I'm just trying to walk myself home.
Every year at d camp we do a hike and swim day. It’s nice to get out of camp for a day and hang around the Buffalo River, famous for drop dead gorgeous cliffs jutting up out of the snaking river. It became apparent early in the week that we were MUCH too big a …
D Camp Oh Discipleship Camp, lovingly referred to as d-camp. Where should I even start? So much could be said about the 6 days of being at camp with over 100 middle school students during one of the hottest Junes ever recorded in the history of this fine state of Arkansas. Really, the amount of …
So, I never finished putting up all my pictures from our trip to Colorado. These are all pictures from hikes we did in and around Aspen. Every day we spent in Aspen we found a new hike to go on. This trail actually left from our campground, Difficult Creek. The kids love to stop near …
We fell in love with The Wingfeather Series this spring. The books are by one of our favorite singer/songwriters, Andrew Peterson. He sings a song called Dreams on his album for children about a kid who is looking for pirates, dragons and all sorts of adventures. In my mind, these books are those adventures. My …
One of the events that marks our autumn season every year are our middle and high school Fall Castle Bluff camps at church. So much of what happens in our youth programs at church pours out of these events and they take an enormous amount of support to pull off. Taido and Bobby and their …
Half Broke Horses is sort of a prequel to one of my very favorite books, The Glass Castle. The stories from Jeannette Walls’ grandmother’s life are enjoyable and hair-raising at the same time. Lily Casey Smith was born in 1901. In the book, she tells her adventures in her own voice. She was a mustang …
Hanging Out With Teenagers At Church: Youth Ministry is Not For The Faint of Heart Another major change I made in my life last year was at church. I moved from serving for years in my happy, comfortable spot in the 2-3 year old Sunday school class over to the scary building which houses our …
We spent a lovely two days in the area of Rifle, Colorado, a place I had never even heard tell of before last week. Though we enjoyed our time there, we probably won’t go back since it is so far west in Colorado. Unless, of course, I take up rock climbing, which is about as …
Crested Butte Yoga in Colorado at Yoga For The Peaceful If you’ve been following me since our last visit to Crested Butte, you know that I enjoy some mountain yoga. I went to four different classes the last time I was here, and wrote about every single one of them. (See yoga archives.) When we …
We are escaping the Arkansas heat this week in one of our favorite spots in the whole world. Crested Butte, Colorado. We headed out this morning for our first real hike of the week. Judd Falls. We drove through the tiny settlement of Gothic, Colorado. Students of all ages were out in the fields studying, …
In the past few weeks my precious grandmother has moved in with my mom and my aunt in Nashville. She’s going to split time between here and Tennessee because if there’s one thing my grandmother does not mind, it is a change of scenery now and then. In fact, her eyes light up when someone …
for my mama… Every year on Mother’s Day I remember how grateful I am for my mama. But this year I happen to be doing a lot of reading about marriage and I have to say that what I am most grateful for about my mom today is her undying commitment to my daddy. Recently …
Creaky Old House , a children’s book by Linda Ashman, arrived in Simon’s Easter basket and we are loving it! The whole story about how to fix a very loved old house when a doorknob breaks is told in bouncy rhyming verse. Michael Chesworth’s illustrations are gorgeous! I love this one at a local hardware …
I’ve posted my homemade salsa recipe before, but here it is again. We’re going through it quicker than ever these days! Somehow, hot weather just calls for salsa and guacamole. For the tomatoes, we use a big (102 oz) can of tomatoes from Sam’s wholesale, so it is super inexpensive to make. My Mama’s Salsa …
Five Little Ducks So remember last year when I posted silly videos of Simon singing his favorite songs from Bible Study and you all humored me because of the many purposes this blog serves, one of them is to be a sort of scrapbook of memories. Well, it’s time for one of those again. Simon …
On Friday evening, Whitney took Taido and me to one of our favorite places along with many of our favorite delights to do a photo shoot that was so uniquely wonderful. We packed up some of our favorite books, a new notebook, a yummy picnic and a borrowed quilt. The whole evening was dreamy and …
Simon came home with fever yesterday so I had some time at home today. Today was a good day for cleaning out. I have been putting away winter and pulling out spring. I was happy to find a flowing spring skirt to put on since the spring sunshine is warming us up. Unearthing an old …
Happy Friday! One of my most favorite things about Fridays is that I get to watch the gal I teach alongside every day do one of the things that she was just made to do. Teach art. She is an artist, and she is a wonderful art teacher. And on Fridays, we need art! We …
Homemade Playdough: The Only Use I Can Find For Kool-Aid Someone recently asked me for this recipe for homemade playdough that I used to make long ago when I worked with preschoolers at church. Now I serve with the middle schoolers and as I typed out this recipe it struck me that maybe a little playdough …
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me… Whenever I read a book like Little Bee (Long Way Gone, God Grew Tired of Us and The Other Side of the Sky also come to mind), I …