Author Archives: Joanna Gott

One of my favorite memories growing up was our annual back-to-school shopping trip. It wasn't a season of shopping. It wasn't multiple Target runs, Amazon deliveries arriving every few days, or endles...

This weekend, our beautiful city of Spokane looked a little different. The bright blue skies of summer gave way to towering plumes of smoke that stretched across the horizon. Wildfires burned through ...

There are few things that make an afternoon walk more exciting for a child than the promise of discovering a giant troll hiding in the woods. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you've probably hear...

S'mores are one of those treats that instantly make me think of summer. The crackle of a campfire, sticky marshmallows, melted chocolate on your fingers, and graham crackers that somehow always end up...

Sometimes the most profound reminders don't come from a sermon or a devotional. Sometimes they come from the back seat of your car, delivered by a seven-year-old with a pocket full of tiny plastic Jes...

Sometimes the best family activities aren't the ones you spend weeks planning. Sometimes they're born from looking around the house and thinking, "Well...we already have these. Why not?" That's exactl...

One of my favorite parts of summer is how it naturally invites creativity. There are slower mornings, longer afternoons, and just enough unstructured time for little imaginations to take over. Of cour...

Saturday morning started like so many others. Penny and I headed over to my sister's house early in the morning for a visit. We drank coffee, caught up on life, watched the girls play, and enjoyed one...

I don't know who needs this reminder today more, you or me. Maybe it's because we're standing at the finish line of another school year, where every day somehow holds three events, four permission sli...

The other night, Penny looked at me with complete sincerity and said, "I'm so sad how fast summer is going to go." The funny thing was that summer hadn't even started yet. She still has a few weeks of...