About the Blog

Every woman has those moments, moments that sometimes string into days, months, years. You wake up and your hair has suddenly decided to no longer conform to your wishes or, apparently, the laws of nature. You are late getting out the door due to every piece of clothing you own being dirty, too small or dirty and too small. You can’t find your keys or your wallet and realize the car needs gas. Now, if you are traveling unaccompanied on this journey through inconvenience hell, it is at this point you might be tempted to let loose a foul word or too. You may not give into the temptation but you have the freedom to do so knowing that no one is listening, except Jesus of course, and the guy beside you in the gas station. Surely Jesus (and the guy at the pump next door) will understand.

Spiegel Family (March 2012)

But if you are like me and travel most morning with an entourage of little ears, you don’t have the luxury of uttering even the smallest of potty words. These ears seem incapable of hearing the simplest of requests unless they are repeatedly made at an increasing volume. These ears don’t hear me ask their accompanying hands to put away their shoes, make their beds or stop sitting on their brother’s head. And yet…and yet, just let me one time say the word c-r-a-p and those ears hone in on this forbidden word like a heat-seeking missile. “Mom! You just said a bad word!” They will then proceed to tell anyone within a ten mile radius that their mom needs to wash her mouth out with soap. Maybe if I laced my requests with profanity, I could finally get them to take out the trash.

But since I don’t want to pollute those little ears and minds, I have gotten creative over the years. “Oh shootie shoot shoot shoot!” I proclaim while quickly making a somewhat legal U-turn, having driven halfway to baseball practice only to have it announced from the backseat that someone forgot his glove…and shoes. “Oh Jimminie Cricket in a hand basket!” I declare as someone springs from their hiding place causing me to pee my pants and nearly have a heart attack.

So now you see the inspiration of my blog title. “Ah, crab apples!” I say at those moments when everything goes wrong just when I so desperately need them to go right. It is about taking those moments when the sky seems to be falling and seeing beyond the immediate. God speaks in those moments if we will only listen. He slows us down and reminds us of what is really important if we will only choose to see. There is meaning in those moments if we will only stop to find it. I hope that you will see yourself in my “Ah, crab apple” moments. Hopefully, you will be consoled with the tales of my failures and rejoice in my minor victories. But more importantly, together we can string together these moments and begin to see a pattern amidst the chaos. A pattern of care and purpose created for us by the Creator Himself. Maybe this knowledge of meaning will make us a little more patient, a little more kind. Not just to those around us but to ourselves as well. Maybe it will help us laugh when we want to cry. It will help us say “Ah crab apples!” and move on.