hi.

let's try this again. you'd think we were still celebrating the royal wedding with the lack of posting around here these days. wish we were. what a wonderful that day was with my little girl. we enjoyed every bit of it. i'll have to write another post entirely about what that day did for my heart. i'll work on that...

a dear friend gave me a book for my birthday that she had been reading, which i was wanting to. she tied a gold glitter bow on it and surprised me with it. what a treasure it has become. when i read this paragraph, i thought to myself, "this is why i haven't written on my blog recently." so i thought i'd share it with you as a "re-introduction" of sorts.

"The world I live in is loud and blurring and toilets plug and I get speeding tickets and the dog gets sick all over the back step and I forget everything and these six kids lean hard into me all day to teach and raise and lead and I fail hard and there are real souls that are at stake and how long do I really have to figure out how to live full of grace, full of joy - before these six beautiful children fly the coop and my mothering days fold up quiet? How do you open the eyes to see how to take the daily, domestic, workday vortex and invert it into the dome of an everyday cathedral?"

y'all. this has been my life for the summer and into the fall. but aren't her words such a beautiful way to express it? while i don't have the six kids she mentions, all the other references address everything i have been thinking, attempting, praying, living.

so that's where i've been. trying to create the dome of an everyday cathedral. what an honor and a delight.

you must read this book. it's called "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. she writes a beautiful blog, A Holy Experience, as well, which is where i first "met" her.

now that we've gotten all this out in the open, here's another little piece of goodness that has inspired me recently. take a few minutes and read this blog, created by Edie at Life In Grace. she lost her house in a fire a few days before Christmas last year. since then, she has become such an inspiration, but with her posts this month about rebuilding your house and heart, oh my... you have to read it. soak it up. i just wish i knew her in real life so we could visit over coffee.

so that's it for now. i'll be back soon.