Gladden The Heart

Yesterday morning Tim, Riley, Brady, and I walked to Cornerstone, our new school. Some people from our community were there painting and doing repairs and we thought we might be able to jump in and help out for a little while. Soon after arriving, Tim and I realized we needed to get our children away [...]

It’s time to be more intentional about exposing my kids to music–starting with this list from Rolling Stone.
Riley and Brady know and enjoy some of these artists, but they had never heard of Michael Jackson. That’s kind of sad.

because I want to know and be known. I believe all voices should be heard. I have opinions I want to express and gifts and talents that have been given to me for the benefit of others in my family, my work, and my community. When women are squelched, we all suffer.

The “Seven Things I’ve Already Done Today and It’s Only 10:00am” Version
1) While running errands listened to very good music on the radio. Love Reg’s shows. You can catch him here on weekday mornings, and on his fabulous Sunday show from 10am-2pm.
2) While running errands had some very good conversations with my children. I loved [...]

The “Blog Posts Brewing Within” Version:
1) Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and the importance of balancing online community with real life community. For some of us it’s easy to throw our thoughts about faith, politics, and the economy out on the internets. Are we also making space in our lives to discuss these issues with others over [...]

If we lived in a world without tears…how would sorrow find a home?
Watch her on youtube.
Not all of her songs are sad… Her body of work runs the full gamut of emotions. A commenter (DMAXNYC) on the youtube link above says, “She can rip your heart out and kiss your soul all at the same [...]

1)“For forty contemplative days, the season of Lent calls us to the wakeful awareness that we are human and we are dust, but that there is a story reaching beyond our lifetimes and our deaths, speaking new life where death stings and tears flow.”
2)It’s sort of like The Bachelor. “Now, Nga and Cho bring half [...]

1) This list by the Internet Monk. He inspired me to change up my “25 Things” a bit. Rules are there to be broken, right? I don’t agree with all of his points, but he has given me a lot to think about the past few days.
2)If I met my 21-year-old self and she was [...]

1)Ransom Fellowship is one of my most favorite ministries. I recently read this article/discernment exercise about the value of ritual. I love what the author says in closing… “Whatever the case, it should be borne in mind that ritual does not usually bear its fruit in the mundane present, and for that reason it will [...]

There’s a lot on the internet about lasagna gardening… This is a pretty helpful article.
Last week I laid my first two layers–wet newspaper and leaves. The area I started with is the “flower bed” along the back of our house. It’s completely empty and has been since our house was built two years ago. My [...]