Parenting According to Job

About fifteen years ago, when my two oldest children were toddlers, a violent windstorm swept through our neighborhood while my husband was at work. I recall looking through our large picture window as it rattled in its frame, seeing nothing but an opaque mass of swirling gray mixed with hailstones and bits of debris. I…

Searching, Finding, Receiving, Giving

Today, Zacchaeus may be fondly remembered as the wee little man in the Sunday school song; but for much of his life, he was ostracized by his community. He was the tax collector for Jericho. Not only was he hated for working hand-in-hand with the Roman Empire, but for being a cheat. No wonder those…

More Snacks, Please!

Last Sunday, I asked my junior church class (ages 4-12) what they might like to add to our class time in the coming year. You can imagine their responses, everything from field trips and game days to outdoor classes and nap time...maybe outdoor nap time? And of course, more snacks. A teacher can never bring…

Flash Fiction: Rice Cereal & San Pellegrino

Thanks very much to Stephen of  A Fractured Faith for issuing this intriguing flash fiction challenge recently. (You can read his original post here.) The idea was to imagine a day in the life of a person who would have the two particular store receipts Stephen pictured: one with rice (which I translated into rice…

If Getting Hit by a Train Doesn’t Make an Impact on You, Nothing Will

(My apologies for the pun. I just couldn't think of a better title for this post.) Here's the story. Seven years ago, my family and I, along with a couple of kids from our junior church class, were driving home in our minivan. The January weather had been brutal that year, with frigid temperatures and…

Poetry from my Down East Days

Though I have lived in the landlocked Midwest for nearly twenty years, I spent the summers of my girlhood Down East, on a little island off the coast of Maine. Even after I went to college, my family and I continued to visit the island every July, and there I found lots of "scope for…

The Honest Prayers of Children

I never imagined how much I'd enjoy working with children. When a child myself, I was not one of those girls who waited my turn to cuddle a newborn. I never once begged to babysit. But after I got married, my husband and I wanted to serve in our little church, and we offered to…

Our Eleventh Home School Year Begins!

Tomorrow, we start our eleventh home school year. A big box of books came from A Beka Book a couple of weeks ago, and with that, reality hit. I cleared and cleaned the school room, double-checked supplies, stacked textbooks in place, and now, all that remains is to write the first day's assignments on the…