When Life is Not Fine, and Finding Beauty Difficult.

“How are you doing?” she asked. “I’m fine,” I replied. But, I wasn’t fine, and afterward, I realized I was simply giving a standard answer. After all, as Shauna Niequist said, “I’ve been training all my life to pretend I’m fine.” In hindsight, I should have said, “Actually, I’m fine, but only if being fine…

Continue Reading

Learning to Live a Perfectly Imperfect Life.

The first house we owned was a 1950’s three-bedroom, one-bath, nine hundred square foot home that needed some love. And we loved that home for almost ten years. During the time we lived in that house, we replaced siding and windows, cemented a gravel driveway, and rebuilt the bathroom from the studs up. We did…

Continue Reading

Summer Planning, an Invitation to Remember How to Play.

While we have only now fully emerged into spring, I am already finding myself preparing for summer activities and making decisions about our schedules for fall. I’m not sure how we got here so quickly. When the boys were little, I loved planning for summers. I would make summer binders with printed calendars and space…

Continue Reading

Spring Cleaning – Creating Space for Something Beautiful to Grow.

The previous owner of the home we now live in was a master gardener. The backyard was beautifully landscaped, including a butterfly garden and a plot for a vegetable garden. I was so excited to have a space for gardening. However, it didn’t take long after moving in to realize that it required a lot…

Continue Reading

Choosing Joy in the Midst of Hard Things

Have you noticed how hard things tend to happen in clusters, some say in threes? The dishwasher breaks, the garage door won’t open, and of course, you get a flat tire. But those are just minor annoyances. Perhaps, you are in the midst of a challenging season of parenting when a dear friend finds out…

Continue Reading