Posts tagged family
You Are Mighty, Velveteen Mother
May 12th
To all the women who imperfectly but faithfully mother through open hearts and unfurling arms,through available ears, promising words, and comforting wisdom,Happy Mother’s Day.
How about two special, better-than-a-slice-of-cake treats for your Mother’s Day Sunday?
The first one below: You are mighty because you mother, featuring words of my friend and cheerleader for mamas Lisa-Jo Baker.
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And if you feel more Velveteen Mother than Hallmark Mother, this by Ann Voskamp is for you and me.
For the Mamas and Mama-Mentors {Free Printable!}
May 8th
Every so often, as my almost-taller-than-me children and I cruise the aisles at the grocery store or Target, some sweet soul will notice one of my sons sporting his favorite Maui t-shirt. They want to know: Did you vacation there recently? Once they find out we lived there, they follow-up with the same question: What’s that like?? But given the drive-by nature of grocery store encounters, we have to answer in a way that sums it all up.
So, one of us usually gives an answer along the lines of,
“It had it’s highs and lows, but we wouldn’t trade our time there for More >
When You Want to See Yourself More Clearly {and a Giveaway!}
May 2nd
He finds me in the kitchen stirring jambalaya and adding parsley to the crockpot bowl. He sidles up next to me and almost whispers it,
“Guess what happened today, Mama?”
I turn to find his eyes flickering warmth like a good spring day and ask, “What happened today?”
“Well, I showed some of my drawings to my friend Harry, and he liked them! He said he thought I was a really good artist.”
I smile big and answer, “Well, that’s because you are a very good artist!”
He gives me a look that says You have to say that because you’re my Mama.
No son, I say it More >
Redemption of the Pink Hospital
Apr 18th
I held my Daddy’s hand, my brown hair blowing in the breezeway as we walked into my Great-Grandmother Elizabeth’s nursing home. Actually, we didn’t call the bright pink building a nursing home, we called it the pink hospital. I loved visiting Great-Grandmother because she smiled a real I’m thrilled to see you! smile when she saw me, and she generously gave me peppermints from the red antique depression glass candy jar.
But I usually wrinkled my nose at the smell of the pink hospital,?a combination of?Clorox, Bengay, and bathroom stuff.
The place felt like death coming soon.
When Great-Grandmother Elizabeth passed away, so did More >
On Success and Legacy
Mar 18th
Our pastor said it last Sunday: “All that matters in the end – what you see around the deathbeds – is how well someone loved.”
And my mind goes to Marie O’Neill, a woman who was never listed in any Who’s Who of anything on earth, but she was one of the most successful people I knew.
For over fifty years, my Grandma Rea lived in the tiny white clapboard house, the dot at the end of a long dirt road exclamation mark in Osage County. She had only granddaughters and treated us all like favorites, indiscriminately dishing out love like homemade sugar More >
One Thing that Happens Every Time You?re Brave
Mar 12th
“We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are, to see through plastic sham to living, breathing reality, and to break down our defenses of self-protection in order to be free to receive and give love.”
Walking on Water, Madeleine L’Engle
My backyard fence hems in our yard with side-by-side wood slats. The wood slats stand together close, but not so close you can’t see between them. And oh, the things you could see if you peeked through them.?You might see me chase the dog or fuss at More >
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