Whoever decided small critters were good for older people? When I bent down to pick up the littlest dog during the morning rush, something in my left lower back went awry. After I’d deposited the oldest grand-girl at the school curb and returned home, I cranked the shower up hotter than hot and let the […]
Word of the Week: Books – Part 1
book – noun \ˈbu̇k\ : a set of printed sheets of paper that are held together inside a cover : a long written work : a long written work that can be read on a computer : a set of sheets of paper that are inside a cover and that you can write information […]
Word of the Week: Weary
weary – adjective\ˈwir-ē\ : lacking strength, energy, or freshness because of a need for rest or sleep : bored or annoyed by something because you have seen it, heard it, done it, etc., many times or for a long time : causing you to feel tired This morning I took Grace to the eye […]
#GoingThere: In Which I Can’t Go There
I woke up at 4 this morning when the dogs went crazy in their crates because a cat upchucked on the bedroom floor, and they wanted at it. They wanted at it bad. I made my husband get up and crawl around looking for the drop of hacked spittle. But I could not go […]
Word of the Week: Journey
jour ∙ ney – \ˈjər-nē\ noun : the act of traveling from one place to another : a process of changing and developing over a period of time : my car verb : undertake a journey or trip : travel upon or across Financially savvy folks save to pay hard cash for a new […]
To My Mother: A Villanelle
This Making Manifest study has me combing my blog for poetry attempts, and I ran across this villanelle (my first and quite possibly my last) written in response to a December 2011 poetry prompt issued by The High Calling and Tweetspeak Poetry. I wrote it a month after my mother died, and it seems right to revisit it as […]
Awakening (Making Manifest: Week One)
Here I am. How did I get to this place at this moment? How did I end up sitting at this cracked pine table at 5 a.m. on a May morning in 2014? Did I choose this place? Or did it choose me? Did I choose to work through Dave Harrity’s Making Manifest: On Faith, […]
40 Words of Lent 2014: Day 29
Please, God, let my parents come and beat her up. We’d had a sword fight with pencils, she and I. And Mrs. Smith rapped my 8-year-old knuckles. But not hers. So I turned around and scribbled on her picture. And . . . continued over at Laura Rath’s in my post titled “On the […]
you’re not the god of me
My daughter was expelled from Mother’s Morning Out. When she was two. “I cannot believe that Sandy King’s daughter bites.” Talk about a slap in my perfect parent facade. I was an older mom (at 38) and supposedly wiser. But I was raising a biter. It all started at a Gymboree open house. Abby and […]
how do you make art?
I’m reading Emily Freeman’s book, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live with The High Calling book club. Emily writes: Maybe you live confidently in the midst of scary situations. Maybe you are brave enough to listen, to wait, to trust. Maybe you see potential in situations and in people that […]
