What are the odds of this? I am the oldest of four kids, and only the youngest is a boy. I have only girl cousins on both sides of my family. I just have nieces, no nephews, and my oldest niece has… you guessed it: two daughters. What in the actual world? My whole life…
Porches as Altars: For the Love of Community
If you didn’t grow up in a Christian subculture, this will probably make zero sense. But for those of you who did, do you remember Sunday Night Church? Listen. Any yahoo could manage Sunday Morning Church, but SNC was for the diehards. Having barely snuck in an afternoon nap, it was back to church at…
Women, You Matter!
Helen, Marie, Ann, Inez, Ruth, Mavis… These were my grandma’s girlfriends, present in my earliest memories. They all held me the first week I lived. I cannot remember my grandma without them — in her kitchen, playing dominos, vacationing at her Colorado cabin, attending our graduation ceremonies, bringing the swankiest gifts to our weddings and…
Run Your Race
I am inspired by people doing what they do best…. God truly built gifts into our lives. Everyone is good at something. Some make a living with their gifts and others just bless the world. I am thinking of several women who are really, really good at friendship. They are such spectacular friends to me that…
Hope for Spicy Families
Although it’s reductive, I categorize most families as either “sweet” or “spicy.” There are pros and cons to both, with tons of overlap on the Venn diagram, but still. In general, a family trends toward one or the other. One guess which way the Hatmakers lean. We are spicy people. We love obnoxious humor and…