A Short Bio



Hi! My name is Kathy (Kathleen~only by one sister and occasionally my husband [when he furrows his brow] , and by my friend Mary when she signs off as “Mary Ellen”.} i am…firstborn (of 12), a Type A, and I like thrive on order.


I so. need. grace.


The last year (or four), life has extremely lacked order (Traveling monthly, Moving  x 3, Empty Nest, Career changes, new responsibilities, and loss of my Dad) and I’m progressively learning to ‘ride the wave of God’s grace’. I married my high school sweetheart at the age of 18- By the grace of God. Still. Married. (He too is firstborn-ahem.)

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Did I mention grace?



i am…mom to two, mom-in-law to two, and gramma to three boys with another baby on the way (boom, boom, boom, boom!)!

i am… a Heinz 57 Christian. And this is my faith story:


You wanted to ask it — as almost everyone does. When I said ‘firstborn of 12’ -and the answer is “yes, I was raised Catholic”. And I have great memories of sitting in the pew with my siblings, usually wearing a dress. Sometimes flicking the metal spring-loaded pinchers that held our random papers on the back of the pew ahead of us-and most often pinched our fingers and secured us a scolding. πŸ˜‰


I recall squinting my eyes to blur the tree lights during midnight Mass. They twinkled and I was mesmerized.


In such a large family, you can imagine the ‘occasional’ commotion in the pew.


My mind still pictures Dad there, often sleeping. We joked about his eyes resting.


When I go ‘back home’ (in June, for my Dad’s funeral) I check to see, and yes- the stain-glassed windows still reflect in my quarter-carrot diamond ring. The one that Dale bought me with money he received from insurance for his little pick-up truck accident . . . he just drove it all dented up so we could get engaged.


For five years I slept through church (at home in bed) because I usually was at the bar too late the night before. After all, it was the weekend. On the end of a hard weeks’ work as a hair stylist in the big city of St. Paul. {Big-Hair 80’s}


I remember distinct words repeating often through my head during those years, “I need something . . . “ and I would walk over to the ginormous Bible sitting on a table in my living room. Mom had given it to us for our wedding, and I’d look at it -and feel so lost. It was “greek to me”. And then I got pregnant after 5 years of dual-income-no-kid self-centered living.


My mother-in-law wagged a finger at my husband one day saying, “If you are going to have a baby, you need to join a church.” {and we obeyed! -we agreed with her. And the Lord used her to give us the push we needed to seek Him-thank you Mom!}


So we church-hopped. I remember saying, “I just want the truth. And no robes.” I didn’t want the guy up front to have a robe. I wanted to know God for myself, not through a priest. Somewhere I heard that Jesus became the great High Priest. That we no longer needed to go to God through a priest but were invited to approach Him on our own. 


The one thing I really didn’t like was the confessional. It was dark and scary and I never kept track of my sins. I knew I should have. So I always said to the Priest, “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned, it’s been _____months since my last confession and these are my sins: I lied…um, I disobeyed my mom…” (I really couldn’t ever think in the moment of one sin I had committed except the lie I was telling the priest at the moment, because I couldn’t remember my sins. I was a pretty good girl anyway-mom and dad said so…)


After hopping around to a half-dozen churches, it was the last one I wanted to visit. Because I thought people did cartwheels in the isles at Baptist Churches. Like I’d seen on the Blues’ Brothers. Nothing could be further from our experience that day.


It was New Years’ Day morning and like I said, I was pregnant. So I didn’t have a hangover.


God spoke to us and we couldn’t wait to go back the next week. And the week after that and forever. Who doesn’t want to return to hear the King of the Universe address your very own life?


It was #SoulSatisfaction (but a hash-tag wasn’t a thing yet)


And the pastor came over to our house to tell us about grace, and my heart opened up to Jesus’ love without my earning it. (though I would later fall back into relying on my flesh (mysssself) as Peter had in Galatia and live with severe anxiety for a season)


And over the course of the ensuing years, I found myself drawn to reading God’s word, devouring it, loving it. Loving coming to know the truth I longed for.


And I’d get up in the middle of the night and clear out the junk I had been feeding my soul. All the Harlequin Romance novels {and worse} went in the trash one night. And another night, AC/DC, ZZ Top, and even my beloved REO Speedwagon.


Yes, I had found what my heart longed for and nothing was going to compete with my loyalty to Him.


I was all-in.


I had read the parts in the Bible where Jesus said, “put your hand to the plow and don’t look back.” and then about how Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back. And how Israel after being delivered from slavery whined and longed for their slave days and how so many died from their own whining.


And I wanted to draw a line, and never turn back. Ending up as a pillar of salt didn’t appeal to me.


It might be too radical for some, but it was the Holy Spirit’s command for my life.


Because of moving and “church shopping” we’ve also experienced faith-families in both a Covenant church and currently-a Christian and Missionary Alliance Church.


We love our church family and having raised our family among the members, find it closest to ‘home’ as we’ve ever been.


And in all those years, my appetite for God’s word and teaching it to others has increased. He has moved me into ministry in my church to women and youth. I also invest in my community :in teaching, speaking and writing.


And the reason my ‘Heinz 57 Christianity’ has any significance is that a piece of my heart has become this: to diffuse denominational boundaries-that have only served to separate those who’ve become part of the family of God through Jesus.


I say, let’s live John 17 together.


PS: I also cherish God’s gifts of family, friends, & people . . . coffee, chocolate, & flowers . . . travel, art, & decorating.


We, your servants at #TheLoft are so glad you are joining us where we can encourage and build one another up and perhaps in a cyberspace kind of way-share a cup of coffee and a scone.


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