On Learning

February 29, 2016.Reading time 3 minutes.

I have a new laptop. It is lovely and wonderful and the keyboard is the happiest thing ever. They keys are like little letter pillows. It makes me WANT to type. It’s good that I love the keyboard, because nothing else on this machine works. I switched to Windows 10 after 9 years of Mac […]

The Week

February 22, 2016.Reading time 4 minutes.

VACATION IS OVER!!!!! Is it possible to jump for joy and collapse with relief at the same time? That’s me today. Last week was the best of times and the worst of times. For three days we had four kids, which it turns out is five times harder than just having two. So my already […]

Confession, Forgiveness, Friends

February 1, 2016.Reading time less than 1 minute.

A couple of links to what I’ve been up to: I gave a talk at church on Sunday called FRIENDS. Then I blogged over at the Greenhouse Mission blog, admitting that last Friday I stole from one of my kids, almost got caught, and then lied about it. That one’s called CONFESSION. And I’ve been thinking […]

Busted

September 28, 2015.Reading time 6 minutes.

This weekend, The Cherubs learned that their New Mom knows nothing about grammar. Even though she’s a writer. They are horrified. #1 Cherub came home with a worksheet on homophones. “What’s a homophone?” I asked. I thought it might be a project for his tech-ed class. He stared at me, wide eyed. “You don’t know?” […]

Josh Duggar and the truth about Christians

August 21, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

The Josh Duggar thing. Gah. I’m in that sad place of being horrified, but not entirely surprised. Back when I first admitted to my friends that I was considering faith in Jesus (picture me tiptoeing carefully into some of the most awkward conversations of my life), one friend asked, “But aren’t you bothered by all […]

Book Review: Believe

July 13, 2015.Reading time 1 minute.

Believe: Student Edition – Living the Story to Become Like Jesus is a collection of Bible passages assembled according to themes of Christian faith. There’s a chapter on what we believe about God, for example. I’d call it an excellent research tool if you’re preparing a talk, or even just doing personal research on an […]

Book Review: Spinster

July 13, 2015.Reading time 1 minute.

This book was terrible. Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own is ostensibly one woman’s thoughts on bucking the social “norm” of marriage and setting out to live a life of one’s own. But the reader quickly learns that this is not really that book. Instead, it’s a chronology of the author’s selfish whims and […]

A Billion Days of Faith

June 17, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

Back in May, a woman I’ll call Robin emailed me and asked, “Are you going to do another 40 Days of Faith?” I didn’t know how to answer. Just to be clear, I don’t receive stacks of emails asking for my continued contribution to the online world. I haven’t really been a writer for a […]

Book Review: Anything

June 16, 2015.Reading time 1 minute.

I found Anything by Jennie Allen to be both inspired and frustrating. Inspired because the Workbook in the back of the book is fantastic, with thought-provoking questions and an interesting layout. She has a nice teaching style. Frustrating, because in the main part of the book, the author repeatedly sets up big scenes and then doesn’t […]

Book Review: When Mockingbirds Sing

May 8, 2015.Reading time 2 minutes.

When Mockingbirds Sing: A Novel Description: Leah is a child from Away, isolated from her peers because of her stutter. But then she begins painting scenes that are epic in scope, brilliant in detail, and suffused with rich, prophetic imagery. When the event foreshadowed in the first painting dramatically comes true, the town of Mattingly […]