RSVP

Handwritten letters have almost entirely disappeared, having been replaced by electronic communication. Invitations, with the exception of weddings, are more than likely texted nowadays. RSVP, when attached to an invitation, once meant the host expected to hear from you. A meal and a place at the table were being reserved in your name at the …

Learning

Peekaboo with my six month old grandson has progressed from a quick distraction to a game of predictive analytics, much like the game my smart phone plays as I begin typing any given word into a text box. In spite of the fact that I have a son and a son-in-law named Jacob which I …

Have You Decided?

Menu confusion is my nemesis, hovering over every lunch date and dinner plan. I can’t concentrate on making conversation for trying to decide what I should order. Usually there are so many excellent choices, it’s hard to choose just one. In my experience, most servers are pretty good at reading their costumers. They recognize indecision …

Whatever You Can Carry

By far my favorite scene of the 1998 movie EVER AFTER: A Cinderella Story with Drew Barrymore plays out in a dense wood. Prince Henry has been detained by a band of Gypsies while he is walking with Danielle(Barrymore). The leader of the Gypsies has taken Danielle’s dress from where it was discarded on the …

Feel The Heat

What does pure, unadulterated faith look like, the faith of a child that Jesus commended? I saw it in the face of my eighteen year old son and heard it in his voice, as we contemplated the possibility of brain surgery after eight years of tweaking and changing medications failed to stop his seizures. I …

I Hear You

Six month old Thomas lets us knows it’s time to eat when he’s hungry. Once he’s buckled into his high chair, he stops his fussing when his momma folds his little hands together as he looks right into her face as she first asks a blessing on his food. “Thank You, Jesus, for our food. …

Fitting In

The year my daughter received a fifteen hundred piece puzzle for Christmas and determined we would not to go to bed until it was finished was the year I stopped enjoying jigsaw puzzles. We finished it, framed it, and said never again! She still enjoys puzzles and games, but with a newborn at home, they’re …

Walking Down Briers

When I received my cancer diagnosis and we found that I would need radiation and chemotherapy before having surgery to remove my tumor, my husband began walking with me and the Danes twice daily, weather-permitting, to keep my heart healthy for surgery. Our community has many well-groomed walking trails, but Paul began cutting a trail …

The Right Emojis

When my daughter and her husband were dating, they texted long distance while he was away at college during the week and visited on weekends. They both had Apple smartphones so they regularly used emojis in their messages, and not those manufactured using punctuation creatively. According to Siri Knowledge, emojis originated in Japan and are …