On Easter Sunday, we put on our fancy clothes and listened to special music, and with much fanfare, we celebrated that Jesus rose again. This year, as part of my job as Director of Children and Family Ministry, I took the stage to give a three-minute kids’ sermon. I used a pair of bright yellow-tinted […]
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I’m not saying that my decision to put on makeup earlier that morning caused the car accident on the I-5, but as I inched along in traffic, the two events grew more connected. I was on my way to a large speaking event at a church in Orange County. When they’d reached out a few […]
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It was that awkward time during a gathering, when the food is ready and waiting on the buffet table but no one has started eating yet. The adults were clumped together near a table of crafts set out for the children. The kids were running around with their makeshift foam headbands, stickers flying. Soon, a […]
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Last month here in San Diego, parents were hit with a double whammy of circumstances which made proper planning paramount. During the last weekend before school started, when last-minute moms like me were raiding what was left in the Target bins, Hurricane Hillary was due to hit us—the first tropical storm to hit southern California […]
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I cherish my slow summer mornings at our family’s farm in Michigan. I can sip my coffee on the back porch and listen to birdsong, watch the sun rise over the fields. Looking out over the oak trees, I wish that every morning could be a slow summer morning, but I know that eventually all […]
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The scene in the Barbie movie that plucked at my heartstrings and that I can’t stop thinking about is a blip of dialog on a park bench. Barbie has just been cut down by a teenage girl, and—feeling hurt and sad—she sits next to an old woman. The old woman is wearing a dark green […]
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I grew up asking my parents if we were there yet. On road trips from Orange County to Oregon to visit my grandparents, and later on planes when my parents became missionaries to France. Wedged next to my little brother and sister, and struggling with motion sickness, the question stemmed from my own impatience and […]
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Every day has felt a bit like Christmas at our house lately. Amazon packages arrive in waves. I open them, make a note of who to thank, then bring the contents to work with me. In my role as Director of Children and Family Ministry at my church, I’m in charge of running VBS (Vacation […]
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In this day and age, our identity is often tied to our work. It’s why we add “just” before “stay-at-home mom.” We point to our productivity as a sign of our worth. We monetize our hobbies into side-hustles. We declare ourselves a “girl boss” and then we slay the day. We outdo each other with […]
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I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket, and that’s how I came to be out our local Barnes & Noble one Friday morning. The last time I stepped into a Barnes & Noble, we were living in a different state, and the bookstore had been connected to a mall, back when […]
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Sarah K. Butterfield 