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Right Now!

So I’m having problems downloading the photos I took to go with the latest blog I wrote. And I probably won’t be able to fix this problem for a week because of family camp. Which leaves it looking like I won’t be able to post that blog tonight like I planned. Come high tide or high water or high horses, I always post a blog a week! So now here I am late at night–late for me anyway– trying to throw something together that might encourage you. I sure would like this train of thought I’m now riding to encourage […]

By Paula July 6, 2014

The God of Enough

Our teenage daughters went to Haiti after the earthquake. As they prepared to depart for their mission trip, I was taking a pregnancy test at a family camp in the Santa Cruz mountains in between talking to college kids worried about whether or not Christians can drink, with me worried about how our girls would react to yet another pregnancy for their 42 year old mom. The pregnancy test was positive. Our daughters were not. Granted my pregnancies put pressure on everyone in our family, the girls had to help out more around the house when I was pregnant, […]

By Paula June 30, 2014

Living Joyfully Free Radio

Yesterday I shared the story of my faith journey on Living Joyfully Free radio with Lisa Buffaloe. I met Lisa five years ago at an American Christian Fiction Writers’ conference in Colorado. If you have time to listen, Lisa and her radio show are full of warmth, light, and love. Liz Curtis Higgs and Wendy Blight were recent guests on her program. You can click on their interviews when you visit the Living Joyfully Free website.

By Paula June 26, 2014

The Old-Fashioned Way

I love the Farmer’s Markets. The slow stroll of the people carrying their fruit and veggies and lavender and jam. Holding the hands of their children and old folks, sipping sunshine, and social graces, and the sweetness of a long, summer day. There’s no computers, no video games, and I rarely see a customer on a cell phone at the markets. People are talking together. Walking together. Doing what people do together at these slow-moving markets. Gathering food and friends the old-fashioned way. The old-fashioned way. Like that sweet, little town on the Andy Griffith Show. Because the world needs […]

By Paula June 20, 2014

A Letter to My Daddy on Father’s Day

When I was little, he was big. Bigger than life. Nobody compared to my daddy. His hair was thick and black and smelled like Brylcreem. His eyes sky blue. His laugh was unforgettable. He taught me how to make potato soup and shotgun shells and fires when we camped. During hunting season, he disappeared off to the duck blinds or up to the mountains after the big bucks. One night in the middle of a lightning storm we crawled around our green, shag, 1970’s carpet together unplugging lamps and the television and anything else connected to the wall. Thunder shook […]

By Paula June 11, 2014

Boys at the Beach

I need a T-shirt that says, “I Survived the Boys at the Beach!” Honestly! I didn’t sunbathe. Didn’t find sand dollars. I was that mother lugging the towels and sunscreen and water bottles and camera, yelling, “Wait for me! Slow down! Get off those rocks!” I have a roll of pictures of tiny figures far off in the distance, scaling cliffs like mountain goats, me screaming, “Get down! You’re gonna die! Get back from that ledge!” Even writing about this after our trip makes me anxious. And then there was the duck. The poor little duck. Minding her own business floating […]

By Paula June 5, 2014

The Truth About Words and Babies

I remember the day I said it, “I don’t want her life! She’s a slave to her husband. A slave to everyone. I’ll never live like my grandma!” I was sixteen years old, jetting around in my little, ice-blue Toyota Celica with a sunroof that blew my red hair around. Listening to Journey and Bon Jovi and Livin’ On A Prayer. And living for me. Only me. Just me. I read historical romance novels until 2 a.m., “torch books” my dad called them. Got mostly A’s in school without much studying, cruised with my girlfriends on Friday and Saturday nights in […]

By Paula May 28, 2014