I’m lucky enough to live in a townhouse community where I know most of my neighbors, some of whom are colleagues and many of whom are friends. We share a wall with another young family: Missy is a friend of mine, her husband teaches at the same university as my husband, and their two kids […]
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My six year old son had a milestone moment this week: he lost his first tooth. He’s young for his grade and had looked on for some months as his classmates lost tooth after tooth. So it was with great excitement that he held up his tooth, safe in a tiny plastic treasure chest, to […]
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I perused the shelves of the bookstore, careful not to let my pregnant belly knock anything down. I was drawn to the selection of pretty journals and notebooks; I’ve always loved writing, and journaling in coffee shops used to be one of my favorite hobbies. I hadn’t written a word in over a year, since […]
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Paying with exact change Climbing into freshly cleaned sheets Dipping a knife into a brand new jar of peanut butter Checking the last item off a to-do list The smell of your baby’s head after a bath The first sip of coffee in the morning Making someone smile or laugh Watching fireflies dance across a […]
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My boys are out shopping with their grandma, and that means I have the house to myself. In this instance, it’s my in-laws’ country farmhouse, and I can literally hear the crickets chirping. Two glorious months are coming to a close today. I’ve been living in a fantasy world this summer where my husband is […]
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I’ve had a long love affair with thrift stores. It started by my mother’s side, before I ever stepped foot in a kindergarten classroom. I held her hand as we walked through the arch into our local thrift shop in San Juan Capistrano. It was in a small strip mall, a long and low mission […]
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I’d like to think that Jesus was an introvert, just like me. Never mind that he had twelve men always at his side, and that he dealt with crowds on a regular basis. An introvert is someone who draws energy from being alone, and there are a number of occasions when Jesus withdraws to a […]
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We hadn’t even stepped inside the zoo yet, and things were already starting to go awry. My sister had checked out the wrong free pass from the library, and the ticket counter lady wouldn’t accept the whaling museum card as admission. We were looking forward to showing our three boys the frisky river otters, but […]
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When I was seven, my parents walked away from everything they knew to become life-long missionaries to France. My dad had been a high school chemistry teacher and volleyball coach, my mom stayed at home with my me and my two siblings in our two bedroom house in southern California. Moving to France was both […]
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We were sitting in the teacher’s lounge, day four of my very first week of teaching. I was chatting with Paula, a third grade teacher, who’d been in the business for 20 years. She had three teenage boys at home. “Oh, I remember when all my boys were little,” she told me. “I would drive […]
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Sarah K. Butterfield 