I’ve been seeing a lot of social media posts about picking a word for the year. This is like a New Year’s Resolution yet different because it’s just one word. Resolutions are too specific and therefore hard to follow. With life circumstances changing throughout the year a New Year’s Resolution may suddenly not fit in so it gets abandoned. But A New Year’s Resolution Word, now that seems doable. I like that I can apply that one word to any and every area of my life. I like this idea so I chose a ... Continue Reading...
An Unplanned Lesson in Giving to a Homeless Man
An Unplanned Lesson in Giving An unplanned lesson in giving to a homeless man unfolded before my son and I one Sunday this holiday season. As we drove out of a parking lot we approached an old man standing on the mini sidewalk island between the in and the out of the parking lot. We had just bought a present for my son’s friend and next we were heading to the birthday party. There stood a man. He stood in a spot I hadn’t seen someone stand before even though I’d been to this store many ... Continue Reading...
Stress Free Holidays: Bring Back Joy & Peace eBook Review
This post contains an affiliate link. I was given the opportunity to read this book for free in exchange for a review. This did not impact my views. Views listed in this post are 100% my own opinion. Motivational, Highly Valuable, and Clear Guidance: An eBook Review Blog Post I just read the eBook "Stress Free Holidays: Bring Back Joy and Peace" by Rebecca Cofiño and I'm so happy to have read this book. It really is a must read book especially for moms. Women tend to plan many aspects of ... Continue Reading...
Dear Bad Guys of the World,
Dear Bad Guys of the World, Go away bad guys, you are like a fly in my lovely glass of wine. You don’t deserve to be here in my relaxation, in my unwinding, in my evening. Get out of my news bad guy. I don’t want you there. I want to hear about happiness, generosity, love, and new birth. I don’t want you to ruin my good time. You fall into my wine glass out of nowhere, uninvited. Your germs may be killed by the alcohol of my wine, but you still went in where you ... Continue Reading...
A Letter to my Mother in Heaven
Dear Mom, I miss you. I wish you were here. I can tell you a mom is irreplaceable for a child. When a mom dies, her child is no longer whole. The loss makes it hard to breathe. That child flails in the wind like a cottonwood seed. A piece of fluff that gets knocked about the world by the wind. Sometimes I landed on solid ground, sometimes I landed in a pond and almost drowned. But I’m still here. I survived. In the year after your death my dreams plagued me whether they were about your ... Continue Reading...
Five Ways to Teach Kindness to Kids
Kindness as a way of life is something I want to teach my three kids. The three of them fight; I mean they fight a lot. Of course they fight, they are siblings. But I also see kindness woven in between the fights like threads of shining hope that one day they will be kind adults. They are knit together as siblings like a mat of ever-changing interactions and some days I'm frustrated by more angry threads than kind threads. I let the kind threads shine through by highlighting them and ... Continue Reading...
Daily Random Acts of Prayer
I practice random acts of prayer multiple times daily because I feel compelled to do it. I pray when I see someone who looks like they need a prayer. The urge to pray falls on me like a strike. I am desperate to do it. I pray for the woman buying her toothpaste. Her sadness speaks to me by the lines on her eyelids. There is worry I see glimpsing at her eyes, tangible worry I can almost caress. Her eyes are slightly dulled with the chore of shopping. I worry about her home life. I wonder what ... Continue Reading...
My Worst Fear as a Mother
My kids always ask me what I’m scared of the most and I’m never really sure how to answer them because I don’t want to scare them by my real fear. I usually say I’m scared of something bad happening to them. I can’t tell them the real truth that what I’m really scared of is dying and leaving them to navigate growing up without me. It’s not that I don’t think my husband would do a good job, I know he would, but I saw how hard it was for my dad to be a widowed, grieving single parent and I know ... Continue Reading...
Teacher’s Gift from God at Work in our Lives
A Teacher's Gift From God at Work in Our Lives: How God uses our Hands to Do Good in the World and We Are So Blessed to Do His Good Work. Thank you, God! A Short Story of Peace, Love, and Christmas Spirit Lead by a Six-Year Old My kindergartner came home from school one day in December and announced that his teacher said she didn’t want a gift for Christmas. I told him I had already bought her a gift card to a restaurant, but he protested with wide six-year old eyes, telling me ... Continue Reading...
