The day after I deep clean has historically been a very rough one. I cringe (on a good day, worse on a bad day) as I stand watching my hard, sweaty work completely UNRAVEL before my very eyes. In most cases I have to step outside and practice deep-breathing techniques as a coping mechanism. Today I stood by Penelope’s high chair literally trying to catch her crumbs as her windmill arms swung and flung...my upper back starting to ache as I envisioned myself cleaning the floor for a third time Read More
Growth Hormones
It’s been awhile since I’ve given a report on our current status…so…well….let’s just sum it up this way: At this exact moment, I am hiding in my garage. The footsteps that I hear above me sound like mice on artificial growth hormones, but this is literally the best I can do today. I have locked myself in my van in the garage in an attempt to get a few minutes of uninterrupted solitude. There are only 13 minutes of battery life left on my laptop, but if you think I’m going to risk it Read More
Book Review
I was talking to an old friend today. Although she is a full-time teacher, she serves in the youth group at her church. She was talking about how hard it's been lately to serve in the youth ministry because she's having trouble with her OWN children at home, and was just sighing it all to me. Breathing it all out. Long, heavy sighs. Then she said, "Well, YOU know how it is...ministry is hard." And, then it hit me. Okay, not true. It hit me a few nanoseconds after I had the thought, Read More
Waning Gibbous
I have been a mother for eight and a half years, yet today I felt it stronger than ever: I still don't have this thing down. The hard thing about parenting is it is more dynamic than the moon. Yes, I do have QUITE SOME experience as a mother...BUT, I have never parented an eight and a half year old before. I find myself in totally new territory every single morning. I HAVE parented a six year old before, but never one who was a second child, one who was both a little sister and big sister. Read More
Penelope Raine
Born: September 5th, 2012 at somewhere around 10:45 PM Weight: 7 lbs. 14 ounces Height: 19 inches Read More
The Plastic Pastor’s Wife
The one and only Christine Hoover asked me to write a guest post on her blog for ministry wives, Grace Covers Me. This is what I came up with: I had only been married and in ministry for a total of 4 weeks when our senior pastor told us we were going to our first ministry conference. I remember feeling like I was faking it or something; I had barely started at this new role…was I really in need of a conference to “revive my weary spirit?” The conference ended up being a great way for us to Read More
On Becoming a Pastor’s Wife
I have had the opportunity recently to write some guest posts on an amazing blog for ministry wives, Grace Covers Me. I thought I'd share the post: I am a pastor’s wife. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, there were a lot of things on my list. There was one thing, however, that I did NOT want to be and that was….(I’ll give you one guess)… a pastor’s wife. I’m not sure how it happened exactly, which (I know what you’re thinking) is completely naïve and foolish, but one minute I Read More
Garman New Year Letter
To our family who have become friends and our friends who have become family, Happy New Year! We, at the Garman home, had quite the exciting year. It all began on January 6th when I (Annie) locked myself in a men’s bathroom at Rite-Aid pharmacy so that I could take a quick pregnancy test on the way to Urgent Care (someone had just vomited in the women’s bathroom). The nasty virus I thought I had turned out to be a zygote and we soon found out another female would be added to our repertoire Read More
So…where did we leave off?
OH yes...I believe it was sometime last summer. We had just moved and I was in my last trimester, getting ready to have a new baby. Enough said. I haven't blogged for over six months, which has been the longest blogging break I've ever taken (since starting in 2008). The last half year has been pretty wild, and I really have had little desire for anything other than sleep. I can feel myself slowly coming out of the baby haze as we start to sleep through the night more consistently and the Read More
Introduction
In college I studied linguistics and graduated with a degree in English as a Second Language. After marriage, I was able to use my degree immediately teaching English to international students at a local elementary school. I've pretty much always found the development of language acquisition fascinating. Having my first baby and staying at home with her was, at first, psychologically isolating and we spent many of our days just staring at each other. Looking back, I probably should have Read More
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