Today I’m participating in Five Minute Friday, a writing community that freewrites for five minutes on a prompt. No editing. I’m going to try my darndest to actually do just that. Today’s prompt: Excuse. Look Up Sometimes’ new tagline is: nurturing Son-followers to embrace grace. I’ve been studying in Romans and realizing that grace is not an optional warm fuzzy…
Featured on Beautiful Ugly Me!
Hello Sweet Friend, If you’ve ever discounted your efforts and felt they were not enough, this post is for you. If you’ve felt torn between wanting to use your gifts to bless and guilt over having enjoyed your own gifts – this post is definitely for you. This post taps into a past I don’t readily share, but I couldn’t…
Struggling Through a Lack of Silence
Today I’m the black sheep in Five Minute Friday, a writing community that freewrites for five minutes on a prompt. No editing. (It’s a terrific launching point, but I’m a total rule-breaker! I freewrote for about twenty minutes and then edited.) Today’s prompt: Silence. In silence – that’s typically how I write. Not today. I’m sitting in a back booth…
2,000 Miles, 1 Painting & 3 Life-Changing Words
It was our housewarming gift my parents drove 2,000 miles to hand deliver: a painting of the sea at sunset by Seward Whitfield. Over seven square feet of stunning. I soaked it in with delight. A shadowbox with real oyster shells and a glass marble pearl – two actually. The artist had forgotten he’d already tucked one inside. The three…
7 Reasons Not to NOT Ask for Help
When you’re not good at asking for help (ok, because I am not good at asking for help), sometimes my “question” comes out more like, “My basement sure is a disaster” when what I meant was “Could you find it somewhere in the deepest depths of your huge, benevolent heart to help a sister out and get me over this huge overwhelm of discouragement whenever I’m bombarded by the visual chaos in my basement?”
Discover How to Make Distraction Work for You
This post was inspired by Five Minute Friday’s prompt: Discover. Two rules: 1) Freewrite for five minutes 2) Don’t edit. (I broke all the rules.) Maybe this isn’t you – you don’t suffer from distractions. You’re ultra-focused and a productivity maniac. If you are, I’m totally jealous, but I’m also totally willing to learn from you. Would you be willing…
Inviting Myself To Get It Wrong
Today I’m trying something new. I’m participating in Five Minute Friday, a writing community that freewrites for five minutes on a prompt. No editing. (I mostly followed the rules.) Today’s prompt: Invite. Today I’m inviting myself to be wrong. To be messy. To accept grace. To try and fail and learn and get back up again. Today we’re going out…
Can You Hear Me Now?
Mornings at our household may or may not resemble a circus getting kids ready for school. (Parents of more than two children – my hat goes off to you.) We prep the night before, but papers teleport, shoes shrink, or clothes disappear. Someone forgets to brush their teeth or hair – or both. Murphy’s Law requires all of these things…
Butterfly-Sitting & Breakthrough Singing
I had the privilege to butterfly-sit for a friend last week. She was leaving for vacation and afraid the two chrysalises would hatch before she returned. She showed up on my doorstep and delivered two tiny butterfly boxes. All I had to do was hang them by the window, watch the miracle unfold, and release them. The two opaque, mint-colored…
What Raw Eggs Taught Me About Community
My third-grader came home from school on Friday excited to tell me how he watched his teacher walk on eggs. “And she only broke three!” he said. “Hardboiled?” I asked. “Raw! Six dozen,” he answered, smiling. “And,” he continued while heading straight for the fridge, “you can squeeze an egg and it won’t break.” He was already selecting an egg…