Are you living with open hands?   For years, it has been one of my goals to not cling to things, or even to MY hopes, dreams, and plans, but to ask God to fill my hands with HIS desires for me and my family. Of course, that also means not resisting when he takes something away. That’s the part that makes open-hands living a challenge.   On Wednesday, our family received some news that felt like a gift directly from the hand of God. I so want to clutch this news and keep it as if it were an ... Read More about Open Hands

Solitude. Peace. Quiet. Do you have enough of these in your life?As I write this, we are camping about 13 minutes from our front door. Friends have asked why we sometimes choose to camp so close to home. My answer is it’s not always about the destination. Sometimes it’s just about getting away from it all. Our to-do lists don’t follow us here!I can’t do laundry here. There is no upstairs bathroom yelling at me to grout the tiles. We have no deck that needs to be power washed. My husband has no ... Read More about Peace and Quiet

In a previous post I talked about folding clothes with scissors…meaning I keep a pair handy to clip fraying edges and stray threads on my decades-old towels. But there does come a time when I can no longer legitimately call a piece of cloth a towel. As soon as I change its job description to “rag,” it gets stuffed into an overflowing basket in a bottom cupboard behind the door in my laundry room.   The problem is, who uses 64 rags in a week? When I do laundry, there are usually 4 or 5 dirty ... Read More about Are You a Stuffer?

Bugs and dust covered our windshield as we drove into the car wash. Within seconds, the glass was coated in magical pastel colors. Multi-hued foam swirled in mesmerizing, iridescent patterns. I wanted to stay there in that soapy cocoon, savoring the thrill of being wrapped in a rainbow.But then… The brushes started whirling, mixing the beautiful colors into a yucky, muddy brown. Moments later, water rushed down on us, washing away all trace of suds. And then… our view cleared, and we drove out ... Read More about Is Good Keeping You from Great?