I'm just trying to walk myself home.
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I’ve been trying to hold my eyes wide open this week to see the good in the world. Though I am constantly trying to cultivate a heart of thanks, it’s more than being grateful. I am also fighting to stay in the light. Praying for eyes to see and ears to hear. Beautiful things. Here …
I am so grateful for a wonderful weekend at Castle Bluff with our middle school students from church. It’s been a couple of years since I made it to one of Taido’s camps so I had enough distance that I was able to wonder afresh at the experience. Lots of treasures on my Grateful List …
This is part 3 of a fun anniversary shoot that Whitney did with my parents. Here’s part 1 and part 2. I am so incredibly grateful to Whitney for these precious pictures of my parents! My parents started dating at North Little Rock High during their senior year. Daddy asked Mama to prom that spring …
This part 2 of my parents’ anniversary Boot Shoot with Whitney. Yesterday was Boots in the Rain, but we got rewarded for braving the rain with some amazing sunlight. The kind that only comes after the rain. My parents are looking at Mary Polly who had wandered up the riverbank a little bit to play. …
In August, my parents went to their 45th high school reunion and celebrated their 42nd anniversary. To mark these special events in their lives, I asked Whitney to take pictures of them. We used to take a family picture every year growing up, but once we all flew the coop, my parents stopped having …
We are celebrating Mama today because it is her birthday. But I am celebrating more than just that she was born today. I am giving thanks for the difference between last year and today. Last year at this time Mama was in a hospital, she weighed less than 100 pounds and was struggling to retain …
I hope you had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Ours was full of food, friends and squeezing in those last summer memories. Labor Day officially marks the end of summer for me. Even though we hit 100 degrees yesterday and we have not yet seen the end of the three digit temperatures in Little …
After a couple of busy days in which we were all running different directions, we decided to spend Saturday evening together as a family. Everyone wanted to watch a movie, but Taido and I decided we all needed to get out of the house. The summer heat has given us a little relief the last …
Today my only girl is 13. She has grown up so much in the last year, and yet I still have so much I want her to know. I want her to dream bigger-than-life dreams but I want her to stay close to me. I am alternately bursting with pride in the young woman she …
I was new in town, living on the south side of Seattle. Renton, to be exact. We had lived less than a year in a relatively uninspiring mint green townhouse. I was new to motherhood, new to staying at home, new to leaving the house with everything but the kitchen sink. I hadn’t really met …
Colorado Wildflowers Mary Polly took a lot of pictures on our trip to Colorado this year. In fact, everyone took a few pictures of their own and it is fun as I go through them to see our adventures from different eyes. The boys take lots of pictures of rocks and sticks. Mary Polly took …
My grandmother and Simon are both Junebugs. They turned 6 and 89 last week, so they shared a birthday cake at Sunday lunch at my parents. We partied all day on Sunday because we were also saying Goodbye to our exchange student, Vitara, who began her long journey back to Indonesia yesterday. My grandmother played …
My sister and her kids came in town last week to get a little bit of Arkansas and a whole lot of cousin time into their summer. We spent four days all together and then the older kids headed off to Discipleship Camp with Taido while we took the younger ones over to Hot Springs. …
This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to visit Moss Mountain Farm. P. Allen Smith and the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board treated several Arkansas bloggers to a dreamy day of doing a few of my most favorite things: walking, eating and storytelling. I’m still soaking it all in. I met lots of new friends, tasted …
We are gearing up for a wonderful holiday season at the Chino House. I haven’t pulled the decorations out yet but I am doing a lot of preparing on paper and in my heart. We’re so excited this year because our church theme for this Christmas is the Advent Conspiracy. Since we already love an …
Happy Big FOUR! O! to the man I love most in the world! I’m so grateful for all the years I’ve gotten to spend with him and for the journeys we still have ahead together. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I cannot imagine doing life with anyone else. It is more …
I’m so grateful for silence this week. It’s necessary to my sanity. I got to escape to the woods on Saturday for some quiet time. A silent prayer retreat with friends from church. My favorite part of the camp was a prayer garden that was a path deep into the woods with lots of little …
Grateful for Hope on Maundi Thursday! We studied Isaiah 60 in Bible Study Fellowship this week. Isaiah 60 is all about hope and light. Hope for our future. Peace for today. I’m so grateful for how the study of Jesus as our future light and present hope coincided with rejoicing at Jesus’ entry on Palm …
Rainy Monday Morning Grateful. Cultivating Gratitude in the Morning. My kids go to school in this beautiful building. This morning it was dark and rainy when I dropped them off. Everyone was so sleepy. The clock in the car said 6:30 because I hadn’t changed it yet for daylight savings. It was kind of brutal, …
Monday Grateful: The key to the Mondays is always gratitude. I got home last night from being gone for the weekend at my cousin’s wedding in California. This morning has been a sweet mix of relishing both a great getaway and coming home. Even though a certain 4 year old woke me up at 5am …