My morning was planned around two scheduled grocery pick ups. Many of the retailers who transitioned to pick up during pandemic half a decade ago have continued to offer this option. I first used it during my cancer treatments but have continued because of the convenience. Also I am an inefficient shopper. I go too …
See the Snake
Blistering heat and palpable humidity has settled in to stay in my neck of the woods. Stepping outside is like walking into an oven, no, a sauna. I’m drenched within a minute. I’ll need to join the grandkids in the water sprinklers for the wet to actually be refreshing. The sun is shining fifteen hours …
Let It Pour
Rain has interrupted our evening walks for more than half of the past two weeks. A drizzle would be fine. The cooling mist mingled with the humidity of the south is refreshing, but downpours that leave shoe deep mud in our yet ungraded land, though a wonderland for our toddlers and Great Dane, Jake, requires …
We Are His Hands
Our birds enjoy berry, seed, and mealworm cylinders near our front porch throughout the day. These now last a good deal longer since we installed a squirrel baffle. The squirrels still stop by, along with the doves, to glean the scattered seeds that fall from the feeder to the ground but they’re no longer eating …
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. …
Preach
I’m stymied! I’m committed to memorizing Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount this year but I’m barely twenty verses in and I’ve hit a wall. Focusing on new verses interrupts my memory of the initial ones. I could use my age as an excuse or cite unrealistic expectations and simply give up but I have other …
Crash! Bang! Boom!
“I’m scared of storms,” Amelia admitted, her little brow furrowed. I was pushing her high, the way she’d asked, in the rocket swing in the garage because the rain was finally coming down in sheets and thunder was beginning to sound in the distance. We’ve all been praying for the forecasted rain to squelch the …
Leveraging Today for Eternity
Ezra climbs up steps and onto furniture easily at nearly nine months but he needs a spotter. He doesn’t think twice about abruptly turning or plunking down regardless of what’s behind him. He’s very cautious cruising on level ground. He carefully squats until his bottom finds the floor, but today he pulled himself up onto …
Open Doors
My pastor regularly makes use of elaborate sermon illustrations and being a visual learner, I gain a mental peg on which to hang his messages. He insures that I will think about them again during the week as I encounter the everyday articles he chose. My eldest grandson still has not forgotten the sermon where …
Compelled
“You don’t get in my face, Poppy,” said Amelia. “I have a runny nose.” We had just stood to join in the congregational hymns and when I hoisted Amelia to my hip, she saw my husband coming down the aisle to take his seat next to me. She immediately lunged for him and as he …
A Fitting Reply 