Last month, Thomas and I went into Chicago. It was our first time going into the city together - a place that was very unfamiliar. We dared to navigate the Shedd Aquarium line, not to mention the beast that is the public transit system. I prepped and planned the day before, finding a cheap place to park and [...]
Hey, hi, hello. I hope September has been good to you so far. The past few months have been wild, working in campus ministry during the start-of-the-semester hustle and attempting to create healthy rhythms in the midst of it. Days are full, and although they sometimes wear me out, they're also full of purpose. I'm [...]
In three days, I start working again after a five-month hiatus. That means I'll use the slow cooker a bit more and should try to refrain from starting movies late Sunday night. But it also means there is a role in the world of campus ministry that I can fill, and I'm excited to devote [...]
For Mark, Gina & Nora; Jimi & Shannon; and those in transit. When in doubt, get more boxes. Moving gets a bad rap. I always picture the mess - the utter chaos - in our living room on Brown Avenue as we packed up to move in the couple days following. We all tend to [...]
It seems like most years, the season of Lent comes and goes pretty uneventfully. The weeks in between Ash Wednesday and Easter pass by normally, with routine work schedules, pleas for warmer weather and maybe revamped mantle decor. In many ways, the same has been true for this year. But, in a way, not. Still [...]
Something of magic happens when the weather turns a few degrees warmer, hinting at spring and open windows. I know we're not the only ones who dragged our grill to the back deck, swept off the front door mat and walked around sockless. We moved here in deep winter, and even the slight uptick in [...]
We got a new puppy last week. His name is Dexter, he likes to chew on the leaves of our fig tree and our carpet is a new level of dirty because of him. But he's an excellent snuggler. In part because of him, and in part because of Thomas' new shift at work that has severely [...]
"Start where you're at, be all the way where you are. Sink into where God has you...accept the lessons and the gifts." These warm words came from a blogger in my Instagram feed yesterday morning. And on that particular Monday - with a negative wind chill and a dog as my all-day company - those words [...]
If you’ve been around me at all in the past two months, then you've probably heard me talk about my new dining set. A few friends graciously gave us their old dining table and chairs. Previously, we only had two patio chairs that were too low for the table and made us more inclined to [...]
A few weeks ago, the husband and I returned from our second vacation of the summer. In early June, we traveled to Florida with my family. We invaded a 15th floor condo, beach bummed all day, mediated spats between boys ages 6 and 3, and read the same two Bearenstein Bears books over and over [...]
Mallory R. Manning 