Throw the confetti, blow the kazoos! Today's the big day! A Book is Born. The metaphor of childbirth has repeatedly come to mind throughout the last five years. That's right. FIVE years. Here's a little peek at baby's book's progression. The Ultrasound: This is the book on day-one of it's development. Ultrasounds are always a little blurry. I didn't know exactly what the book would look like or how it would grow, but here is the blurry, un-colorful, first picture. Book's First … [Read more...]
Turtle in a Bucket: An Announcement
The first time my boys captured a painted box turtle and put it in a five gallon bucket, I felt like I had hired a babysitter. For free. For hours the boys watched that poor turtle try to claw his way out of that bucket. He was picked up, turned over, and dropped. Occasionally they’d dash into the house for a handful of lettuce, grapes and even animal crackers, to see if they could coax their captive babysitter into eating something right before their very eyes! The turtle wasn’t … [Read more...]
Six Word Story
Several years ago, blogger Rachelle Gardner challenged readers to write a six word memoir. She gave her own example: "Too much coffee? No such thing." As someone who struggles with being brief, I thought it would be a good exercise. It was, and I finally landed on these six words: "Jesus used motherhood to change me." I wouldn't have always summed it up that way though. It began with a more unfortunate six word story. I'll serve you. You serve me. See, I am a recovering religious … [Read more...]
On Moving to a New Place
In 2012, about 100 blog posts ago, I set up a little blog called Permission to be Real. It was born out of unexpected inner conflict when my youngest started kindergarten. When I dropped him off for school the first day, I thought I might cry. Lots of my friends had cried. However, I’d dropped off my two older boys for kindergarten in previous years and did not cry. At all. I thought it might be different with my youngest. After I got him settled in his classroom, I returned to my … [Read more...]
Keeping Track: Books and Sharks
I'm not sure I’ve ever kept a resolution for three consecutive years. Until now. “Keep track of books I read.” It was a change of strategy regarding resolutions which you can read about here, and it worked for me. This year, two books stood out as all-time-favorite material. And you don’t have to take my word for it. They each have more than 16,000 reviews on Amazon. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown and All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr were my uncontested … [Read more...]