Next month, Randy and I celebrate 20 years of marriage. When I look back, I am amazed at the work God has done in our lives through the process of two becoming one. In today’s podcast, I want to share a new thing that God is doing in my heart, and how he is redefining…
Tag: Home
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…
The Memory and Promise of Light
There are moments, in the middle of the night, when the electricity of current events sends a shockwave through my sleeping body and wakes me, wide-eyed and shaken. What is going to happen to this broken world? I see myself, gathering my children around me like the mother in a fairy tale, walking into a…
Other People’s Houses
My daughters and I pulled in at Michelle’s house before she arrived. We knew we were welcome to go on in. By the time I wrangled with my couple of bags, the girls had already run inside. I entered the front door, set down my things, and walked into the kitchen. This picture is what…
Faith and Miracles (How Do You Feed Them, Answered)
One of the first questions people ask me when I tell them we have seven children is, “How do you feed them?” It’s posed as a joke, and even though I’ve been asked this dozens of times, I still scramble for a good response. I know people don’t only mean how do we pay for…
Free 3-Week Creative Family Culture Curriculum for At-Home Learning (Easy, Fun, and Adaptable for All Ages)
Wishing you could gather up your family together and do something meaningful with your time at home? Do you love the idea of art and creative play, but don’t know where to begin or how to teach it? Are you looking for something easy, with little-to-no preparation required and no previous experience needed to teach…
Looking for a House and Finding Home
I have opened my heart up to want this year. One day in early January, I woke up with the clear vision that this house is never going to be ideal for our family. And I began to want something better. When we bought this brand-new 2-bedroom, 2 bathroom house as nearly newly-weds, we saw…
Buying a House is Like Having a Baby
The process of buying a house is remarkably like the stages of labor. Step 1: It’s Time. This is the exciting moment when you realize you are actually going to have a house. You are going to get to see the home you have only been dreaming about for so long. You know that you…
Dream Come True
Four years ago today, Randy and I had a dream come true moment. Do you remember this? In 2011, we started an indiegogo campaign to raise money to record The Seven Year Scratch (later titled Home), an album of love and family songs we had written to one another over the course of our relationship….
On our 12th Anniversary
Today is our anniversary. We met in the fall of 1999, dated for three and a half long, confusing years, and married on a beautiful spring morning just like this one 12 years ago today. I hoped I was doing the right thing. I prayed I was doing the right thing. There is no one…
Pitter Patter: The Story Behind the Song
I discovered coffee shops in college. I never had very much money, but back then I could usually dig up $2 to buy a hot drink and rent a space at a little cafe for a few hours to think and write and declutter my brain. I lived in a creative state, with lots of…