• A Fresh Start x2

    A Fresh Start x2

    January can feel bittersweet. It’s hard to say goodbye to the rich Christmas decorations, delicious indulgences we gave ourselves permission to enjoy, and the string of visitors that added even more liveliness to our homes. On the flip side is the clean 2020 calendar, decluttered house and blank pages of…

  • Monday Gratitude

    Monday Gratitude

    Gratitude turns what we have…into enough. Anonymous

  • The Unusual December

    The Unusual December

    For the last several years, my post-Thanksgiving activities centered around two things: finishing up the semester of final exams and grading papers, followed by the always-fun list-making for Christmas gifts and planning gatherings. In 2019, my twins moved home after graduating college in May and the Christmas nest would be…

  • 🎄Happy Days After Christmas🎄

    🎄Happy Days After Christmas🎄

    “Happy Day(s) after Christmas… Merry rest of the year… Even when Christmas is over The light of the world is still here!” Matthew West

  • Merry Christmas!🎁

    Merry Christmas!🎁

    God bless each of you with a very special, relaxing week with your friends and families! Merry, Merry Christmas!!

  • One of the Best Christmas Gifts I Ever Received

    One of the Best Christmas Gifts I Ever Received

    I’ve never been great at answering the question, “what was the best gift you’ve ever received?” Salvation? My children? Health? …. the list is long. But when pressed this year to come up with something tangible that was actually wrapped in paper, I had to say it was a Hallmark…

  • The Beginning of Advent

    The Beginning of Advent

    We all know that the higher we go, the smaller everything below appears. On a recent flight, I thought about God’s view of our physical world.  Our seemingly big homes look like tiny Legos. Once the plane soars above the clouds, earthly treasures are not visible at all. We are…

  • I Can’t Have a Relationship with my Turkey

    I Can’t Have a Relationship with my Turkey

    (Many people enjoyed this post so much last year, I thought it might be fun to re-post as we enter into Thanksgiving week…) I live in a suburb that is home to several beautiful farms. Recently, I saw two different signs offering turkeys for sale for Thanksgiving. I pulled over…

  • Monday Gratitude

    Monday Gratitude

    Counting today, there are only 11 days until Thanksgiving. Merry Christmas. We have had temps in the teens and 20’s with a full blanket of snow on the ground for over a week. The winter weather makes it easy to forget about Thanksgiving and move right into Christmas. Even if…

  • Monarch

    Monarch

    This beauty caught my attention walking into the bookstore at my daughter’s university in Virginia a couple weeks ago. Here in NY, a layer of frost had already covered our lawn. In Virginia, these flowers were still in bloom despite the orange leaves falling from the trees. The Farmer’s Almanac…

  • Baking Brings Calm. Order. Completion.

    Baking Brings Calm. Order. Completion.

    I made cookies over the weekend. Although there were plenty of tasks I “should have” done instead, I needed to do something that made me feel normal, creative… and – in the end – something was accomplished that was visible and complete. I went so far as to arrange the…

  • The Power of God’s Country

    The Power of God’s Country

    God’s Country: “A place conceived of as especially favored by God; a place away from a city.” Merriam-Webster Last weekend, my husband and I flew to Virginia to see our youngest at school. She was thrilled to have us there and kept us really busy with her friends and touring…