This morning, for some inexplicable reason, I remembered that in middle school I got a pair of Kaepa shoes. And if you don’t know why that was a huge deal, like Guess jeans and Polo shirts… you were not in middle school in the mid-80s. In my head, I ruled out ever having any because I thought they were expensive, and my parents were frugal, and so I didn’t even…
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Two Natural Ways to Cope with Grief
This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. See my full disclosure here. I thought I had dealt with grief and the pain of loss before. The years between 2009 and 2017 pretty much maxed out my Holmes Stress Score, but NOTHING prepared me for the loss of my dad in February. My best friend and hero during my toddler years; my number one supporter after I became a…
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Covers Over
He who covers over an offense promotes love, the Bible says. Trying to love other people is the hardest freaking thing sometimes, because I don’t WANT TO cover over an offense. I WANT Hallmark movie, Nicholas Sparks love where there’s just laughter and loveliness and lip-syncing to Motown songs with a hairbrush as a microphone ALL THE TIME, but somehow God saw fit to surround me with people who test…
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God vs Earthly Parents
God is faithful. It may be a struggle to see God as faithful if you grew up with parents who were not faithful to you or to each other. God is trustworthy. It may be a struggle to see God as Someone who always keeps His word if you caught your parents in lies or could never count on them to do what they said they’d do. God is gracious…
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For they are ever with me
Reading back through my last several posts, which are few and far between over the last few years, I’ve noticed a common theme about myself that I’m not proud of. There’s a lot of me whining about how hard life is. I haven’t updated this blog in a while because (insert excuse here). – Me It’s not just this blog; I have a thousand big ideas of things I want…
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To My Dad at His Funeral
Writing has always been my therapy. The bigger the emotions, the more I NEED to pour out the words in journals or on this blog. So when my dad passed away, you can imagine I filled dozens of pages. My dad was the single most influential person in my life. My very best friend and idol when I was a toddler, and the person I went to first for advice…
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Friday {Strictly} Fiction: the Birthday
He screamed at her in the hospital that day. The day her new baby was born. She was in the hospital bed running on fumes of sleep and hormones and excruciatingly sore in every conceivable place and someone made an innocent comment about, “… the next time you have a baby…” Oh I’m never doing THAT again, she retorted, halfway joking (or maybe not at all joking; those hours after…
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Narcissists and the Circular Argument
Circular argument. Another one of those terms I never knew until I lived it. I mean, there is no conversation with a narcissist in the traditional sense of the word, in which we … discuss. Like, for example, I would just love to say, I don’t think our daughter’s school is working out. I think we need to consider a different school. And then he would respond like a mature…
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A Chicken and Egg Story
Y’all…. I HAVE CHICKENS. Which no doubt comes as a complete and utter shock to those of you who have been following my blog for any length of time, on account of how you’ve always known me as a hip and sophisticated person. Yep, I DO still live in the city, mere blocks from downtown. But I have also gone country, back to my roots, at least a little, with…
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Pretty
A man died this week. A man who, by all accounts, was a blessing to all who knew him… at least all who knew him during the twenty years that I knew him. He had been my Sunday school teacher and neighbor during the early years of my marriage. His wife is a Facebook friend of mine, and she made a post asking for stories about him to be emailed…
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Hiding
“Did something bad happen to you and it made you hide? I had a stalker, and it made me shut down my social media.” I’m sitting at a convention and our speaker just said those words and I felt the floor drop out from under me. Yes. Yes, I’ve been hiding. My ex-husband reads every word I write here and sends me hateful, vile comments on every post I write….
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Lack and Abundance and Marketplace Sofas
I almost bought a couch yesterday. But I didn’t. I saw it on Facebook marketplace, which is my favorite source of nearly every furniture item (and, um, everything else) in my home since I became a single mama with a house to furnish. I mean, I had furniture before, but I’ve made a deliberate effort to not bring anything into this home that was contaminated with some sort of negative…
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