As I backed the Lolly bus from the garage, I looked up to see if Thomas’s little face was pressed to the window below the blind upstairs. He sleeps in his race car bed in the room above the garage when he visits and he had just told me the previous morning that he peeked …
Let The Walls Fall
Amelia stood in the booth next to me singing Jesus Loves Me at the top of her little lungs. We were waiting for our pizza and her power nap in the car and the sugar from her lemonade had officially kicked in. She and Thomas are practicing to sing together during our family lunch following …
Same But Different
Four grandchildren, similar in so many ways, bear traces of genetic code passed through familial lines from our forebears beyond the five generations for which I can account. I am so much Myrtle passed through David to me, but I am also Ansel through Joyce. The lines expand each time a marriage happens and the …
This Is Hard
Thomas puked in the car again, effectively destroying a third car seat in his three short years. When I asked if he felt like he needed to be sick, he said, “I don’t,” but, according to his mom, commenting from the driver’s seat afterwards, he meant, “I don’t want to!” Then he did. He retched …
The More You Know
My grandson, Timothy, is in his second sleep regression at five months. He was sleeping several hour stretches each night and now he’s not, maybe because he’s teething or developing motor skills like rolling and sitting more rapidly at this stage. My generation was lacking the labels this generation enjoys but maybe there was some …
Practice What You Preach
“Shhhh!” scolded Amelia, her little finger up to her mouth. “I can talk,” answered Thomas. This exchange was happening across my lap during worship. The deacon voiced the closing prayer and service was nearly over. We would just barely make it through the final song. The snacks ran out before the sermon and the toddlers …
But Are We?
Our grandson was fishing across the lake with his friend when the thunderhead began forming to the southwest. I was away for the day but my husband was in the backyard with the dog when the wind began to pick up. Storms move fast over water and by the time Paul was inside, the first …
Merely Brilliant Scholars
“Bioluminescent,” Amelia repeated. We were reading a Bible devotion book from her daddy’s childhood and I was afraid it still might be a little much for her two years, but I needn’t have worried. She picked the most difficult word to repeat, so I reminded her what we’d just read. God created fish that live …
Stubborn Refusal
“I’m sorry. I completely forgot.” My daughter waited for me to return to the room where she was nursing the baby. I walked across the house to put away a few stray items and became distracted by several things at once. Half an hour later, she emerged, baby in her arms, searching for me and …
Strength of Bread
When I was a teenager, my Granny decided it was time I learned to make her Sunday biscuits, a staple at every family gathering. She sat at the kitchen table and watched, giving me step by step directions as I gathered and added the ingredients and began to work the dough. Before I felt I …
A Fitting Reply 