Author: Holly Newman

Christmas was about leaving home, not coming home

December 15, 2014
by Holly Newman
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Childbirth / Christmas / Leaving / Singapore

There is so much written in the weeks preceding Christmas about how to keep the “true meaning” of Christmas, how to keep from getting stressed out about to do lists, how to do Christmas right this year. Almost makes me feel a bit guilty about making lists, decorating, and cooking!  I honestly love preparing for my family’s Christmas, and I’m usually pretty good about not killing myself over everything.  Sure, I get stars in my eyes about what I’ll […]

Hopeful awakenings

November 29, 2014
by Holly Newman
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Grandparenting

It is the weekend after Thanksgiving, and my home is full of grandchildren and their parents. Tonight as 7-year-old John was saying goodnight, I asked if he might please try to sleep a little longer tomorrow morning. He is our earliest riser, and I always feel he’d do better with a bit more sleep. He looked up at me with big eyes, then said in his little piping, hesitating voice, “Nana, do you want to […]

Mother’s Day 2014

November 11, 2014
by Holly Newman
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Mothering

My husband is a pastor, and on Mother’s Day this year, he kindly asked me to finish his sermon with a short talk on mothering.  Looking over this now,  it’s interesting to see that I write differently when I am going to speak the words than when the words will just sit on the paper and be read in the heart and mind.  Even so, I like how it came out, as did others, so wanted […]

Giving and Receiving

November 2, 2014
by Holly Newman
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Traveling

Three specific personal experiences make me think of how important it is to give when it is not expected and cannot be reciprocated. In two, I was the receiver.  In the other, I was the giver. All of them happened when I was traveling with or to see my middle daughter, and they all have to do with baggage. Maybe there is some symbolism here!  Sometimes I think traveling is when the truest moments come, when you […]

Time away with women

October 25, 2014
by Holly Newman
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Retreat / Uncategorized

It’s always a good idea. We are nurtured by each other. We find comfort in sleeping in little cabins on hard beds, staying up too late, laughing at most everything, telling our stories, raising our hands in worship to our Father. I am thankful for the gift of the friendship of women, though we are all so different from each other. Part of our discussion has been that as we understand and accept our own […]

A poem about childhood

October 22, 2014
by Holly Newman
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Writing

  I have been taking a writing class online, which I have really enjoyed so far.  The first assignment was to brainstorm images and memories from early years, including visual, sensory, verbal, even musical memories. After including traditions, and important people, we were to write a prose style poem capturing the most important things that surfaced.   Here is mine, an exercise in self-discovery. I am from I am from deep woods, clear streams, camping under the […]

The purpose of sleep

October 8, 2014
by Holly Newman
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Grandparenting

When you look into the eyes of a young child first thing in the morning, you know with certainty what sleep is for. It is the original reboot. Sleep for a child is intensely refreshing, filling the tanks to overflowing for another day. I know this because we kept our grandchildren who are 1 1/2, 4 and 5 for about 26 hours, but who’s counting? And when my husband and I arose bleary-eyed from replacing […]

Koinonia Granola

September 30, 2014
by Holly Newman
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Recipes

My daughter recently made some yummy granola and inspired me to take out my raggedy More with Less cookbook and make some too! I used to make this when we lived in Singapore years back, where you had to make your own or do without. In fact, it was quite a feat there to locate all the ingredients, which made me enjoy it even more. I smiled at the penciled additions of my ambitious 30 […]

Walking to Horseshoe Falls

September 26, 2014
by Holly Newman
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Niagara Falls

Today Steve was in meetings all day, so I walked by myself along Niagara River past the American Falls and all the way to the edge of Horseshoe Falls. It is a bucket list experience. Besides the obvious natural wonders, it is a veritable United Nations of cultures, costumes, and languages. I barely heard a word of English, though I am in Canada. As you near Horseshoe Falls, a baptizing mist rises from the falls […]

Apple picking with two year old twins in New York

September 24, 2014
by Holly Newman
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Parenting

This title has probably already evoked adorable images in your mind. To be fair, in the 5 hours we were gone, there were a few adorable moments. After all, that is why we take pictures so we can remember the snaps of time that are what we expected or hoped for. I am in Brooklyn for a few days visiting my middle daughter Christie, her husband Josh, and their twin daughters Molly and Edie. It’s […]