Day to Day Graces

February 7, 2020

The Four Loves

The silver threads glint more prominently amongst the gold now.  The lines on her cheeks and across her forehead are deeper. Her steps are slower. She bends over her work, meticulous in her feathering of flower petals on the page.  She’s taken up painting, and I love watching this passion of my mama’s unfold. Our relationship has made many changes through the years, as it should, but this latest is the hardest, and the easiest.  C.S. Lewis wrote of these differences in our love for one another in his book, The Four Loves.  He wasn’t the originator of these concepts, but […]

Day to Day Graces family life 5 min read
January 31, 2020

New Year Adventures

In the spirit of the New Year, my men and I went on an adventure to see new places. It was a big one and won’t be repeated anytime soon, but what an adventure! In anticipation of one son soon to be out in the working world, and another entering college, we decided to take a Big Trip, to Europe. We saw some incredible sights, tasted some delicious (and not so delicious!) foods, but it was at times also frightening and infuriating. Because that’s life, right? I won’t bore you with the terrifying and mind-numbing details, but we were all […]

Day to Day Graces family life 3 min read
January 22, 2020

Sanctity of Human Life Day

It’s been forty-seven years since Roe v. Wade cleared the Supreme Court. Today is the day set aside to honor those babies whose lives have been lost since then. The following is an article I wrote several years ago for an ezine “For the Unborn.” “She’s beautiful.” My heartbroken patient gently caressed her stillborn daughter’s face. When her husband began weeping, I had to turn away, making a pretense of getting caught up on my paperwork as I blinked away tears of my own. As a labor and delivery nurse I usually deal with joyous families, welcoming their new little […]

Day to Day Graces family life 2 min read
January 17, 2020

Navigating New Pathways

Sometimes we have to evaluate where we are and forge new roads. Starting over may not be necessary, but just making some adjustments may be helpful. Last week I told y’all about my dislike of New Year Resolutions. So I’m not going to now give you some to follow. It is a good idea, as the Parent of Adult Children (PAC), though, to start parenting intentionally, as our children grow into adults. One of my favorite parenting lessons, by Bob Hostetler of Focus on the Family, was when my oldest was going into junior high. He discussed how parenting can […]

Day to Day Graces family life 4 min read
January 10, 2020

What’s your word for the New Year?

Back before it was “cool”, my pastor discussed choosing a word to focus on each year, rather than New Years’ resolutions. Because I am terrible at keeping resolutions, I decided on Brave for that year. It was an appropriate one for that season.  My oldest was heading away to college, my middle was heading into high school, and we were changing schools after thirteen years in one place.  I’ve mentioned before that that was the year that I took a photography class online and a writing class nearby. I rocked it!  The next year’s was Intentional.  Yeah, that one didn’t […]

Day to Day Graces family life 1 min read

Jennifer Goolsby