Have you ever noticed how women often talk about their grocery shopping and food preparation? Lady A is an expert at couponing, and tells glowing stories about getting a cart full of groceries and six bottles of Tide detergent for two dollars. Lady B talks about eating nothing but rice and beans and whatever she …
Tag: children
Peter Rabbit
"The Peter Rabbit movie you returned was two months overdue," the librarian announces. "When we finally got the movie, it no longer worked," she says, "so you will need to pay for a new one. In the future, please do not keep movies so long. We had a list of people waiting for Peter Rabbit …
New Year’s Resolutions Reversed
On a rare evening out together a few weeks ago, Will and I took the chance to discuss some of the challenges we are facing and how to adjust our lives to better fit our calling. We made some goals for the new year, and talked about how we might go about accomplishing them. As …
Choosing joy
At the beginning of October, I wrote that my goal for the next month was to practice blessing--to be thankful for the goodness God has given me and to spread the happiness to others. Exhaustion and heartbreak ran thickly through the month, and I am still struggling to emerge from a season that has tried …
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, …
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 …
A Question Without an Answer
When are you going to write about sexual abuse? they ask me. I don't know, I say. I know so little about abuse. I've lived such a sheltered, coddled life. Yes, I've had my share of pain, but life has been kind to me in that area. What would I say that would not be trivial, meaningless, …
hodgepodge
This is sort of a hodgepodge letter about family life. Nothing particularly wise or profound, so read on at your own risk. We are working hard at fixing up our house in hopes of moving in a few weeks. This past week we worked on wiring, insulating, and sheet rock. These days have been long …
When the Young Die
https://flic.kr/p/da62Wk We had in our yard a tree which lived through one season and then died, having no chance to spread its greenery upon the sky; (and its dying is both like and unlike the death of a child. She is an angel, they tell me, and happier now by far. Yes, oh yes, but--) …
Oklahoma City Adventure
Stuart had a birthday last Thursday. Being a quality-time sort of person, he asked if we could do something special together as a family for his birthday. Will and I had an idea that caught fire as we talked about it. Why not take the family on a little trip? Plans were made in secret, …
arabah rejoice 