Sheets of frozen white driven by cutting wind kept my snow-loving son indoors. By late afternoon, the worst moved past. Glittering flecks blew from drift to drift, tiny razor shards of snow bit into anyone brave enough to challenge the outdoors. My husband shrugged into his marshmallow puffed coat, scarf, and hat to make a […]
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In the month of January, when people sit down with year planners and good intentions, I realize, I’m not a great goal setter. I don’t like to see on black and white what I’ve kept locked in my brain. It’s not as much seeing it there as feeling like the words are looking at me. […]
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It’s crazy how much time it takes to make the season perfect. The ratio of hot chocolate and cookies to lights and greenery is only outdone by the numbers on my gift list. What should fill me with delight has begun to overwhelm me. Control slips as does my ability to accomplish all that I […]
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A rubber duck accompanied my walk around the room. I laid it in plain sight on a shelf of the bookcase. Its classic yellow face and orange bill pointed to the door where my daughter would skip through in a few seconds. “Heidi,” I called, “Come find the ducky.” Heidi scampered inside. Her eyes sparkled. They […]
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-Guest post by Charity George Too often I wait till I’ve reached the light at the end of the tunnel, to be thankful. “Thank you that those test results turned out good.” “Thank you that the pain is gone.” But what if that light at the end of the tunnel is…just more tunnel, or a […]
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I did it again. I took out my measuring tape and measured. It wasn’t the dainty kind I carry in my purse and embarrass my husband with, or the big black one pocketed in his tool belt hanging in the garage. Rather I used a sly invisible one I carry inside of me, the one […]
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My dad, talented in all things musical, had a sharp ear and an equally sharp tongue. His pitch was perfect. He judged without apology. “Should have been a B-flat not a B-natural,” he burst in shouting. He could be working the back 40 but when I struck a wrong note on the piano, he appeared […]
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It was in a moment when the house was quiet, the girls at school and my husband at work that the little blue sleeper called my name again. The sun’s bright rays bleached my vision and I squinted against a row of white sheets flapping in the breeze. I stood still for another moment and […]
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“I want to hold you,” he begged at his mommy’s knee, arms upraised toward her, little toes tipped his almost two-year-old body up and down expectantly. “I want to hold you too,” she said. She bent in half, her long brown hair veiled a smile I knew she wore. My daughter-in-law placed hands on both […]
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Before farms had fashionable “mud rooms,” they existed. “Don’t you come in the front porch,” my mom insisted to my black-dirt-clothed brothers before supper. Because of course on the farm we had suppers not dinners, and dinners instead of lunches. My three brothers heavy with the weight of a mixture of wheat dust, sweat and […]
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