About Me

Hi, I’m Jen, a Pacific Northwest girl, raising four incredible kids, along with my dear husband. I write mostly about education, faith and family. I enjoy the outdoors, the mountains, sunrises and sunsets, the Oregon Coast in the summer and ice skating in the winter. My children bring me incredible joy, and to hear them learning to read, playing make-believe, or asking how big God is are the most beautiful parts of my day.

My favorite movie is The Inn of the Sixth Happiness with Ingrid Bergman; I also love Jimmy Stewart movies, especially Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. And Chariots of Fire is amazing and inspiring. Foreign films are awesome, too, and Babette’s Feast and La vita è bella are among my favorites. The holidays are never complete without Christmas in Connecticut and any World War II French Resistance Film is also on my list.

Books – lots of great ones out there I love, including the Bible, Cry the Beloved Country, The Wind in the Willows, Charlotte’s Web, Suite Française, The Brothers Karamozov, Goodnight Moon, and Adventures in Contentment. And bring on the biographies, historical fiction, or again, World War II resistance books–some of my favorites in that category are the biographies of Marthe Cohn, Claire Chevrillon and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

I’m a wife, a mother, a teacher, a daughter, a sister, a friend. Most of all, a child of God. I ponder little life questions such as “What’s the least amount of sleep I can get by on?” and “Why is the coffee pot dripping grounds into the carafe?” And big life questions such as “God.”

I have a strange fascination with France and most of her surrounding countries. I’ve hosted several foreign exchange students from Europe, the only attainable way at the moment to have contact with this area; since it’s not possible for me to now go there, they must come here! These relationships have blessed my family.

I like water from the well, rich coffees, dark chocolates, Pacific salmon, wildflowers and the poetry that goes with them. I love starry nights and meteor showers, big leafy trees with low branches to climb, and freshly brewed sun tea. And books and children — of course.

My life is lived step by step, and the great musician Rich Mullins so hauntingly beautifully captured my sense of fragility-yet-strength:

(from Rich Mullins’ Step by Step)

Sometimes I think of Abraham
How one star he saw had been lit from me
He was a stranger in this land
And I am that, no less than he
And on this road to righteousness
Sometimes the climb can be so steep
I may falter in my steps
But never beyond Your reach

Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You’ll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days.

~May the Lord bless you and keep you, and make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! Love Jen~

Contact: blessedinthewest@yahoo.com