Ollie has been begging me for weeks.  Each night as I pull the covers up to his chin, it’s the same question. “When can we go to Lost in Fun?” This indoor game park is a four-year-old’s paradise with ball pits, leveled climbers, and huge jumping pillows. So after what feels like the one-millionth bedtime ask, I…

Photo by Charli Wusk (age 6) (While playing superheroes.)  “Come on mom, be brave!”“How do I be brave?”“Show other people your feelings.” – Charli (age 4) I’ve sharpened the new skeleton pencil I found.  It’s a little creepy with its white skulls sporting red glowing eyes.  It must have been a stowaway in a trick-or-treat…

I still have football on the brain.  A while back my family and I were at Old Chicago.  I was eating bite after bite of pizza until I saw Scott Frost’s grey suit and red tie repeated across the multiple TV screens.  I set my pizza back on the plate. ​I’m honestly not that big of a…

“Art isn’t about showing off, it’s about showing yourself.  Show yourself; you’re beautiful.” – Glennon Doyle Melton As I thumb-swipe through my pictures on my phone, brainstorming ideas for my Christmas card, I stop short at one-too-many-for-it-to-be-random pictures of colorful things.  I love little arrays of color, and lately I’ve been giving myself permission to…

A good friend said to me recently, “So where’s Gratitude Gal this month?” Yes, it’s Thanksgiving, and no I haven’t written much here lately.  While I’m pumped for pie and stuffing (Um, yeah, can you please pass more stuffing?) it’s a hard year to mine for thanks. This year we lost my darling mother-in-law, Peggy.…

When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow. —Shauna Niequist The funny thing about the idyllic picture above (and pretty much every beautiful picture on the Internet) is that it doesn’t tell the whole story.  There’s always something cropped out or some detail that…

Four years ago I wrote my first blog post here.  I had a one-year-old when I hit publish that first time.  Now, I have a five and just about three-year-old. Even though things have changed, I’m still, like I wrote back then, “Just writing, trying to make sense of things and turn up the volume on the still…

If you’ve been hungry for a way to reflect and focus this season, I hope you’ll check this out.  My friend, Michelle DeRusha, her husband Brad and I wrote the devotions, and Dan Noennig did the beautiful and simple design layout.  It’s been a cool project, and I’m excited to share it here.  Pass it…

I grew up in a white farm house at the end of a long(ish) driveway just down the hill from our church.  We could see the purple light-up cross from our windows at night.  In that house we learned that we were good.  We were loved. It’s funny how we forget that. This week I…

I watch my mom with my kids as they climb up and then fly down the slide, their pants leaving dust trails on the shiny metal curve at Coryell Park, just off the country road.  Trucks barrel by, leaving a new layer of dust for the next kids to come visit the playground.   In the middle of…