by Shannon Popkin | Nov 13, 2012 | Analogy, Communication, Hospitality, Leadership, Mistakes
One Sunday afternoon, I was shuffling through the stack of papers that had accumulated on my kitchen counter.One paper–obviously a letter–caught my eye. I glanced to see who it was from, but the ink at the bottom of the page had faded into oblivion. This...
by Shannon Popkin | Aug 20, 2012 | Family, Father, Hospitality, Housekeeping, Kids' Perspective, Writing
Yesterday, I had my arms loaded up with good deals, and was headed up to the check out when a hanger slipped off one of the shirts I was carrying. Before I could bend down to get it, a little girl–probably about four years old–skipped over to that spot and...
by Shannon Popkin | Jun 5, 2012 | Disagreement, Fashion, Hospitality, Marriage, Money
I wanted to buy some new sofas. Ours are at least ten years old, and the leather is all cracked and worn. I’m embarrassed every time we usher company into that room, but when I started pointing out new sofas in catalogs, Ken said, “Ours are fine! Who cares...
by Shannon Popkin | May 13, 2012 | Holidays, Hospitality, Kids' Perspective, Women
Once when I was a new teacher, my mom gave me a perm. (It was stylish in those days to frizz your hair out like a big brillo pad.) When I went to school the next day, one of the other teachers said, “Oh, I love your perm! I wish I had enough money to get a...
by Shannon Popkin | Jan 5, 2012 | Church, Hospitality
When we were first married, we were in a really fun ‘young marrieds’ group at church. Our leaders were very generous and very wealthy. They had a huge home with an indoor swimming pool, and they opened it to our group on a weekly basis. We had Bible...