by Laurie Short | Dec 12, 2013 | Blessing, Christmas, Faith, forgiveness, freedom, Fully alive, Grace, heroism, Madiba, Nelson Mandela, prejudice, prison, Uncategorized
Right in the middle of the Christmas season, the world buried a hero. And many of us took a pause in our shopping and celebrating to notice it. His country called him Madiba, but he was Nelson Mandela to those of us who beheld him from a distance. And at 95, his...
by Laurie Short | Dec 3, 2013 | baby, blended family, change, Christmas, Christmas carols, commercialism, Faith, family, Fully alive, God, holiday stress, homelessness, Jesus, miracle, Seeing, shopping, step parenting, stress, tuning in, Uncategorized
Ah the Holidays…. Time for food and fun and of course- family. This can raise all kinds of emotions depending on your family sketch. Personally, I’ve got two parents, two step parents, two brothers, two half sisters, one step sister, two sisters in law,...
by Laurie Short | Nov 25, 2013 | Ann Voskamp, Author, Blessing, cancer, Christmas, commercialism, Faith, family, Fully alive, Grace, One Thousand Gifts, recipe, step mom, step parenting, thankfulness, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized
Did anyone else notice that Christmas decorations went up the day after Halloween? I drove into a shopping center parking lot on November 1st, and the telephone poles had morphed into candy canes. And I felt a little sad. I love Christmas, but I’m worried that if...
by Laurie Short | Nov 11, 2013 | battle, cancer, facebook, Faith, family, fighting cancer, Fully alive, God, God's will, heroism, Jesus, Ovarian cancer, Perspective, Prayer, Uncategorized
Last week, I experienced a holy moment. I went to pray with my friend Kim who (barring a miracle) is living the last days of her life. Kim has been fighting Stage IV Ovarian Cancer, and after twenty four brutal rounds of chemotherapy, endless nights of vomiting and...
by Laurie Short | Oct 28, 2013 | being perfect, facebook, family, fantasy, Fun, high school, images, likes, mike yaconelli, myth, peer pressure, Perspective, posts, projecting an image, re-tweets, reality, social media, Stories, truth, tweets, twitter, Uncategorized
It’s an interesting culture we live in. With the rapid rise of social media, many of us now spend more time documenting our lives than we do living them. Don’t get me wrong- I love seeing what people are up to, as well as posting great life moments for others to...
by Laurie Short | Oct 14, 2013 | Blessing, California, congress, congress hiatus, Dreams, Ellis Island, Faith, family, Fully alive, government, Grace, immigrant family, immigration, Parenting, Perspective, rags to riches, Serbian, step mom, step parenting, Stories, Uncategorized
This was a monumental week in my life as a step mom. My step son decided to do his immigration report on his great grandpa. On my side. It’s hard to describe the feelings of warmth when your step child claims your family as his own. It’s something you never expect....