Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com Sorrey is the sweetest word. I have often joked that Will could spell the word “shenanigans” since his fourth birthday. This, because of all the apology notes he has written in his young life. Since the time his pudgy fist could hold a pencil, to today, the effort has grown into a natural extension of his misbehavior, so automatic that it’s no longer a consequence wielded from on high.… Continue reading

“I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or with little.” Philippians 4:11-12 Ellie is readying herself for the train back to school. It is a journey closing a happy, full, multi-faceted holiday break and opening an exciting second semester… Continue reading

So I’m waiting for the un-nameable certainty, Trusting in all the stuff I can touch I can control… So much stuff. Even a thread of decision comes as whole cloth to wrap my body in. I want, rather to touch the things he does in my life: Here and here… But every time I get there they have gone cold. Is the Lord the only one for whom I’ll shake off the dust and move… Continue reading

I have got to stop drinking coffee with dinner! It’s 1:30 in the morning and I feel like I could power the Christmas train all by myself. (Oh, yeah…) Like many women this season, I stay up late to get things done, but also it’s to be in a house stilled and dotted with light. This, the season of it: candles in the windows, little illuminated churches and votives placed about, brand new roll of… Continue reading

Greetings from the Burk Motel! Yes, we are many stockings hanging by the fire this year! We have a house hopping with teenagers and toddlers, quite an interesting mix. Our “winter baby” Sophia arrived last February and spent the first three months of life so bundled up that, when you handed her to someone to hold, they would eye the heap of blankets and ask, “Is there a baby in there?” Since being that warm… Continue reading

The Year 2003 – As seen through a “typical day” at the Burk Motel 5:40 a.m. Up and at ’em. Someone has either (1) wet the bed, (2) had a bad dream or, (3)best yet, there’s a cat disemboweling some poor critter under the crib in the nursery. And whose idea was it to install pet doors? “Mommy!” says Ellie, her eyes wide in wonder, “There’s a WRAT unner my BED and Sam is EEEEEDING… Continue reading

They must just smell me booting up the computer. It’s a typical “nap” time at the Burk Motel: Nice lunch… a few stories… trips to the potty… then tucking them into their brain- enhancing, educational, toy-stocked quiet time, closing the doors and slipping away to a two and a half hour of uninterrupted work time… RIGHT! That’s six and a half minutes, once you distill out the trips back upstairs to scold and re-close the… Continue reading

Never a dull moment at the Burk Motel. We find that this year we have strange, premature vacancies, as we return to being the family of four that moved into this house seven seasons ago. Paul graduated in June and with not even so much as a nudge from us, got himself a job, an apartment and a puppy. He works at Chili’s restaurant and seems to be hardworking and well-liked. Every so often we… Continue reading

We put the creches out tonight. In classic Burk fashion, there’s more than one of everything, so we have the moss-covered manger with the Raphael-esque bisque figures, the little wooden one, a cheesy china blue one, and the plastic Fisher-Price model. Ellie and Sophie were so excited to help. They were free to arrange them all. After my little elves had long gone to bed, I walked through the dining room and saw their work..no… Continue reading

(With obvious apologies to Clement C. Moore) ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and here at the Burks’, any creature not stirring was put right to work: “A hand-crafted Christmas!” I declared to them all, “It’s simple! Its best! It’s the nicest of all!” And I knew in a twinkling, I better get drinking, (For mothers of toddlers are not known for clear thinking) to accomplish it all…   The dining table was covered with a… Continue reading