Have you done any house painting lately? We tackled our living room and dining room this spring. The finished product looks fantastic, but I learned something in the process. Eighty percent of a job well done is in the prep work. I was really eager to start rolling “Nutty Beige” onto the walls, but before we could do that, we had to purchase supplies, move furniture, clean off walls, tape edges, spackle holes, and lay down drop clothes. This took the better part of a day. Once we started cutting in and rolling, the job didn’t take very long. Consider how that’s what parenting is like. Continue Reading

Every time I drive by the house on a certain corner in town, I feel sad. A couple of years ago, it got a complete face lift, transforming it from an unkempt place with a yard full of random furniture and appliances to an attractive little property. A few months later, the place looked as bad as ever. Contrast that to another house in my neighborhood which was neglected for years, paint peeling and lawn shriveled to just weeds.  Under new ownership, it now looks tidy, clean, and pleasantly inviting. The condition of these homes seems directly related to the inner condition of the Continue Reading

It sat there on the dining room floor, floating when we walked by and begging to be swept up. For some reason, I ignored the soft gray feather that had blown in from outside for two days. That turned out to be a good thing. Have you ever gotten out of the normal routine and seen things from a different perspective? On the morning of the day I had planned to clean, my one-year-old grandson and his mommy stopped by. Reuel was a bit grumpy and out of sorts – until his grandfather picked up the feather and blew it toward the ceiling. The feather floated down. Reu stood wide-eyed, watching Continue Reading