The Lake House Investment

Of all the investments my dad has made over the years, the one with the highest return has to be the family lake house. I’m not talking about financial gain, although if he sold it today he would make a pretty penny. No, the lake house has more to do with relational yields than it [...]

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My Brick is Breaking

Three fourth-grade boys surround me underneath a huge oak tree. We’re in Southern Indiana, at a Benedictine monastery. Thirty fourth-graders and a handful of chaperones gather in small groups around the serene campus to pray on this day: The National Day of Prayer. One of the parents has created prayer slips for each group. The [...]

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I’m So Eve

I wish she wouldn’t have said, “Do not touch.” I’m defiant and when someone tells me not to do something, I get all churned up and triggered. I’m not proud of this, by the way, but it is in my nature.
So when the tour guide says do not touch the walls, or my surroundings, at [...]

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Another 911 Call?

Since we have moved into the city, I have called 911 twice. The first time was when someone was trying to break into our neighbor’s house. Then last week, I heard a terrible booming sound and looked down the street to see a city bus entangled with a car, an SUV and an iron fence. [...]

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What Page Are We On?

Today someone said to me, “I need to know what page you are living on.” I restrained myself from correcting her prepositional faux pas, and bit my tongue instead of responding sarcastically with: “Oh yeah, well I need to know where you’re at.” I did however sit stunned for a moment.
She had not asked me [...]

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Where I Live

The other day I started taking photos as I was running errands. Apart from a story, these are just random photos of random places in a random city. But to me, these are the places where I live. These are the places that capture my attention for several reasons…
My kids attend a private school housed [...]

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Where’s My Easy Button?

I had an epiphany today.
I have no easy button.
I did not come equipped with one anywhere on my body, in my brain or elsewhere in my environment. I can’t even order one. Sure I can buy the cheesy red one used on those T.V. commercials, but they don’t really work. They’re just for decoration. Go [...]

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The Gnome Revisited

Pre-ramble… I just read the blog I wrote last night. It was nearly 1 a.m. when I finished it. I couldn’t think very clearly by then and it shows. My brain hurts from reading it again. All this to say that the deep thoughts are getting set aside for now as I have something a [...]

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A Gnome Under Our Home

I will not win any parent-of-the-year awards with this story. Right now, three out of my four boys are in our crawl space. We live in a 108-year-old home. For some reason they thought it would be fun to dress in long pants, long sleeves, gloves, hats, etc. and crawl into that dark space under [...]

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August Rush

I hesitate to name my favorite book, my favorite musician or my favorite movie. Mainly because I don’t have one favorite. How can a person pick one favorite when that person is multi-dimensional, dynamic and ever-changing? It would be like bearing children and picking one as your favorite. There’s no way.
In my case, I don’t [...]

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