Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I receive a small percentage of the purchase. I only link to products I love! Lavender & melaleuca are a killer combo! Both of these oils are rejuvenating & soothing for your skin, which makes them awesome choices […]
whole30 homemade basil pesto
It’s been a long week, between exciting (crazy? intense?) work events and housesitting for friends and still feeling a little behind from our family vacation a week and a half ago. There’s nothing quite as therapeutic as having a little down-time to invest in something good for the soul–reading or writing or spending a few […]
those who mourn
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. [Matthew 5:4] There are days here on earth that make the thought of heaven much sweeter—even seasons of time that seem so dark and twisted and muddled that only the promised future holds hope. Come, Lord Jesus! But here we are, in the interim, wading through […]
loving the unlikeable
I did not particularly love Wednesday. It started a little earlier than normal, picking up a still-sleepy middle schooler for her last day of final exams. I put a smile on my face, said a cheerful good morning, and was met with all the grouchiness of an eleven-year-old forced to be up early for a […]
like coming home
There has been so much change, so much growth, so much expectation unraveled in these months. I remember the deeply-breathed release of the move almost two years ago—releasing home, releasing familiarity, releasing the expectation of that special companionship not usually found by moving to small villages in Africa. Breathe in, breathe out, move forward holding […]
hem me in
“April 18, 2015 — what do I expect of God? I feel hemmed in by loss…there is nothing to cling to aside from you, God. Everything is stripped away except for your presence—and even your presence so often fails to live up to my expectations, because often my expectations revolve around what your presence ought […]
shifting: thoughts on re-entry
Linking up this week at Velvet Ashes {The Grove}, where this week’s conversation centers on re-entry. — At Kasana, there is plenty of moving. People come and go; foreign staff leave and return from furlough; houses are built and their occupants are shuffled to various locations at various times. In the Ugandan English of this […]
pilgrimage
The past few weeks have held departures and arrivals, goodbyes and hellos, painful emotions and joyful ones…all of it culminating here. Here, where I sit at my dining room table surrounded by a vase of gorgeous flowers and a handful of scattered thoughts and a jar of delicious Nutella (not pictured). There are far worse […]
“may Christ in our marrow carry us home…”
Happy New Year, friends! For the past five weeks, I have been home. And for the past five weeks, I have been away from home. “Home” itself seems to be such a fluid concept these days, more difficult to define as its boundaries extend. For awhile, I went home to a cozy little dorm room, […]
six months & miracle beads
A few days ago marked six months since I arrived in Uganda this year. In some ways, that number feels accurate—small-town Texas life and plentiful Starbucks and “fitting in” to a sea of faces seems very removed. In other ways, it doesn’t seem like half a year at all. Wasn’t it just recently that I […]