Note by Note

Photo found on Canva Hello, y'all! Happy Saturday! It's been a rough week for yours truly and I wanted to pop over to jot down some thoughts.  Think of the strongest person you know. Maybe it's your mom. Maybe it's an older sibling or a close friend. Maybe it's yourself. Maybe you're the parent or older siblings. Do you feel strong? As the oldest of four kids, I know it's a hard label to live up to. There seem to be some unspoken rules sometimes, rules like "Watch out for the younger ones" and "Be a good example." And I'm not saying that's a bad thing; sometimes it's just awfully hard. For me, it's been especially hard the last few days.  Some things have been going on in my life and I'm still trying to understand what all is happening. But the long and short of it is this: I'm fearful. Not the "there's a monster under my bed!" scared or the familiar "sharks and spiders" scared. No, this is ...

I take a sip of peppermint tea and fight off leftover sleepiness. My bonnet slides over my forehead, completely obscuring my field of vision on all sides. The clouds are layered, the snow is melting, and all is cold and quiet this fine March morning. Except, perhaps, for the random truck outside my house. Good morning, friends, and welcome to another day! It's days like these, when I'm armed with a notebook, my trusty fuzzy socks, and my devotion time with God, that I feel I can take on anything that comes my way.  Today, I'm choosing joy.  Yesterday started out almost exactly like today. Writing in my bonnet and socks, spending a few hours on school, and daydreaming about stories. But at some point in the afternoon, I crashed.  Have you ever spent an extended amount of time in the company of a person who absolutely cannot - will not - talk about anything positive? And after you've tried every other option - talking peaceably, offering advice, trying to fix whatever is ...