“If I don’t win I’m not playing!”
If you’ve ever played any sports or games with very competitive people (welcome to my life) you might have heard someone say this phrase in an attempt to really impress the opposing party. “If I don’t win I’m not playing!” The implication would be that the person who says this only wins at everything they […]
Three Ways I Was Inspired By Meeting Marc Scibilia
Here’s something that really inspired me this week and I believe it will inspire you as well. A few days ago I got to spend some time with Marc Scibilia on his world tour. We went to go see him for his concert, but right before that we spent some time in the backstage area, […]
Processing Time
Time is a funny thing. Use it well. Yesterday our oldest daughter turned EIGHTEEN. Below is a small excerpt of the letter I wrote her for her 18th birthday. “A few weeks ago I caught myself wanting to say, “I’m gonna miss you, Noé.” To my own daughter. Who isn’t planning on going anywhere any […]
Fourth Advent: Love
LOVE There’s one Dutch tradition we ditched pretty quickly after moving from the Netherlands to Italy. Some of our Dutch friends are about to be shocked. Sinterklaas didn’t make it. Ask me why later. We now enjoy giving each other gifts around Christmas instead. Two days ago I returned from teaching in a Discipleship Training […]
Third Advent: Joy
JOY Monday morning I woke up to a powerful bright light in our bedroom and the voices of Rianne and our kids singing happy birthday songs to me! They still claim it was our normal bedroom light, but I’m convinced they brought a floodlight from the nearest construction site as a last attempt to finally […]
First Advent: Hope
HOPE Hope requires creativity. The ability to see a different future than the reality that is now. Activating hope involves engaging the imagination. Daring to hope includes a good portion of risk that things may not eventually turn out to be as you imagine they will be. Risk to be disappointed. There is a HOPE […]
Who gets the credit?
Our living room is filled with moving boxes and there’s no book left on our bookshelf. Everything is in boxes, waiting to be moved to the new home. I finally packed my first box yesterday, and then spent more time telling everyone about my moment of pride than the time I spent packing it. Until […]
Who’s Raising Who?
Am I handing her the cup or is she handing it to me? Am I raising a daughter or is she raising me? There’s days for teenage daughters that I’m sure it feels more like the latter. “13 doesn’t really feel that old, but 14 does sound kinda old and 13 is only one year […]
Privilege to Dream
Who doesn’t love a good summer road trip? Besides hour-long playlists and quick little games you can play across however many rows of seats your car may have, what are some of your favourite ways to spend time on the road? For our family, we like to dream out loud as we see the other […]
Free Puppies
Living above an organic grocery store provides for lots of fun opportunities. It’s more like a community of friends and friends of friends. A couple days ago one of the regulars decided to be generous and give away their newborn pups. A large picture was posted to the front window with a cute pile of […]