making space for creativity
Often when the topic of Holy Week and Easter come up during some other part of the year, my children look a little confused and ask what is Holy Week? Then when we prompt them that it’s when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, they suddenly have their little memories jogged. Then they…
Growing up, I had a pretty typical Easter basket experience: some plastic grass, some yellow peeps, some tiny chocolate eggs wrapped in foil, and jelly beans. I do remember one year we got these cute, fuzzy chicks that would cheep when you held them in your hand, leading my dad to explain how we were…
2025 Newbery winner, The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly is the story of Michael, an anxiety-prone boy on the cusp of middle school. It takes place six months before Y2K. Other characters include Gibby, his high-school-age baby sitter, neighbor, friend, and secret crush, and Ridge a boy from the future who has…
This is my 10th year of doing birthday book posts! (You can see the past years here: 30 // 31 // 32 // 33 // 34 // 35 // 36 // 37 // 38 // 39). I have found that between listening to more podcasts and trying to list more books (40 is in fact 25% more than 30!) It was…
Merry Christmas Friends! We are writing from the middle of a week filled with Christmas concerts at school, pageants at church, and caroling at the nursing home. We’re also in the middle of an early cold snap in Wisconsin as we remember our big 3 1/2 week road trip out to California last summer and…
We hosted exactly two birthday parties in our 728 square-foot home before saying we’d never do that again. The first one was fine, it had 2 two-year-old toddlers and 7 adults. That was a good ratio. But buoyed by that success, we got overly ambitious. The second party had 6 toddlers and 3 babies and…
This month I wrote a devotional reflection for our church’s Neighborhood Community Newsletter, and I thought I’d share it here on the blog as well for anyone looking for a little encouragement to rest this Fall. When I was 18, I went on a backpacking trip in Northern Wisconsin the weeks before I started college….
This is the fifth of a guest post mini-series on our family’s favorite games by Amy’s husband, Evan Hays–middle school social studies teacher and board game enthusiast. (Click here for part one, two, three and four.) A fun part of board gaming is the chance to spend some quality time with your significant other. Amy and I…
This is the fourth of a guest post mini-series on our family’s favorite games by Amy’s husband, Evan Hays–middle school social studies teacher and board game enthusiast. (Click here for part one , two, and three.) While our son Jackson is only 8 years old, he has been an avid board gamer for years already now. I…
This is the third of a guest post mini-series on our family’s favorite games by Amy’s husband, Evan Hays–middle school social studies teacher and board game enthusiast. (Click here for part one and two.) Another amazing thing about board games is that they are accessible to people across ages and abilities. Our six year old daughter…
This is the second of a guest post mini-series on our family’s favorite games by Amy’s husband, Evan Hays–middle school social studies teacher and board game enthusiast. (Click here for part one) Those of us who have been bitten by the board gaming bug often have an issue with owning too many board games (think…
This is the beginning of a guest post mini-series on our family’s favorite games by Amy’s husband, Evan Hays–middle school social studies teacher and board game enthusiast. I am not sure if you are aware of this already or not, but you happen to be living through a board gaming Renaissance. If I already had…
Five is such a great age for reading books! They are young enough to enjoy great short and sweet toddler books (perhaps even being able to read them for themselves!), but they also have attention spans big enough to sit through more complex books. In some ways this love of a wide range of books…
The 2024 Newbery winner is The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris. Told from the perspective of a stray dog, Johannes, living in a west coast urban park, this lively, quick, and powerful story has a great narrative voice, warm friendships, and a lot of nature. Johannes loves running, he loves…
This year we needed to do our Ash Wednesday service at home a few days early. Between Valentine’s Day falling on Ash Wednesday, Wednesdays being our busiest days with my husband Evan having a late meeting at school, and our church having its Ash Wednesday service start after our kid’s bedtimes, it just made sense…