early and work hard. Ahem. Some of the time, anyway. One of the notable exceptions is Sunday afternoons. Sunday afternoons I guess you could say I work hard at being lazy. For several hours at least, …
My mama at midnight
When I was small, I often woke up in the middle of the night with joint pain, especially in my knees. If I could get warm enough by piling on extra blankets, the pain sometimes diminished so that I could fall asleep again. Many times my best efforts failed; the pain increased until I couldn't …
heartbreak
God, I cannot sleep, Even though I'm exhausted, I cannot sleep because the pain strikes so deep. So deep it pins me to my bed. I want to get up to pray, to touch his suffering skin, but it hurts too much. The sob lies stillborn in my throat as I think about my son …
Book review: If the Foundations Be Destroyed…What Can the Righteous Do?
Sunday I was feeling sick, so I stayed in bed and read or slept most of the day. I finished reading a fascinating book titled If the Foundations Be Destroyed...What Can the Righteous Do? by Joy F. Hart. The book is written in story form, and describes a string of families with children with attachment disorders and delayed …
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Christmas 2016
Merry Christmas from the Schmucker family! Here is a picture of us on a rainy evening in October, trying to shield ourselves with an umbrella. I don't know what the boys think is so funny. Who knows! Elijah is our 9-year-old. And Stuart is seven. (Our trampoline and rope swing have provided hours of enjoyment for our …
arabah rejoice 