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

Weddings. We laugh, we cry, we run scared and we stay to the sparkler-end hoping against hope to see the bride and groom get away hitched and happy, and stay that way. Weddings touch our tender side, but they can also bring out our lurking fears or hardened cynicism or even unspool it all together into a tangled mess. Weddings we may love or avoid or think ours will never come, but marriages, marriages often break our little hearts. We want so much for them to keep all of their full-of-hope promises and wide-eyed dreams. Summer has a way of Continue Reading

For me, May is the month of mile-wide grins and counting years. It is a month of flowers in my Oregon garden: irises, variegated hostas, Stellas, happy-faced violas and dogwoods. It is my birthday, my wedding anniversary and Mama's Day, all in the first week. As May surrenders to June and I see the top of Summer's dirty blonde head, I snip a few May flowers for you. Here is my petite bouquet from May, part Grand Ol' Opry, part Devotion, all bridge*. 1.I gotta keep finding his heart. I called Mike one day and said, "I'm listening Continue Reading