Joy in the Journey

As I drove to my chiropractic appointment last night, I had some time alone in the car so I started praying. "Hi God" is usually how I start out. As I began to share my heart a little with the God who loves me most, I felt like I needed to apologize. Apologize that my normal conversations with Jesus have been a little blah. That some mornings I just sit and drink my coffee and don't have a lot to say. That the things that I could pray for seem either repetitive, selfish, or depressing. I felt bad.  Photo Credit: leadingandlovingit.com I want  that close, passionate prayer time. I want  to feel the lovey feelings every time I spend time with the Lord. I want ... the feeling.  It was a rough year. I felt my prayer life go downhill from about a month into Covid on. At first, I was way praying for our country, for people to realize our need for Jesus, that lives would be changed but quickly I got disheartened and the drudgery of continual Covid restrictions took a lot of...

I turned 32 on Sunday... THIRTY-TWO! Does anyone else go "What? I'm what age?!" every year or is that just me? I had a nice birthday, despite having limitations on what we could do. We made it work and it was special. (Thank you to all who gave me birthday wishes as well, that was very sweet!) As I reflected the next day on being 32, I remembered another birthday that didn't seem that long ago, 23. I remember going to the coast, I remember the little photo shoot that was taken. I remember I got not one but two rainbow umbrellas for my birthday that year because I loved over the top color. I was colorful, carefree, loved Africa and art and having fun. Me at 23 I'm 32 and I'm a wife, a mother of three, I homeschool and blog. I still love Africa but I'm a whole lot less carefree and colorful at times than I used to be. I live a very different and beautiful life but that's not the biggest difference between me and the girl I was at 23? The biggest differe...

My heart was broken a little today. It was an unexpected encounter with a women that left me feeling sad, hypocritical, and humbled. We went to the edge of a park today (the playground is closed but while social distancing people use the other areas) for our "Sunshine Time" in which we played, did school, and had lunch.  Before we left the park we drove up to the park parking lot to empty our trash next to the outhouses before our dog drug it all over our van. I instantly noticed a women in a bright pink bikini near the potties... The very next thing I noticed was that she had VERY large, VERY obviously fake boobs... Photo Credit: Jonathan Myers www.walesonline.co.uk I instantly was put off and felt uncomfortable all at the same time. She said "Hi" to my kids as they dumped our trash into the park's trash can. My kids acted awkward too... As I looked on from my car, I made more observation about this women. She looked like she had a hard life and t...

I'm the mold-breaker in my family. I have mixed feelings about that. I was raised in a close-knit, conservative family. With my parents both struggling with depression, my siblings and I were each other's everything, making us even closer. But I broke the mold... I never intended to, but I always knew I was made for more; that I had a different calling on my life. I was the first to have a boyfriend (at age 17). I was the only one to get a tattoo. I was the only one who lived overseas as a missionary. Those seem pretty insignificant, don't they? But those were all a BIG deal to me and my family. I stepped out and trusted God in strange ways. I committed to my daughters, to be "Mom" and everybody thought I was a little crazy. My parents were very worried when I got engaged to their dad and there was a lot of difficult back-and-forth conversations.  I am the only one who conceived with help of fertility treatments.  I am the mold-breaker in my ...

Oh what a multitude of baby blessings there are! There's so much fatigue and crazy and busy in motherhood. There's so much getting through and making do... but OH, there's so many blessings. My sons twinkling eyes as he greets me in the morning. Arms outstretched, full of joy and anticipation. His little tongue poked through smiling lips, so full of humor. The squeals of delight that come when he's excited, when he's overjoyed! The thump of his little chubby legs speeding across the floor in a crawl, following me across the house, certain he's about to miss something important. Then there's the sad eyes when something goes wrong. He gets scared and he holds on tight. That love that swells in my chest when I see his need and get to be there to hold him. His little body snuggled close, then he's pushing back ready to get back to exploring his world again. He's gathered courage from my comfort and is back at it again. Mischief, so much mis...

Did you know that love spreads?  Well it does!  For me it's easy to see that brokenness, hate, and hurt spreads; through family, through media attention, and from hurt people who in turn hurt others.. The loud speaker of social media seems to proclaim every horrible tragedy and it spreads! My heart aches when I look at all the destruction and hurt that goes on in our world.  But love spreads!  And LOVE >Brokenness always!  It's hard for me to believe that sometimes, as I see the deterioration of so many things in life, but love still is stronger than hate. Every. Single. Time. Love wins! Love spreads like fire, from person to person. An act of love gets passed on and it not only spread it can  multiply!  Love is stronger than hate because love can overtake hate, but hate can NEVER overtake true love! Let me show you some of the simple ways that love spread. Have you ever been brought meals after a surgery or when you had your bab...