words

Our kids both break us and keep us going. They drain every drop of our energy and they give us life. They bring us to tears and make us laugh so hard we might even tinkle a little. We want to hide from them and also make them sit on our laps and never and…

What is the value of a life? Of the person you love or the person you hate. Of the unborn baby or the person who just turned 101. Of the one who you agree with about all the things or the one, you cannot understand one bit how their brain works? Of the Republican or…

I see you today. I see how you are just tired of all of it. Tired of the pandemic and politics. Tired of the day in and day out trying to adjust and adapt and rise to the occasion. Maybe you are even tired of your people and your places. And furthermore not only can…

I don’t want to be the Christian who sings. I can’t stop thinking about a story I read about Christians during the holocaust. These followers of Christ knew what was going on in their community. They knew people from their very town were losing their businesses and their homes and their rights and all this…

I used to make breakfasts for kids in footie pajamas swinging their legs at my kitchen counter. I’d cut up grapes on little plates and fill sippy cups with juice while fielding complaints because every single kid wanted the blue one. Now I make 4 frozen pizzas at once trying to keep up with how…

Today should have been her prom.   But instead, she is in the car with her father, taking her first trip outside these walls since March. A ride to the store is a treat that brought a tear to her eyes tonight.   We offered to do the whole prom at home thing that is…

Yesterday it was 7:00pm and we still were not done with online school. I refuse to call it homeschool because we are in no way, shape or form homeschooling here. That would imply I am doing the work of an educator. I do zero lesson planning or assessing or any of the actual work of…

The gut-punch comes without warning. The realization that things will never be the same and also I really liked the same. Dropping my girl off yesterday after a quick dinner since I happened to be in her new town I found myself in tears once again and it totally caught me off guard. I have…

So here’s the thing about parenting teenagers. It sort of makes us into liars. Like when someone asks how our tall kids are we say things like… Great! They’re starting football in the fall! Or They just got into a great school! Or They’re doing the play right now and it’s so much fun. All…

What does romance look like when you’ve been married lots of years? It looks like this. Yesterday was hard. There was a ton of commotion around back to school and room changes and a small flood in our basement. It was 8:30pm and somehow I still hadn’t eaten dinner. I was the kind of tired…