Author: hollycombs

This

This

hollycombs

This.

Husband sends me a photo of our daughter picking grapes off the vines that are finally ripe. Her plump little hands grasping for the plump little fruit. This.

Baby riding in a peach basket.

It’s time to feed the animals, so I take my daughter out to the barn with me. She knows what to do. First she drops pellets of chicken feed one. at. a. time. (The chickens don’t get impatient like Mama does.) Then she runs for the bag of goat feed that she can reach all by herself, grabs a fistful and takes it to Jane. She’s not afraid of that goat anymore. She’s a big girl now. This. Read more →

Unexpected revelations of sponsoring a Compassion child

Unexpected revelations of sponsoring a Compassion child

hollycombs

Esther and her mamaCompassion International was a name that I knew well as a child. Our youth group sponsored a “Compassion child”, my brother and his girlfriend “adopted” a Compassion child. When I was a teenager and traveled to Ecuador, I too selected a Compassion child — a girl named Katherine.

I wrote her letters, sent her photos and postcards. I wanted to connect with her. I even got to meet Katherine once, and her brother and mother and aunt. Katherine graduated several years ago. I hope and pray her education is serving her well.

By that time, I had come across the idea of selecting a child the same age and gender, perhaps with the same birthday, as your own child so they can be pen pals. Though I didn’t have any children of my own yet, I thought this was a brilliant idea as it could also help teach privileged children that they are really more like impoverished children than different. It can teach children in a self-centered culture about other parts of the world. It can expand horizons and develop character.

After Fiona was born, we found a little girl born on the same day in Uganda and immediately signed up to sponsor her. Her name is Esther. Read more →

Adventure: Cape Charles

Adventure: Cape Charles

hollycombs

Cape Charles Virginia beach

We had an open Sunday afternoon on a sunny, beautiful day. Bathing suits and beach towels were already packed in the car “just in case”, so we decided to head up to the Eastern Shore and visit Cape Charles. We’ve driven through before, and even walked on the beach, always saying that we’d come back when we had kids as this looked to be the perfect kid beach. And we were right! Read more →

The Night Stand | 06/17

The Night Stand | 06/17

hollycombs

What’s on my night stand? (Or my audible player?):

Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me

by Ian Morgan Cron

I’m listening to this “memoir…of sorts” via my library’s Hoopla app. I read Cron’s novel Chasing Francis in graduate school, so I was already a little bit familiar with Cron and had heard good things about his non-fiction memoir. While some aspects of this book are certainly hard (an alcoholic father), I’m thoroughly enjoying hearing about Cron’s Irish Catholic upbringing in the 60s and 70s. Not entirely told chronologically, I’m also appreciating the essay-like structure of it and the author’s way of allowing the reader to make connections and draw conclusions themselves without always having to explicitly state what his experiences have meant to him. Not a light read, but humorous and worthwhile.

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Adventure: OBX

Adventure: OBX

hollycombs

Adventure in the Outer Banks with a toddler.

We may need to redefine “adventure” to include the intricacies of traveling with a toddler. Seriously, it’s not for the faint of heart!

Over the long Memorial Day weekend, we took our little family to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for some surf and sand. It was our first time camping at Frisco Campground (in Frisco, NC, just North of Hatteras Village). We fell hard for this campground! We’ve always camped at Oregon Inlet, which is nice, and shied away from most other campgrounds in OBX because they are basically large fields of grass/sand without any privacy, shade, or topography of interest. This is not the case at Frisco! This campground was full of dunes (which made biking a fun challenge), some sites are perfect for tenting in a little nook, others have a high vantage point with a beautiful view. We selected one that backed up to some scrub brush that provided a bit of shade and wind protection. Read more →

Favorite Products

Favorite Products

hollycombs

My favorite beauty products.For a long time, I’ve been striving to simplify my life, including my “beauty routine” (whatever that is). Simultaneously, I’m trying to use fewer synthetic and potentially harmful chemicals and instead fine natural replacements that work as well or better.

I so appreciated reading about what other real people are using and loving, especially knowing that I wasn’t looking at advertising, or even bloggers receiving perks. So, in that vein, I thought I’d throw this out there; here are a few of my favorite beauty products!

  1. Simple Foaming Cleanser

    2. This doesn’t dry out my face too much (no squeaky clean feeling!), but it definitely gets me feeling fresh and free of the day’s troubles. Read more →

The Night Stand

The Night Stand

hollycombs

What’s on my night stand? (Or my audible player?):

Attachments

Attachments by Rainbow Rowellby Rainbow Rowell

I snagged the Kindle version of this book after having read and enjoyed Eleanor and Park. While Rowell’s use of profanity irks me a bit (and feels unnecessary), her quirky, unique writing style is thoroughly enjoyable. Like Eleanor and Park, her characters are anything but trite. They are often deeply flawed, but lovable — and believable — people just like you or me. No incredible heroes or impossible heroines, but people you think, “Yeah, I could be friends with you.” Attachments was also a fun look back at the turn of Y2K!
 
 
 

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I’m not the only mom

I’m not the only mom

hollycombs

Fiona holding honeysuckle

Being a working mom is … hard. Some days are harder than others. Like this week.

We’re going through some transitions as a family right now, and every single one of them affects Fiona. At 15 months, she’s hanging in there so well. But it’s hard. On top of it all, she’s been sick, there was a family wedding that had us traveling and kept us up late too many nights in a row, she had another round of vaccinations at her most recent well checkup, she’s teething, etc. etc. etc. You get it. I’m not the only mom going through these things right now.

I feel awful that I can’t be with her every step of the way through these transitions. She cries for me, her mama, and I’m not there.

I’m missing out on so many of the good things too. So many firsts. Her first trip to the zoo. Her first time strawberry picking. It devastates me that I can’t be there. But I would never deprive her of those wonderful memories that she can make with other friends and family who love her dearly.

And so I find myself trying to work, while my heart breaks a little and my mind wanders to my precious daughter. Read more →

Book Review: Tranquility

Book Review: Tranquility

hollycombs

Tranquility JournalTranquility: A Prayer and Reflection Coloring Journal immediately sparked my interest. It combines several things I’m interested in at the moment: Prayer, peace, and coloring.

As I’m watching my 14-month-old daughter and wondering when she’ll be old enough to appreciate coloring (as though I need an excuse to break out the art supplies), I’m enjoying a foray into the wonderful world of grown-up coloring.

The hard cover and thick paper stock of Tranquility are top notch quality. The designs are varied and interesting, prompting new ideas with each turn of the page. Each spread is vastly different, some requiring more coloring than others, some suggesting more writing than others. They are all beautiful and creative. The colors that are printed in the journal are rich, gentle tones. Read more →