Some nights after spending a gorgeous evening outside, I’m met squarely with a cluttered kitchen and dirty dishes. Like tonight. The temperature was that lovely just-between mix of summer day and fall evening. Kev rototilled. I puttered around the garden. Gleeful shouts and laughter floated from the trampoline’s direction. The wind died away, leaving a… Continue reading Are Clean Kitchens Overrated?
What is home? What exactly transforms a building into a home? More specifically, what makes it home for me? It’s been said that one man’s castle is another man’s cave, so your vision of home may differ significantly from mine. In any event, homes are as individual as the people who inhabit them. Several defining… Continue reading What Makes A House A Home – For Me?
I certainly haven’t always appreciated ordinary. I’ve resented it and complained many a time about the ordinary. There’s something about endless stretches of mundane routine that can drive a person crazy almost as fast as wild chaos. The ordinary is easily overlooked and under-appreciated and yet it has a beauty all its own. I’m an… Continue reading Have You Ever Resented Ordinary?
If I could have anything I want for Mother’s Day, what would it be? There are countless cliche things that come to mind: time for myself, huge bouquets of flowers, meals I don’t have to make, shopping trips, time with friends, sleeping in and uninterrupted sleep. Yet somehow these aren’t the things I really want. There’s… Continue reading What I’d Choose If I Could Have Anything I Wanted for Mother’s Day
It was just another ordinary day. The sun shone, the grass was tall enough to need mowing even though I had just mowed it, the world was still fresh from recent rains, the weeds and dandelions were growing faster than I could take care of them. The garden needed to be planted before the children… Continue reading It Was An Ordinary Day
If you, like me, have taken your husband’s surname upon marriage it may have already occurred to you fellow mothers that someday you too could bear the same name as both your mother-in-law and your husband’s paternal grandmother. Not to mention that of his grandfather’s mother and a lineup of generations preceding them as well.… Continue reading What You Have In Common With Your Husband’s Grandma
It hit me, just like that. I was sitting at my desk, having just finished reading my Bible, and was thinking about the possibility of someday moving from this home we love. And suddenly I realized: today, this moment, these circumstances, this time and place, this is as good as it gets. Oh but no,… Continue reading Why Life Will Never Be Better Than This
In honor of a new school year beginning everywhere and new teachers teaching, parents sending off a child for the first time, and brand-new students anxiously starting off to school, I offer my hearty and heartfelt wishes for a wonderful first day and week. May the year ahead be a truly delightful one. School here… Continue reading When You Only Have 365 Days Left to Prepare Your Child For School
If you’ve been around here for any length of time you know I write about motherhood and things that go hand-in-hand with motherhood a lot. You may also be aware that I’ve been working on a book about preparing for motherhood for the past year. Now here’s the thing. If you know me at all,… Continue reading Why I Write About Motherhood (And Why You Can Too)
I’ll admit it: when Kev and I decided it was time to get serious about starting a family, one of the first things we did was decide when the best time of year was to have our baby. I remember clearly thinking November would be a great month to have him/her arrive. Ironically, that baby arrived… Continue reading Why There’s Never a Perfect Time to Have a Baby (So Don’t Put Off Being a Mom)
