What I Learned this Spring (songwriter edition)

What I Learned
What I Learned this Spring (songwriter edition)

"The time is ripe for looking back over the day, the week, the year, and trying to figure out where we have come from and where we are going to, for sifting through the things we have done and the things we have left undone for a clue to who we are and who, for better or worse, we are becoming." Frederick Buechner At the close of each season, my friend Emily P. Freeman invites us to take a look back and share what we learned over at her house. Before we head into sunshiny summer, let's take Continue Reading

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

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

Remembering the Total Solar Eclipse on Good Friday

soul keeping | pour
Remembering the Total Solar Eclipse on Good Friday

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

Favorite Finds (Easter basket edition)

favorite finds
Favorite Finds (Easter basket edition)

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

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

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

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