Our hearts are stone and flesh, all at the same time

November 26, 2012 By 15 Comments
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Yesterday morning, while our sickish boys were playing with their dad on the carpet of our living room, building Lincoln Log garages for their cars, August suddenly became Concerned. He was standing in his pjs and his little brother was walking past him en route to some other task, when August turned to him with a serious stare and put both hands on Brooksie's shoulders. Now, usually, Brooks would care less about August’s earnest pleads. Usually, he would shake the hands off and continue … [Read more...]

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Thanksgiving in their words…

November 21, 2012 By 2 Comments
"Country Home" by suziebeezie (Pinterest via Andrea Duffy)

This is a repost from last Thanksgiving. But how can I not post it again?   "It is impossible to give thanks and simultaneously feel fear." -Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts   "[The] dinner party is a true proclamation of the abundance of being--a rebuke to the thrifty little idolatries by which we lose sight of the lavish hand that made us. It is precisely because no one needs soup, fish, meat, salad, cheese, and dessert at one meal that we so badly need to sit down to them from time … [Read more...]

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Thankful Tuesday: Blessing in the Leaving

September 18, 2012 By 15 Comments
celtic cross

As we walk into the church, I think about the last Sunday in our church in San Francisco: how we sang the hymns and walked away as a family. How we stopped at the farmer’s market and bought ripe cherries. How we sat at Alamo Square Park and stared at the city scape. My then four-month-old slept against me and I took August’s shirt off as the cherry juice poured down his newly three-year-old chest. That’s how we said goodbye. Today, it’s raining. Rain in a parched land feels holy, like a … [Read more...]

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Thankful Tuesday: When there’s one week left and it all feels fuzzy

September 11, 2012 By 2 Comments
photo (1)

I will live in Austin for one more week. A week from tomorrow, I'll leave for Italy and my kids will stay in Austin without me, with their grandparents. Then we'll come home. We'll wash our clothes for a day, pack our suitcases. And my little family take a plane to San Francisco. Just like that. We'll get on a plane like we're going on vacation. We'll get on a plane with our suitcases checked underneath, like we're travelers on course for somewhere sweetly temporary. And we'll land and go to a … [Read more...]

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Checking In…

August 14, 2012 By 7 Comments
At the park after church on Sunday...

Friends! I miss you guys. It’s very weird to go through a week and keep all my deep thoughts to myself. It’s probably a good practice in non-vanity. (No, every thought is not deserving of daily blog posts, fancy-pants Boyett!) I have, however, shared my thoughts with the Mister. And I wrote them down. (Take that, humility/guilt-inducing voice in my head!) I can’t tell you all how grateful I am for your prayers and notes of encouragement this past week. Seriously, am I the luckiest? … [Read more...]

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My food…

July 30, 2012 By 3 Comments
Illustration by Anna Rumney at rumneybears.blogspot.com

Yesterday after lunch, August and Chris were sleeping together in my bedroom while I cleaned up the kitchen and Brooksie snoozed in his crib. Then, I clanged something too loud (as usual) and woke my baby in the next room. There went my hour to write. So, while Brooksie ate his mac n’cheese, I sat at the table to write. Except first I read Rachel Held Evans’ Sunday Superlatives post and got caught up in this video about a little girl’s dream to raise money for Charity: Water. I watched … [Read more...]

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What’s saving my life this week.

July 27, 2012 By 16 Comments
Pawpaw and Memaw, with my aunt Rita in 1947

This week my friend Sarah Bessey asked the question at her blog: What’s saving your life right now? Grief is a strange thing, isn’t it? It’s so deep and wild and untamable. And it wakes up whenever it wants to and leaves you with your face in your hands in the dark bedroom on the side of the bed while your kids in the other room watch a show (again). We all loved my grandfather. He was a special man. And his loss has cut me deeper than I expected it to. I guess that’s usually … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Family Life Tagged With: , , , , 16 Comments

Rivers and Roads: On Saying Goodbye

July 23, 2012 By 24 Comments
Pawpaw and Memaw with August at his first birthday

I have to leave today. Noon. I’ve packed and planned. It’s been a long visit that coincided with his stroke and I have watched him shrivel. In fact, I’ve watched him shrivel for five years now. Maybe more. Of course, he’s almost 90 years old: A long good life. A life that could have been cut short in 1945—the fiery plane, the parachute crash into enemy hands. His living was always grace. I’ve packed all morning and August wants to come along. I’ve encouraged him these past … [Read more...]

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Thankful Tuesday: Cousins Camp ’12

July 10, 2012 By 1 Comment
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It is late on Monday night and tomorrow we will be driving away from Cousin Camp 2012, which has been a great success, despite my swimsuit bottoms being flushed down the toilet. (What? you say. Exactly.) Tomorrow we head back to my parents' for awhile and Chris is already back in working-land. I don't have much time (or enough energy) to elaborate much around here on this fine Thankful Tuesday. But I'll say a few things in my list of thankfuls: That Chris was able to join us for the first … [Read more...]

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Poem-a-Day Friday: WS Merwin (again) and Death

July 6, 2012 By 2 Comments

I'm now in Amarillo, my hometown. We got here on the 4th and it will be homebase for the boys and me over the next couple of weeks. My 90-year-old grandfather, whom I've written about here and here, had a stroke on Tuesday, the day before we got here. It's been a gift that I had already planned to be here in town and that I've been able to see him. Yesterday he was able make words again and especially able to receive kisses, which I gave readily. Pawpaw and I had a short conversation about … [Read more...]

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