Oh my goodness you guys! If you haven’t hopped over to the Dixie/Belcher/Gilliam area of northwest Louisiana, please get there as fast as you can! Every June, millions of sunflowers spring up along Louisiana Highway 3049, transforming a stretch of country road into a magical Sunflower Trail. It really is a sight to see, dotted with plantation houses, old churches, quaint Continue Reading
2017: A Year in Review and Things Pondered for 2018
What a year y’all! Unexpectedness was rampant, joys overflowed and the Lord’s faithfulness was proven true (once again). It never ceases to amaze me just how much the Lord can teach and lead over the course of one year. So by the time I’m 80, I should be one, wise ol’ chickadee. :-) 2017 was significant in so many ways. In December 2016, I suffered the first (and Continue Reading
Finding Mayberry in Minden
In early 2014, I was happily residing in sunny, south Texas. Everything was right in my world. All aspects of my life were extremely fulfilling. I LOVED my work. For the first time in my adult life, I was completely and utterly in love with my church. My circle of friends was deeper and wider than ever before. My neighborhood was lined with palm trees that swayed like Continue Reading
How A Simple White Cottage Orchestrated A Divine Friendship
In the mid 1970’s, the Jim Hodges family rented a simple white cottage in Minden, Louisiana, from Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Fitzgerald. Little did they know at that precise moment, the Lord was orchestrating a divine friendship that would change the life of one of their daughters nearly forty years later. The Hodges family along with their two daughters, Karrie and Whitney, lived Continue Reading
I’ll Never Move Back to Louisiana (Part 2)
Honestly, in my entire life, I don’t think I’ve ever been as drawn to anything…much less a house that would capture my affection and undivided attention. I KNEW the Lord was calling me home. Every time I visited my family, I soaked in the tall pine trees, azaleas and slower pace of life in north Louisiana. I could feel it drawing me in. I KNEW He wanted me near my Continue Reading
I’ll Never Move Back to Louisiana (Part 1)
Famous. Last. Words. In 1995, when I graduated high school and went to college at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, AR, I was SO ready to get out of Louisiana. “I will NEVER move back here!” I exclaimed. In 1998 I graduated college, moved back to Louisiana and began my first teaching job in Bossier Parish. (Man I loved those kids at Plain Dealing Elementary. I Continue Reading
An Unlikely Friendship: What We Can Learn From a Dog and a Duck
If you’ve spent any amount of time around the northern part of my little hometown, Springhill, Louisiana, you’ve inevitably seen our local celebrities, the Dog and Duck. I’m not sure how long they’ve been around or even who they belong to, but they’ve definitely reached celebrity status. Each time there’s a sighting, pictures abound on social media and news outlets have even Continue Reading
Louisiana (There’s No Place Like Home)
As I write this, I am sitting on my parents’ back porch in Louisiana soaking in the last few minutes of sunlight. Dorothy was right when she spoke the words, “There’s no place like home.” My parents' yard is erupt with three colors of azaleas, Nancy Graybeards, yellow roses and dogwoods. When I woke this morning, I immediately caught the whiff of my mother’s bakings from Continue Reading