Judge me if you must, but these pretzels are one of the boys favorite, take-and-go snacks for school.  They’re a bit on the expensive side, but I found a place online where I can buy them in a box of 6 – 3 oz bags at a great price.  They typically arrive in a big box with the sets of 6 in smaller boxes inside.  A few weeks ago, I ordered my last bulk shipment of 5 boxes of 6 bags, just in time to get us through the end of the school year.  Yesterday, I received my second-attempt delivery, after three customer service calls to this particular online retailer.

I laughed out loud when I opened the tiny box.  

Somehow, someone at the warehouse is very confused about how these are packaged and sold.  My first delivery of this order came just like the above.  Except it was one tiny box with …

My kids have all sorts of feelings about me using their (our) pictures on this blog.  They know I tell stories to encourage people like you, and that a huge majority of the stories in this season of my life, include them.  As a result, their pictures become part of the blog.  There was a time when this was embarrassing and frustrating for them, so we made some agreements about pre-secured consents and approvals.  But lately, for whatever reason, they’ve begun to enjoy my sharing of their maturing faces.

Like this one. 

I was sitting on the back porch last night, buried in a pile of summer camp registration papers, when this charming young lad entered the scene.  He was sweaty and breathing heavily after just returning from long bike ride around the neighborhood, telling me all about the places he’d been.  When I looked up, all I could say was, “Who …

At our last couples home group gathering I was sitting on the couch, across the room from Holly, who was leading us through a book that is an introduction to better understanding relationships through Enneagrams.  She stepped up as a leader and teacher in a way I haven’t ever seen her before.  It was probably the most engaged we’ve all ever been during a small group.  We tried to self-identify as we cast our votes for who was what as we read each of the descriptions aloud.

We laughed a lot.  

We also learned a lot.  I learned things about people in the group that I might have never learned sitting around the dinner table, without that book as the stimulus for conversation.  It also brought me new perspective and empathy to certain personalities.  As I sat there, I couldn’t help but want to capture this moment in time.  It was easy and …