We Rested

We spent our spring break at my parents' house in Missouri. There's just nothing like going to your momma and daddy's house, is there? My mom was sick most of March so I spent a couple of days getting her laundry caught up and helping her with whatever she needed.  My daddy took most of the week off while we were there. It was not one of those weeks packed with activity. We went shopping for a few hours one day and saw the new Muppets movie another. But mostly we just hung out. The girl spent ... [Read More]

School Clothes, School Supplies, and Boots for Momma! {Back to School Preparations}

Two weeks from today, my daughter will start her last year of middle school. {Hold me, please.} It's not that I want to go back to the days of diapers and late night feedings. Nor do I wish to return to potty training and the never ending sounds of Barbie princess movies.  I really don't even miss spelling lists or working on multiplication tables {probably because we still end up needing to do those}. But somehow knowing that this time next year we'll be staring at her first high school class ... [Read More]

Pouring Rain, Power Outages, Panicking Dogs, & Proclaiming the Best Book of 2013

I may have mentioned here {or on Facebook, I can't remember because I'm over 40 and I have a teenager and my brain can only store so much data and that space it totally full with the due date for ads for the football program and asking people to save their empty toilet paper rolls so we can use them to make spirit sticks ... because really, what says "Go Team!" like a toilet paper roll filled with candy? ... now what was I saying ???} ... Pouring Rain Oh yeah, it's been raining here in ... [Read More]

Lead Your Family Like Jesus

  I live a very real, very ordinary life.  There is always laundry to wash and meals to cook. Twenty-four hours never seems like quite enough.  And some days it feels like all I'm doing is spinning my wheels.  Everything I wash will have to be rewashed.  Every meal I cook will be eaten and another one will be needed within a few hours.  Dishes fill the sink as fast as I can get them washed and put into cabinets.  Beds need making, bathrooms need cleaning ... and before I know it, the ... [Read More]

Can Church and Home Work Together?
a review of Connecting Church & Home by Tim Kimmel

I'm a pastor's wife ... and daughter.  (and grand-daughter and great-grand-daughter, in case you wondered)  I've been going to church since before I was born.  I attended a private Christian college in a small Midwestern town.  And, with the exception of a few years in my early 20s, I've been actively involved in church my entire life. But it's not always been easy.  I haven't always liked it.  In fact, a few years ago, I was ready to ask my husband to leave the ministry, to walk away from ... [Read More]

#MustRead 31 Days Series My Days with Autism

Until the past couple of years I really didn't know anything about autism.   Then one of my dearest friend's youngest son was diagnosed.  We've had countless conversations about what it is like to be the mother of an autistic child.  Sandra even wrote a book about the first year after James was diagnosed.  If you haven't read Speechless: Finding God's Grace in My Son's Autism, you should. I've learned so much through my friendship with Sandra.  She shares the ups and downs and is quick to ... [Read More]