I was just in the kitchen putting baked bean together and it occurred to me how much of my Mom’s way of doing things I’ve brought to my own adulthood. Like, for instance, baked beans. Mother was always horrified at the idea of dumping a can of baked beans into a pot and warming it up right from the can. Instead, she drained the beans, put them in a casserole dish, added barbecue sauce, mustard, a chopped onion, and brown sugar. Then she placed two strips of bacon across the top in an X and put them in the oven. She baked them until they were dry enough that when…

I just spoke to my friend Martha, and we are celebrating. Last week, her daughter  received distressing news when she had an ultrasound of her first baby. We’ve been praying and sending the pregnancy out into the Universe, asking for God’s gracious grace. Today, they received the news that Martha’s little grandbaby in the womb is healthy and perfect. The relief in my dear friend’s voice was audible, and the situation made me think of how parenting is a “forever” job and how Martha’s daughter is having her first taste of that before her baby is even born. We never ever stop being parents—once you have a child, you’re signed…

I know, I know…there’s a movie by the same name, and although this has nothing to do with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, it does have to do with time. In The Lake House, time is a secondary character, playing against the two main characters as they try to figure out a way to meet at the Lake House. Time has been a secondary character in our effort to fulfill a dream. For almost 40 years, Husband and I have talked, dreamed, planned, fantasized about having a lake house. Each time we considered it, something got in the way, finances mostly. Seemed as if each time we thought we were…