My daughter and her sons traveled to and from the beach with me. My daughter drove. I take the passenger seat unless the smaller passengers become restless. Timothy munched or dozed contentedly the majority of our return trip, but Thomas, who is nearing four, fights sleep with words. His repeated chants of I wanna get …
Sinking Sand
Timothy wasn’t walking the last time we were at the beach so when we arrived at the ocean yesterday and removed his little shoes and set him on the soft sand, he sensed the shifting and immediately reached up to his momma to be held. Thinking the water would draw him in, she dangled his …
Make It Stop
Hurricane Harvey arrived in Houston, Texas just before Jacob was scheduled for brain surgery that had the potential to end his seizures. Though he turned nineteen during his weeklong evaluation earlier in that year, he was to be treated as a pediatric patient. This would allow me to stay with him in the hospital as …
Shared Stories
Amelia’s courage grew as she reached for the handholds on the rock wall. She gripped tightly to the blue and yellow holds while moving her feet onto the green and red. My husband and I built the playground to last so I had boarded off two open rail sections to keep the babies from falling. …
But It Worked Last Time
My biggest misconception as a new mother was that once I had survived two years with my firstborn, I had mastered year one and two with my newborn. Somehow I never imagined that each child would march to the beat of a different drummer. Looking back, I get a good laugh at my own naïveté …
Surprised By God
My daughter, Caroline, crept on cat’s paws through the house during the night. Being the only girl, her room was always situated closest to my own. When they were small, both her brothers raised the alarm at deafening pitch if they were ever sick or awakened by a dream. You heard them long before you …
Much More To Say
I watch my girls with my grandchildren. They are often so overwhelmed and I remember! Sleep is elusive and days are long because nights are short. Like so many of us, mothers before them, they’ve been entrusted with these precious lives. They carried them inside their own bodies for nearly a year and now that …
All My Days
How would you sum up your lifetime in just a few paragraphs? I am nearing the end of my fifty-fifth year and though I feel what the psalmist asserts, my life is but a breath, at the same time my years have been full and rich in both experience and emotion. My grandchildren have only …
Destined For Trouble
You’ve heard the saying, “Silence is golden, unless you have toddlers, then silence is suspicious.” I was reminded earlier today just how true that statement can be. Both girls were putting their babies down for a nap in the guest rooms downstairs and since it was too cold to be outside, the toddlers and I …
Leveled
I came home to find a bare spot in my front yard. The extent of the gap wasn’t apparent until daylight the following morning. Autumn and the falling leaves always lets a little more light in from each sunrise but this was a new level of illumination. Even the room darkening shades were no match …
A Fitting Reply 