Chapter One: The Quiet Middle Child Ten miles approximately outside of Challis, Idaho, the land was wide and stubborn, stitched with sagebrush and willows, and broken only by the thin ribbon of a creek that ran through the ranch. It was here that Ella Jo grew up, the quiet middle child in a family that […]
As this year ends, I find myself thinking less about resolutions and more about roots. This has been a year of stories—some joyful, some frightening, some exhausting, and some still unfolding. It has been a year that reminded me, repeatedly that life does not move in straight lines. It loops. It bends. It surprises us. […]
Endurance, Love, and All the Things We Never Saw as Children This summer has been one of those that flips life upside down — the Harley crash, the injuries, the slow healing, and now sitting in medical waiting rooms where courage has to be quiet and steady. For a woman who has lived through deployments, […]
“Can I have a second sheet?” That’s when I knew something magical had happened. There’s nothing quite like the sound of pencil on paper. Not the tapping of keys or the buzz of notifications — just the soft scratch of ideas coming alive. Substitute teaching a 6th-grade class is often unpredictable. There are behavior struggles, […]