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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One day a few months ago, I had blocked out a two-hour chunk of time in which to write. My kids were at school and my husband was at work and the house was quiet and interruption-free. I sat at my writing desk with my notebook and favorite pen and waited for the words to […]
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I’m old enough to remember checking my email in the early days of the internet. I would sit at my parents’ computer and wait about 45 minutes for our dial-up modem to connect (with all of its’ singing beeps.) Then I would eagerly see if there were any messages for me at our Compuserve email […]
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While watching a detective show with my husband, it struck me that in order to condense the story to an hour, they had to leave out a lot of parts. The show’s writers couldn’t include the ordinary, mundane scenes between the action: The police paperwork The commute to work Doing the dishes Walking the dog […]
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Guaranteed ways to be a miserable mom: Compare yourself to other moms. Volunteer to be classroom mom, soccer team mom, girl scout troop mom, and sign up to teach Sunday school. (Related: sign your kids up for ALL the things!) Stay up way too late, every night. Sacrifice your needs and wants always, in every […]
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Our dog’s favorite time of day is right after the kids’ bedtime. Paco knows that’s when we relax on the couch, mug of tea in hand. He sidles up to me or to my husband and enjoys our belly rubs and ear scratches. We are predictable in our evening routine and when bedtime rolls around, […]
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A small group of ladies at my church have been meeting once a week to read and discuss Learning to Walk in the Dark, by Barbara Brown Taylor. Every Thursday evening we hop on a zoom call and reflect upon God, and the role of light and darkness in our lives. Carolyn suggested we meet […]
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Last week, a package came for me. Inside was a new Bible and a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. I could hardly wait to open both of them! It used to be that I would have categorized one of the items as sacred and the other as secular, and although I would argue that the Bible […]
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Sarah K. Butterfield 