My Story...

   I grew up living on an orchard...

              surrounded by fruit trees.

One of my favorite things to do in the summertime was to go out front of our house and pick a bowl of fresh blueberries for breakfast. Yum. One thing you realize living in a farming community is how much work goes into caring for and cultivating the plants, in order for them to produce. My first job was on a farm...weeding the endless rows of corn and squash, all to earn just enough to walk down to the general store on the corner with my best friend and purchase a soft serve vanilla ice cream cone. We spent our evening climbing up into the branches of her father's cherry trees, and with hushed voices analyzing together all the joys and heartaches of growing up.

Now I live in the city, and I don't have the leisure of picking fresh berries every morning, or the metabolism to indulge in a soft serve cone every other day, and I certainly don't have the energy to climb up a cherry tree for my socialization. Instead, I stay home with my three children, cultivating and caring for them. Weeding out the harmful things from my heart and their lives as best I can; pruning back the unruly or unproductive branches; and harvesting a small crop of sweet things now and then for all my efforts.

I love to write. I love to engage with people. I love to talk about the things God has done in my life. And I love that He is patient with me, as I grow!

My husband and I have been married for 10 years...and have been falling in love for over 14. We have a six year old son, a four year old daughter and our youngest sweet thing is nearly two years old.

These are the stories of our learning and growing, of our fears and triumphs, stories of our joy, our sorrow, our children our friends and our love. Its really a documentation of the hard work that goes into loving the people around us; and of the joy that we experience enduring those difficult things together. It's a celebration of the incredible blessing we are given in being loved by others...and especially being loved by Him.

Sweet things, like lasting love...and like children, take time and patience and care to grow...much like the peaches and cherries I grew up harvesting.

So now, instead of picking blueberries in the morning, I pick up my baby. Instead of pruning raspberry bushes, I discipline unruly youngsters. Instead of ice cream and a climb up a tree at the end of my day...well,...I have a baby, my day doesn't end, I just pass out from exhaustion. But the strangest part of it all...is that I kind of like it. It's messy and sticky just like peaches and cherries...but it's oh so sweet too. Listen in, if you like, and you'll see exactly what I mean.