This past spring, when we were all hunkered down at home and anxiously awaiting a bit of good news about the Covid-19 pandemic, I often found peace just outside my back door.
I’m a homebody, for sure. A gardening homebody, on top of that. But it’s been many years since I made it a near-daily springtime practice to wander around my yard and check up on the progress of all the growing things.
I haven’t made it an official goal or anything, but it seems 2020 has gradually become The Year of Trying New Things for me. I’ve written about some of that here, and I hope to continue the conversation in the coming months. This week, though, I’m trying something new in …
When it comes to places to live, Kansas is not very glamorous. Nobody has ever said, “Wow, I bet it’s beautiful there,” or “I’ve always wanted to live there,” when they find out where my home is. I get it. I’ve been around the country, and Kansas is a bit boring …
There it was, in the subject line of a promotional email from the photo company we’d used to print Lilly’s senior pictures: “Don’t forget about dad.” The timing made sense, given that Father’s Day was less than two weeks away. But when I read it, I couldn’t escape the irony. …
Last week, I wrote about metaphorical wake-up calls—how they don’t have an expiration date, and how responding to mine involves learning to be OK with not knowing how the story is going to end. I don’t have a tried-and-true strategy for doing this, of course. But right around the time …
At our house, we have one daughter who usually gets up in the morning before her alarm goes off, so she rarely needs a wake-up call. Meanwhile, just down the hall, daughter No. 2 hits snooze numerous times and often doesn’t actually leave her bed until we throw open her …