Dear Hope-love, Thank you for bringing me a mud-pie today. As you brought it, I paused there in the kitchen and just watched you from the window. I loved how you carried it so carefully,  gracefully stepping over the sticks in the yard, wind whipping through your delicate strands of hair. I remembered when I was a little girl like you. I had my play kitchen and my dirt and I can recall spending afternoons baking up a muddy feast. I didn't know when I became a momma  how much joy would well up inside my chest as I relived those childhood memories through you. And thank you, Hopey, for bringing your momma some spring. Thank you being the first to notice the crocus' blooming this year and for running as fast as you could to tell me and then insisting that I follow you until I[...]

Do you ever get lost in your day? If you happen to be in the same season of life as I am, you might find yourself standing a little bewildered in the middle of your kitchen, as your five year old and nearly four year old are on their hands and knees on the linoleum, simultaneously wailing at the top of their lungs because of the wretched disappointment in which their lives have turned out. You know, because your boy doesn’t like the toast with “nuts” in it and your girl seriously needs her chocky milk “warmed up.” All the while, your eight month old is pulling all the cook-books off the shelf for the umpteenth time. A momma can feel so lost before 10 a.m. And if you’re not careful, everything will ream out of control from there and you’ll only get more lost-er. (No, that’s not a [...]

Did you know that you can color your prayers? I had never thought of doing this before. But, this week I listened on the edge of my seat as a fellow  Jesus-follower shared her story of how she's learned to color her prayers and dance her prayers and draw her prayers and paint her prayers. As a child of the Creator God, who has been crafted in His image, it's just in me to want to be creative, too. God is always seeking relationship with the people that He's made, and since prayer is simply talking to Him and listening to Him, it makes sense that there is more than one way to communicate with Him. Yes, there's the closing your eyes and bowing your head and folding your hands kind of praying. And the walking along the road and just talking to God kind of praying. And the driving[...]

Some days I wake up with a big ole' mess on my hands. Like, a big ole' kid mess. And sometimes that frustrates me. Because it feels like 90% of my life is cleaning up all the messes. Or desperately trying to teach my kids to clean up their messes. Which means suddenly their toys become a lot more interesting. Or their legs hurt and they just need to sit a spell. Or their exhausted, so bizarrely enough, they need a nap. Yes, those mess-makers of mine get good and tired of making messes and they crawl up in their beds and drift off to sleep and I've got time to think and pray and reflect on all the things I care the most about in life. And so I find myself tiptoeing back into their wrecky rooms and just gazing at all the messes. All the beautiful messes. And in those moment[...]

Hopey and I go for a walk in a cornfield. And as we trudge along, stepping between the puddles and bending down to pick up husks of last year's corn, I'm reminded of a story. So, I tell her one. Once upon a time there was this daddy and a son. And the son decided that he was tired of living at home. He'd had enough of curfews and family meals and sharing stuff with his brother, so he asked his dad for all his allowance so he could go away and see the world. His dad, being a good dad that he was, sat down with his boy and had a little chat. "Now son," he said, "You can have your allowance but I was hoping you'd save up so you could buy your own house or start your own business someday." "Nah, that's alright," replied the boy, "I don't need a house. I just need to get away f[...]

This morning I woke up, sat up in bed a little and peered out the opening in my window shades. I confess. I groaned. I groaned because the tree limbs were laced back up in white and the yard was all covered in snow, and I was thinking it should be spring. Warm, green and growing spring. But, no sooner had I groaned when this sing-songy voice came rollicking back into my head. The voice of my momma when I was little as she was trying to teach me that each day was a gift and that I could give thanks and still find the good in things. The voice that would say, “Remember! This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice, and be glad in it!” (from Psalm 118:24) Yes, she’d say it and I’d roll my eyes. Yes, now that I’m a grown-up, I still hear that voice and those words and I know i[...]

It's raining here, this slow drizzle, and my kids are having rest time. Gideon is making rambunctious boy noises in there in his room, but hey, at least he's on his bed with his books and I'm in here quietly thinking about love. I'm thinking about how it's hard to love sometimes. Because people aren't always that lovable, and when you love, you inevitably get hurt. And there are these moments when you truly feel stumped. Like, how in the world are you supposed to love a certain someone? Maybe it's a kid that has shut you out of their life because they decided not to forgive you for some parenting failure. Or maybe it's a parent that keeps wanting to be a parent when you just want them to be a friend. Or maybe a husband or a wife, who keeps doing things that you think they shouldn[...]

Today for "school" we wrote books. As in the kids told me what pictures they wanted, and I put them into Publisher, and then we went back and they dictated their words to go with the pictures. Let's just say, Gideon's dinosaur book is my favoritest dinosaur book ever. Now, as you'll notice, this book calls for audience participation. Feel free to participate. (Hope you get a good chuckle like I did.)     Ahem, that's supposed to be "break" a building down. That would be a typo by the momma.  

Today was a harder sort of day. Some days just are. It's hard being a person. You know, when emotions go all awry on you and don't exactly obey. When you're dealing with your own misgivings, your own failures, and trying hard to push through fears. By the end of the day, a girl can get so worn out. So, sometime when I was unwrapping the baked potatoes for supper and checking facebook for the umpteenth time (insert rabbit trail: I hate facebook, I just want to shut the whole thing down. But, then again, I love the people. I would miss them)...anyways, sometime in there somewhere I asked God to please send me some encouragement. Some  help. I needed Him to come. Then I turned on Josh Garrels. Music just helps so much. Good music does. So, tonight I'm giving you his song, and marrying h[...]