For as long I can remember, I’ve loved the writer’s craft, loved stringing words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into essays and stories and blog posts. There’s a quiet joy that comes when you’ve found just the right expression, when it all seems to come together and some kind of magic happens, … Continue reading "On Writing and Gentle Pushes and Being Published"
Read MoreAuthor: Jenn
On Wildfires and Cabinet Doors
We live in the forested foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, a vibrantly beautiful area full of towering pines and oaks and cedars. I love where we live; it means access to mountain lakes and shaded walking trails and easy backpacking trips in the summer. It means being able to ski and snowshoe and sled … Continue reading "On Wildfires and Cabinet Doors"
Read MoreKeeping Track
Somewhere around my sixth month of pregnancy, after I took the oh-so-delicious glucose screening test loved by expecting women everywhere, my doctor recommended I be more careful about the number of carbohydrates I consumed. Before going any further, let me state this: I love bread. I love bread, and pasta, and rice, and potatoes. Carbohydrates … Continue reading "Keeping Track"
Read MoreBlackberries
“I love the way the blackberry bushes smell this time of year,” he said to me recently. I, having grown up in the high desert, wasn’t sure what he meant, and so I asked for clarification. He laughed, a short chuckle. “Huh. I don’t know. They smell like ripe blackberries.” * * * * * … Continue reading "Blackberries"
Read MoreA Broken Place
The world is a broken place. We need not look far to find evidence of this fact; it confronts us every day in our frailty, in our humanity, in the ways our own relationships falter and our own efforts fall short. Still, there are weeks when mankind’s desperate need for God seems to blazon itself … Continue reading "A Broken Place"
Read MoreSimply Jenn
Last night, I tried my hand at homemade cheese ravioli. I took the easy way; rather than making the dough from scratch as a true chef would, I used leftover wonton skins from my refrigerator, figuring I could kill two birds with one stone. Not only would I prevent those skins from going to waste, … Continue reading "Simply Jenn"
Read MoreOn Having it All
Someone wise once told me that middle age is really just the process of finishing what you started in your twenties and thirties. Opportunities come when you are young, he said, and your options seem unlimited. Every time you choose one thing, however, you’re saying no to all of the other things that might take … Continue reading "On Having it All"
Read MoreOn Housecleaning and Rocking a Baby and Hospitality
. My grandma – my dad’s mom – used to recite poetry to us. This statement probably gives you a false impression, maybe brings to mind an image of my cousins and me gathered at her feet as she shared the lyric wonder of Yeats or Whitman or Dickinson with us, so I will dispel … Continue reading "On Housecleaning and Rocking a Baby and Hospitality"
Read MoreOne Year Ago Yesterday
One year ago yesterday, I sat in a courtroom, my fists clenched around my pen, or Jonathan’s hand, or the table in front of me – anything to give me a hold on the world, anything to feel grounded – and listened as a teenage boy told brazen lies and a teenage girl talked herself … Continue reading "One Year Ago Yesterday"
Read MoreDo Unto Others
The Ergo is her happy place! Some time back, I made the number one biggest mistake a parent can make in today’s digital age: I had a question regarding a particular aspect of child care, so I Googled it. Specifically, I was concerned about how much time Katie was spending in the Ergo – morning … Continue reading "Do Unto Others"
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