15 April 2018

D is for Dark (an alphabet of autism and grace)

Listen to your lives for the sound of him. Search even in the dark for the light and the love and the life because they are there also, and we are known each one by name. Frederick Buechner I didn’t realize it at the time, but there was foreshadowing in that dark autumn moment. It was a bright and clear October day. After laughing at tree-climbing goats and taking photos with our faces in wooden cutouts of farm animals, we left the bright sunshine of the pumpkin patch for the hay maze. Unafraid, I went into the maze behind Continue Reading

30 March 2018

Remembering the Total Solar Eclipse on Good Friday

soul keeping | pour

Last summer we headed for the path of totality. It was the middle of August when we set out for Sublimity in the pickup. It 's my favorite season here in Oregon: sunshine, cornflower skies, and fat blueberries, ripe and sweet in the dusty fields. We bought the cardboard glasses. We studied the maps. We gathered the supplies: big kids, hoodies, fraying quilts, chunky homemade Monster cookies, the good camera, and dark-roast coffee. Before the day fully dawned, clear and bright, we piled into the pickup and drove to an open field between farmlands. It felt like a party. Like Continue Reading

23 March 2018

Favorite Finds (Easter basket edition)

favorite finds

That's how many Easter baskets I have filled in my life so far. Over the years, I have simplified their contents, gotten more creative and added more meaning to what goes into the baskets. I didn't just want fillers, I wanted things that fill me, body, mind, and soul. I'm sure you do too. We all want to bless our families, use our money wisely, and celebrate the death and life season of the Jesus we love, all while keeping our celebration true and sweet and soulful. I have gathered what I think are my best Easter basket ideas from Continue Reading

17 March 2018

Get Ready for Your Big Kid's Wedding (no matter how old your kids are)

marriage

In the middle of a snowy winter, the sun broke through the clouds for just one day - my baby daughter's wedding day. Ryan, our youngest daughter, and Morgan, her high school sweetheart, got married almost two months ago and I have been trying to take it all into my heart ever since. Their wedding got me thinking about all kinds of things related to weddings and marriage and in-laws. Having three weddings in our family so far, we've learned a few things we never knew when we were the ones getting married. Weddings make you reflect on your own Continue Reading

28 February 2018

Things I Learned this Winter

What I Learned

Last summer when I was riding my new birthday bike on a trail in the woods, I was reminded of the value of stopping every so often and looking back where you have been. When our only markers for getting home are rocks, trees, and turns in the trail, we need to see the path from different vantage points. Plus, we can catch my breath and ask each other, "Did you just see that?"(chipmunk, owl, deer). That is what these "What We Learned this (Season)" posts with Emily P. Freeman are all about. We are Continue Reading