Writer, Author & Speaker
Thirty-one years — as of July 3rd my husband & I have been married for thirty-one years. We celebrated unceremoniously by getting up from our kitchen table where we were planning a week of camp. We went to a local pizza joint called Salvos. We didn’t spruce up; we simply wore the shorts and t-shirts …
We drove past the rolling Illinois farmland late into the night. The sky was warm with orange and pink. It was the night of the summer solstice, light lingering longer than any other day of the year. It reminded me of late summer nights in northern Minnesota sitting at the campfire when I wouldn’t realize …
The journey of motherhood is always changing. This year only one child was with me in person to celebrate Mother’s Day. I chatted with the other three children on the phone at different times. It was a lovely day. I was more content on this Mother’s Day than I have been over these last few …
I chopped an onion and sauteed it in butter with the minced garlic in one skillet while I poured chicken broth into the 8-quart soup pot and turned the burner to high. I added three kinds of meat into the pot: one cup of chicken, ½ pound of sausage, and the last small bag of …
During the 20 years that I homeschooled, there are only 6 years that I taught all four of them. Does this surprise anyone else, or is it just me? Now for fifteen years of the total twenty, there were three or four kids at the house; it’s simply that all four were not always “in …
It was the fall of my second year of homeschooling and I had given birth to our fourth child in October. I remember holding him, looking at a table full of dishes while the other three children danced about the room as I tried to herd them to nap time. I was happy, but tired. …
Today the caterpillars were on the move. They were booking along the pathway. One after another racing along…until I came to the ones that were still. So maybe that’s why they were moving so fast. Maybe they need to go fast enough so they don’t curl up and stay forever on the path. They need …
I was 24 and I stood in the empty parking lot next to my loaded car. The wind blew my hair into my face as I glanced around the place that I had called home for the past nine months. I had worked to the end of the school year. I had finished. I hadn’t quit. …
The daffodils are gone now. They have given way to the flowers of the pink Japanese magnolias, the fluffy white flowers of the Bradford pear trees, the bright yellow vines of the forsythia bush, and the soft purple flowers of the red bud trees. The green grass is poking through the ground. Spring has sprung. …
The pink magnolia flowers have begun to open on the tree outside my kitchen window—a splash of needed color against the gray and dreary sky. The daffodils by the creek wave their bright yellow petals, reminding us that spring is coming. Our hope for warmer days and growing things is not in vain. The world …
