I watched something really touching yesterday at a neighborhood pool party. 

Our friends have a pool with a diving board, and the kids (+ a couple of dads) were all taking turns jumping into the water. One dad walked a little girl up to the diving board line, strapped tightly in a pink life jacket wi...

Yesterday concluded our mother/daughter NYC trip, and goodness did we have a great time. Our feet were like limp noodles; our bellies full of bagels, pizza, and cheesecake; our brains were on overdrive from all of the lights, sounds, and smells of the city... and we couldn't be happier. 

As we waited...

Today is graduation day at our local high school, and the word "commencement" is on my mind. 

The dictionary defines the word "commencement" as "a beginning or start." While I'm sure some high school students would rather call it "conclusion," the focus is very much on the new chapter. I love how muc...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the New Testament story of Jesus and Peter walking on the water. 

If you're not familiar with the story, I'll give you the quick version. After a big day of feeding 5,000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish -- which took some serious miracle power, Jesu...

I had a very simple but important topic on my mind yesterday: showering. 

Showering is something we do regularly (at least I hope so!), for the purpose of cleansing our bodies of any bacteria, oil, and dirt. It's also an opportunity to get rid of any unwanted hair and exfoliate our skin.

There are tim...

A friend of mine was telling me about an amazing tour of Radio City Music Hall she took during her last New York City trip. Her group got to go behind the scenes (literally) and see the whole place, including the costumes, Rockettes dance room, got to spend time on the actual stage, and did a meet-a...

There's a hero in my life who is fighting an epic battle right now (keeping her identity anonymous for privacy's sake).

She has kept the most powerfully positive outlook on her fight (doing things like calling her treatments "ammo-therapy," for example), which has been truly inspiring to watch. 

I'm t...

There's a really great talk I listened to recently, where the speaker shared something she observed at the beach, and I keep thinking about it. I'll share her words: 

"Once, at the beach, I saw a bird flying into the wind, flapping its wings so hard, almost frenetically, but staying in the same p...

I sang a duet in church with a friend on Sunday, and I have to be honest. Listening back to the recording, I thought she did great -- but I was a little disappointed in myself. I felt totally confident and comfortable when we rehearsed, but when the time came to sing it for the congregation I held b...

This weekend, our very curious and creative 6-year old got bored and figured out that she could break rocks open by throwing them really hard against a bigger one. She was so excited that she could "make crystals!"

Walking into church yesterday, she picked up a rock and turned it over in her hand. Ex...

I got to watch Chris do a fun thing yesterday! He randomly got the chance to fill in as a caddy for a friend-of-a-friend who's a professional golfer on the Senior PGA tour, and it was like watching a kid on Christmas. He had the best time.

And he was great at it! He did his homework to understand h...

I've talked with several friends who each had incredibly difficult things happen this week (one of them, more than one). As a friend I want to be able to take at least some of the suffering so they don't have to carry it all. It's hard to know what to say or do to be able to support in a way that's ...