After a dozen zoo trips in his second year, Thomas decided at three that he would feed the giraffes by himself. I’d held him while the imposing head reached through the rails and the long black tongue snaked out to take the greens from my outstretched hand. He talked about it after each visit, claiming …
No More Stumbling in the Dark
Our younger son, Jacob, recently renewed his hunting license in time for bow season. He has two small tree stands on property we own that had fallen into disrepair, but just before Helene, he and his dad replaced the tether straps and made them ready for deer season. He placed trail cameras which quickly confirmed …
Accustomed To The Dark
Our power was out for a week in the aftermath of Helene. My husband and I, and of course Jake, our Great Dane shared our space with my daughter and her boys whose neighborhood in the North Carolina foothills was hit harder and also at times with my son’s family who lives locally but was …
Biting Isn’t For Babies
Toddler silliness can quickly escalate to ugliness. Hitting, pushing, or biting seem to come out of nowhere but if you’re paying attention, it has usually been building gradually toward a crescendo. Either both want to do the same thing or simply don’t want the other to do it. The most recent incident involved opening the …
Over Reacting
In the south, we know how to prepare for ice and snow, but when it comes to hurricanes, well, that’s a different story entirely. We’ve owned a home on the coast so we’ve done due diligence. We’ve installed storm shutters and breakaway lower walls. We’ve dealt with evacuation and flooding, eroding dunes, tainted water, and …
Loves Name
Thomas knows his letters and their starting sounds at age three and he recognizes some words by sight, prominently among them God and good. I remember telling him as we read our bedtime Bible stories as much as a year ago that God is the most important word he can know. At first he regularly …
My People
Three married children, who made their vows before God and many witnesses, means our family is now eternally intertwined with three others exponentially. His and hers, mine and yours, ours and theirs can become quite confusing, especially since we now have two sons who use the same given name. (It happened in my family too …
Compatibility
The church where I was married to my husband of thirty-three years called a new pastor mere months before our wedding, which had been scheduled for over a year. He required us to attend premarital counseling sessions with him before he performed our ceremony. We met with him over the course of a month, completing …
An Unqualified Yes
On Wednesday, March 24, 2021, five months into my cancer treatment and three-quarters of the way through my chemotherapy, my website, http://www.afittingreply.com went live. I chose the longest possible commitment period- ten years- and paid in advance to secure my website. I committed to posting twice weekly. There have been days like today when I …
No Answer
I wanted so badly to reply but I bit my tongue. I felt the color rising in my face as I hung up the phone. Several remarks filed through my mind like a multiple choice question on a dreaded standardized test. I landed on none of the above, took a deep breath, and went back …
A Fitting Reply 