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Choosing This Moment

Finding the beauty in the everyday

Category: Family and Parenting

Dancing, Despair and Hope

Posted: December 17, 2014 Under: Family and Parenting

By Jenn 1 Comment

We danced the other night, Katie and I. Lest you have any visions of grace and beauty running through your mind at that statement, let me dispel them right now: by “danced”, I mean I spun awkward circles in my living room, made fumbling sashay steps back and forth, and sang an off-key version of … Continue reading "Dancing, Despair and Hope"

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Of Infant Sleep and Answered Prayer

Posted: December 12, 2014 Under: Family and Parenting

By Jenn 2 Comments

 Note: This may seem like a standard new-parent-detailing-of-infant-sleep (or lack thereof) at first, but hang in there! There’s more to this post than that. In the past several weeks, Katie has decided that sleep is simply not for her. She has fought naps, arching her back and crying when I try to convince her to … Continue reading "Of Infant Sleep and Answered Prayer"

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A Glimpse of Love

Posted: December 04, 2014 Under: Family and Parenting

By Jenn 1 Comment

We traveled for Thanksgiving, packed our suitcase and our little girl into the car and made the oh-so-very-long drive through the desert to my Grandpa’s house nine hours away. She did well, Katie did, sleeping a good portion of the way, only needing the calming presence of Mom or Dad in the backseat and the … Continue reading "A Glimpse of Love"

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Focusing on the Finish Line

Posted: November 25, 2014 Under: Family and Parenting

By Jenn 2 Comments

I’m not usually one for cutesy sayings, for pithy quotes, for warm and fuzzy cliches – in fact, I generally scorn them. Though I often strive for contemplative and beautiful here in this space, my sense of humor tends toward the cynical and the sarcastic. (Case in point: I find this post and its follow-up … Continue reading "Focusing on the Finish Line"

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Past Sorrows and Present Joys

Posted: November 06, 2014 Under: Family and Parenting

By Jenn 8 Comments

She caught me in the church parking lot a few weeks back, waved at me as I was unlocking the car door, walked over to say hello. It had been some time since I’d seen her last and she had never met Katie, so she commented on her smile and her amazing infant Mohawk and … Continue reading "Past Sorrows and Present Joys"

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On Airplanes and Crying Babies

Posted: October 22, 2014 Under: Family and Parenting

By Jenn No Comments

The plane sat stationary at the gate, all but a few passengers boarded and in their seats. It was an evening flight that came at the end of a long day, and the air was heavy with annoyance, with exhaustion, with the frustration that we still weren’t on our way that so often accompanies travel … Continue reading "On Airplanes and Crying Babies"

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On Wildfires and Cabinet Doors

Posted: September 19, 2014 Under: Family and Parenting

By Jenn 2 Comments

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"

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Blackberries

Posted: August 29, 2014 Under: Family and Parenting

By Jenn 3 Comments

“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"

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A Broken Place

Posted: August 20, 2014 Under: Family and Parenting

By Jenn 3 Comments

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"

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On Having it All

Posted: August 06, 2014 Under: Family and Parenting By Jenn 1 Comment

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"

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About Me

Palmer-Family-23 Hi. I’m Jenn. Welcome. I’m glad you’re here.

When I was in high school and college, I thought I would change the world. I would do big things. Become a missionary, perhaps. Start a non-profit. Develop some new product or idea that would save lives. I bought the message being sold in youth groups and Christian schools at the time: that we were made for more than ordinary lives.

But then … well, then life happened.

Read more here.

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