Category: Featured

  • Connection

    Connection

    Connection is the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and loved. Jesus uses people and connections to heal us. He was the ultimate example of this in His lifetime of connecting with others one by one. Satan, on the other hand, wants us to turn inward and disconnect. Even getting caught…

  • Withdrawal

    Withdrawal

    Anger, anxiety, confusion, insomnia, migraines, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, headaches, mood swings, seizures. Sounds like someone needs to get on some medicine with all those symptoms. Amazingly enough, however, those are the symptoms I’ve experienced while trying to do the exact opposite. Coming off medicines and detoxing from it all is worse than the original symptoms…

  • It’s Not Just A Balloon – Building Trust With Your Children

    It’s Not Just A Balloon – Building Trust With Your Children

    Full disclosure: I’m not a parent, but I get asked for advice about parenting and children all the time. I admit that it’s a little weird, but I guess being a nanny who helps to raise other people’s children makes people trust me with theirs. Trust is a short word with an important definition, not…

  • The Science of Snuggling

    The Science of Snuggling

    I don’t remember the exact day my husband came home and changed our daily routine. We’d been married for over 15 years and had developed a good working relationship. That particular day he had been researching depression, my lifelong frenemy, and had come upon an article that had shouted out the effects that cuddling can…

  • What Boston Taught Me About Indy

    What Boston Taught Me About Indy

    The idea of moving again is one that fills my heart with trepidation. How many high schools will we have to attend before all five of our kids get through? But recently, my husband and I found ourselves on a flight to Boston, ready to check out about 15 different schools to see if there…

  • To My College Freshmen Self

    To My College Freshmen Self

    Right now, it may feel like life can’t get any more challenging. I know it seems scary, overwhelming, desperately lonely and incredibly expensive. Going grocery shopping by yourself for your own kitchen in your first apartment seems like a monumental task. I know, I’ve been there (and I still called my mom so she could…

  • Postpartum

    Postpartum

    I’m pretty sure most girls grow up thinking about their future lives in terms of qualities and quantities. A handsome, dark haired husband with blue eyes. Four children. A well appointed home with a white picket fence. The perfectly suited career that allows you to stay home with your children. We are told to dream;…

  • I’m a Genetic MTHFR

    I’m a Genetic MTHFR

    No. I’m not cussing. Although if you had my genetic makeup, you might want to cuss too. MTHFR stands for methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, but it’s really just a gene mutation that makes it hard for people to convert B vitamins. Enzymes don’t work properly and so they (we) have methylation problems. In this day and age…

  • The Joy of Cooking?

    The Joy of Cooking?

    I hate to cook. Let’s just get that out there. I am surrounded by women, like my own mother, who are magnificent cooks. They make meals a work of art I can’t even comprehend. When we went to San Diego to visit over the last Christmas break, my kids said they’d never been so full…

  • In The Beginning

    In The Beginning

    On September 11, 2001, Chad and I had just moved to Portland and were making our way into the city to get an ultrasound for our third child. It had taken us a year to get pregnant with this one, and after two girls, I was excited to find out who would be joining our…