Abundant Life In the Making

When I Am Weak

aimee — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:44:24 +0000

I sit in the bathtub and try not to think. Which means I think about everything that I don’t want to think about. I think about the late hour of the morning when we all woke up and the fighting that ensued seconds later. I think about the groaning over chores and school and the [...]

Maybe All I Have is a Blank Page

aimee — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:23:50 +0000

Flipping through the pages of Drawing Lab, the corner of page 81 caught my eye, a little box with the suggestion to illustrate a quote from a child. Words arrive in such interesting ways when you have a myriad of ages in the house. “My eyes are snowing Mommy,” my daughter exclaimed as the snow passed [...]

Art Books that Make Me Happy: A Review

aimee — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:55:46 +0000

“Honey, I’m so glad that I can create something and enjoy it!” I flop down next to him on the couch with my painting. He continues reading his book. “Not because I think the outcome is so great,” I explain quickly, “but because I can enjoy the process and not be so worried that it’s not [...]

A Golden Thread Through Grief

aimee — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:23:49 +0000

From Wendell Berry’s Hannah Coulter “I began to know my story then. Like everybody’s it was going to be the story of living in the absence of the dead. What is the thread that holds it all together? Grief, I thought for a while. And grief is there sure enough, just about all the [...]

When the World Broke

aimee — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 08:38:14 +0000

As our family drove home last night we passed the engorged parking lot of Target and it was then that my world cracked wide open. I thought about the men that we’d sat with around the table a few hours earlier. Having no car themselves, these men had been driven in a stranger’s car to [...]

A Really Good Friend, Maybe

aimee — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:44:23 +0000

I was a good friend in school. I could be so funny, I have the notes from seventh grade to prove it. I could be helpful, compassionate, ready with an extra hand or a car ride. Okay, sometimes I could be a good friend. And sometimes I could be manipulative. Kind, because I needed help [...]

An Act of Love

aimee — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:20:13 +0000

There is a husband leaving on business. There is a mama in denial, hoping for better than the worst. There is throw-up all over the wall. There is a mama who texts a picture to the husband. There are more emergencies, there is the last straw. There is, finally, quiet. There is [...]

Girls Only Weekend

aimee — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 05:31:18 +0000

Welcome to our girls only weekend. With three extraordinary girls, that’s quite a treat. It all began with a game night and the perfect, gooey chocolate chip cookies shared with their Aunt. Saturday morning brought pajamas until eleven and this spur of the moment photo shoot. I didn’t make a grocery list, plan school, or [...]

What Can Your Two Year Old Do?

aimee — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:03:41 +0000

The Setting: The swing at the park “How old is your daughter?” asked the portly but athletic gentleman in the baseball cap two swings over. I’d already noticed a few glances our way, but I knew the glances had nothing to do with me. His eyes traveled eagerly from my daughter to the similiarly sized [...]

What I Thought I was Teaching My Kids

aimee — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 03:05:14 +0000

If I made a list of character traits I hope we’ve instilled in our kids by the time they’re eighteen (at least the foundation of these traits), it would look something like this: Wise, Loving, Graceful, Creative, Joyful. All admirable things to pray for and work toward, right? That’s what I thought, until this week. I thought I wanted [...]