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Above the Fog

I’m in the foothills when I snap this picture of the fog shrouding the Sacramento Valley. Above the fog, the Sutter Buttes look like a crown. This is my fog. My valley. My Sutter Buttes. The place I live and move and have my being. Born here, raised here, raising my kids here. And this picture is so much like my spiritual life right now. Days of fog. Days of valleys. And then there are the mountaintop days of grace. Days above the fog. I wish I had a better camera with me to capture these moments. To capture […]

By Paula January 26, 2015

What’s so great about family workdays?

Our family recently went on a wood-cutting trip. Three generations lugging ice chests of sodas and water, a lunch of salami, cheese, crackers, and sardines, plus plenty of leather gloves for log throwing, not lunch eating. I grew up in a family with workdays like these. When I was young, I can’t say I enjoyed them, but looking back, I enjoyed them. The worst workday was clam-digging with my grandparents in the fog and cold and mud of Tomales Point over at Point Reyes Seashore. My favorite, gathering cattle on horseback in the hills, then spending the day branding […]

By Paula January 22, 2015

Fixing the Hole

If you have enough children it will happen. You will wake up one morning wondering what in the world were you thinking? Of course they were all so cute as babies. Like kittens are cute. Puppies are cute. But then one day you come home and your Staffordshire Bull terrier puppy has gotten all big and eaten a hole through your wall and you get on your knees and look from your laundry room into the kitchen, thinking I can crawl through this hole, and you realize this is bad. You don’t even own this house. Your uncle owns […]

By Paula January 18, 2015

Farming Hope

After cleaning my closets, planters, and the window sills, I’ve been thinking about the next book I’d like to write. I thought I could go for months chasing dust bunnies in the house and upsetting the chickens by sprucing up their coop, but I miss writing. The community of writing. Because when I sit down to write, I think of you who read and it’s like we have a relationship, a great friendship, which really we do. Because I want to connect with you. Figure things out with you. Find God with you. I used to have make believe […]

By Paula January 13, 2015

Giving Your Teenager Grace

Sometimes we’re up, sometimes we’re down, sometimes we’re all around. When you’re raising teenagers, life is a teeter totter. I used to get upset about the downs, but I don’t anymore. At least not like I used to. That’s the thing about having lots of kids. You learn and you grow along with them. And it doesn’t take long for the boys to outgrow you. All too soon, he’s taller than you. Stronger than you. And smarter than you. At least he thinks he’s smarter. You remember this, don’t you? How much wiser you were than your parents when you […]

By Paula January 8, 2015

New Year ~ New Words

Our walk to the ravine is my favorite thing about ringing in the new year. Down our dirt road, across the horse pasture, through tall grass to our own little canyon. There we pick up our rocks. It started three years ago with me facing melanoma. “Let’s go to the ravine,” Scott said. “Bring some Sharpie markers.” Our whole family went, all our kids gathering rocks to write on, scribbling down the bad stuff we wanted to throw away. We didn’t know what that year would hold, and we were scared, holding on to each other. It […]

By Paula January 3, 2015

Your Story In 2015

Happy New Year friends! I’ve fallen into the habit of taking December off from blogging. Just posting our Christmas letter and leaving it there and giving all of us a rest on long winter nights filled with too much sugar and little boys begging to open the presents tucked under the tree. I love Christmas, but am always happy to take down the decorations and take inventory of the year in my review mirror. 2014 was filled with work and wonder and wild little boys. We settled into farming in earnest this past year, the boys are wild as […]

By Paula December 31, 2014