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You Can Always Come Home

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Over the past several months I’ve looked back longingly on those exhausting nights of waking children and all those witching hours when one boy would be hanging at my ankles whining, and the littlest would be needing a diaper change, and the oldest was clearly responding out of low blood sugar craziness. Without me even realizing it, those days were in my past. I put a sweet toddler down for a nap one day not realizing it would be the last daytime tuck in. And somewhere along the line, I took my final middle of the night groggy walk up […]

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Sanded Through

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A few years ago I purchased a piece of furniture on Craigslist for $20. It’s a classic colonial dark pine buffet and hutch, something similar to what my mother had in our dining room in the 1980s. As I sanded by hand every inch and crevice, exposing new surface and leaving some old, I considered how even our furniture can reflect a little bit of who we are. We are a people continually being made new. By the very hands of our Creator who makes us more like him. By the experiences that round out our edges. By the people who […]

My Favorite Things This Spring {2014}

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1. Pixi redness reducing primer from Target. I put it under my tinted moisturizer to help even my skin tone. The closer I get to 40, the more I need little favorite like this. My skin has changed a lot in tone and texture these past few years and I’m committed to taking care of it, even if it means spending a little more money on good cleansers and creams. I currently use Dr. Loretta skin care online and I’m super happy with the results. 2. These sweet potato chips are so yummy. Only 3 ingredients: sweet potatoes, sunflower oil […]

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Marriage: The Working out of My Salvation

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They sat there in all their twenty something beauty, holding coffee and sharing stories. And I sat their held captive by their genuine hearts and dreams. I’ve heard it’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do, she said. The other one looked at me with her hopeful unmarried eyes, Is it? Is it the hardest thing you’ve ever done? Hmmm….I wanted so much to respond in a way that keeps it real, but shows the wonder. Marriage. It’s complicated to communicate the complexity of two becoming one. It’s unique to all other relationships. It’s covenant. It’s constant. It’s eternal, because even when […]

Yes Also Means No {a truth my husband speaks}

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Here’s the thing about learning yes. You must also learn no. For saying yes to something inevitably means saying no to something else. Yes to a truth, no to a lie. Yes to God’s will, no to self-fulfilled dreams. Yes to intentional living, no to busyness and a rigid calendar. Yes to your children, no to selfish intentions. Yes to healthier eating, no to cheap groceries. In everything, there is a choice, a deciding between what you desire {or need}, and what you’re willing to do without in order to have the time, money, energy or attention to weave what […]

Yes!

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It’s been two years since the Lord sung her name to me. The story has yet to turn a page, but I couldn’t help revisit the moment as I entered into my sacred week of hunger, of looking backward and forward with clarity and vision. At the beginning of each year I commit to a week of fasting. No food. Rather, I feast on God’s sustaining grace and find myself fully satisfied in His presence, in the way He always meets me in my hunger, in my seeking. And yet, after ten years of this discipline, ten years of His […]

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For All Your Repeating Words

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Sometimes I feel like a broken record, scratching out the same few words of the same old tune over and over again….and the longer I sing those words, the less kind they sound. Please remember to rinse your dishes and put them in the dishwasher. Don’t forget to put your dishes in the dishwasher, okay? Hello? Dishes? They go in the dishwasher….remember? Dishes! (stomp) Dishwasher! (stomp) Now!!! (stomp) There are times I question whether I can go another day on repeat. Picking up the same belongings left out by the same people. Cleaning and wiping the very same things over […]

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These Holy Pigs

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  It seemed right to send them out just as I brought them in. Through song. A simple homemade song by my Great Aunt May and a hymn of gratitude that welcomed the Creator to the moment. Great is Thy faithfulness. Great is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. The morning stung with chill and an act of death we’ve been anticipating since June.  We welcomed the baby pigs, we held them when they were tiny, we winced at their outrageous squeals. We […]

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How to Harvest Love {2013}

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To harvest is to gather. To recognize what is ripe and to collect and enjoy the fruits of a season. And then we feast. We let the sweet and savory crops satisfy us. And we give thanks for what’s been given. Oh that we would be a people who do this with love! That we would recognize this fruit of the Spirit that has grown and ripened in the season we’re living right now. That we would collect our experiences and memories of the love given and received. Of the seeds planted with grace, and the witness of love growing and maturing in […]

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Green Smoothie Recipe {and food ramblings}

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I grew up eating home cooked meals and enjoying the way dinners and holidays gathered us around a table. Our family always loved eating together, making new recipes and putting in a little extra effort to make a meal special. It’s kind of one of our traditions. Certain recipes belong to certain people. Like my sister carries on the tradition of our Grandma’s yeast rolls. And I’m always the one who makes the sausage cornbread stuffing at Thanksgiving. My mom’s roast is always tastier than the rest of ours. And my dad’s gravy is the best! And my brother’s chocolate […]

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