The Call: My Cup of Tea — Cheryl Drinking tea is about so much more than satisfying one’s sense of taste.

The Response: Strawberries — Cheryl My kids love it when I bring home strawberries. I love it when they eat snacks that have a shot at making them healthy.

The Call: Baked Oatmeal — Jessica I’m not a health-nut. In fact, you could call me the antithesis of health-nut. I like sugar, I cannot lie. My food board on Pinterest is probably about 2 to 1 desserts to real food. But I also like oatmeal. So when I saw this recipe, I decided to […]

The Response: Summer Rainstorm — Jessica I have an identity crisis. I’m a Mary stuck in a Martha life. I’d love to be still and quiet but my daily life is anything but that. Take today, for instance. It’s the kind of dreary, humid, rainy summer day that lends itself beautifully to curling up with […]

The Call: Calm Enough for Reflection — Cheryl The water wasn’t completely still, but that had more to do with the insects skimming on top of it than with wind, tides, or other inherent types of movement. It didn’t matter. Sitting next to the lake was quiet and calming and a much-appreciated touch of balm […]

The Response: Rediscovered Masterpiece — Cheryl I recently re-read Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (but my first reading shouldn’t even count, as it was decades ago, and the book I read then was abridged — grrrrr). This time, I was blown away by how good it was. The novel was one of those books that gets […]

The Call: Still Life with Books — Jessica What do I want to say about this call? Books are my everything (within limits, of course!). As soon as I could read, I was a reader. I tried to write for awhile, but then I gave up, realizing that I was a reader not a writer. […]

The Response: Icon — Jessica I’ve been following along with the summer online book club at “Heart of My Home.” We are discussing The Little Oratory and like Cheryl’s quote from yesterday, it is reminding me to be mindful of my vocation.

The Call: Sanctification Through Daily Tasks — Cheryl Years ago, when I was a relatively new mother, I read Holiness for Housewives (and Other Working Women) by Dom Hubert Van Zeller, and though I’ll never forget many of the lessons learned, I should try harder to be mindful of them. Here’s a paragraph from the […]

The Response: View from My Rebounder* — Cheryl This is one of Dennis’s photos (of a barn near our house). I had it printed on canvas as a gift for his 40th birthday. It hangs on the wall of his office, which also contains my rebounder. I took this shot while I was jumping. I […]

The Call: Too Busy — Jessica Luke loves to jump off of furniture and I already have lots of pictures of him in mid-air, so I assumed that this would be an easy call. But then my schedule yesterday kept me so busy, running from point to point and jumping from event to event that […]