The only thing that makes getting up at 4:30 in the morning tolerable is knowing that, once I have my coffee in hand, I’ll be sitting down with Jesus. What started out as a push to make this ritual a habit soon became the highlight of my day. Of course, there have been seasons when this time is plagued by …
I love my kids. They’re sweet, funny and just a enough off-center that I often wonder if they were switched at birth. If they didn’t resemble me a little and love to write, I’d have serious doubts. Even so, they make me proud. And yet, when one of my friends regales me with new grandma stories, I’m envious. When I …
Several years ago, my husband and I bought a pallet of flagstone. We’re not spontaneous shoppers. In fact, it takes us quite a while to decide to purchase anything until we’re good and ready to use it. So the fact that we’ve had this flagstone sitting in what my husband refers to as our “bone yard” is unusual. Neither of …
A few weeks ago, I joined a group of ladies from my church in a new Bible study—Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted by Priscilla Shirer. We’ve all had lives interrupted by various circumstances, both good and bad, but I didn’t feel the study actually pertained to me. Aside from the time spent with the sweet ladies in the group, I …
One of the downfalls of being a writer is that I find it difficult to read fiction. This is disheartening since I love to get lost in a good book. I’m so busy critiquing sentence structure, word usage and scene tension that I don’t enjoy the actual story. And it’s story that made me want to be a writer in …
I can’t sleep. Again. I’m writing this post at 3:30 in the morning after spending hours tossing and turning. There always seems to be a reason—last night it was the wind playing a concert through the wind chimes hanging a mere ten feet from my head. Sometimes it’s a restless Einstein (the dog, not the scientist), my husband’s snoring, or …
How many things around your house have needed to get done for so long, you’ve stopped seeing them? You know what I mean—you walk past the same overgrown shrubs and weeds or turn a blind eye to the growing pile of items that need to be taken to the dump? Little things that are irksome, but not so much so …
When I was teaching, I rarely had back issues aside from the occasional flare up from lifting weights. There was no tightness nor were there pangs of discomfort. Then I started writing full time and things changed. Tightness in my lower back made it difficult to climb out of bed at times and I wondered how I would fare in …
I’m not a political person. I don’t saturate myself with Fox News or even subscribe to a newspaper. Admittedly, I’m more a bury-my-head-in-the-sand kind of person. It’s not something I’m proud of, it just is. I become anxious and depressed when I see how far we’ve fallen over the last several years. Of course, you don’t have to tune into …
I hope there are seasons in heaven. Something tugs at my heart when winter eases into spring and summer spirals into autumn. Do you feel it, too? A nip in the air early morning and late evening, with summer warmth lingering somewhere in the middle. Pears are ripening in the root cellar, their sweet scent calling to my inner child. …
