a wide place

Our family is in a big life transition.

For 13 years, David was the pastor of our church; now he is not. While we attempt to process it and find our bearings in this strange new world, here are some things that brought me joy this month.

Instant Pot

A couple summers ago, I committed myself to using the Instant Pot regularly. By now it’s a habit and I’d say it’s fully replaced a crock pot in my kitchen arsenal, unless I’m planning to feed soup to a crowd.

Why do I prefer an Instant Pot to stove or slow cooker? Honestly, I don’t prefer it to the stove. I love, love the orange Le Creuset Dutch oven David bought me for Christmas years ago; it still makes me happy every time I use it (and that’s almost daily). But the Instant Pot is quicker and doesn’t need as much vigilance, especially when meat is still frozen. I also think pressure- cooking meat tenderizes it and enhances the flavor of dishes.

For instance, anytime I need to add cooked chicken to a recipe — or if I want it for salads or lunches — I’ll make it in the Instant Pot. I like the simplicity of browning onions or meat directly in the pot I’m going to cook them in.

With warm weather approaching, I also appreciate that the kitchen doesn’t get as hot as using the oven.

Here are other meals I regularly make in my Instant Pot:

Indian butter chicken or chicken tikka masala
BBQ
Carnitas
Barbacoa
Shredded chicken tacos
(okay I’m sensing a Mexican theme here)

This summer, my friend Leigh is going to teach me how to make bone broth in the Instant Pot using chicken feet for extra gelatin. I can’t wait.

Thankful Wall

I copied this idea from an author I enjoy, Katie Davis Majors, and began a Thankful Wall using a sharpie and colored Post-It notes. I told the family, “Let’s see how much of the dining room wall we can fill up by Easter.”

Here’s a picture for you; I didn’t even attempt to clean up my dining room because it’s a good analogy of my life right now … a hot mess. I’m learning to be at peace with it.

What do you do when life is a hot mess? You give thanks to God. So we’ve been working away, everybody adding a few “thankfuls” a day. I write it on Gabe and Noah’s daily school list to help them remember.

I love our Thankful Wall because it’s a tangible reminder of God’s faithfulness to our family right now.

Nespresso machine

This came home from David’s office, and I’m enjoying it very much. I like frothy black coffee (with a spoonful of raw sugar); I don’t even need the foamed milk. It’s been a fun afternoon treat, especially when I’m headed in to teach classes.

The Correspondent

So far, this is my favorite novel of 2026. I loved it so much that I immediately read it cover to cover again. I don’t want to give anything away, but I’ll just say that Sybil Van Antwerp joins the likes of Severus Snape as one of my favorite fictional complex characters.

Judah’s bedroom makeover

Since Judah is graduating in May and leaving right away for a summer as a Deerfoot counselor, we decided that his bedroom is going to double as a home office for David.

To do this, we needed to give the room a bit of a makeover because it’s been awhile. I’m always terrible at remembering to take “before” pictures, but Judah had a loft bed and a wall-sized bookcase in here for many years. It was an efficient use of the space (which is quite small, 10×12 feet), but also made it feel rather cramped. In March, he spent a couple of weeks doing a huge purge of his bedroom, and David sold the bed and bookcase on FB marketplace.

We used the money toward this new twin bed and a larger rug (I’m thinking he’ll take this blue rug to his college dorm). I picked out a charcoal-gray paint color that we all love, Iron Ore by Sherwin Williams. We’re still very much in process, but already the room feels so much cleaner and more spacious.

We have spring break this week and our goal is to finish the project. It’s a bittersweet task seeing Judah box up childhood novels he doesn’t want right now and put them in his grandparents’ attic, and pack away Lego’s for his future home/kids. I can’t believe our boy is about to grow up and launch into the world.

I’ll post pics of the finished product.

Soccer

Gabe and Noah joined the PAC middle school soccer team this spring. It’s a big step up from church-league soccer that they’ve been playing for years — both in competition and time-commitment. But they have loved their season and both grow so much as players.

Turns out that soccer has been such a gift in this season of unknowns — it’s gotten us outside regularly, given our boys structure and exercise, and a bonus is that David has more free time and has been able to make almost every game.

Happy Spring!