I peeked in on Jackson and found him wide awake. He wasn’t hungry, and he wasn’t crying. He just wasn’t sleepy. I probably should have left him alone, but there would be a day when my Little Man wouldn’t want to be rocked. I stared at the verse painted on the nursery wall like I had done so many times before. “I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him” (1 Samuel 1:27). I rocked Jackson by the glow of the streetlight pouring into the room through the cracks in Continue Reading
Five Minute Friday {Mess}
I'm learning to embrace the mess. It's a challenge, but I'm finding there are unexpected gifts hidden beneath the crumbs and crayons. This week my floors were sticky, but a closer look revealed tiny footprints made with melted ice cream. The chocolate treat had dripped down his chin onto the floor. He'd walked right through the mess and left his mark. There was spaghetti stuck to the hard wood, but my attention was turned towards the little boy slurping the noodles. There are puddles Continue Reading
Five Minute Friday {Glue}
Stuck. Sticky. Holds together. The words that come to mind when I see the word glue. I'm reminded today (Good Friday) that life is sticky. It's messy like glue oozing from beneath the paper of a craft project. We can find ourselves stuck in hard places without much hope. But the sticky places don't have to keep us stuck. We have a Savior who holds us together. We won't be stuck in the hard places forever. The story doesn't end with the crucifixion on the cross. Sunday is just Continue Reading
Five Minute Friday {Paint}
It's messy. One by one he dips his chubby fingers into each color. Red. Blue. Green. Yellow. He smears the paint across the paper. A hurricane of color. Within moments his fingers and hands become a rainbow of color. It's on his arms and on his clothes. It's splattered on the table. I watch in wonder as his little hands create a masterpiece. It's messy memory making. Those tiny hands. That inquisitive look. A few minutes of fun that cost a buck. Some say I'm brave to Continue Reading
Five Minute Friday {Writer}
I stayed up way past my bed time to inhale every ounce of the encouragement she had poured onto the pages. There was a chance I'd regret the late night when I received my 6 a.m. wakeup call from my Little Man. I decided to take the chance. I'm glad I did. Lisa-Jo Baker is my kind of writer. Honest. Tears rolled down my face. A mascara stain now adorns the cover of my copy of Surprised By Motherhood: Everything I Never Expected About Being a Mom. Right there on page 131 Lisa-Jo summed Continue Reading