As many of you know, I am 42 years old and still haven’t learned how to cook. But I do have three recipes I can make with relatively consistent success—they are easy, tasty, relatively nutritious, and they meet all of my requirements for giving myself credit re: homemaker-y cooking-ness: You have to do some sort of prep to individual components A recipe and measuring utensils are required and used You apply heat (Yes, yes, I know there are lots of recipes that don’t need heat. And of course I know that REAL cooks don’t need recipes and NEVER measure. But for me, the above three steps are like climbing Mt.…

I can’t believe it’s taken us twelve years (when we moved into our house in 2000, I started ripping the 1980’s GEESE IN THE SHAPE OF HEARTS mauve and baby blue wallpaper off of the kitchen walls the moment the door closed on our movers) … but we have finally (finally!) rid our home of the (I’m sure it was very classy 30 years ago) 1980’s accouterments:    It was crazy how quickly today Fred and I moved from total lethargy and even inertia (“No way are we up for a home repair project.”) to counting yellowed plastic outlet covers (and buying beautiful new white ones!) and buying the quart of…

The leaders at Peacemaker Ministries are SO generous! When I was quite surprised to have study guides for my ORIGINAL video series (4+ years ago!) returned to me, the Peacemaker leaders granted me an exception to my contract with them and now I get to give them away! Hooray! I love giving stuff away. So here’s the deal … the study guides look a little different from the current ones, and they don’t have the really nice letter from Ken Sande at the beginning, but truly, ALL of the substantive content is the same. If you have a ministry idea for ten Peacemaking Church: Living the Gospel in Relationships study…

Are you following the visual theology posts of Challies.com? I am and I absolutely love them. Today’s visual theology was particularly beautiful. I immediately forwarded it on to my pastors, elder, and husband as a thank you for not only calling us all to live out the one-another verses in Scripture, but also for praying for us and helping us to obey. Enjoy! (You’ll need to click through to the high-res version to read all of the verses and really see its beauty.)    

In just over four months, I have flown 25,366 air miles. That’s a lot of flights! And a lot of airports. Today? I just had one of THE BEST, most WONDERFUL experiences in airports EVER. It started badly: I saw hundreds and hundreds of people in the TSA security line at the Las Vegas airport. (Apparently, they process over 100,000 people EACH DAY. Yeek!) But there was a First Class/Premier flyer line (always a blessing) with only four people in it. So that was great—but wait! There’s more. When the agent scanned my boarding pass, it directed me to the TSA Pre-Check Line and there I experienced EASE and COMFORT…

Just in case you haven’t already heard the news … Ken Sande is stepping down from his leadership position at Peacemaker Ministries. You can read his personal letter here to learn more about the decision. Of course the entire Peacemaker family will miss having him in the office (he will still remain a close ministry supporter and friend). But we are all cheering him on as he is so excited to develop his new paradigm (“relational wisdom”). I remember the first time he showed me its graphic on his iPhone when we were seated across the aisle from one another on a late flight home to Billings earlier this spring.…

I rarely look out of airplane windows when I travel. I just fly too much to find it interesting. But even I was ensorceled by the landscape surrounding Las Vegas as we made our approach last night. What a beautiful state! What a beautiful city. (It really is! There is so much more to Las Vegas than the seven-deadly-sins-encouraging-Strip.) And how I love the way the church where I am speaking this weekend (at their women’s retreat) loves their community. The members and leaders have such a heart for the people of Las Vegas and such confidence in the saving, justifying, sanctifying, adopting power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.…

There were just so many great comments and insights during the Q&A for Grace Redeemer’s Women’s Retreat! I only wish I could have enjoyed learning from those women even more. What depth. What patience with my weaknesses! What faith in the Son of God and love for His Bride. Truly, ladies, I was honored to be with you all! And since so many of you noted it on your feedback cards, here is C.S. Lewis quote that I paraphrased when we talked about how risky it is to love: ‘To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If…