Category: Uncategorized

Thanks for stopping by. Let me show you around.

This is our dining room. The table turns into a bed, which will be mighty handy should any of you happen to come visiting and decide to spend the night. Can’t wait to chat with you about life and writing here.

Here’s the kitchen. There’s a small stove top opposite this sink. Not exactly gourmet-meal making quality, but check out Maile’s blog once the trip starts for her creative take on simple meals.

That’s the bathroom. There’s a small shower to the right. Enough said. (I leave the bathroom metaphors to Jen Luitwieler, whose book was just named an Amazon good read.)

Three bunks for four kids. But two of the kids are quite small. We’ll figure it out.

Our bedroom (and study…and refuge from the chaos…and place with mirrors which kind of reminds me of Hotel California).

And finally, the view from the back to the front. It’s a big bus. Am I ever so slightly nervous about driving it? Perhaps.

Watch out, America! Eight more days until this ship sails.

The house sits mostly empty on this cold Sunday afternoon. The chickens walk up on to the deck and peck at the glass patio doors, their heads twitching from side to side, trying to figure out why a wall of plastic containers obscures their view of the living room. Cardboard boxes stand by the front door – they will carry away the final remnants of this time in our lives.

An unexpected peace fell over the house this week as we packed up our stuff and wedged it into storage. In my experience, all great adventures begin and end with a storage unit. Boxes of books, clothes, and dishes never touched in the two years we lived here have vanished. There is something refreshing about empty space. There is something about simplicity that makes it easier to breathe.

The house even seems bigger now, without the chairs and table and wardrobes, the carpets and end tables and piles of things we never used but only moved from spot to spot. It’s been a good reminder to me, about how our life can expand if we’re willing to throw some of our stuff on to the altar. Continue reading “God’s Renovations Involve Wrecking Balls, Not Paint Brushes”

This pastor has it going on. Check out his creative and impassioned use of the phrase “F you!”

Thanks to my uncle for pointing this out. He and I wrote a book about forgiveness in the wake of the Amish schoolhouse shooting (which did not include the aforementioned phrase). Check out our book HERE (scroll down after arriving at that page).

And then there’s this. For you non-football fans attending Super Bowl parties, you’ll want to check out the latest Tripp and Tyler video for all of the important etiquette:

I especially took to heart the advice about not playing a banjo while wearing a Speedo. Enough said.

So where will you be watching the Super Bowl? Will you be watching the Super Bowl? If not, what much more productive thing will you do on Sunday night?

We all want to belong. We all want to be an insider.

We all want to walk into a place billowing with people and noise and distraction, and then somewhere in that storm we want someone to turn and notice us. We want to see their eyes light up and we want them to forget what they were talking about and we want them to pull up a chair or make a spot at the bar for us. We want them to want to get to know us. We want to know that we matter.

I want you to want me
I need you to need me
I’d love you to love me
I’m beggin’ you to beg me

This desire for friendship and community and intimacy is a beautiful thing. It serves a purpose in the perpetuation of our species by leading to the creation of little people and also to the formation of communities that provide for and protect the individual. We are not all Bear Grylls-types, able to forage on pine cones and various species of moss. Continue reading “In Which I Call Out Myself and My Home Town”