The Mommy Cup is a children’s book with a message that’s just as much for mommies as for their little ones. Heather Ruskievicz combines soft color illustrations that children will love with a simple story line that will speak right to a mother’s heart. The story introduces us to a mommy named Maria who lives in…
“What’s the forecast looking like?” my farmer husband asked the moment he walked in the door. I checked it. Again. It was still saying rain. And we still had wet hay on the ground. It’s the same every fall. It’s time for a third cutting of alfalfa and we need a week of good weather…
We went Shoebox shopping this morning. Shopping with three children in tow is exhausting in itself. But when they are each allowed to help select gifts to fill a shoebox, it’s a unique but enjoyable challenge. We’ve been talking about it for months. Our oldest daughter, intrigued by the idea that you could choose to…
I knew it was coming. After seven years of marriage, it was bound to happen. It was only a question of which one would go first. But when I heard the strange banging, I knew. I grabbed my cell phone and pressed speed dial 2, turning it on speaker phone while it was still ringing….
Her ring sparkled as they walked in. He was tall, with a bearing and a haircut that spoke of service to our country. But they were decked out in the official “country” garb around here: Carhartt jeans and Cabelas hoodies. Everything about them was new, even to the relationship, it seemed. “Do you like Honeycrisp…
“So how are things going with you all lately?” I heard one mom ask another. And the other laughed, “Are you sure that’s a question you really want answered?” We need the friends who ask how we are and wait for the messy, convoluted truth. We need the friends who ask the questions that get…
She’s there behind me, every time I look in the mirror. Comparing her reflection to mine. She shakes her head, that one with the perfect complexion. That size 0 waist mocks me. I hear her disapproving voice inside my head every time I try to pull on a pair of jeans. The ones that won’t…
I am Javert. I see everything black and white. Justice, all must be fair. Yet, I am Eponine. Dirty and rotten. Ever failing. So desperately in need of mercy. Then there are my little Cosettes looking up at me. Innocent in so many ways yet already in need of grace. And I feel the struggle…
“Mom, when I grow up, I’m going to have the perfect life.” So said my almost-six-year-old yesterday afternoon. She went on to describe the perfect Aspen trees she’d climb, the horses she’d ride. And I lost track of her detailed perfection as I looked around at the toys strewn all over the floor, her mis-matched outfit and…
“Where did you get that red hair?” My brother and I heard the question over and over growing up, since we sported identical shades of dark red hair–mine curly, his anything but. “From both sides of the family,” we’d explain. We had three great grandpas with red hair, only one of whom we ever knew….
Sunday morning worship time isn’t always very conducive to worship when you’re a mom. I breathe a big sigh of relief if we even make it there on time and in one piece. And then I try to sing the right words at the right time while balancing a child in one arm and a…
We talk about the first time and the last time, romanticizing the romance and the goodbyes in Country songs and novels. But the truth is, that first kiss, though sweet, is often awkward. And the first time that newborn babe is in your arms you’re as filled with fear as you are joy and relief….
The End.
The End.