Category Archives: Uncategorized

AKA 2020 Strikes Again There I was standing on our lawn. The ten billionth day of 2020. 8:30am. Dressed in yoga pants and a t-shirt with a communion table on it that read, “Altars and Altered.” This might sound mostly normal, except for the fact that my right hand was wrapped in bloodied dish ragsContinue reading “Through the Altar-ed Glass”

One night after a particularly rough parenting day, my husband reminded me of the time before all this when this big house (church manse) we live in was very, very quiet. “Remember when you lived in this big house all by yourself,” he said, “and you’d order Mexican food on Friday nights and watch NetflixContinue reading “My 39th Trip Around the Sun”

Pandemic Preaching Whenever I walk into the sanctuary now, I greet all the people gathered there. “Hi everyone!” I say into the void, “Miss you all.” Sometimes I wave at specific people. Sometimes my gaze lingers over one or two or three faces (the folks having a particularly rough time). These people, though, never talkContinue reading “Preaching to Stick People”

It was Friday March 6, 2020. At the time, it seemed like any other Friday, which in our house, we call “Mommy-Susannah-Simon Fundays.” In the olden days, Fridays included a fun activity to the playground, park, library, museum, etc. On Friday March 6, I took the kids to the aquarium. (We had bought annual passesContinue reading “Germs and Jesus”

In the good ole days (aka that one month I was back at work between maternity leave and the COVID-19 shut down), I pumped breastmilk in my church office while my infant son was at daycare. Working and pumping, pumping and working – trying to nourish a life and a church all at the sameContinue reading “This Is My Body, Given For You: New Revised Mama Version”

The other morning, my 3-year-old daughter was staring intently at her play piano with attached songbook. When asked what she was doing, she said, “I’m getting my service ready on my ‘puter. It’s a lot of work. We can watch it later. On church day.” Children mimic what they see. In this case, my daughterContinue reading “Worship at Home, Small Children Edition”

(AKA That Time I Read 4 Pages of a Book) I’ll never forget the day I read four pages of a book. An actual book. Not a board book. Not a picture book. Not a commentary. Not a lectionary blog. A real novel. There I was months into the COVID-19 shut down. Two very smallContinue reading “Why Start a Blog?”