This summer Peter is spending much of his time playing full-time Dad. Since he’s not teaching and I have lots of writing to do, some days it’s all him on the home front. He makes breakfast. Reads his Bible in front of the kids while they eat. Then reads theirs to them. He takes them… Read More All Different Kinds of Dads
Last week our family took a quick trip to Texas. Down and back in six days flat. For the wedding of some dear friends and former students. When it comes to road trips, though, the Worralls are slow to actually get on the road. First of all, we pack at the last minute, and I want… Read More The Worralls Went to a Wedding
Last September 11, I wrote here about safety and danger and 9/11, etc. Then a little while later I went upstairs to tuck Daryl into bed. “I love you, Mama,” he said. “Can I have a cuddle?” He still asks this every night. And my answer is typically the same. “Of course you can.” I’ll… Read More The Making of a Hero
Thursday morning was Daryl’s final day of Kindergarten. Thursday night was the Kindergarten graduation ceremony. And in the middle, his Momma had a mini-meltdown. It didn’t obviously have anything to do with Daryl and the fact that he’s growing up so fast, as they all do. Oh, I’m sure the emotions surrounding the day primed… Read More What We Learned in Kindergarten
OR “Sometimes the Adoption Process Can Feel Like This” “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed” (2 Corinthians 4:8). I grew up watching the Road Runner cartoons—the two-minute mini-episodes, in which the big-nosed, big-eared Wile E. Coyote obtains ridiculous gadgets from the mail-order company, the Acme Corporation. He uses these devices to… Read More When We Want
My mom’s last Mother’s Day was in 2008. But I think I miss her more this year than ever before. In part, because I have been writing about her for these past many months. Her presence felt so powerfully as I paint her on each page. In part, too, because each year I spend as… Read More One More Mother’s Day
Just a couple of months after our first miscarriage, we had a second. And just a couple of weeks after that, in June of 2005, we had a call. Since my epiphany and the release of so much anger, my main method for dealing with grief was to throw myself into the renovation of our… Read More Moving in Mom and Dad
“Greenleaf’s Bull” by Jeffery Dale Starr. I call it my Epiphany. That early morning in April 2005 when I stood in front of the bathroom mirror. And the scales fell off. And I could see. We had only been in This Old McHenry House for one week when I discovered that I was pregnant for the… Read More (Pregnancy. Miscarriage.) Epiphany.
“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.” Philippians 3:12 Good Friday at This Odd House started out “pretty good.” The kids were home from school, and the… Read More Not-So-Good Friday
“Gold is tested by fire, people by God.” (a Chinese proverb) panic attack: an episode of intense fear that may occur as a reaction to a stressful event; specifically: one that is accompanied by four or more bodily or cognitive symptoms. I didn’t realize what was happening at the time. My entire body was quaking.… Read More Tested by Fire