Recently I learned there is such a thing as Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day (on December 8th, to be exact). So, let’s indulge ourselves in a bit of imaginative escapism, and forget for a moment the reality of the times we’re in as I take you back to my childhood in good ole’…

If you would have asked me to write a list of what I thought my life would look like over these past 18 months, I can guarantee not one thing that my family and I have walked through would have been on it.    Just last winter I found myself stuck in a season of…

It’s November now, and that means Thanksgiving is right around the corner. This year may look different for many of us. Perhaps Thanksgiving dinner will be enjoyed via zoom, BYOT style (bring your own turkey)?!    It has been a very difficult year with the social unrest, pandemic, and the many loud opinions surrounding the…

How’s your attitude been lately? With a crazy election just barely under our belt it’s hard to reel in all the emotions. To quit the nail biting habit we’ve picked up over the last few months, not to mention the bickering over the “if onlys” and the pointing fingers. Because really, does it make a…

I’m not a cat person. But fifteen years ago, my husband brought home a mangy, scrap of a kitten with watery eyes and a respiratory infection. She was from a shelter in Fontana, California, run by a woman named Tonya who lived alone in her 3 bedroom bungalow with no fewer than 87 cats in…

I’m a collector. If I can attach a special memory or person to an item, I keep it for nostalgia’s sake. This is especially true if it belonged to one of my grandmothers. In fact, buried somewhere in a treasured box is a dented, old silver salt shaker, standing alone as I never received the…

The school year has begun and the landscape of our families has transitioned to fall. Sports, extracurricular activities, homework, and early bedtimes are back in full swing. And along with the busy schedules of school, comes something else that can sneak up on us this time of year: Comparison.    Comparing our kids to others…

We are all experiencing change in these days of weathering a global pandemic. As a stay-at-home mom of three, the greatest change for me has been the massive increase in total face-to-face time with my kids. I’ve told many people that parenting right now feels relentless. From the minute I wake up to the minute…

I’ve always been a performance-oriented person. Show me the numbers! I want to see stats! Even in Christian ministry work, the “fruit” is often measured in numbers of people helped, children fed, or people who came to know the Lord.   We’ve even come up with ratings for motherhood success: Are your children breastfed? Do…

Once upon a time, I was a young bride who had grand ideas of what married life would be like. I imagined clean bedrooms, romantic overtures, and spontaneous date nights (among other things). What I found, however, was that these were my ideas and that my husband had his own thoughts (imagine that!)   Therefore,…