I am so sore.I\'m walking ok, and actually, walking feels good. But if you see me going up or down stairs, or bending my legs to sit in a chair, I look a little odd. Like a little old lady pausing mid-step, reminding her brain to strain those muscles even though...
I got a speeding ticket this morning. 54 in a 40. Hudson and Essie were with me, on Vickery, headed back to school from Dr. Kelley's office. Essie was basking in the smooth, unfamiliar sensation of her brand-new-just-got-braces-off teeth, and Hud was asking if his...
Like many families, we're big fans of HGTV's Fixer Upper. We love Chip and Joanna, we've got a soft spot for Waco (sic 'em, Bears!), and it's so fun to have a guilt-free show our whole family can watch. I've never met the Gaines, but Joanna recently shared some of her...
This written by my dad, aka Cappy. He jotted it down recently and sent it to me in an email, and I'm posting here with his permission. The power of an engaged, loving grandpa (or two) ~ tremendous. One evening Charles called and said we were heading out for a spur of...
The following is an essay Hudson wrote for a school assignment earlier this year. I posted Branson's "Where I'm From" last week, and wanted to share Hud's here as well. Love his words. Where I'm From Hudson James Wilson I am from ping pong, from pool basketball, and...
It's been nine years and we miss him. Nine years since that freezing Sunday morning when his car spun out of control on an icy highway en route to Christ Chapel. He never arrived to deliver his sermon. It's been nine years, and still his personality, his humor, his...
The following is an essay Branson wrote for a school assignment last year. I love this assignment, and I'll be posting Hudson's "Where I'm From" next week. Bran chose the photos and printed them alongside his words. I love it and consider him to have a natural writing...
Smoke from the fire pit streamed into the cool morning air as Marshall and I warmed our hands around the low fire. Along the river\'s edge, bright yellow and orange trees reflected in the glass-like surface below, spreading the brilliant autumn colors above and below...
We've shared monthly dinners now for more than fourteen years. One gal spearheaded this dinner club all those years ago, realizing that as our lives began splintering apart with attending different churches, the influx of babies, moving into different communities and...
Gladys Pearl James ~ not just anyone can wear the name Gladys Pearl. Or in my opinion, James. This fall marks eighteen years that Gladys Pearl, my Granny, has been delighting crowds in heaven - and delighting herself in the Lord in the process. Even though she\'s been...
James Foley’s murder, Obama said, was “an act of violence that shocks the conscience of the entire world." Yesterday I refrained from calling Corbin at work - twice - when I felt truly nauseated with the news of Foley\'s death. I didn't know what to do with my shock,...
“Listen, if you need to go home, y’all go.” That from Mama as Corbin and I were discussing the football coach’s text that popped up on Corbin's phone Saturday evening during dinner. Bottom line, he wanted Branson home for practice Monday morning. We’d just arrived in...
By 9:30 Monday mornings I'm almost always ready. Coffee percolating, music playing, prayer sheets printed and ready on the ottoman tray along with extra pens. I'm always touched by the women taking time on a Monday morning to attend our Moms in Prayer meetings -...
Last Saturday we celebrated the dedication of the new "Stephanie Woodard Family Pavilion" at our home away from home, University Little League. The celebration opened with Don Bescher sharing a few thoughts and thanking donors, and Tom Hill closing with a lovely...
"Because when Clyde died, there wasn't much of me left." Written by Dar, my sweet friend Jessica's grandmother, in the letter I received just two weeks ago. I thought of Dar's love and appreciation for her late husband, her connection to him, and how lonely she must...
Yesterday I witnessed a miracle. A real, live, medical miracle. I wrote about my mother-in-love's bravery a month ago as she endured Biometric neurostimulator brain implant surgery for a familial tremor. For the past month as Jamie has been resting and healing from...
A cascade of red roses flowed across his casket, deer antlers and pheasant feathers framing the bouquet. As the octogenarian Baptist minister described Brett, “He was all man. He was 12 inches of a foot, 36 inches of a yard, and 16 ounces of a pound.” Mom, dad and I...
As I mentioned in Part 1 of this post, Yukon has grown old with our little family. Yukon began our training for parenthood Both have a few more gray hairs Yukon turned 14 this past spring, and in the past couple of years maintained a lot of necessary spunk to put up...
We named him Yukon. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later, receiving his Husky certification in the mail, that we realized we’d given him his grandfather’s name. Skipping a generation, the name was surely meant for our little Yukon. He’s been with us for fourteen...
I had just sat down in the living room last Saturday afternoon, feet up on the ottoman, laptop in hand. I glanced out to where Corbin rested on the pool float, reading the newspaper in the sun, and thought, “Here summer begins.” After an amazing, full week of CCBC...
Dear Hudson, Sitting in the folding auditorium chairs at Tanglewood last Friday morning, I got a little choked up watching the 5th grade parents file into the room. We gathered for the awards ceremony, one of the “lasts” of your elementary school events. And now...
Dear Mama and Papa, Cappy and Daboo, in response to yesterday’s attacks... We are grieving after yesterday’s bombings at the Boston Marathon. Grieving on so many levels. For the victims and their families, for the city of Boston in general, and for our country...
I can still picture the look of surprise on her face when I told her I didn’t know Isaiah 40. Pulling out her worn Bible and thumbing through the pages, Grandma shook her head and said, “Why Tonya, you really don’t know those verses? Oh, you must go and memorize them....
Snowy white powder under our skis, none of us could keep up with Esther today on the slopes. Seriously. Now, that's not counting the boys, as they were on their own snowboarding. But Basden, Nettie May and I could barely keep up with little Essie, who plowed straight...
We were driving through Starbucks, Corbin and I, cheered that winter morn by hot cups of coffee in hand and a thick hazlenut aroma filling our car. We spent the morning together at an appointment, our children safely tucked in their schools, while across the country...
An article I wrote for the Laity Lodge Family Camp's December newsletter. A huge thanks to Jessica for editing ~ you put a pretty frame around my words! I glanced across the den at our measly little Christmas tree, the sparse, glittery branches suspending a handful...
There was an upset in our neighborhood a few months ago. Word traveled fast that a 17-year-old girl was found shot to death on the back steps of a duplex near our elementary school. She had no criminal record, and the story remained hushed once the home owner claimed...
I can tell I'm a little out of sorts. Second-guessing decisions, feeling pressure when I'm asked to give more of my energies or time to something, and at times on the edge with my family. The words that exit my mouth involuntarily show evidence of my insecurities,...
"Well, I've never seen those boys pray like that before a game." Huh? I was rounding the outfield fence, headed back to my folding chair under the trees, when a fellow team parent uttered those words through a sideways grin. I glanced over towards our dugout...
A few years ago, on Dad's 60th birthday, I made a meager attempt to capture what he means to me And now with Father's Day today, I'm thinking again of how to honor him, thank him, frame his influence on my life. Problem is, my little computer screen - nor my heart -...
Sitting in the deserted bleachers yesterday during practice, I watched Branson walk, head down, into the dugout. A couple of moments later he exited with his batting helmet and gloves, bat in hand, headed slowly to home plate. \"He still doesn\'t look good,\" I...
We're in Chicago for a few days, just Corbin and me, a welcome break from "normal" life. I just read John Grisham's book, Ford County, on the plane here. Like most fiction readers, I love Grisham's writings. I appreciate his legal insights as I'm married to this...
He is risen, indeed. I love Easter. I love that it's accompanied by nature's budding spring growth, reminding me that someday I'll be mature and complete, but that this life is truly a growth process. On the heels of Lent season and Easter, I'm posting a piece I wrote...
I woke up this morning to an empty calendar page. Clear of appointments and meetings, a day that stretched wide open for all those weighty "to do's." To do's like clearing the paperwork on my desk and sorting through boxes in the garage and sunroom, both areas...
B - Seriously, 12?! Goodness. I always find myself at an impass on your birthdays. On one hand, I'm surprised at how these years are flying - a reminder that hearts created for eternity are not intended to comprehend the passing of finite time. But on the other hand,...
"Here, read this book, it's exactly what I believe and what I want to teach my children about who I think God is." The last part of her sentence was telling... "who I think God is." In this case, coming from the lips of a self-proclaimed atheist, "who she thinks God...
This Christmas photo, circa 1976 or so, takes me back to my growing up years when we spent every holiday in south Texas with both sets of grandparents. Here I am with Pappy, Cappy's daddy. Pappy had more interesting stories than could possibly fill this blog, and...
Last week's unique date 11.11.11 prompted a myriad of celebrations around the world - weddings, over-the-top anniversaries, treks to casinos in hopes of extra luck on an extraordinary date... and our family even welcomed a new little gal into the world on that...
Scripture describes itself as living and active. And it is. I've seen it, experienced it. But I'm reminded tonight that many words are living and active, that it's not just the Bible that can touch and convict and encourage, in different ways, in different seasons....
"We're the Class of '91!!!" Or something like that. I don't remember the exact cheer, but I'm quite sure the first line ended in "fun," I don't think any of us were much more creative than that. Goodness, twenty years. When you still live in the same town you grew up...
I have saved files and files of my Dad's wisdom and reflection - communicated both through handwritten letters and emails. Maybe one day I'll put them in a book. What I love about this particular email from last week is his "happiness is a choice" quote - very likely...
We’re a little over a week and a half into the school year, and it’s hitting me. My little Essie has gone to school. I miss her. My heart is sad today, a little heavy, which leaves me on the verge of tears in any given conversation (including with the mailman) because...
We made it back to Fort Worth last night after four days in Waco for Branson's Sectionals tournament. With six weeks or so of daily practices and successful tournament play under their belts, his team won District and then headed to Waco with high hopes of securing...
We were sitting in the front living room late one night, talking about how difficult it is to do hard things - to stand apart from the crowd. "What can one kid do, Mom? I'm just one kid." I named a couple of other boys in my son's grade that would stand with him,...
Someone snapped this photo of me last month. TJ, aka "Taz," wrapped up the school year with a short temper and little patience. My kids will tell you that my speech consisted mostly of grunts, growls and rasps, and my ability to spin and bite through just about...
The house is still, at least for a few moments. The three big kids tumbled into the car this morning, headed to their last full day of school, with lighter backpacks and gift-wrapped packages for their teachers. Esther still sleeps upstairs, subconsciously thankful...
The painters showed up last Monday morning, and I simply wasn't ready. I didn't know exactly what I needed to do ahead of time to prepare our home, but I clearly hadn't done it. Within minutes of their arrival, the men stacked every picture frame from our "art...
It\'s been over a decade since we've seen each other. And two decades since we've spent any real time together. But the unfortunate event of her mother's passing last week allowed me a long-overdue visit with my dear friend, Shannon. As my mom and I entered the...
We're doing some work on our house. We've been in the design phase for awhile, arranging and rearranging some of the spaces in our home. We've changed our minds so many times, in fact, that yesterday as I was logging expenses, I asked Corbin if what we've paid our...
Happy eleventh birthday, my creative, courageous, fun-loving boy. Branson, you continue to teach me that I need to be teachable, that I don't have you figured out. Just when I think I know you or anticipate your next move, you surprise me. I want to keep learning you....