Before the carpenter’s sawdust brushed off, before the wood glue dried, before the grout hardened, the guy I married had to learn a new skill, the pregnant husband trade. Married four short months when the baby test promised more than a case of the flu, we looked at one another in shock. “How in the […]
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I’m a cloudy kind of person. Sometimes something in my soul shuts out the light and then the cloud passes and suddenly it’s as if the glory of the sun explodes inside of me and everything is brilliant again. Gloom is part of my life, shadowy and rainy. But so is brightness. The clouds at […]
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[I’m excited to have my daughter Charity as the guest contributor for today’s post.] I tend to separate my life into BC (before Charity’s illness) and AD (After the Destruction) of Charity’s physical body. Those categories can also stand for Before Children and After Daughters. You see, being involved in Early Childhood I had very […]
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Flour frosted the kitchen like snow. A flour bin, a half-empty bottle of vegetable oil, and baking pans fought for territory on my counter. Little fingers thick with dough punched and kneaded gooey mounds. Lined up, varying heights on chairs and stools, three children made a ragged profile of chattering bakers. “Pooooof,” the littlest voice […]
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“No rest for the weary,” mom sighed. She bent down to pick up muddy boots and move them off the kitchen floor where they lay on their rubber sides, shells without spirits. She carried them out the back door and set them outside on cement steps marked by clumps of wet dirt. We cook, clean, […]
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“Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate. “You have said so,” Jesus replied. (Mark 15:2; NIV) Easter mornings looked like new clothes and smelled like ham baking. It culminated with Easter Egg hunts and marshmallow peeps. With my new little pink dress spread out like a cloud around me on a wooden church pew, […]
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Okay, so it’s possible I don’t like her child. That friend who’s been a friend for as long as I can remember, the one who dried my tears after break ups and sad movies, the friend who knew my fiancé and I were engaged before we really were…that friend’s kid drives me crazy. In fact, […]
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Fire darted from blue eyes. “I don’t want to go.” White ruffles flounced around her squirming legs as we clicked the strap into her car seat. She crossed her arms, defiant. A frown like an angry arc puckered her lips. “Already,” I thought? “She’s only four.” For the Psalmist, the long process of a once-a-year […]
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One of my daughters, might have had the advantage of most lawyers at age two. By the time she turned ten, she could befuddle my brain to the place where not only did I forget the point of my argument, I couldn’t even remember for which side I fought. As parents we did our best […]
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“Ain’t got the brains God gave a goose,” Dad muttered, shaking his head. He sat in his chair in front of the big old Zenith. Encased in a piece of furniture that fit the previous TV, the new one left a space of several inches of dead air around it. Its curved globe front took […]
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