Snow Day on Bittersweet Farm It’s a snow day out on Bittersweet Farm. Snow days are “hole-up-and-write” days for me. I get up in the corner of my room next to the window looking out on the woods across the road to the south, and I put my head down and write. A couple years […]
Bittersweet Farm Journal | January 8, 2022 | Hardships of Winter
Adien Redemption wanted to visit my writing loft… Bittersweet Farm Journal—January 8, 2022 The kids and grandkids except the New Mexico and Texas Pierponts (we hope to fly down there and enjoy some of their warm sunshine this winter) came and went from Bittersweet Farm during the holidays or we saw them in their homes. […]
Bittersweet Farm Journal | December 8, 2021 | And Christmas Came
Out on Bittersweet tonight there is a light dust of snow on the ground an it is cold outside. Lois is listening to the news and weather and pouring candles and intermittently singing. I love it when she is happy. It warms the whole house. I’m up in the corner of my cozy room in […]
Bittersweet Farm Journal | December 2, 2021 | A Christmas Fight
Last Sunday when I got home from church it was sunny and warm enough for me to brush the last of the leaves from the flowerbeds and coil the hose for the winter. This Sunday we awoke to three inches of snow. I rose at five and plowed and two days later I plowed an […]
Bittersweet Farm Journal | November 14, 2021 | Are You Ready?
We moved from Central Ohio to Northern Michigan late in November of 1996. It seemed so far north to us at the time. It felt like we were driving to Siberia… One thing I noticed right away was how seriously Michiganders up there took their winter apparel. People in Northern Michigan didn’t just wear a […]
Bittersweet Farm Journal | November 3, 2021 | The Quasimodo Shuffle
It’s 5:30 am. I get up and start into the bathroom. The house is dark and quiet. Halfway there I begin to chuckle when I realize the I am shuffling exactly like Quasimodo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame. It’s my birthday week and I started a new year and my body objects to the […]
Bittersweet Farm Journal | October 14, 2021 | A Quiet Place
“…aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,” (1 Thessalonians 4:11, ESV) “Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.” (2 Thessalonians 3:12, ESV) When I was a […]
A Place of Our Own
A Place of Our Own How long I longed when I was young to have a place upon which I could fix my name To have a place on earth to call My own and share with those I love. I leased or borrowed or rented or in the case of parsonages, lived by virtue […]
Bittersweet Farm Journal | September 20, 2021 | Men and Boys Following Jesus
Barakel Father-Son Retreat | September 17-19, 2021 This weekend I travelled north again (In Spurgeon the GMC) with my good friend Allen Miracle and his son Jacob to preach to dads and sons at Barakel. (Have I ever mentioned that it is one of the sweetest places on earth?) Kyle preached to men from Hope […]
Packing Up to Leave
We were packing to leave. I made the two-hour drive to load the unsold candles. There were only a few boxes. I loaded them as quickly as I could, keeping my head down, working hard. I stashed all the implements and accoutrements required to display the candles in a fetching way on top of the […]