Spring: A Walk Around the Farm

I don’t always spend a Saturday with my husband at home and the sun shining warm… but when I do, it involves something like planting a hundred gladiolas, lilies, hibiscus, and bleeding hearts… and, of course, a walk around the farm to see how everything is doing. We found a newborn calf this morning. While we were out there, my husband dropped off three lick... Read More

Sweet Potato Haul

“Hey, you have to come outside and see this!” my husband burst through the phone from 30 yards away. Last spring, he happened to see sweet potato slips at a feed store. He planted 20 of them (roots with a little bit of leaf), right next to the tiny, spring version of the annual fall tomato jungle. Sixteen of the 20 plants came up. We ignored them until after the first... Read More

Irish Determination

Ever since my younger sister, Annie, learned to talk, she has been paving my way to adventures I never would have attempted on my own. I remember when she called to invite me on a trip to Ireland. “What??!? You get a trip to Ireland for graduation?” I shrieked through the holes in the now-obsolete receiver. “Mom and Dad only got me a ring!” “Well,... Read More

The Boat Builder

I doubt Mom anticipated the production of a sea-faring vessel when she brought out the craft box for my begging daughters Saturday. Boat building is always on the agenda for my dad. We just didn’t realize the condition was genetic! The girls had moved on to other distractions, while my oldest boy kept toiling away at his sail-equipped canoe, probably inspired by the ship... Read More

Sunset Horseback Lessons

I happened to catch the end of this, as the sun was going down… My husband had decided to give the older two kids an impromptu horseback riding lesson. My daughter was just slightly thrilled… In case you didn’t catch that… THRILLED! My oldest (and he does have the oldest child personality, even though he’s only the oldest by twenty fear-fraught... Read More

Camping Out with Kids: Bring Wipes

Camping in the back orchard with four young kids means… … letting our oldest son be a big kid by getting the bonfire started (with the garden hose ready and mom trying not to hover) … lots of dancing and yelling around the flames when the roasting sticks are produced (and mom trying not to hover) … turning normally-repulsive (to me) foods into flame-charred... Read More

After Four Years of Blogging, I’m Sure: I’m a Mom

I finished the post below on Monday (except adding pictures). I had tried to veil how frustrated and disappointed I was, because life has become incredibly busy recently. It seemed like the sensible thing to do was end the blog. It has been confusing to sense God leading the exact opposite direction! God specializes in impossibilities, and He is able to make His purposes clear,... Read More

How to Make a Milky Wave (and Other Humiracles)

My just-turned-four-year-old son… crawled up onto the bed one morning a few weeks ago… and delivered the following tale: “MOM!!! I just had the funniest dream about me ‘n’ Yoda! You’n me’n Yoda fought Dark Bader with huge light sabers until he was in tiny pieces, as tiny as a germ. I took his light saber away, and he fell down a hole — AAAAHpffff!!! —... Read More

When Small Beginnings Die

It’s strange weather for starting seeds, with the garden buried six feet under in snow… but spring is only seven weeks away! Every year when we start seedlings, my husband says, “I’ll just plant a few different kinds of tomatoes…” Every year, the “few” turn into a vast, unnavigable jungle, tightly packed with tomatoes to pick. I try... Read More

Thanksgiving for Remembering

“Take a turkey out to lunch Let him sit right down and munch But don’t say a word to that silly old bird About… you know… Thanksgiving Day — Oops! I gave it away! Gobble, gobble, gobble!” Nutmeg danced around the living room a couple days ago, high on the song she had learned and the Pilgrim hat she had made at school. This is the first Pilgrim... Read More