From the tracks in the snow this winter, I figured we had a good-sized jackrabbit. Either that or a kangaroo. But it wasn’t until the last 8-inch “dusting” we received that I actually saw the critter. Looking out the kitchen window, I spotted a new stump in …
Tonight at midnight we lose an hour as we set our clocks forward to 1 a.m. Personally, I won’t be awake to spring ahead, and will have already given up those precious sixty minutes. Airline travelers lose more than an hour when traveling across the international dateline. …
My dad had an old cast iron stove in his “office” – a building out back of our house that women today would call a man cave. The stove sat right in the middle of the room surrounded by desks, chairs, book shelves, and a drafting table. …
There is a curve in US Highway 50 west of Cañon City, Colorado, that the locals call Soda Point. For perhaps a couple of centuries a natural soda spring bubbled up there and Utes and explorers alike took the waters. In the late 1940s someone or many …
The Cowboy Takes a Wife releases on Kindle today and in paperback on Feb. 4. Read on to see how you can win a signed copy. *** Before Colorado statehood was attached to this stretch of prairie and Rocky Mountains, it was known as Kansas Territory (or …
Every January I switch out my desktop calendar, looking back through the previous year to transfer birth dates and other important information. This year, instead of a simple transfer of dates, the endeavor became a time of praise and awe and thanksgiving. For example, last January I …
“I am preparing you for what is on the road ahead, just around the bend” (Jesus Calling, December 27). The words of Sarah Young’s best-selling devotional sprang to life as the train wrapped around the curve ahead. From our seats in the dining car, my husband and …
Christmas is when the child we were should touch the child we raise so he can see the Wonder of Love. Everything else is just tinsel. Memories decorate more Christmases than all the world’s tree ornaments, paper and trimmings combined. For some people, those memories aren’t so …
I just finished decorating for Christmas. Seems I put up less each year, but some things are a must: The old plaster nativity set I had as a child, complete with one wise man’s chipped off nose and Joseph’s empty hand that held a long-lost staff. The …
Sun-scorched land. Not my favorite place to be, but sometimes I find myself scrabbling through loose rock and sand—just like a character in the final novel of my three-book historical series. As a seat-of-the-pants writer, I don’t plot and plan the story up front, I simply sit …
Unimproved road, the sign said. Looked all right to me. My husband and I continued along the unpaved lane through grazing land and open cow country, admiring an old ranch house and barn surrounded by towering cottonwood trees. The beautiful setting inspired peaceful thoughts as we drove …
Have you ever been stuck between a rock and a hard place? This tongue-in-cheek cliché is our go-to phrase when times are tough. When we feel wedged in a difficult situation, pressed upon by immovable obstacles and opposition, we begin to doubt that we can do what …
#thepotter The potter returned to our church last Sunday and demonstrated how God raises us up. There is more to resurrection, he said, than rising from physical death. Of course we hope that is true. Most of us long to rise from the grave of failed relationships, …
I misplaced only two things during our recent move across town: my shoes and my Bible. Actually, it was more than two things, but all the shoes were in one giant box because I thought it was a good idea at the time. Of course the box …
This pickup man takes a break after the rodeo. He’s still wearing his armor – the heavy thick chaps, knee pads, shin guards, spurs, rope, hat. Each item has a critical purpose and is designed to help him do his job—getting cowboys out of a storm or …