Got Spanish?

Last night was the Second Annual Ice Cream Social at Mark and Amy’s, our neighbors a couple of blocks over.  The “first annual” was held last year to get better acquainted with some of the neighbors before later on inviting their children to a backyard Bible club that I had the privilege of co-hosting with Amy.  [...]

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3 Reasons to I Love to Read Other People’s Blogs

1.  I learn new things about old and new friends–their joys, their histories, their strengths, their weaknesses, what they are are learning, what they are struggling with–in general, what makes them such great people to know.
2.  Some posts remind me of times in my own life.  A couple of young moms have posted recently and [...]

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Rearranging the Trophy Shelf

What do you think about rewards for children at church?  We give trophies and points and gift certificates and prizes for all kinds of activities done under the church roof–bringing friends to activities, memorizing Bible verses, bringing Bibles along with us to Sunday school, even for just being there (I grew up in an era when, [...]

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Grocery Aisle Opportunities

For the last four years, when I’ve been working a day or two per week away from home, Michael–Bless him!– has done the regular grocery shopping.  Now that the family schedule has changed and I am home every day without teaching responsibilities, I think it’s time to reclaim the chore.  So, today was grocery shopping day. 
At one [...]

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3 Reasons I Don’t Mind Doing Laundry

Since, in my new non-teaching schedule, I’m going to really try to focus on household matters on Thursdays (I’ve done laundry on Thursdays for years, but now I’m going to try to add cleaning to this day as well), I will devote this post to the subject of LAUNDRY.
I could probably come up with more [...]

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Cease Striving

I generally face life’s changes with tears.
They may be tears of frustration or relief.  They may be tears of joy or grief.  But, trickle they will (or, in the quiet solitary moment when no one but God sees, they may burst forth as from the great deep in voluminous sobs and torrents). 
So it happened this morning, [...]

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Understanding Baby Steps

The grandbaby is walking.  She successfully took three or four unassisted steps in my direction on Wednesday; later in the day, she treated Uncle Gabe to the same demonstration of her new skill. 
In case you haven’t spent much time around a baby lately, let me refresh your memory of the process and significance of those steps:  For [...]

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The Irresistible Draw of Nickel Notebooks

I already bought Zach’s school supplies…last week, to the tune of $50 (this included a scientific calculator and a fancy binder which theoretically should last for the rest of high school).
So why did I find myself in the school supply aisle of Wal-Mart again today, especially since I only went to Wally World for butter when I [...]

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3 Reasons I Don’t Prefer the Phone

My friend Jon has his 8 ways lists .  I think I will try 3 reasons…that shouldn’t be too hard, should it?
Tonight, Michael and I had a scheduled phone conversation with a friend of a friend from Oregon who is helping us out with some financial planning.  I labored and fussed about this conversation all day today–we [...]

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Being the Heavy

My mom used to call it “being the heavy.”  That was when she had to be the one to be tough.  For most women, I’d venture to guess, it is not the naturally desirable position to find ourselves in when it comes to dealing with people.  We learn, though, that sometimes love demands it.
I just came [...]

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