Children
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morewhat’s needed when embarking on motherhood
On Tuesday, July 05 th, 2011The train moves slow. The children, all six, dangle happy out windows. I fumble for our tickets. Look for answers I can’t find. The train lurches and I reach for a seat and a boy grins at me trying to hold on. When did all their limbs become long? When did I turn and miss that all the days are the destination? ...
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morewhat it means to have the miracle of a sister
On Tuesday, June 28 th, 2011Sisters make circles of time, a completing of sentences and memories and laughter, the past curving into now and you both know how it all rolls. A sister born friend, she turns all the inner worlds that won’t fit into words, into a deep knowing. From the moment I first cupped a woman child into me, I had always wanted this for her – a sister to round out her heart. ...
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moreHow to Really Find Yourself {Free Nature Calendar}
On Friday, June 03 rd, 2011On the edge of a star-birthing cosmos, on the rim of a planet spinning in black, on the fringe of a summer unfurling, there is this happiest relief for the tad dizzy and weary, to find that we are a people held. :: :: “Let the bel...
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more“There is but one cure…”
On Thursday, June 02 nd, 2011It’s long after I turn the last light out. Long after that I hear the back door open and close. That I hear the footsteps. “Hey…” Who comes in through the door, comes in from the dark? “‘Night, Mom.” Ah… his voice. Firstborn. “You okay?” I can hear him lean against the railing at the top of the stairs. “Yeah…” He can’t know that M...
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moreFor Wild & Busy Days: {Call them Kite Days}
On Friday, May 27 th, 2011A nd in the midst of the wild and full days… the days that are like kite days, days that keep you running, the keep you holding fast, that k...
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moreHow Do We Really Treat Jesus?
On Wednesday, May 18 th, 2011In front of Mrs. Gillie’s entire grade six classroom, Kadie Miller* said I was butt-ugly. Did you pick out your own get-up today or did your butt-ugly mama dress you? Sandy Goetz* laughed. That afternoon when the bus doors cranked open and I was finally free, I ran up our gravel lane, and Lissa Turscott* slid down her bus window and whipped a baseball at me, smacking me ...
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morefor the Mother of Teenagers who aches but a bit
On Friday, May 06 th, 2011I had always thought there’d be more time. I had thought when they swaddled you in that cotton blanket in the heat of mid-May, that it’d take a whole lifetime to unwrap you a man and I couldn’t imagine, me but a child. Who knew a lifetime was a blink and you’d be so tall when I next turned around, son, your cow-lick still turning there? ...
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moreSons, Mothers, and Silk Purses out of Sow’s Ears
On Thursday, April 07 th, 2011The smell of a good pig’s always been the aroma of home to me. And the steady rhythm of a sow grunting low when she lets down her milky waterfall for a whole litter of rooting pigs, this is a song of old, slow comfort, the milk and honey that runs free and sweet in the land of the brave and the farmers. I stand in the barn doorway and listen with Malakai. He’s grinning. It...
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moreHow to Make & Take a Peace Retreat
On Friday, April 01 st, 2011{Two posts today— our other family activity posted below} This house rocks with the noise and the thunder, of the many and the living close. I light a candle. We call it a Peace Retreat. When tears rain and voices crash, domestic sky splitting with sibling storm, this Mama who sometimes wearies Mama needs arms to wrap up the gusting child or the wind-lashed child to tuck...
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moreweekends are for happy grace moments
On Saturday, March 26 th, 2011{How farm girls happily learn to read: with their John Deere tractor hats on! ~smile~} :: For writing letters and eating cookies in bed, for tackling a big project with the praise music cranked, for wearing your favorite shirt and your favorite fuzzy socks and just doing, for just a little bit, a favorite thing, for baking in the kitchen and letting everyone l...
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moreLamb Mothers and Amazing Grace
On Tuesday, March 15 th, 2011I watched the child sleep and wonder where in the cosmos she exactly came from, out of what thought she materialized, this full-bodied grace. The woods, I have always said this one came from the woods. A whole summer of barely mornings, I had ridden my bike down through the woods, through pure light dappled, dew still on the bike handles, and I had begged Him ...
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moreWhat Happy Homemakers Know
On Friday, March 11 th, 2011A blue jay sits in the spruce boughs. The washing machine hums as it scales Mount Washmore. A half dozen boisterous kids play dominoes and cut paper and sew material and clack the long needles. I’m standing in the kitchen with the dishes stacked and the floors fallen and scattered and all the world on a decided, marvelous tilt. Dress-up clothes and balloons and mittens ...
