A typical Saturday in our Canadian hamlet finds my husband chopping wood or canning salsa or making homemade beerandwine. And it finds me in the kitchen canning jam or making homemade yogurt, and always, homemade bread. We are the ones …
What Mothers Need to Say When They Look in the Mirror
I want you to take a moment and look into a mirror. And as you look at yourself, I want you to say, with all of the sincerity you can muster, “Thank You.” It will feel very silly. But it’s …
Why So Many Women Don’t Know What Their Favorite Color Is
I can still remember the first time my mother-in-law asked me how I liked my eggs. Easy over? Scrambled? Poached? I didn’t know. I just stared into my palms feeling like the Runaway Bride and mumbling something about it not …
The Kind of Friend I Want My Kids to Be
The Kind Of Friend I Want My Kids To Be I had one goal when I was young. I wanted to be cool. I think every kid has that dream, but for this pastor’s kid with the permed bangs, braces …
To Those Who Diet After Christmas
There’s no doubt, Christmas hurts the waistline. The chocolates, cinnamon buns (Pioneer Woman anyone?) and sugar cookies, the turkey and potatoes and perogies, and for a former anorexic, the choices are overwhelming. Do I just take all five salads? How …
Santa Stole Christmas
(and this mother is taking it back!) The whole town is there, young and old, the children climbing onto the stage and playing the piano and dancing around the Christmas tree. Santa arrives at seven o’clock in his red suit …
5 Mistakes to Avoid as a Hostess this Thanksgiving
The air smells of pumpkin spice and fermenting leaves. It’s mid-October, and today is our Canadian Thanksgiving. I’m cooking bacon-wrapped chicken, the kind coated in parmesan cheese. I’ve cut up dozens of garden baby potatoes; sliced them, drizzled with olive …
The Lulu Tree Boutique
The call to Be you, Bravely is concurrently empowering and intimidating. We get that. Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start or identify exactly what is calling our hearts toward doing something brave. If you’re not sure what brave …
The Secret to Being a Grateful Mom (#ILoveYouChallenge)
It’s so much easier to be a good mother when your kids are sleeping. I walked into my sons’ room, to their bunk-beds piled high with blankets and Thomas the Train books, Spiderman and Little Critter stories, stuffies and flashlights, …
What Women (Really) Want
We were newlyweds. I was anorexic. Trent came home one day to find me crying on the couch about the living room—about how off-kilter and ugly it looked with our second-hand furniture—and I hadn’t eaten since the night before. He …