Come one, come all!Cinderella opened last night to an almost sold-out crowd–and there are three more performances! (My sister, shown in dress rehearsal at top left, will be Cinderella in the matinee. 🙂 ) Check out more pictures from dress rehearsals here and here. And if you’re in the southern California area, email showlights.theater@gmail.com for details […]
My family’s life right now is a whirl of rehearsals, emails, and phone calls, of altering costumes and gathering props, of organizing tickets and writing programs, of juggling—as are our directors and all the families involved in our upcoming production of Cinderella—all the myriad details that come with putting on a musical. We open in […]
On Monday, my sister had her “vintage” birthday party. She and her friends dressed in ‘40s-ish clothes (handy that those are in style again now!), danced to Big Band music, and sipped root beer floats. She reminded me of the young heroine in the Hallmark movie The Lost Valentine, with her green-flowered vintage dress, curled […]
I talk a lot about story on this blog—the power of storiesand how they change us, how God can use them to shape our lives. But sometimes, stories can just carry you away—to another place, another time, even another world, a mini-vacation in themselves. And this too, I think, can be God’s gift. The Colonel’s […]
In a newly formed ACFW online group I’ve joined, we’ve been talking lately about how we want to write stories “with a purpose,” with the aim to not just entertain but help transform readers lives. Stories can affect us deeply–sometimes, at least for me, even more than a sermon or nonfiction inspirational writing, though the […]
My family spent this past weekend in Solvang, a town begun in 1911 by Danish immigrants to California seeking to keep their culture alive in their new home. As the great-great-granddaughter of Danish immigrants myself, I delighted in learning a bit more about my ancestry…even gained the possible seed of a new story to simmer […]
Read Part 1 here. Some might say we love stories because they offer escape, a brief trip out of a meaningless and messed-up world into one that makes more sense. Certainly stories can be a form of escape—I know I’ve used them as such. But the best stories, the good and true ones (even if […]
I recently read an article in Guideposts magazine where the author shared the impact the movie Doctor Zhivago had on her as a young girl. Times were tight for her family, and she and her mom both worked at the local movie theater. After seeing a late showing of this particular film, for the remainder […]
I’m glad I picked up Long Time Coming from the Abingdon Press table at the ACFW conference this past fall. I read the book over Christmas break, and I hope its imprint will remain on my heart. It’s the story of two women, Kenisha and Deirdre, who live very different lives on the socioeconomic scale, […]
How silently, how silentlyThe wondrous gift is givenSo God imparts to human heartsThe blessings of His heaven… Joseph And He is born. I lay Him on Mary’s chest, warm and wet and wailing, and cover them both with my robe, and kiss her sweaty hair. And we laugh through our tears, and I think I […]
