“How do you do it?” I have been asked this question so. many. times. When people learn that we have eight children ages 1-15, I think they are genuinely curious what our life looks like. Today I am sharing a bit about life as a mother of a large family, as well as some thoughts…
Tag: Christian Life
Moving into a Year with No Fear and No Regrets (Podcast #44)
On the last day of the year, I reflect on 2022, thinking about how this year has been different, what I have learned and some of the milestones of this year. I share some of our own family rhythms that we’ve established this year that have been making home in a family with eight children…
25 Years of December (A Selection of Journal Entries from 1997-2021)
Journaling is the best way to travel through time. This post is a collection of journal entries that span the Decembers of the last 25 years of my life. I wrote the first when I was just 15 years old. I am surprised at the person I used to be, and I am amazed at…
Homeschool and Creative Family Culture (Podcast #41)
I don’t want my children to be simply entertained through life. I want them to show up for the purposes for which God has created them. I want them to do the things that only they can do. I want them to have the living conversations that can only come from their hearts and mouths….
My Book Now Available!
UPDATE MARCH 29, 2023: At the time I wrote this post, there was no physical copy of this book (only a read-aloud of an earlier version via podcast). But now the book, complete with text and illustrations, exists! You can find it here: ORIGINAL POST: *At this time, there is no hard copy of this…
One Small Garden (Ch. 7 Read Aloud of The Sacred Everyday Book) Podcast #40
We never really know what we are building with our lives. I try so hard to understand what it’s all about. I pray for vision, I research my past for clues, I desperately seek God for the next step. This is the life of faith. And though we may think our lives will look one…
Faith and Miracles (Ch. 6 Read-Aloud of The Sacred Everyday Book) Podcast #39
Are you going to have more? How do you feed them? How do you do it? And the often-implied but never-spoken–why??? When people see us with our eight children, they are curious. For the past 6 weeks, I have been reading aloud a chapter at a time of my book, The Sacred Everyday, A Search…
Standing in the Hallway of Sorrow (Chapter 3 Read-Aloud about The Search for Beauty in Grief) Podcast #36
Today I send my most vulnerable and intimate words out into the world, written at moments in my life when grief was shaking me down to the very core. In this chapter of my book, I share about miscarriage and the death of my beautiful mother. These words chronicle the numbing pain of loss, the…
Chapter 1 of My Book, The Sacred Everyday: A Search for the Exquisite Beauty of an Ordinary Life (A Read-Aloud Podcast #34)
Today I am brimming over with emotion. I cannot hold these words in any longer. In this special edition of the podcast, I am reading aloud the first chapter of my new book, The Sacred Everyday: A Search for the Exquisite Beauty of an Ordinary Life. The book has not yet been published (I talk…
Translating the Heart: A Personal Journaling Retreat
Most of the time, I do not even know what I think or feel until I write it out. I have often thought that journaling is a way of taking thoughts captive, and once you see thoughts on paper, you can see them for what they are—truth or lies, something to hold onto, or something…
Motherhood When It’s All Too Much (Podcast #31)
Have you ever found yourself wondering what you were thinking when you believed you were capable of raising children into adulthood? Or have you ever been overwhelmed by a season in your family when it just all seemed too much? Sometimes, this happens to me. (Ok, it happens to me a lot…) I realize that…
Searching for More (Podcast #30)
It is human nature to want more. We are so easily caught up in the search–a better life for our children, a more meaningful existence, convenience, efficiency, easier, faster, better… There is a searching that leaves us restless with what we have been given. And there is another searching that steps back, reevaluates what we…