Category: Uncategorized

  • What Happened When I Asked Myself If I Looked Okay

    Hello tender friends! There’s nothing too special about this outfit that I wore last week. (Don’t mind Cubby’s pose… he’s going through a phase.) It’s pretty standard, and I’ve posted a picture in which I’m wearing the same Loft skirt before. The shirt is from Old Navy and I made the necklace on one of…

  • Mindfulness Tasting Challenge

    Hello, tender friends! Wth summer in full swing, it’s the perfect time to practice mindful tasting. All it takes to mindfully taste something is slowing down enough to sit down and enjoy your food and not be distracted by other things. Then find a flavor that you’re not that familiar with to try something new.…

  • How I Started Loving My Body

    Hello, tender friends! I love my body more at age 38 than I did at age 18. I love my body in a way I never could back then. I didn’t realize it was possible. I love my body for reasons that have nothing to do with how it looks. (I’m aware that gravity exists,…

  • Standing on God’s Word

    Hello, tender friends! Between work and teaching VBS, this week has been hectic. But we have had great fun! Our theme location this year is “Breaker Rock Beach,” so that’s why you see the whale in the background. Evenings have been hectic, but the Holy Spirit has been moving. I have had the urge to…

  • God’s Mysterious Ways

    Hello tender friends! God’s ways are always better. We found a baby deer in the tree line around the house a few days ago. She was tiny and cried out for her mother, apparently abandoned. She walked back and forth looking lost and blinking her beautiful, long-lashed eyes. The next morning, she lay curled up…

  • God’s Gifts

    Hello, and Happy Memorial Day, tender friends! As you head out to your barbecues or other celebrations while we wait out the rain here in Virginia, I wanted to share this moment of gratitude. I had one of those moments this weekend. Those moments that make you ask, “Why God, why do I get all…

  • Kale Chips With a Twist

    Hello, tender friends! I LOVE kale chips. When people act like eating healthy is a burden, it’s because they’re doing it wrong. But I have a little secret: we didn’t have enough kale for me to make a batch of exclusive kale chips when we harvested our first round of kale from the garden, so…

  • Go Big or Go Home-speech

    Hello tender friends! This is a speech I gave last week at my public speaking group. It covers the same time period as a speech I shared before- when I studied abroad in 2007 in Valencia, Spain my junior year of college. Here goes:  If you’ve ever lived abroad, you know that everything has the…

  • Choose How You Show Up

    Hello, tender friends! In the spirit of choosing how I show up, I decided to dress up in a nice shirt for a work function even though it wasn’t necessary. I had almost 3 hours of driving round trip that day, and I was determined to make it a treat for myself. It worked. Making…

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    Why I’m Embracing Rage

    Hello, tender friends! For most of my life, I’ve sublimated anger, ashamed of it. I sublimated it so successfully that it wasn’t until I was 20-something that I acknowledged it. I felt like I was observing an alien that day. “I’m so angry,” I choked out, surprising myself. I had no idea how violently the…