Welcome. I’m here, and I’m glad you are, too. I’m Tricia Joy, lover of all things real: kindness, humor, story-telling, creativity, imperfection, God, honesty, cuss words, and a heck of a lot of and silliness.
It was June 2012 this last happened. I can remember it hitting me then the same way it hits me this weekend: so much fullness and so much goneness that the only way for them both to exist is to be confused. People always ask if her birthday brings…
I am all done buying my kids shit. OVER. IT. Christmas, Valentine's Day, and now EASTER?? They're gonna start expecting presents for Every. Stinkin. Day. Off. School. Pa…
It was in 2007 that I took off my cross necklace for awhile. At that point, I had been feeling unsettled about my status as a Christian off and on for a solid fe…
"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." And yet... "Which of you, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn't leave the ninety nine in the wil…
I won't bore you with the minutia of details surrounding the cable snafu we had back in the Fall. To sum up, it went something like this: Call to report internet is do…
I'm not here to talk about failed security measures. I'm here to talk about nests. When something like Florida happens and something like Westerville, OH happens (which happens to be the tight-knit community where m…
I've got it figured out, and I want in. And by "figured it out," I mean "my latest idea." And my ideas are long-lasting solutions to very complicated issues almost never. I have a way of making peo…
Hi. I just typed up three pieces of paper I have folded in half and jammed into my morning devotional book (Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, by the way). Their corners are crea…
Are y'all noticing what I'm noticing? OK, I know I'm a bit of a greeting junkie... as in, I put a TON of emphasis on noticing when a person enters into a mix ("Hello, I'm so-and-so! Wh…
Floodgates are real. I know this because we Arthur parents opened them. It was just a little crack at first. And now our home is fully flooded. By what? You might ask. I'll tell..
Y'all know me. This girl is reflective and just gots to reflect. I go in and out of these waves of reflection (your oughta see my hand-written journal), but for the last couple of years July 3rd has been a good enough time as any to document my refle…
I don't like alienating others. For a long time, back when I avoided alienating others in order to keep my first-born-pleasing-I-like-to-be-liked identity in tact, I believed it to…
It just plain super-sucks to live inside a being unoccupied by a functioning brain. This is what it feels like: The doorbell rings and you go into full-on panic about what appointment you fo…
The other day one of my children (youalreadyknowwhoitis:Sullivan) wore his shirt backwards to school. It wasn't a generic t-shirt, mind you. It's im…
1. The library is not free (for people like me). There should be a sign on the front door reading, "WARNING: This establishment's services are free ONLY if you are responsible and organi…
I have learned, finally, that I do better when I pay attention to my heart. Not the emotional life of my figurative heart, although that's entirely true as well. I actually mean m…
I went to elementary school with a lot of black kiddos, a few black teachers, and one black principal. Mrs. Hodge-Trice, my 1st grade teacher, was my favo…
SIXTH GRADE: I went to Westport Middle School for grades 6-8. Westport, as I remember it, was a pretty colorful place. It was also a relatively rough school, alt…
duPont Manual High School was a magnet school in our very large Jefferson County School system, meaning one had to apply in order to bec…
Even though I went to a big-ger high school, I knew pretty emphatically that I wanted a smaller undergraduate experience; big schools sort of made my he…
