About rkpaulus

Writer. Mom. Wife. Basketball coach. Lover or all things chocolate. Winner of bubble gum jar! Grace is my oxygen.

Livin’ in a Material World…

Building castles. Building dreams. What’s your dream?

[Inspired by a friend who after reading The Hole in the Gospel by Richard Sterns took a vow of poverty with her best friend for one year.Their particular VOP is to buy no new clothes for themselves, this year.]

Remember that play “The Glass Menagerie” from high school? I can still picture Laura, a classic agoraphobic who never leaves her house. I thought of this picture as I skimmed one of those ten page magazines ads, and this one happened to feature amazing, geometrically-roofed, all glass sun rooms. And I wanted one. Continue reading →

Fortunately…Unfortunately

You know how some bands take a decade off and then emerge out of the woodwork with a new album years later? Three decades after my first published book, I’m making my comeback! Sure it was a spiral bound, poorly illustrated, typo-filled ten paged paperback in fourth grade, but hey, everyone’s gotta start somewhere.

Someone asked me this weekend when I knew I wanted to be a writer. What was the defining moment? Miss Trosko? Are you still out there? Continue reading →

Clumsy yet loved…

Half my sundae spills on to the couch in another failed attempt to multi-task! I quickly move the laptop and wires over to salvage as much of the chocolate and cool-whip I can back into my bowl…three second rule, right? God doesn’t want me to get fat, I rationalize—that’s why He made me clumsy!

Shortly before we left for our honeymoon to Alaska, my dad’s parting words to my husband of less than twenty-four hours were: “Please. And I mean PLEASE! Don’t stand too close to the railing on the ship. [He chuckled through the remainder of his words] Because I don’t want… Continue reading →

Why Waterfalls?

Once in awhile you find something in the world that defines your purpose. For me, that discovery happened when I saw my first waterfall. I was less than five years old when my parents took me to see Niagara Falls, and twenty years later, I found love in the mist of a return visit to Canada.

The journey continues. The search is far from over, and with each waterfall that I experience, I learn something new about myself, about my world, and about my God – the One who creates each droplet and places me in the pathway of rushing water — to remind me of how His Grace Moves For Me! Ever Flowing! Ever Powerful! Ever enough!
And in the words of my favorite Disney movie theme song, “Ever just the same…ever a surprise!”

In Search of Waterfalls

The first time we shared a waterfall was on a trip with the Young Adult Group from our church. Niagara Falls. How’s that for the start of a theme for your love-life?!! We were clearly “falling” for each other in the most magnificent way! I seemed to catch him gazing at me all the time, and maybe that was because… I tried to steal a glimpse of him in the group without making it so obvious that I was hopefully and deliriously into this young man that God had so strategically put into my life. Two days later, we “defined the relationship” with a very deep and profound conversation that went something like this:


Him: “Isn’t it kind of obvious that I like you…”
and I finished, “… and you like me!”

Ten years later… Continue reading →