He sits in an arm chair with his small, tender hands pressed hard over his bottomless brown eyes, flaxen curls spiraling soft over his head. Three-years-old and his tone earnest, he counts, leading. 1…2…3… Adam kneels in front of him, bending his long, eleven-year-old legs, pressing his lengthening fingers against his own eyes.  Adam’s voice […]

Five o’clock and the day gasping, my children hang on me like satellites in orbit.  I stand at the sink, rubbing green beans between my fingers in a colander, the water rushing over, warm.  For a breath—just one—I wonder about where these beans grew–what close field, the color of the soil, the smell.  I wonder whose […]

This afternoon, when I picked the kids up from school, Zoe ran over to the van.  Weeping. I opened the door and pulled her into my lap, and the words came tumbling out with her tears. “Mom, Emily said she hated me.  And then, when we were leaving school, and I was telling Roxanna what […]

Zoe is a prayer warrior.  And frankly, she absolutely schools the rest of us. For about three years, the motor on the power door in our van was burned out.  When the girls were younger, they thought it fun to engage the door and then watch it jerk back in the other direction when they […]

Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, […]

Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ~Galatians 6:9 Sometimes I feel so weary.  These are the days when I feel the truth of my inadequacy, and also the best days for acknowledging the reality of God’s tremendous […]

1. Give your dragon your full attention at least once a day.  Dragons get bigger when they are ignored. 2. Really get to know your dragon.  Give it a name.  What sort of dragon is it?  Look at it hard, then draw a picture of it. 3. If you make your dragon laugh, it might […]

Adam’s voice is the best sound in my day. This week, I had the longest sustained conversation I’ve ever had with my son in the (nearly) nine years of his life.  And it was about supper. Early in the morning, I thawed some chicken and mixed up the ingredients for some aptly named “chicken delicious.”  […]

Get your snapping fingers ready:)~ Adam has never liked costumes.  When he was younger, I actually tried getting him to select things he wanted to wear for Halloween, but it was an exercise in futility, one of those efforts that just left me frustrated with his limited ability to communicate.  It’s often the little things […]

A few mornings ago, Zoe wandered in and asked, “Mommy, what will Adam be when he grows up?” “I don’t know.  What do you want to be when you grow up?” “I want to be a doctor.”  She said it matter-of-factly, like she’d been thinking about it. “Wow.  That’s a great thing to be.”  I […]