Confessions of a Robbed Robin Hood
At an abandoned gas station across the street, they loitered. Cheeky round things, peeking through the foliage, blushed in the sun. While land battles were waged through pocket picket signs on yards and election-year newspaper articles about possible big box super stores, these coy ones loitered, blossomed, and hung out silent in a forgotten corner.…
Multi-tasking Moms and Stirred Up Spirits
Hissing, bubbling coffee percolates nearby, steam rising from the black appliance top. An airplane drones sleepily overhead as cool breezes pour through my open windows. Morning forays into facebook earlier had alerted me to further uprisings in the Middle East. Clicking to BBC world news, I read and prayed, scrolling pages. Wiping kitchen counters, slicing…
Of Fires and Friendships: And How Do You Be a Good Friend?
After following orange detour signs around winding silo-topped farms and rolled up bales of hay, the state park road dropped down a hill and along a glassy river. Camp sites sprinkled both sides of the road and we crunched into gravely sites. Later, wrapped in cool autumn night, we folded marinated chicken, red onions and…
Six Essentials of a Great Youth Program
Summer heat pours through a September window, and my student bends head over her math notebook. Legos tinkle in the distance as preschooler relishes rest time. Our youth group switches back to school hours tonight, so sixth graders through eighth graders will separate from the ninth through twelfth graders. Youth pastor husband and I love…
How to Stretch Summer Long
Photo credit At seven am this morning, loud electronic chirping echoed through our house. Narrowing it down to the fire alarm near the kitchen, my husband perched on rickety wooden chair, pushing buttons, searching for a battery plate, and unwired it from the wall. Nothing worked and he eventually had to race off to worship…
He Spoke Huskily
Photo credit to Keith M This morning, we woke to celebrate eighteen years together, eighteen years of saying I do. Babysitter teen children watched the youngest as my man and I strolled by rose gardens, tinkling fountains, and clanking sailboats in mirrored city skyline lakes. He unfolded paper thin. “I woke up thinking these words…
Start the Year off Right: Building Confident Kids Who See Others
In an eight am to two pm day of orientation for PSEO students (high school students taking free college classes for dual credits), we have been released for a social mingling time. My brown-haired John stretches long arms, arcing tired shoulders, and cracks his knuckles, in the arena where all students are to stay. Parents…
The Chocolate Lied
Rain clouds slide nearer, and a damp blue creeps across my lawn and window. The air cools visibly, and tree branches ruffle silently. Unfolded laundry stacks precariously on the couch behind me, and the house is still as naps or room-projects claim my children. Earlier this week, four year old Daniel holds up tiny chocolate…
What to Wear Every Day
Good morning! Grab a cup of coffee and join me. Moist pear tart mingles with dark roast coffee, and I admit that this is my second pastry this morning, leftovers from a Bridal Shower this last Saturday. Nine women, old and young, circled in an off-white parlor. Delicate dried lavender sprigs crested our rolled napkins,…
How to Melt an Angry Heart
“The lies grow big in me when I’m angry,” he admits. Slight shoulders hunch high near black hair on a honey-colored neck. His mom listens, and they talk side by side, as the miles hum below them. My boy yells loud from a tall cream-colored loft. “Noooo, me not sleep, Mom! Me get up!” Tantrums…