Living Outside the Lines
Our house sold a couple of weeks ago and then a week later we bought a home 300 miles away. School starts back in 3 weeks. The school and moving details are making my brain become Grand Central Station for realtors, inspectors, lesson plans, curriculum purchases, movers, and contractors. There are days when I look [...]
Examine a brand new balloon. It just sits there, flat and empty. Now compare a balloon you’ve blown up to one filled with helium. If you put the one you blow up on a table it will sit still until the air around it moves and then it will move. If you throw it up [...]
When I was in first grade my best friend was a voracious reader. I was a tomboy more interested in playing ball that reading a book. I just couldn’t sit still. I didn’t mind getting my work done because the competitive side of me wanted to make an A. I worked as hard and fast [...]
We’re moving to a new city in August. I’m cleaning out my dresser drawer where I keep sentimental things. Among special cards and notes from my children I found…* prepare yourself *…. their baby teeth. Why in the world did I save their baby teeth? Does a grown child want her baby teeth? Will she [...]
How do you connect with the next generation? Friendship With a 5-Year-Old On Sunday mornings a cute little 5-year-old boy, Nathan, sits with our family because his daddy is the pastor and his mother sings in the choir. I look forward to the conversations we have before the service and * shhh* sometimes during. He [...]
When you hear a new idea what do you do? Talk about it? Immediately dismiss it? Ignore it? How do you handle difficult ideas? Bridgette Booth wrote a nice post that started me thinking about the topic of censorship. I’m not faced with censorship any where in my personal life. Why should I think it about? [...]
Discussing ideas equips us to live well in THE story. After reading The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois, I asked a group of 8-12 year olds what they thought about retirement or living in a utopian world. I sat back and enjoyed the conversation. This group has been nurtured in the art of conversation [...]
“You never took me where I wanted to go.” “No, but I always took you where you needed to go.” Dr. Who Ten years ago, in August, our family moved from Georgia to Texas. I felt like the move would kill me. I had too many attachments and memories that I couldn’t imagine life without [...]
Think of your favorite novel. What’s the message in the story? What is the plot line? In Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome, the message is about children growing up and maturing. The plotline is a series of adventures where the children are challenged to solve problems and grow into young adulthood. If we pull [...]
A story has a beginning, middle, and end, a tension that needs to be resolved, and characters we understand. The Bible has a beginning, middle, and end, tension that needs to be resolved and characters we understand. I love connecting the human condition exposed in stories and books to the big story of God’s plan [...]
