I grew up in a Christian home, hearing the Bible read everyday and singing songs about Jesus. I have been in Sunday school and church almost every week since I was born, but that isn’t really what the Lord wanted from me.

 When I was around five years old, I repeated the sinner’s prayer, but they were only words and that isn’t really what He wanted from me either.

At bedtime, when I was six years old, I realized that I needed to give my heart to the Lord myself. I wasn’t going to heaven just because my parents were Christians

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Over the past few weeks I have heard one saying over and over again, “It must be nice to be able to lay around all day. I wish I was on disability.” For most, being on disability means sleeping all day, watching daytime talk shows and not having to keep up on normal responsibilities. I will admit the first couple of weeks since coming home, I took it easy.

Now, however, taking it easy doesn’t exist. While I will be considered disabled for quite sometime, this does not stop my responsibilities. For the few that have been taken away, I highly miss them. For those who would rather have disability, I would rather have work.

This week has been busy to say the least. With my …

A quick post, busy weekend, but God gave me something I wanted to share.

As you might know, we took a step of faith and brought home a small dog named Cocoa last month. During his recovery from surgery, he passed away. God gave me peace and comforting messages regarding this over at The Narrow Gate Invites.

Friday we took another step forward by bringing home another dog from the same place. He’s an 18 month old Lhasa Apso we named Pepper. Our home is his first experience with a home, steps, a family life inside. His previous owner encouraged us to have our crate handy. He wants a safe place among all the change.

Isn’t that the way? …

Memories can be iffy. Some are so funny, I could die laughing all over again. Others are so sad, I can’t keep myself from crying…all over again.

I’ve got one memory I’d like to share this week.

During my nightly devotional readings, I found an old bookmark I’d tucked inside my bible about a year or so ago. It was a Valentine poem that I’d written myself and on the back, I’d written: “To my Heavenly Father, with all my love.”

I remember sitting near the window, and writing the words with a blue ballpoint pen. It was the

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Our church has VBS daycamp every year, soon after the 4th of July. We put a “float” in the parade showing the theme of it. This year is all about dinosaurs and we made a big blue dinosaur. The church has vines and monkeys and even a giraffe and rhinosarus on the stage next to the blue dinosaur. The games and crafts have been planned. The teachers have been studying. The snacks have been bought. The invitations have been handed out. We are ready.

The blurry eyed leaders meet at 8 o’clock for devotions and prayer. It is almost 9:00; the vans and cars are arriving. The first day is a scramble of filling out registration forms and finding the appropriate classroom for each student. Some are …

This weekend was an adventure. I spent it with fellow staff members and a group of jr. highers in central Wisconsin.

I work with my church’s jr. high program and this weekend was our adventure trip. We camped two nights and spent Saturday white water rafting on the Wolf River. I’ve never rafted before, so it was a learning experience. My raft partner, another staff lady, also had never rafted before. Needless to say, we rocked - uh, I mean, we ran into a lot of rocks. But, hey, neither of us fell out of the raft in the rapids! (though we did get boarded by others in our group and tossed out of our boat. And I also gracefully (emphasis on gracefully) fell out of our raft, …

With a tip of my hat to the Armed Forces, I think motherhood is also “The toughest job you’ll ever love.” I’m fairly structured so summers can be a challenge for me. This year I am enjoying the balance of meetings, Bible studies, and errands against library programs and swim time. Yet my day remains full of “when is dinner? When is dad getting home? What is for dinner? When is dad getting home? What is for dinner tomorrow? When is dad getting home?” And friends, that sentence starts about 10 am. My husband just started summer hours which means yay, Fridays off, Lord help me, he gets home later the rest of the week.

Like I …

This week has been nothing short of busy. Between physical therapy, headaches, and extended family (all in their 90’s) visiting, my writing has once again been pushed aside. I always feel guilty when this happens. But by the time the day is done and I sit down to type, I am drained and don’t even no where to begin. Its time to get back into the writing “gym.”

I have such a great story in my head, but getting it onto paper has proven more difficult than I could imagine. I have discovered that in order to get what I have imagined onto paper, the acting chops must kick in. My mother has found this entertaining lately. It is all about getting into character, capturing their …