My family has been celebrating New Year’s Eve with LeAnn’s family since before my little brother was born. Ever since the eve of January 1, 1996, we’ve all gathered at my grandparents’ ranch to ring in the new year, with fellowship over food, games, and music. In the past fourteen years, I’ve only missed the…
Yesterday morning we woke up to see 12 degrees as the temperature projected on our ceiling by a handy-dandy clock we were given for our wedding. This morning, it was 15 degrees. It has yet to snow enough to stick, but you couldn’t tell it looking out the window: even by mid-afternoon, many of the…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I blog. It has prompted a lot of revelations, which will spill out into more blog posts! But the other day, as I was picking up the growing collection of Good Dog, Carl and other board books from the bathroom—stacked on the floor, around the potty chair,…
Our favorite tomato soup recipe turned out extra-pretty this week with the addition of yellow heirloom tomatoes. It’s a simple recipe: just saute diced onion and garlic in butter. Then add diced tomatoes and a bit of beef broth, then salt, pepper, thyme, and parsley to taste. Simmer for a few minutes and it’s the…
Have you ever tasted homemade tomato sauce? From tomatoes grown in the dirt around your home. Tomatoes that have been chopped on your kitchen counter. Tomatoes that have simmered for hours on your kitchen stove. Until the extra liquid has evaporated and the tomatoes have reached the smooth perfection of…homemade tomato sauce. Last week I…
I’ve decided there are two—no three—things that make my day go better. The one is—or at least, should be—a “given”: spending time in God’s Word. But unfortunately, it often becomes only an item to be hurried through so I can get to my to-do list (which is the second). Yet if I do really focus…
“Summer’s loss seems little, dear, on days like these.” -Ernest Dowson “It snowed on the hills around us last night.” The phrase from one of the letters Merritt wrote me during our years of friendship always comes to mind this time of year. As in his letter (a particular favorite, which I carried around in…
Whether it was walking around at the county fair Saturday night, the extra dark Lindt chocolate (85% cocoa) my husband bought me after the fair, or all the red raspberry leaf and pregnancy tea I’d been drinking the past six months, we got to hold our second daughter almost two weeks before her due date….
When talking to an expectant neighbor dad recently, he made the comment that he’d told his wife all maternity clothes should come with earplugs, so expectant moms couldn’t hear people’s comments. I think I’m beginning to agree. In the past two weeks, I’ve heard it all: from “You’re popping out so quickly” to “You’re carrying so…
I was seven months pregnant with our first child when Fairlight posed a question: “I’ve always wanted to ask, do pregnant women feel as cute as they look?” I laughed. I was beyond exhausted, more than glowing from the humidity I was unused to, and not feeling in the least bit cute. “No,” I had…
At times it is uncanny how much I feel like I’m looking in the mirror when I look at my little daughter. Though she has so many of her daddy’s features, she looks so very much like my baby pictures, I often take a second glance: isn’t that me I’m looking at? But more and…
Eloise Wilkin has always been my favorite children’s book illustrator. In fact, she’s probably my very favorite illustrator ever (excepting my husband’s drawings of classic cars and my daughter’s “pictures,” of course!). I grew up with my parents reading me the Golden Sturdy Shape Book versions of My Good Morning Book and My Good Night…
The End.
The End.