Beauty from Ashes

Yesterday, the world watched in sadness and sometimes in quiet song as vast portions of Notre Dame Cathedral came down in a blaze. Many mourned the loss of a place of such history and culture. But even more mourned the loss of a great bastion of beauty in the world. Tears were shed by some…

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Girl, Wash Some Feet

Recently I read Rachel Hollis’s book Girl, Wash Your Face. To be honest, I read the book on a dare. I shared an article many months ago that I'd read that offered some critiques of her book, but several friends who had actually read Hollis's book suggested that I should read it for myself before…

Looking Back on Year 1

This was our first "official" year of homeschooling. I say "official" because I think children are homeschooling (and everywhere-else-schooling) from the day they're born. Just think about everything a baby learns in the first two years of her life - language, mobility, relationships, cause and effect! We don't sit down with workbooks and flashcards to…

Trust and Obey

Sunday morning came again with its usual holy and mundane mess. Trying to wrestle wiggly boys into button-up shirts. Chasing the baby around to change her diaper. Smooshing and combing and gelling that middle-little’s persistent cowlick. Our service starts at 8:15, and we live quite a long way from church. We are chronically late. Often…

Slow Isn’t a Four-Letter Word

If you were to ask me to name the most important thing that I'm learning in these early days of homeschooling, I would probably say that it's the value of moving slowly.  Slow does not come easily to me. My to-do-lists are enormous and my brain fires along with a fury. I love to work…

The Heart Work of Hospitality

Oftentimes when we talk about hospitality, the conversation revolves around the state of our homes. Is hospitality letting people into our sacred ordinary dust and laundry piles? Or is hospitality cleaning, lighting candles, and creating an environment of peace and beauty to restore souls? Perhaps the answer is both – and neither. Perhaps hospitality has…

Hope in the Darkness

My daughter entered the world in a season of darkness. In a way, every single orbit around the sun has its fair share of darkness. Every year has its blights, its own particular daunting evils. But the past years have had a distinct heaviness to them. Trucks driven through crowded streets, intent on mowing down…

Tea and the Enjoyment of Useless Things

It was just one of those days. My boys were yelling at each other and fighting over which of them had picked up the toy first. The baby was refusing to nap. It was miserably cold and bleak outside. Our family of five had been living in my parents’ small guesthouse for seven months while…

The Broken and Beautiful Road

When my first baby was born, after more than twenty hours of hard labor, they handed me this screaming, vulnerable, chubby little boy. He was precious and sacred. And yet I was so sore that I could barely hold him and I mostly just wanted to sleep. I had split wide open and bled to…

Inconvenient Friends: Finding the Power of Female Friendships Where I Least Expected

  Female friendships can be hard. Can I get an Amen? Nowhere other than in a group of women can you feel so insignificant, chubby, unstylish, judged, and out-of-the-loop. I’ve recently learned, though, how beautiful and powerful a group of women really can be. A few years ago, my family moved to Washington, D.C. for my…