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Lessons from the wasteland: Who’s in charge?
“It’s dead. It’s all dead,” I lamented to my friend in the parking lot. “All of my goals, my dreams, my plans are all dead.” My friend, who is considerably more Type B than me, tried to hide her smile. She knew that this was possibly the best place for me to be right now.…
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Clear the Stage
This past spring has been a blur. Two baseball teams, a flag football team and a gymnastics class have kept our kids very busy. Andrew and I had additional things to keep us busy: newlywed community group, teaching pre-k Sunday School, running cameras at church. He also worked two full-time jobs, and I finished writing…
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Lemon:Aid Stand
Last year my kids begged to do lemonade stands at the end of our driveway whenever they wanted more money to spend. When a mom hears “lemonade stand,” she hears “lots of sticky, messy work for very little profit.” But the begging continued. I tried everything I could think of to talk them out of…
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Worms don’t live in trees
The first day of summer vacation, I was sitting on my deck in the morning sun with a cup of tea. I had some quiet time because there was no one to rush out the door, no buses to catch, no carpools to run. God and I began to talk about Matthew 18:3. “Unless you…
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Shut the Door!
How many times have you hollered at your kids, “Shut the door!” The summer was just starting and already I was tired of saying it. Tired of the heat. Tired of the flies. The problem was a problem of knowledge. Each one of my children, even the three-year-old, knows how to physically shut the door.…
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Summer Survival
The count down has begun to the last day of school. While the kids are thrilled, honestly I’m on the verge of an anxiety attack every time I think about it. Some moms love having time to spend with their kids without routines and schedules. Personally, it totally freaks me out. I am a Type-A…
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Trophy Wife
“Does Andrew ever make you feel like a princess?” the counselor asked. We had been in marriage counseling for a few months, and I thought carefully about my answer to his question. “Yes, he does,” I replied. The times I feel the most like a princess are the times we dress up to attend special…
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My Birthday Tradition
Today is my birthday and a few years ago, I started a birthday tradition. I decided to throw my own party. I grew tired of waiting in hopeful expectation that my friends and my husband would read my mind and throw exactly the kind of party that I wanted. I was tired of being disappointed…
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Making Grown-up Friends
Making friends in high school and college was easy. I had several girls I automatically saw every day at lunch or in my dorm room. We had “touchpoints” where we could learn basic info about each other, but also have opportunity to go deeper. However as a working adult, I had fewer “automatics.” Then when…
From Ice Queen to Princess 