I had dreams for my family life, for the kids education, for my own recreation time (which currently clocked in at daily total of zero minutes, zero seconds). I longed to do things like knit, read books with real pages, write for the joy of it. Instead, I was living life of reacting—not to God’s direction—but to people’s momentary expectations, urgent tasks all shoving and bickering to be FIRST on my list. I was desperate to get back to the most important focus of every day...

Holiday scented playdough? Beautiful consistency and long-lasting? Yes, please! We can’t make Christmas cookies every day (can we?!?), and many little hands don’t always make light work, as the proverb says. What do we do when it’s not cookie-making time, or littles are quite ready for the real thing?

As Thanksgiving approaches, I can't help but look for little things to do or add to make the holiday more meaningful and memorable. Especially since Thanksgiving is traditionally a day of gorging oneself before (finally!) turning on the Christmas music (actually, I start Christmas music in early November - can't help myself). Thanksgiving gets lost, slipped in between the fun of costumes and candy and the magic and mystery of Advent and Christ's birth.

If you’re like I was, your kids use more digital media than you’d like. Maybe they’re into video games, binging episodes of Bluey, mindless scrolling through YouTube. If you’ve ever had the thought, “I sure wish he’d do something that doesn’t involve a screen,” then you a. Have a problem b. Are in the perfect position to solve it!

Joy of Advent is a virtual daily devotional reading for children and adults. Each email also has curated music videos and classical (usually) works of art that are truly breathtaking. The Joy of Advent daily readings are structured around the Jesse Tree, in part because the Jesse Tree is a beautiful, ancient tradition, and because it gives us the opportunity to pull a scarlet thread from the tapestry of Scripture.

Last summer I went a little nutty. See, I was SO excited that our curriculum recommended a timeline. SO SO excited that timeline figures came with it. Until ... I opened the packaging. The timeline figures were ... ugly. So I made ancient history timeline figures using classic art! And now I'm sharing them with you, free!

Here you’ll find my TOP FIVE easy ways to set your creativity ABLAZE. These ideas can be used by anyone—even if you (mistakenly) think you’re not creative. We’re all creative. It’s part of what it means to be human, but we each express our creativity in our own uniquely wonderful ways. Download the full list to find out more!

An ever-growing collection of interviews. Going forward all will be linked here for your (and my) convenience! Because I’m not much better at keeping track of links than anyone else. This list could easily serve as an FAQ, with some questions appearing in interviews more or less frequently than others. I hope you’ll enjoy pursuing the links and sharing broadly and widely with all your wonderful people!

Welcome to the Ten Nights of Halloween! Each day I'll introduce you to one of the characters in my picture book, Halloween Good Night. Night two features the trick-playing Wood Imp! The wood imp is thought to be a small (less than two feet) human-like creature, once a part of the fairy people. But unlike fairies or pixies, imps are usually not very attractive. Wood imps particularly prefer woodlands and often hide in dank, rotting vegetation which as you might expect isn't so good for the complexion.

Sure, my sanity is always questionable. But somehow she talked me into it. I may have even suggested it myself. A tenth birthday shindig with none other than a Murder Mystery theme.