As I watched my son-in-love, Josh, painstakingly carve the image of a Star Wars figure into a pumpkin for my delighted grandbuddies this week, I couldn’t help but see parallels with the way the Sculptor of our Soul works. When we turn ourselves over to Him through trust, Papa God imprints His new, improved design ...
Better Than Good
Bedecked in my flowered Bible Story Lady hat, I pulled yet another stuffed animal out of my cavernous bag, attempting to teach a room full of three and four-year-olds the rudimentary building blocks of the Bible. Today’s lesson was “God Made Animals.” How can you botch that, right? So I was surrounded by piles of ...
Electric Synergy
While in Scotland, we were privileged to visit a working sheep farm and witness a dozen or so amazing Border Collies at work herding sheep at the shepherd’s bidding. We learned some enlightening facts about modern-day shepherding: Sheep dogs each have a different whistle (from the shepherd); they know their whistle and immediately respond to ...
I Ate My Way Across the UK
How is it even possible to gain 5 pounds in 2 short weeks? And I’m not talking about pounds sterling. Well, I did it. And you can too. All you have to do is shove every new taste sensation that’s not battened down into your gaping baby-bird mouth every other minute of your European vacation. ...
Fall Into Blessings Giveaway!
Celebrate Fall with me by falling into some extra blessings … Too Blessed to be Stressed blessings! I’m gearing up for the Christmas release of my brand new 365-day devotional, Too Blessed to be Stressed: Inspiration for Every Day, so I’m in the mood to give away a bushel of baby blessings. Here’s all you have to do: ...
Tickety-Boo
Learn any new languages lately? To my flabbergastation, that’s what it felt like we were doing when we toured the UK – learning a new language: English. British English, that is. Considerably different than American English, let me tell you. Here’s a small sample from my growing colloquial collection. Say, how’s about we don froo-froo ...
Abbey Robe
As innocent and historically ignorant as spring lambs, we arrived at Glastonbury Abbey, a 7th century monastery in Somerset, England. The Abbey once boasted the richest and most powerful monastery in England, and was the hub of activity in a large swath of surrounding countryside. Until crotchety ole Henry VIII, probably in a vile snit ...
My Tattoo
I sat through a tattoo. Not the kind painfully etched into your skin with ink, no, a military tattoo in Edinburgh, Scotland. A royal one at that. This kind of “tattoo” is defined as a display of armed forces and musical performance. It was an elegant, dignified, flashy affair dating back to 1949, complete with ...
Nekked in London
(Continued; scroll back to part 1, “My Year at the Airport”) So after much ado, we finally made it to London. Our luggage, however, had been distributed among the multiple airports we’d been rerouted to at some point thus far on our ill-fated journey. “We really don’t know where it is,” the Heathrow airline agent ...
My Year at the Airport
I was so excited, my toes tingled. My husband Chuck and I were headed to a 15-day UK tour with my sister Cindy and her husband Jim to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. We envisioned regal red-coated guards in fuzzy black helmets, delicious breakfast scones with clotted cream, bagpipes and kilts in the Scottish highlands. ...