You are meant to roam free. We bought a home with a fence and all you want to do is wander down the porch steps and out on your own. Bryan said this to our sweet 12 year old Shih Tzu hours before he took his last breath. Bruiser. Our first kid. The family dog our boys have known since …
Confessions of a Real Life Mom
Clothes hang on the oversized armchair, the trunk, spilling over the corner of our bed and pooling on the ground in a rainbow of sweaters and basketball shorts. It’s a mess. Our bedroom is a mess. And just the other day I was nagging my oldest about cleaning up his room. Not once. Not twice, but ten times. I was …
You are not Broken
You are not broken; you are human You are on a faith journey. This faith is one of fierce love, authentic depth and extravagant grace. Grace for you and grace for myself. Grace for us who carry more than God intended. Grace as we journey the beauty of caring without carrying. Grace to not expect perfection or fix with solutions. …
The Power of Gentle Words
He’s a whirlwind of creativity. I can tell when he gets that squinty, far-off look in his eyes that an idea is simmering and he must.act.NOW! Out comes the paper… run run run… rummage, rummage for watercolors…run run run… “Mom, where are the brushy things?” It’s like watching a tornado in fast-forward. He literally sweeps up everything in his path, …
For my Mama Friends Who Are Doubting Themselves
This morning one of our children (who will remain nameless) was found with a rare lego that he may have *ahem* stolen from a *public place* because he *needed it.* After all, the lego was *gifted to him* so he said (at least he didn’t shove it up his nose). Help us all. I’m raising a dishonest manchild. Anyone know …
Grace & Space
We’ve moved enough in our married life to know that following any big move or transition comes the reality of that newness no longer being, well, new. It’s a whole different ball game doing it with a kindergartener and 2nd grader. The entire 2nd grade put on a “wax museum” where each student dressed the part and verbally shared about …
Grace Refined
I’m welcoming Karin, today’s guest contributor, to our cottage to share about grace and faith and all the beauty discovered when those two gifts collide. It was one of those utterly crazy day. Laundry everywhere. Crabby kids. Piles of paperwork. No dinner plan. Normally it wouldn’t bother me much. I’d give myself a little pep talk. Get organized and move …
Succumbing to Stillness
The very thing I want to do, I often don’t, and what I’m trying not to do, I do. And so enters grace. It’s a season of stillness. Of in-betweens. Call it the calm before the storm or existing in a white noise tunnel but I’m finding there are two options: run as fast as I can to avoid uncomfortable tension …
A Faith Journey: Blessing in Disguise
This is the 3rd of 6 essays in A Faith Journey re-tracing the final week of my Dad’s life. Loss served as the catalyst to my faith, and it is through this story, I see God’s invitation to experience Him as the greatest story. For those that have walked this with me from the beginning, please read and remember and know that God …
GRIEF Journey: What do I say?
Let’s just say it like it is, talking about death is awkward.
Like super uncomfortable, weird, awkward.
What should I say? Do they want to talk about it? Do they not want to talk about it? Ahhh.
We long to validate one’s loss and ask how they are, while simultaneously trying to avoid making the elephant in the room the only topic. It’s a debacle; one that’s hard to navigate. There are no perfect words, only pure intentions. So, to save yourself from making a bigger deal out of an already big deal, for the love, here are phrases and actions that help soothe a very raw wound, as well as cliche’s to ahem, avoid.
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