An earlier version of this article appeared in my column at Kiwi Families. What are mealtimes like at your place? Do you have family ways of serving, eating or talking together? Would you like some fresh ideas to make the most of the gift of family meals? Here are some ideas for giving thanks at […]
In 2023, Lent begins Wednesday, 22 February We’re spoilt by the church calendar at this time of year! We’ve just had four weeks of candle-lighting at Advent, culminating, in our household, with this delightful moment on Christmas Day: Now we’re coming to the end of the two-week Christmas season, and then it’s only a month […]
If I’m brilliant and amazing, my Mum has a lot to do with it. Here are six ways she has been a brilliant and amazing mother to me and my sisters, things I want to do for my kids, too. 1. My Mum is brilliant and amazing. She stayed at home with us for years. Every day that […]
Welcome! This is a reworking of an earlier post, from March 2013 (just so I’m not soliciting undue sympathy: I’m fine now!). Being a woman equals being in community. The same might feel true for men (I hope it does), but I can’t write that blog post, being in possession, as I am, of two […]
I like the word lucky. Not just because it has a pleasant combination of consonants and rhymes with ducky and plucky, which are also awesome words. For me it does a better job than blessed for making it clear that much of the goodness sprinkled through my days is thoroughly undeserved, nothing I can take credit […]
We’re now in Holy Week, where Lent morphs into Easter. In my house we’ll continue lighting our Lenten candles and saying the sentences about Jesus that go with them, but there are plenty of other special things coming along this week that can take their own place in household spirituality. So here’s a bunch of […]
A warm welcome today to my good friend Rob Kilpatrick, who wrote this reflection on Facebook yesterday and let me filch it for the blog. You’ll be glad you read it. I’m incredibly lucky to be granddad to 11 wonderful kids. I don’t deserve to be but there you have it, grace upon grace. I […]
I often tell my husband he needs to write a book about how to be an awesome partner to a pregnant person. It seems more likely that I’ll write a blog post about it though, so here we are. My husband was a superhero supporter through my pregnancy (and beyond). When your partner’s pregnant, it’s […]
On New Year’s Eve, 2013, my little family made a pilgrimage to Cape Reinga, Te Rerenga Wairua, the northern tip of New Zealand, where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea ‘say hello’ as SBJ will tell you, with a dramatic clap of his hands. They clash with a set of white-topped breakers out in […]
I read some of Sandy’s story on Sunday: I am 57 and was diagnosed in 2004 with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. I was a bank manager and was very active in my community and church. One afternoon, I left work and did not know how to get home. This was the start of a “downhill no return” into the Alzheimer’s world. I am […]