by Ashley Larkin | Aug 6, 2013 | Celebration, Childhood, Just Write, Mothering
Summer has gathered us up in the folds of her skirts and taken us for quite a ride. Most recently, across five states in eight days and more than 1,900 miles and then home, smack dab into the crepe paper and cupcakes and sister-created scavenger hunt of Lala’s...
by Ashley Larkin | Jul 9, 2013 | Grace, Joy, Just Write, Perspective
From the sidewalk, she and her family approach the place where a chestnut brown llama in a tiny top hat and a cream llama in a bow tie stand. The younger girls and woman who walk next to the girl are smiling. The girl in the wheelchair with the fuchsia t-shirt, short...
by Ashley Larkin | Jun 19, 2013 | Childhood, Grace, Gratitude, Just Write, Mothering, Parenting
The other night I shocked myself by placing dinner on the table at a decent hour, and so we’d bathed and scooped out portions of homemade ice cream into plastic cups before the pressures of bedtime set in. We dropped dollops of strawberry jam or drizzles of...
by Ashley Larkin | May 13, 2013 | Concrete Words, Family, Just Write, Mothering, Perspective
We zoom in. We squint. We tilt heads and thrust necks forward. We walk to the next case, the next frame and hold hands behind our backs so as to notice without touching the strokes of oil, the blended hues creating glen and chin and river and belly. We look intent at...
by Ashley Larkin | May 7, 2013 | Family, Grace, Gratitude, Just Write, Perspective, Truth-telling
Last night, I flopped myself into bed at 8:30 after prayers with the girls and final tuck-ins. It’s so hard to get them to stop with the beautiful sunshine streaming through windows, and I felt bone spent weary. Michael kissed me good night and left for Home...
by Ashley Larkin | Mar 5, 2013 | Celebration, Childhood, Community, Faith, Favorite posts, Gratitude, Just Write, Love
This circle is bigger than the circumference of these shoulders touching, these fingers scratching backs, these glasses of wine and red vines and smiles thrown from one side of the room to the other. This circle is greater than the sum of lunches in the upstairs...