a long obedience in the same direction
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leaders collective marriage retreat.
We’d been home from our road trip just over a week before it was time to pack up and leave for a marriage retreat in Charleston. I’ll be honest: that reentry week after our grand adventure hit hard. I planned for it, expected it, but there’s still just an immense amount of reality to face after three glorious weeks of disconnect. I felt myself pulled under the current all week, knowing vaguely I ought to be thankful and re-energized, but not sure how to deal with the pressures of my real life, just the way it is. So pretty much the last thing I wanted to do was think about…
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some reflections on the enneagram.
Today let’s talk about the Enneagram. Why? Because it’s fun! And because, let’s be honest: you need a break from photos of the Gentino family hiking. And also it gives us an excuse to remember those glorious, restorative Rocky Mountains from two weeks ago. Now, before you roll your eyes and skim past this post because writing about the Enneagram on a blog is just too trendy and cliche for you, please hear me out. I used to feel the same way. I’ve never been a big fan of personality tests. I’ve been asked to take the Myers-Briggs test several times as an adult, and I know I’m…
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lent liturgy.
Last year was the first time I ever observed Lent, and you may remember that I chose to fast from caffeine (coffee and tea) for the season. It was a meaningful experience, which I wrote about here. This winter, after talking with David and some others, I decided that, instead of “putting off” something for the 6 weeks of Lent, I’d “take up” something. I wanted to do it with my children, since we are more or less together all day. And so our Lent Liturgy was born. This year Lent started on Valentine’s Day. Here’s what I wanted it to be about: Lent Liturgy was an intentional pause. We…
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expect to suffer in 2018.
I know that’s an alarming title for a blog post, but please hear me out. Typically I write some sort of New Year’s goal post. I’ve been thinking about it all month, taking time to reflect on last year, asking myself what I hope and pray for this new year. All the while I’ve begun reading daily from Tim and Kathy Keller’s new devotional book on Proverbs: God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life. It’s only January 29, but already this book has impacted me. I stopped short three days ago when I read, “The mark of wisdom is to be ready for suffering.” The Kellers go so far as to say…
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what worked and what didn’t in 2016.
Hello my friends! I hope your Christmas was great! We had a wonderful holiday weekend, and then I woke up on Monday and wanted every single decoration taken down, stowed away in the attic, pine needles swept, and our house organized. As you well know, I have a much lower threshold for clutter nowadays. All the kids have to purge some toys before Christmas or birthdays, but we did even more on Monday, and reorganized their rooms to accommodate new things without losing dozens of Lego pieces throughout the house (which David and I inevitably step on). Now our home is back to normal and everyone’s at peace and getting…
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the post i was going to write.
I had a great post planned for today. A couple of friends asked me to write on navigating life with young children as an introvert, and I’m only too happy to oblige. I’ve been thinking on it for a couple of weeks now, anxious to share all these things I’ve been learning. I have some new systems in place. A tighter, more effective daily schedule! Fewer commitments! Less time on social media! But the more I tried to get my thoughts out of my head and wrestle this blog post into submission, the more I seemed to notice my real life, hitting me over the head like a 2×4. In…
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we’re back!
Hi there everyone! I’m sorry that the blog was down for a few days; there was a server migration which resulted in some needed updates. But now we’re back in business! Remember my very profound post after vacation about being content and living in the moment and spending more time curled up at home with my kids? Well, I started the week with the best of intentions and ended it flat on my face. On Friday, we went to look at a bigger house in our neighborhood, which was charming but just not quite the right fit for our family. Nonetheless I came back home and stomped around complaining about…
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one month in.
. . . we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance. I am currently in a place of abundance. An abundance of noise, an abundance of laundry, an abundance of little voices calling, “Mo-om!!!” It’s the oddest feeling . . . first living in what felt like a long season of lack — of waiting, of wondering, of not understanding the story. And then everything changed very, very suddenly. After the desert there is water, but not just a trickle — a full-on waterfall. And I spent that first month just gasping, trying to come up for air. I hardly…
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living in my story.
Last night brought a cold snap right in the middle of spring, so though there are new buds on the trees outside my window and a thick coating of pollen on the ground, I’m wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. For a little while at least. And I’m gazing anxiously out at the little tomato and pepper seedlings that went in the ground just last weekend, hoping they weather the cold. I know it’s early still. But we were impatient to get our garden planted again. It’s no secret I’ve struggled these last months waiting for our baby. We started the adoption process one year ago, so in a way it…
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resolution.
Hi there! Did any of you make New Year’s resolutions? I made a list of goals for 2014 here. And the year before, I made one non-New Year’s resolution. I’ve been trying to think about goals the past couple of weeks but I keep getting stuck. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been stuck in general lately: stuck writing creative blog posts, stuck coming up with interesting hobbies, stuck in the house and not getting exercise. Stuck watching too much TV. Just. Stuck. I’m a planner, and yet right now I can’t make out my future. There seems to be a veil thrown over the next season of our life,…
