It’s been six months since my family went to church. For every pre-coronavirus Sunday when I fantasized about staying in bed rather than wrangling all of us into a pew, I can’t believe how much I miss it. Sitting around our dining room table with song books and Bibles can’t compare to worshiping with others. […]

“And this is where my porch swing will go,” I told anyone and everyone who stopped by my house to check my husband’s progress on our front porch. In truth, I wasn’t sure whether a swing would fit in the narrow alcove at the end of the porch Dana was building – let alone whether […]

Friends recently held a yard sale to raise money for Chop Point school. Having just helped a family member move, I seized the opportunity to pare back some of my own clutter. In a box to donate went my great grandmother’s perfume bottles (I don’t wear perfume or collect bottles); a mini collector’s plate from […]

How we ended up housing twenty chickens in our kitchen began with a misunderstanding. When I ordered chicks, the local feed store said that twelve would arrive in early June with the rest coming a month later. While I wasn’t sure where we’d put them, at least we’d have time to prepare. Or so I […]

According to news this week, the extreme safety measures put into place around the world during the pandemic have saved an estimated 3.1 million lives across 11 European countries, including 500,000 in the United Kingdom. They have also prevented an estimated 60 million coronavirus cases in the U.S. One of them could have been mine […]

For the past couple of weeks, my family has been helping me prepare my gardens for summer. Truth be told, I’m not a great gardener, but having grown up on a farm, I find the wellbeing of my soul is tied to how much time I spend near the soil. So every year since we […]

In 1832 a small vessel, the Messenger of Peace, anchored off Manu’a, an island in the South Pacific. Aboard was John Williams, a British evangelist whose mission was to share the gospel with islanders, many of whom had little contact with passing ships. As Williams’ ship neared shore, several canoes rowed out to meet it. […]

Last week, I climbed in the passenger seat of our minivan and strapped in my seatbelt as my 17-year-old daughter, Lydia, slid behind the wheel. Not normally one for thrill rides, I leave most student-driving lessons to my husband, Dana. But I was on a mission. One month before, I’d ordered 50 pounds of fresh-ground […]