Love thy neighbor. The concept seems simple enough. In fact, I think I first heard it somewhere around age four when I started Sunday school at the country church about 100 feet from my front door. Treat people with kindness. Be generous with grace. Show up when others are struggling. Bring a hotdish or a…
2021 Wishes
I’m entering 2021 with zero expectations. Sure, I’d love to get back into a morning exercise routine, shed a few pounds, clear the clutter from my closets, grow our savings, complete a few house projects, raise kids who always listen. But after all the pivoting of 2020, I’m ready for things to be easy. Light….
Snow Day: Sprinkles of Grace.
Snow days! As a kid, I loved them. A snow day meant curling up with a cup of hot cocoa, cozy blanket and captivating book. Today I’m thankful for snow days because it means my family is safe at home instead of stuck on the roads. Yet, snow days feel quite different as an adult….
#OneWord365: Choose
We’re almost an entire month into 2019. How?! Where does the time go? Are my New Year’s ducks in a row, with a clear strategy and path to live my best life this year? Uh, no. Far from it. (I don’t have ducks. Or a row. Some days, I feel like I have squirrels, and…
Amateur tattoo artist.
I recently rediscovered this essay I wrote for college English my senior year of high school. It’s even funnier to me now as a mom of two spunky and creative little girls. Enjoy! When I was three years old, I was mischievous. My favorite book as a child was about a girl who painted herself…
It’s not your year.
The other day I was cleaning our storage room and found a box of old notebooks. I flipped one open and found a list of New Year’s resolutions from seven years ago: Lose weight. Improve menu planning. Save money. Funny. Those things are still on my list today and pretty much every year. I’m a…
Life got you stressed? Choose calm.
This will come as no surprise to those of you who know me best: I lose my cool pretty easily. Yep. I’m the person who screams, falls down, rolls around and moans… after I stub my toe. These girls got their fabulous drama from their mama. (Have you seen the viral video, Company is Coming,…
Getting through or getting to? You decide.
When I calculated credits and realized I could graduate college in three years instead of four, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. Graduating early meant one year less of student loans and one year closer to marrying my high school sweetheart. That final summer before graduation, my alarm rang daily at 6…
“Uh-oh, mommy. Why are my hands so full?”
As we exited daycare, her strawberry curls bounced through the parking lot. Tiny fingers clenched her latest masterpieces, sheets of endless scribbles and crunchy papers with thick globs of dried paint. She pulled herself into the backseat, grabbed for the movie headphones and dipped into the stash of fruit snacks for the ride home. I…
Be still and know: bedtime matters.
Bedtime. The word alone sends a jolt of anxiety coursing through my veins. Okay, maybe I’m being a little dramatic. But bedtime at our house is a process. The big kid? She’s a dream to put to bed nowadays. (She certainly wasn’t this way when she was three.) But this one? She’s got some spunk…
Angie Laxdal, Writer 