Charlie and I talk a lot about seasons of life. It probably comes from the age we’re at. We have enough life experience to look back and see the seasons that came before this one. Those times when it felt like things would never change, like when the kids were little. I never thought I’d [...]

[Read more →]

What? Is it my birthday? Why yes. Yes, it is. Forty-three years ago, in 1967, I made my appearance. Yes, I was born into the era of black and white. And for some reason, now I want to call someone on the phone. When I was given to her, my mom said I looked Asian. [...]

[Read more →]

Sitting here on the couch, I’m surrounded by dogs and laundry. The dogs only cause problems when I trip over them. But the laundry…. The laundry is my nemesis. Hangers litter one sofa cushion. Baskets compete for the socks that I’m folding. After three weeks of feeling BLEH, I am unbelievably behind on washing clothes. [...]

[Read more →]

She was sick. At two o’clock Sunday morning Abby ran into my room, whimpering, her hand over her mouth. Sleepy as I was, my first thought was that she’d had a nightmare. That changed when the vomiting began. I half-ran her, half-carried her to the bathroom, and together we leaned over the toilet. Once her [...]

[Read more →]

If I’ve made anything clear this week, it’s that my interests are pretty – um – unpredictable. Here is just a sampling of what I’ve found interesting over the past seven days. Join me on the journey. But keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride. Some links that [...]

[Read more →]

“Mom, when you were little, did ice cubes look like this?” My soon-to-be 9yo, Hannah, is always asking me questions like this. Searching for her place in our world (maybe because she’s the middle child?), she wants to know how her experience compares to mine. “No. Our ice cubes were really CUBES, not those crescent-moon [...]

[Read more →]

Last Sunday at 12StoneTM, the theme of the morning was The Gap. As in the store. Yes, our creative team is REALLY creative. As you might guess, Pastor Kevin (PK)’s message was about a gap. But not the retail chain. He examined the gap within us: the distance between who we are and who we [...]

[Read more →]

Is that not the lamest title EVER? A bad pun on a bad movie from the 80s. I apologize. Please carry on. Wannadoo, Wannadooo-ooo-OOOOO… I can only sing the first few measures of that song, since I never saw “Xanadu.” But I saw Olivia Newton-John — whose name I always want to hyphenate in all [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve just read news that is heartbreaking to consider. A song called “Healer”, which has swept the Internet and been picked up by Hillsong, and was sung at my church (12Stone) only two weeks ago, was written by a man who claimed to be suffering from terminal cancer. But he has recently admitted that he [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve written before that God has called me to connect more with others, specifically in my neighborhood and school. But this weekend I’ve been reminded of how HARD it is to love some people. They might not be easy to connect to, or maybe they’re actually unpleasant. Faced with that difficulty in the past, I always coped by [...]

[Read more →]