This week is the week where Christmas and Christmastide collide every year. For many who celebrate a cultural Christmas, this week is full of taking down decorations, reorganizing, and decluttering in order to get ready for the New Year. For me, this is the week for basking in the light of all five candles blazing: …
This year, our Christmas tree lights have been on more often than ever before. We’ve always turned our Christmas tree on whenever we were home and this year we’ve been home a lot. This is the first year that we haven’t traveled during Christmas week. This is the first year we haven’t seen family during …
For the last five years, I have been either pregnant, nursing, or postpartum. It seemed like a significant moment when I took my last postpartum vitamin. It also felt strange that there was no celebration, no marker that happens after you have carried and nursed a baby. There is no fanfare or ritual that marks …
This week, I tackled the challenge of cleaning the oven. After nine months at home cooking and preparing three meals a day, it was hard to tell what color our oven actually was. As I looked inside, I saw crumbs from pizza and movie nights every Friday, holiday pies and birthday cupcakes that got a …
We started Advent by creating space. Like many other Americans right now, our home is school, office, and home all combined into one. We couldn’t decorate or prepare our home for Christmas season without moving some things around. That moving around lead to a going through and sorting. We discarded broken toys, donated some toys …
In the afternoons, we try to spend as much time outside soaking up the sun and Vitamin D, creating pirate ships, and practicing climbing fences. This time is one of my favorite times of the day because it reminds me of the creativity and spontaneity that children just naturally carry with them. At times there …
The past few days have provided the setting for our favorite kinds of walks: puddle walks. As we walk through the neighborhood, we try to ride through every single puddle. The cyclist goes first and we watch the water ripple before the stroller takes a turn. It’s little small things like this that draw us …
While watching the debate, I was overwhelmed with the optics of three old white men debating the future of our country. For years, I have been the voice in worship planning that asks the question, “But does it look like we welcome and affirm women?” when the platform or worship participants are only males. Nothing …
This week our morning bike ride/walk has hit a snag. As our four and half-year-old has become more adventuresome riding over bumps and stumps, he popped the chain off its track. After repairing this twice on our long Saturday path, we had to call in reinforcements. The ride in the back of Dad’s truck after …
I love seeing all the first day of school pictures. This is a tradition I remember from my childhood. I can remember looking through the photo album that had each of us lined up in age order and trying to remember what it felt like to start each new year. This year looks different because …
