Am I the only one with a noisy mind? Lots of chatter going on up there. Especially these days. And it can be all too easy to believe that every voice I hear is worthy of airtime. When we are …
Lifelines in the Midst of Mom Guilt
When my boy/girl twins were 3, and I was pregnant with my third, I made the angst-ridden decision to put the twins in preschool. We were living far away from friends and family, I was about to have a newborn, …
You Are the One You Have Been Waiting For
The first year Steve and I were married, we lived in the Middle East because of his job with the Navy. Ten months into our tour, we got the chance to hop on a military flight to Sicily for $36 …
Surrounded by a Great Cloud of Witnesses in Target
As any mother knows, when your husband is traveling, and all your planning and creative strategies and Amazon Prime-ing have fallen through, you have to do the thing you are always trying to avoid at all costs: You have to …
Sweet Relief
Here I am once again, dancing around the kitchen, squeezing my insides with everything I’ve got. I’m up on my tippy toes then bending at the knees. Sweating, I think. Yes, sweating. Contorting. Panting. Anxious. All edges. And I have …
Replace the Fig Leaves
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. —Genesis 3:21 NIV It’s easy to feel loved when you’re riding high, performing well, on top of your game. It’s more difficult to access those …
Brazen: Pick Pomegranates
What if you wake up some day, and you’re 65 . . . and you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life? —Anne Lamott When I was a kid my …
The Art of an Apology
I spend a lot of time apologizing for things I have not done wrong. For example, I will be standing in the grocery store, looking at grapefruits and someone will come up next to me to also look at grapefruits. …
The Rhythm of Rest
When my twins were first born and they would miraculously nap simultaneously, I would lie down on the couch with a spoonful of peanut butter in one hand and the remote in the other and watch reruns of Dawson’s Creek. …
Celebration Changes The Way We See
Some of the greatest parties I have ever attended were in the Middle East, where we’ve lived two different times because of my husband’s job. The party I loved the most, though, was a New Year’s Eve rug flop we …