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Whispering Cabins

I learned to walk on your front porch. Kissed a boy there too. Plucked slivers from my feet and painted my toenails with my cousins. Tried to tan on your sunny deck, and have hidden under an umbrella’s shade since surviving melanoma. I’ve done dishes with my grandma and my mom and now my daughters overlooking your lake. Your coffee pots are 50 years old and so are you. I think your dish pans belonged to Grandma Helen. They are battered and worn, have bathed babies, and watered horses. You’ve seen so much of me, and I’ve loved so much […]

By Paula June 23, 2017

A Dress, A Wedding, and Resurrection Love

“Every good and perfect gift is from above,” James 1:17. The wedding was a perfect gift. Not a perfect day, but a perfect gift. Who would have known a little bride in a $24 dollar thrift store dress could be so beautiful. I start with the dress so I can explain the love here. Honestly, I can’t remember the exact day when Lacy brought home her thrift store dress, but I remember the look on her face, so hurt and yet so hopeful. I remember the knife in my chest because our daughter had a broken heart and was aching […]

By Paula June 17, 2017

The Story Behind The Mother Keeper

I’m excited to tell you about my new book. Eight years in the making, this novel was not fun to write like my California Rising books. Oh, it started out fun. I thought I was making up a story for my daughters, Cami and Lacy, when they were in high school. Scott wouldn’t let the girls read the Twilight series like all their friends were reading at the time, so I said I would write a story the girls could read. I titled the book: Holding Amy, and imagined a sweet love story between a pregnant girl and the town football hero […]

By Paula June 17, 2017

The Mother Keeper

By Paula May 29, 2017

To All You Men On Mother’s Day

Dear Son and the men who shaped you: I fought tooth and nail to keep you safe and sweet. To keep men from making you tough. I did my best to make sure you loved your grandmas, your sisters, and God. The first few years were easy. I had such say over your life. But then you turned two and your dad made me wean you. He said you had to eat real food so you could grow up big and strong. When we dropped you off for boot camp on Sunday, it felt like the day I weaned you. […]

By Paula May 9, 2017

There’s something I need to tell you

I’ve washed your laundry all your life. From tiny socks to sweaty jocks to an Army T-shirt you wear with pride. I’ve kissed your boo boos and cried over four wrecked vehicles. You totaled them all, but walked away unscathed. I have not been unscathed since you were born. My screaming infant. You cried for months and I cried with you. Strapped you to my chest and walked you for miles. The pediatrician said you were competitive. You out-cried me, that was for sure. Your first birthday, you swiftly demolished your cake. By 18 months, you nearly outran me, and […]

By Paula May 2, 2017

When you’re about to hit a wall

I used to think the Lord would never let me hit a wall. And then it happened. I awoke in a hospital bed hooked to IVs four years ago. An exhaustion breakdown, doctors said. I returned home fragile. Surprised at myself. Who knew I had to regularly eat. Regularly sleep. Regularly say no to all kinds of things. Self-care, they called it. I’m not good at self-care. I admit it sitting here alone in my house tonight, trying to rest. The boys are fishing. They invited me to go. I wanted to go. But I needed to rest. I canceled […]

By Paula April 28, 2017