“Kim, I think I feel a lump,” Bjoern said as he felt our Rottweiler’s neck.  It was a snowy January afternoon in Indiana, and we were cozily hunkered down in front of the fireplace.  Cuddling with Brigitte, the dog, my husband had discovered the tumor that would steal her away from us that April,...

I threw a little temper tantrum at Office Max about a month ago.  Standing in front of the Post-It note display, I eyed the price tag on the oddly sized pads of paper my daughter needed to take to school.  Fifteen dollars!  The price of the sticky notes was more than her crayons, colored pencils,...

artwork by He Qi The idea for this column was to draw attention to facts of which we might not be aware. Every couple of weeks, we wanted to highlight injustices with some numbers and statistics and then offer practical solutions. We simply wanted us all to become aware of both how we may inadvertently...

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, your heart will be also.     Most...

For most of my life I was disgusted by the church and its followers. Hypocritical. Self-Obsessed. Prideful. Unkind. These were the words I used to describe the church and its people. All that changed when I was twenty and read the Bible for the first time. This is what Jesus is like? Why didn’t...

by Sara Sterley My husband, a 6’7” former college basketball player, likes his meat. He typically indulges my tree hugger tendencies: he composts with the best of them, reuses everything, and even broke his back in our clay-filled backyard a few weeks ago to double the size of our organic garden....

Bjoern and I walked into a department store the other day, and immediately upon entering, Bjoern pointed out the men’s vintage look designer jeans and said, “People in Turkey are dying making those jeans.” Turns out he had recently read an article in our favorite German online news magazine, www.spiegel.de,...

Our school district recently had to make a change to their elementary school lunch menu. The bosco sticks, mozzarella stuffed breadsticks dipped in sauce, were replaced by pizza dippers. Apparently, the children had been removing the mozzarella cheese from the bosco sticks, wadding it into a ball, then...

I apologize in advance for this article. It’s just been thrown together at the midnight hour to meet the deadline. Normally, I’d take the time to properly research a Part of the Solution to share with you. But, at the moment, I’m tired and overwhelmed after a weekend of family illness and an evening...

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? Apparently, I am not. At least this is how I feel whenever my oldest daughter, Ella, brings home a fifth grade math assignment. Which is daily. Here’s an example of what usually goes down in our house around 3:30: “Mom, I need help with this.” “What is...