Quiet Things: Filled with Light

I have really enjoyed daylight savings. I got up early and took time to knit and read. This song came floating in on my Pandora station. It sounds like waking up to me, like rebirth. And falling back, the gift of an extra hour feels like rebirth too. Like, resetting the clock.

It was brisk, clear and sunny today by 7:15. Oh joy for autumn light, shining through the window as I filled thermoses with warm soup and I cut up oranges for lunch. I said a little prayer of gratitude as the kids ate breakfast and waited for the bus. That fall sunlight never ceases to amaze me.

And now, the house is really quiet. Our black lab's deep breathing is the only sound I'm hearing. And I am really grateful for this time in life, time to take a step back and enjoy the things that Christ has for us: love and family, good food, beautiful friends, amazing coffee... we are filled with light.

Welcome Home

She grabbed my face between her soft hands and said, almost sternly, "Welcome Home."

Her exclamation summed up everything my heart felt. It had been so long since we had gone out to fly kites. It'd been forever since we laid with our backs on dewy evening grass and looked at the clouds pass. And here she was, laying stomach to stomach, face to face, pronouncing her little greeting, blessing and benediction.

Welcome Home.

In the last month, I've completely changed my daily life. I left my Fortune 500 company job as an Art Director to embrace the daily living that I'm meant to have now.

I felt like I had been living a double life-- deeply trying to find balance and rhythm in our home, but fighting for the illusiveness of time everywhere else. "Gotta do more, gotta be more" felt like a runaway train. So, I chose to disembark.

So here I am, barely a month of newness under my belt. I'm practicing healing. I'm embracing the life that is right here.

I'm choosing to reclaim wonder. I'm carefully putting my heart back together. Loving my husband and children, loving our little house and our rhythm.

I'll be here more often too. I feel like I've come home on so many levels.

New Rhythms, New Adventures

I do this every season don't I? I stop, look and listen.

And then we adjust our rhythm to fit the needs of now.

This new space, season is so different from the rest of our life changes because we took a leap. We tried to be brave and we took an opportunity that seemed like the hand of the divine was holding it out for us.

With our glorious friends, we bought a coffee shop. The coffee shop.


It became our joy and responsibility. And, for a bit there it took tons of energy and passion to get it up and going. But it was all out of love. And the passion and energy are still going.

This place, this coffee, this community, the deep conversations, the continuing connection-- it's what life is about.

So, if you've wondered where I've been. It's been here. A three house walk away from our own backyard.

Our beloved coffee shop is now a place we too call home... well you know, it kind always has been.

All is Calm, All is Bright

Every year, we choose a guiding theme for the upcoming year, usually I take the theme from a Christmas carol and use it on our Christmas card, but I try to keep it in the forefront of my mind as we live out our daily lives. 

For 2013, I chose All is Calm and All is Bright. 

It seemed fitting, because who doesn't want to be calm, quiet and full of light? 

Unbeknownst to me our guiding theme became my mantra as we passed through some of the darkest times of our family life and marriage. And claim those words as glorious truth through some of the most adventurous and beautiful times in our family life and marriage. 

I read recently though I can't remember where, that adversity gives birth to hope. Without struggling through adversity, you can be left with an unshakeable hopelessness. And though, I don't know about unshakeable hopelessness, I do know that our hard fought adversity has indeed given birth to hope. And more than that we are now thriving. 

We've learned a lot. Basically, practice radical honesty, ask for help when you need it, take a step back and seek out the good and the beautiful in life. Even if it seems like nothing is beautiful. Be on the watch for it, it will find you. 

And this all sounds trite and hocus-pocus, but looking back on this year, I wouldn't trade any ounce of it, because of the place we're in now.

And remarkably, as we enter 2014. We're entering it Calm & Bright.

So we chose for this years theme, Repeat the Sounding Joy.

Because, we could all use a joyful year to recuperate. (Hows that for honesty!?)

How We Remember...

Doing Things for Themselves

"Remember you are not managing an inconvenience, you are raising a human being." --Kittie Franz

For a few years now, the kids have had a drawer in the kitchen with kids plates and cups. They place their own settings at the table before dinner and this was a really good way that they could acomplish this task on their own. 

And now, with Isabel helping make her own lunch, we've reorganized this drawer to include bowls, a small colander, measuring cups, lunch totes, bento boxes and lunch paraphernalia as well.

The kids really love having a space for just their things, in a place they can reach it. And they are really proud when they help out and sometimes set the whole table with kids plates and cups! Plus, now their little friends know where they can get cups to serve themselves water at our water jug with a spigot on the counter.

Giving them little ways to help themselves help them become responsible for themselves little by little.

Because, as parents, we're teaching them to become independent individuals. Right? We want them to be self sufficient and know how to do great things. This is a little step along the road.

Do your kids have a way that they serve themselves in your home? 

Love is like Avocados

My husband, Eric went on a business trip that kept him from us from Thursday until the wee hours of this glorious Tuesday morning. And what little treat did he bring for me? Flowers? No, so much better.

Avocados and a lime. We often say in the dead of winter while eating eggs and spinach, chicken tacos, salad... "You know what would make this SOOOO much better?" The answer is always, avocado.

So tonight on my chicken taco, I'm having avocados. Avocados with love.

And I think about our life together. How we've grown. We are no longer two starry-eyed kids eating omelettes with avocados and planning our life together.

We are starry-eyed adults, living our life together. We have the two kids, the dog and cozy little life we dreamed of all of those years ago. 

I was so glad to have him home. Just him.  The house was set right when he walked through that back door. Lucy dog, sighed in relief (jumping and wagging her tail).

Truman woke up right away when he heard Daddy come home. Truman's little heart rested soundly, as he breathed little-man-breaths next his Daddy sneaking in between us in early-morning hours.

Our Truth: Home is when all of us are under the same roof.

Three Minutes

The three minutes between getting shoes on this morning and the drop off at school, I lost my cool.

In those three minutes there were lost shoes (how!? I just handed them to you!), lost mittens (replacements for lost mittens had a hole. And then tears about said hole), a broken plate, a forgotten bear and lunch box mislaid. And then their were a few words, I wish I would have said with different 'timing and tone.'

But, I asked for forgiveness. We made a plan for what could possibly have gone different in the future.

How could we approach this better?

And I gave away my crushing guilt for a bit of grace.

And that is one of the only lessons I want them to learn. To give grace and recieve grace-- even when it's undeserved.

Because the kind of grace they gifted me with after those three minutes, wholly undeserved grace.





(photo from our last trip to California)