On Edge

If you followed our trip last year and read about the time we spent at Grand Canyon, you’re familiar with my fear of edges (precipices, to be exact). I don’t mind heights, it’s just the edge between my high point and the distant low point (the plunging, cavernous chasm below) that causes my heart to race. Unfortunately (as I don’t want to pass my anxieties along to my children either genetically or behaviorally) Julianna seems to have the same fear. So, we were quite the pair in Mesa Verde National Park as we toured the Balcony House, an ancient cliff Continue Reading …

A Coat of Arms

During a recent visit to the Texas Renaissance Festival, our boys set their hearts on shields. These weren’t the high-dollar shields gilded and adorned and safely on display in one of the many weapon shops at the festival. They were the high-dollar cutouts of pine, void of decoration and character. I placated our 8-year-old son, saying I would make him a shield at home. I knew I could easily make a simple shield to match the one he had set eyes on at the festival.  My heart, however, was set on making something grander. In the days that followed I Continue Reading …