Get Ready, Two Shoes
One time I heard a lady on the radio talking about cleaning and organization who said, “Productive people get up in the morning and get dressed, two shoes right away.” That seemed a bit basic. Who gets dressed with one shoe? Perhaps home organization is the least of that guy’s worries. Then I read the radio guest’s blog, and she wasn’t suggesting people get dressed, two shoes...
How Do You Smell?
Last night we discovered a putrid smell emanating from the washing machine, the very device we depend upon to clean putrid smells out of clothing. Yes, I use the cleaning pods and do the things, but apparently it has been a few months too long since I have cleaned the upper section of the door seal. I’ll spare you the details, but I’m questioning the cleanliness of everything that’s been through...
Correct me if I’m Wrong…or Don’t
“Being right doesn’t show you care about their feelings.” This was the advice I overheard one teen give to another during a discussion about whether you should correct faulty thinking when someone is sharing their heart. Sometimes it’s hard to know when to set someone straight and when to let an erroneous comment go. Many years ago, a wise marriage counselor told two type A know-it-alls who...
Wrong Kind of Mud Bath
Wallowing is not a pretty word. Quite the opposite, as it evokes images of pigs rolling around in mud. Wallowing lends itself to filth. For many animals, wallowing is essential to their well-being. They get down in the muck and coat their bodies to stay cool and keep bugs away. There have even been studies done on why pigs wallow even in colder temperatures, and the highly scientific conclusion...
Learn and Do
Shout out all the people of the world who aren't satisfied with pat answers to their burning questions. I admire those who keep digging deeper and deeper until they've uncovered more answers than the rest of us care to know. Like why we have to go to the bathroom. Most of us are satisfied to know that our bodies expel excess fluids we don't need. Nephrologists, however, know precisely how each...
delicately indestructible
Yesterday I learned about Prince Rupert’s Drops for the first time. I don't know what took so long except that I'm into Biology, not Physics. My Physics professor would attest to this. Thanks to my cousins Clint and Andrew, I'm no longer ignorant of the phenomenon that is Prince Rupert’s Drop, and I'm astounded. They’re produced when molten glass is dripped into cold water, causing the glass to...
hold your friends up
I’ve been doing an arm workout that involves holding them out at shoulder height for four hours. Not really. It only feels like four hours because of the burning in my shoulders after the first ninety seconds. It’s only seven minutes total, and they’re the longest seven minutes of my entire day. I have yet to get through it without dropping my arms a few times. Please don’t look at them to see...
failure is not an option
Yesterday my husband asked me to re-hem his suit pants. It’s an easy enough task on the sewing machine, but it wasn’t cooperating. The thread became such a tangled mess that what should have been a ten-minute repair turned into over an hour of troubleshooting, trying again, and cutting thread. So. Much. Thread. Total sewing failure. Those pants were moments away from becoming frayed capris...
speak life
I read that humans need to experience positive feelings three times as often as negative feelings to maintain a positive mood. I would counter that for writers that ratio might be much higher. Exposing my written words to public scrutiny is worse than dreaming about being naked at school. One critical comment cuts so much deeper than all the glowing compliments. Last week I received some useful...
where you lead
In 2020, we got a new puppy about six weeks before the dark time when all there was to do was sit through Zoom meetings and walk our dogs seventeen times a day. Back then, I wrote about how my stubborn puppy refused to walk if anyone but her was holding her leash. Which, of course, is silly because how often do you see dogs out in public walking themselves on leashes? Regardless, she demanded to...
lessons from turtles
I accidentally started a worm farm. It’s not as weird as it sounds. I added some red wigglers to my compost bins to aid decomposition a few years ago, and their population exploded. It’s been a win-win situation because I have great compost, and my four box turtles eat like queens. (Yes, I’m pretty sure they’re all female) In the cool of the day, they congregate around the bins waiting for me to...
available moves
If you've read any of my posts or met me in person, you know I struggle with fear. I believe the Bible when it says "do not be afraid" 365 times, but I'm the reason God had to repeat it over and over. One day I was playing mahjong on my phone. Okay, I was hiding in the bathroom because my mostly-grown kids were asking me for all the things (like second lunch) that they're capable of handling on...
your okayest yes
The bookstore is flooded with self-help titles urging us (women especially) to only say "YES" to the most valuable things in life that play to our strengths. While I'm a huge proponent of limiting the things that eat up our time and headspace, only agreeing to do what make us feel valued and happy is complete nonsense. I never once felt valued and happy while changing a dirty diaper! I don't get...
my roadblock to blessing is me
If you've known me longer than five minutes, then you're already aware that I have a deficiency. I lack patience for all the things. There are several (pretty much all) of the fruits of the Spirit of which I could use a double helping, but patience is the one that eludes me more than anything else. When my computer freezes, I want to throw it. I'm actually proud of the amount of self-control...
tie your shoes and take the leap
When my oldest was about to turn eighteen, his father, my adoring husband, asked him, “If you could do anything for your birthday, what would it be?” Our resident daredevil said, “Take skydiving lessons and jump on my own.” This means there is no expert attached to your back doing all the work. You must pull your own rip cord to not die! His father booked two tickets to the “safest” jump school...
the spoiled heiress
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" 1 John 3:1The movie Knives Out depicts the death of a wealthy man and the relationships between him, his over-indulged, poorly-behaved offspring, and his humble nurse. The family loses its every-loving mind when the man's will pronounces his caregiver as the sole heir of his fortune. By the way,...
scars
One summer my youngest burned himself with a hot glue gun, and it has left a bumpy, scar that hurts my heart. It reminds me of my child's intense pain and the fact that I couldn't protect him from harm. Thankfully, he has embraced it as the mark of an adventure. Besides, he says, "chicks dig scars." Clinically speaking, scars are remarkable creatures. They're the result of our bodies quickly...
I write sometimes
My goal for 2022 (not to be confused with a resolution, which this was decidedly not) was to write a full-length novel. I wanted it to be a work of fiction that meets Christian readers where they are-in the hot mess thick of life-and entertains them without the unnecessary bawdiness that pervades secular fiction. I think I have achieved the latter, and I'm praying that the former is also true....