Last weekend I gathered with more than a hundred other women in my city, and literally probably a million women all over the world from all kinds of different Christian churches to worship together and learn together and fellowship together as part of If Gathering.  This is the third If…

I’ve been playing my cello for one year!  Honestly, sometimes it feels like my progress is disgustingly slow, but when I frame what I now can play in light of the fact that a year ago I didn’t even know how to hold the cello, I really have learned a…

The weather was remarkably warm on Sunday, which turned the snow into the perfect sculpting medium.  In the early afternoon our neighbors halfway down the street popped over and snow construction commenced.  Many hands make for light work, and they had the assembly line down pat.   Mr. SP elected…

I learned the Russian words for please, thank you, car, store, yes, no, sister, brother, hello, tea, penguin, bus, airplane, shower, and some others too. I learned how DIFFICULT it is to pronounce things in Russian. It turns out I like borscht, even though I hate most of the ingredients that…

He asked me, “Mama, are there a lot of cranes in Ukraine?”

He was trying to avoid my camera while chopping ice in the driveway, but hiding behind the pickup truck didn’t work because I got him anyway.  Bwah ha ha ha!  

Mmmmmmmmm.  Yum.  That is all.

The firstborn has been surpassed in height by the second kidlet.  Of course, I always knew that was going to happen, but for some reason I didn’t realize it was happening NOW!  It’s a bit of a weird feeling.  Strangers will no longer be able to intuitively gauge their birth order…

I haven’t been able to read nearly as much as I would like over the past few months, but here are some recent favorites: Grown Up Books Where Did you Go Bernadette by Maria Semple.  I absolutely loved this book.  It would be included on my list of most favorite and…

It’s been quiet here, because we’ve had a doozy of a time these last few weeks.  For example, last week while I was at choir rehearsal, my van was vandalized in the parking lot.  The Bad Guy broke the driver’s side door window, and of course the weather was headed…