It might seem odd, but I don't read very many blogs. I read magazines in the good old-fashioned way, and I read articles from the New York Times on my phone, but blogs kind of overwhelm me. There are too many out there, and I just can't keep up. So I generally stick to Time, ...

I should begin by explaining that our kids have initiated a new bedtime ritual. It started at Christmastime. We differentiated between Christmas songs like "Santa Claus is coming to town" and Christmas hymns, which my kids named "Christmas church songs." And William began to ...

I think my interview last week with Drew Marshall as his weekly "God blogger" might have been my favorite interview ever. Not only did he acknowledge the fact that my name is just plain difficult for interviewers–they either stumble to call me Amy Julia or they shorten it to ...

I'm supposed to be in New York City today, attending the Q sessions with Eugene Peterson, author of a number of thoughtful and spiritually transformative books, including The Message and my favorite among many, Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians. Unfortunately, ...

Jeremy Lin has overturned assumptions about the ability of Asian Americans to play basketball. So has David Andrews, a teenager with Down syndrome who contributed (with a 40% 3-point throw percentage) to his team's district championship this year. To see him in action, click ...

As a part of the Patheos Book Club, I was asked to reflect upon Jo Saxton's new book, More Than Enchanting. This book, about women recognizing their calling and ability to lead and influence others within the church, caused me to think about my own role as a female leader. Here's ...

I had a lovely conversation with Susie Larson for Moody Radio last Friday. Somehow in six minutes she got me to talk about being a perfectionist in college, the freedom Penny has offered to me as a mother, where is God in the midst of suffering, and what it means to receive ...

When Bonnie Rochman was writing her article for TIME, she asked me (per her editor's request) to describe "what Penny can and can't do." Here's what I wrote in response:

I've been thinking all morning about how to answer your question. It's harder than you might expect because ...

When 5:00 rolls around, I want a glass of wine. Especially if it's winter and I'm home alone with our children and it's dark outside. I started to notice this desire a few months ago. I had this niggling warning in the back of my brain about it, but I pushed it away every night. ...

I read a lot about prenatal testing, especially now that a company called Sequenom has developed a test that purportedly can definitively (well, with 99% accuracy) detect Down syndrome via a maternal blood sample as early as 10 weeks. Usually in the "mainstream" media, I read ...

Reed and Aaron showed up at 11:00 last Sunday, just as we were getting home from church. They left around 5:00. Six hours of zooming in on our family life–eating Sunday brunch, reading on the couch, heading outside for a walk. We had no idea if a photo of our family would be ...

So the doctor told us to expect a 5-7 day recovery. But Penny woke up on Saturday morning (after 17 hours of sleep, including the time under anesthesia) with her eyes wide open. "Does anything hurt?" She shook her head.

Two hours later, I listened to her narrate what happened. ...

I woke up this morning because Penny came barreling into our room. "I want to cuddle with you, Mom," she said, glasses perched on her nose, wearing her footed pajamas, a barrette already in her hair to pull back the bangs she's growing out.

I tried to convince her to let me go ...

If you live in New York City, Princeton, Raleigh, Durham, or Basking Ridge, NJ, I'm coming soon to a venue near you. Visit my Events Page for more details. (Though note that right now there isn't up to date info on NYC, and Raleigh's has changed from March 28-30. The woes of ...

We don't celebrate Valentine's Day in our house. We feel rather curmudgeonly about the amount of money spent on the holiday (billions and billions of dollars) and the amount of paper wasted on all those little cards sent to school for Penny's and William's classes. And we try ...