When we first moved to Dallas, we made some colorful friends who were actors at Scarborough Renaissance Festival- King Henry and a Contessa, to be exact. During October, the Scarborough Fair grounds become a spooky maze of haunted houses, Scary-oke, expensive food vendors, and a throng of tweens looking to snuggle up to their crush …
Tuesday, 7/11/2023, Nashville Airport 2:08 pm I wasn’t anxious about this until we popped open the back of my sister’s van. It’s not the actual flying that concerns me. The Baby is almost chronically un-anxious, as in, he is not anxious even when he probably should be, like when he tries to drown himself by …
January 23, 2023 Dear Mr. Sedaris, My son, {The Baby}, came screeching into the world via an emergency c-section at 26 weeks- a two-pound potato whose vital organs needed lots of assistance to keep him alive. I met him for the first time four months later, when his birthmother invited me to visit the Neonatal …
I remember talking about atheism and agnosticism in my world religions class in high school. In my little conservative corner of West Texas, we didn’t spend much time talking about the godless heathens, but I remember the description of Clockmaker god, who designed the world, perfectly calibrated all of it’s gears and dials, and then …
Let me preface the beginning of this series with a few things: I’m gonna take weekends off for my “writing every day” goal in November. I can do this because I’m a grown ass woman and I want to. I want to explicitly acknowledge that I have AMAZING parents who did the best with what …
Last August, my little family met my parents in Estes Park. We have done this trip every couple of years since I was a kid. We stay in cabins and hike and explore and breathe in the fresh mountain air. COVID made things a little different, but we were just happy to escape Dallas for …
Well, today the Wise family said hello to a new bed and goodbye to two of The Baby’s teeth. A few months ago, we started the laborious process of getting a SleepSafe bed approved through The Baby’s insurance because his crib had become unsafe. He was able to stand up in it and when he …
The Baby turned five this week. It’s crazy. All of those five years tend to blur together. After all, time flies when you’re drowning in medical chaos (just kidding…kind of). On the night of his birthday, our dinner conversation centered around remembering all of his firsts- the first time he sat up, the first solid …
(You can listen to an audio version of this post here.) I went to David’s Bridal today to purchase a bridesmaid’s dress for a friend’s wedding next summer. She had a dress already picked out in the system so they pulled her profile up and I followed the very nice saleslady to the racks laden …
(I realize this is very lengthy so I have strategically placed pictures of smiling animals throughout the piece so that you can mark your place if you need to take a break and come back to it. At my sister’s suggestion, I’ve also made an audio version of this blog. You can download/stream it by …
I grew up in West Texas- land of wide-open spaces, sky high teen pregnancy rates, and a colorblind racial ideology that masks racism instead of confronting it. In colorblind ideology, it is impolite to talk about someone’s race. I remember hearing a story about a friend who was trying to tell her son which store …
I just got back from San Francisco. I went to (hides face) a Christian conference. I found myself hesitant to tell people that it was a Christian conference because of the connotations of that. My sense is that many Christian conferences are lame attempts at pep rallies for God, the adult version of church camp, …
“What was I thinking?” I thought as I stared forlornly into the mirror. I should have known better than to impulsively stop at the hair salon directly adjacent to the Tom Thumb, still clutching my bag of avocados. I was hoping for a cute haircut before I left on my 10th anniversary weekend trip. Instead, …
I was a mere 21 years old when I got married. My uncle officiated our wedding. Before the wedding, my then-fiancee, now-husband, Alex, and I drove down to Corpus to do some premarital counseling sessions and stay with my aunt and uncle. After one of these sessions, Alex and I got ready to leave and …
I went to a vigil in Balch Springs for Jordan Edwards last week. It was everything you would want a vigil to be- beautiful and sad and moving and comforting. Like most, I was horrified by Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice’s deaths. I have been deeply affected before by deaths caused by police brutality, but …
Let me run through this generic conversation that each one of us have about a jillion times a day: Me: Hey! How are you? You: I’m fine. How ’bout you? Me: Doin’ good. You: Good to see you. Me: You too… My homeless amigo in high school never said, “I’m good” or “I’m fine”. He … Continue reading
When I think of Lent, I think of giving up something. I had a friend give up hope one year (only joking, of course.) In middle school, I gave up the use of spoons. Needless to say, I think that I seriously missed the point. Even though Lent is not biblical, personal sacrifice for the … Continue reading
I was trying to think of a coherent way to tell you everything that’s gone down lately but I couldn’t so I’ll just list them. Thanks and gig ’em. -At work this week, I asked a customer if he had a last name, to which he replied, “Yeah, yeah I do. Doesn’t everyone?” Then yesterday … Continue reading
I went on a retreat this weekend but I came back early to study. Here’s what happened next… A Scavenger Hunt, A ring, A promise. 🙂 Continue reading
Last night, I just felt like a terrible sinner who can’t get it right. Someone who doesn’t deserve Your forgiveness, much less Your love. I felt small and insignificant. I was forgetting one thing. Grace. Sweet grace. I am a sinner. I’m selfish. I’m prideful. I’m a gossip. I”m judgemental. I’m hypocritical. I’m weak. I’m … Continue reading
This is the girly version. For the boy version, go here Pinch me. I must be dreaming. This can’t be real. Any minute now, I will wake up in the Annex of the library across the table from a corps boy who snores like a chainsaw. pinch Nope. It’s real. I’m awake and I’m in … Continue reading
Lately, I’ve been wondering how we’re supposed to hear God’s voice. When people say, “God spoke to me,” what does that mean? How? There are countless examples in the Bible of God speaking through the silence, through a burning bush, through men, through angels. How does He speak to us now? In the same ways? … Continue reading
So my computer got broken in the famous Rolling Brownouts last week but we’re up and running again. The FedEx guy delivered a new power cord yesterday during my nap; for some reason, this also means that he brought motivation. Yay! God has been teaching me so much. Most of it, I enjoyed learning. Here’s … Continue reading
I remember that one time when you called me and told me that you had a vision. I was slightly jealous because that’s cool. But that’s beside the point. You knew it was towards the end of your life and you were in a room with a very long table. On the table was pictures … Continue reading
One time my family was visiting some friends in Houston at their house. They have two twin girls named Lauren and Emily. I was chillin’ like the cool junior high kid I was in the den and Leah came in. We had this conversation. Leah: Lawrence Samster died. Beth: I don’t know who that is. … Continue reading
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