Finding joy in the trenches, together.
Encouragement, perspective shifts & practical ideas.
That’s what I hope you find here on the blog, friend. I am praying this becomes a place where you feel like you’re cozied up with a cinnamon roll and a good conversation, where your spirit is lifted and you are welcomed into collaboration. There is a place for you here.
The only three things you need to make your home welcoming
My husband and I have been married and making a home together for almost eight years, but I still feel new to the world of hosting. We’ve lived in a few different places and welcoming friends in has looked different in each home. However, there has been one common enemy each time I’ve put on my hostess hat.
It’s not our home’s limited square footage. It’s not my time constraints as a mom. And it’s not even my un-fancy cooking skills.
It’s the internet.
Beyond Lasagna: caring for postpartum friends
Ahh, postpartum. If you are a mama yourself then you know the wonder of this time. You’re snuggling a brand-new baby, getting to memorize their face for the first time and drink in that perfect newborn smell. And, you’re healing, trying to figure out how to feed this new little person, processing your birth experience, and more tired than you ever have been. Postpartum is blessing and grit all mixed together.
The Shepherd’s Dinner
Last year and this year (it’s a tradition now!), Cameron and I have hosted something we call a “shepherd’s dinner” at Christmastime. We invite friends and family to sing Christmas carols and read scripture passages in my in-law’s barn. Everyone is crowded together, sitting on hay bales with light mostly just from battery-lit candles. We sing acapella and no one ever knows who’s supposed to sing out the first note at the beginning of each song. Everyone pulls their coats a little tighter when the wind blows in. This is our small way to step out of the busyness, for one night, and let the truth of what happened over 2,000 years of cold nights ago wash over us all over again.
The trenches (poem)
Three under five, yes, all mine.
I do have my hands full, I suppose.
there are lots of ways to describe this particular patch
I’m living in. some days my mind is
trained on beauty, laughter glimmers that
melt my heart and bits of
learning and life that send me spinning
but then there are the days when
the same phrases run through my head over and over:
days long, years short.
running low on sleep.
just a season that will pass, but
I’m in the trenches.
There’s a place for your work on the blog!
