with GIGANTIC marshmallows!





14. my backyard
15. lessons in being alone
16. gladiolas
17. learning how to do things because they are right, not because of others
18. medicine for kitty allergies
19. roses on my office desk, wafting their sweet fragrance my way
20. David, the psalmist






















The mall is such a strange place. So many things under one roof - teeth whitening, haircuts, pretzels, bungie-jumping. These pictures are how it feels to me - blurry, out-of-focus (they are actually this way because I was trying to snap them covertly). It even sounds blurry, no distint sounds - just echoy noise. When I walk out of a mall I always feel a little like I have been released from a dungeon. I don't like options and the mall is all about options, all about defining yourself with the stores you visit. I still, at 27, don't feel cool enough to walk in Abercrombie and Fitch. Oh dear, that makes me laugh now that I think about it.
Last week was my 2 year wedding anniversary. We went to Amish Country in Indiana, we relaxed and talked and daydreamed about what it would be like to live in the country with our own brood - making our own everything and having a horse (Jonathan felt that was appropriate for real country living). We took a carriage ride into a farm and toured around. Everyone was so kind and pleasant. It was a little weird taking a day trip into these people's lives and we debated whether they just did it for the money, or if they had a bigger purpose. While they do not openly evangelize - they do show people another way to live - they give city folks a look into a simpler time, and I think that is a ministry in itself. I've always felt within me that people just need room to breath - room for their souls to expand.


















(That sticker is a lie, but he wanted to wear it anyway, so later I wrote in "soy" - just to be honest ;)
J. left yesterday. I am mourning. It may seem a little dramatic, but mourning is simply sorrowing for a loss. And it is a loss, and my soul aches. I feel as if my heart flew over the ocean without me - how can you survive without your heart for a whole month? I want to withdraw, I don't want to see anyone - I want to stay in my little apartment, in the dark and simply wait for my heart to return. The comfort we spontaniously gave over the last couple days comes back to me now - "a month isn't that long, think how fast last month went by" - "you'll be so busy ministering you won't have a chance to miss me much" - "saying goodbye is the hardest part, after that it will be easier, I just need routine" - it's all empty words now, except for the real comfort he left me with through the Word. How did he know that was just what I needed to hear?
READ it - really read it.

O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.

You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.

You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me
;
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.

My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.


Amazing. So, I will not mourn. I will ride along this month sitting in the palm of his right hand - holding onto his thumb, knowing that He understands and He knows ....and that is enough for me. And when I wake up every morning looking for my heart - I will know....He's there, holding me.
1. a little apartment, tucked away, a little piece of seclusion
2. toddler hugs
3. sisters
4. budgets
5. grocery lists
6. gas in my jeep
7. passionate words whispered in the dark
8. a husband who fills me up to the very brink
9. playing the piano
10. kneeling before God at the alter of his grace
11. the chance to start over every single day
12. watching the Holy Spirit move through the words of my husband


I grew up in a family dominated by females. I actually had no idea how to relate to my husband as a man - I am still learning, somedays it seems like an uphill battle and I often loose - shaking my head in wonder at the end of a day, baffled by this man I married and totally unsure of how to proceed. But I am slowly coming to understand what it means to live with a man, he is not a woman - he is The Other - and I am intrigued and completely in love with him. But sometimes, like when my sisters visit, I can just let the female wash over me and I can feel myself relax a little - this I understand, I understand the unspoken needs more than the spoken. I understand as I am understood. And with sisters its a double blessing because not only do we share in the feminine, but we also share the DNA, the background. We just understand some things about each other that outsiders can't. And there isn't a constant need to question. It is like taking a deep breath of air to not have to explain myself - to be with people who understand that the groceries go onto the belt in a certain order; who know that if your ice is floating, you need more ice in your glass; who don't condem me for my love affair with barbeque chips and pickles; who know that sometimes you just change your mind, and the thing that seemed so exciting this morning may not be the same this afternoon; who know that sometimes what you say may not really be what you mean; we share facial features and the fear of change but the longing for freedom. No one else in the world has lived such a similar life to my own, and I think that is amazing.

So, here's to sisters. Here's to my sisters, I'm so glad you're mine.