Lesson(s) Learned

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The Calm After the Storm

This week, for our family, was quite the "storm," so to speak. My dad went to Mayo Clinic Wednesday for a Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery in attempts to curb his essential tremors that he's had most of his adult life. AND our state of Florida was hit by Hurricane Milton, a CAT 5 that turned CAT 3 by landfall. Long with personal prayers, prayer of others, and collective faith, we submitted our requests to the LORD for help, healing, protection, etc. In my journal/planner each week, there's a quote and a Bible verse. This week, the quote and verse for the week were especially helpful and applicable: The Quote: "Faith means stepping into the unknown, trusting God knows the way." & The Verses: "We put our hope in the LORD. He is our help and our shield." - Psalm 33:20, NLT This week, I felt not only that the LORD was our help in bringing my dad through brain surgery. But He also was our shield in bringing my family through Hurricane Milton with next...

Telling the Truth is the (not-so-magical) Gift.

If you have kids and they're anything like my kids, when they get really into something, they get stuck on it for a while. (Think: a book you've read 1,000 x's, a game they've incessantly asked you to play, a movie they've watched repetitively ...etc.) Well, recently, in our family, the "thing" has been the movie Encanto. Now, my girls were into Encanto back when it came out in 2021. Since then, we've watched the movie more-than-a-handful-of-times, we've bought the action figures & dolls, the Lego sets, and even the costumes complete with glasses, purses, accessories... yes, we're in that deep. If you haven't seen the movie, I suggest you take a moment and watch it, so you'll have better context for what I'm about to write. But may I warn you? Watch it without your kids, especially if you have little girls. (that is, unless you want to be watching it like 100x's) I digress. Even if you haven't watched the mo...

Values, Grace, & Wadded-up Hand Towels

Over the years, one thing I've learned about myself is this: I value order. For me, what this looks like in a practical sense is daily routines, a-love-for-filled-out-planners, and a semi-always neat home. What I'm about to tell you may shock some of you mamas out there: Somewhere in the birth canal, our personal values are lost upon our offspring. In other words, I birthed a child who in no way reflects my value for order. She's young, sure. She's intelligent. She's kind and compassionate. She's a CREATIVE child. But she - in no way - values order. Unfortunately, for a good period of time, I allowed this difference-of-values to rob our house of peace. It usually revolved around how the hand towels in our kitchen and bathrooms are hung. (Just writing this out makes me realize how petty and particular I've been about it in the past.) Every single time I saw the hand towels messed up, I would call said child back into the room, show her how to tri-fold the tow...

“Well, we all see what we see”

“Well, we all see what we see” is what she said simply and then walked away. And man, that phrase really stuck with me. It started like this: this morning, our soft-spoken child-who’s-more-like-her-father decided to behave in a way that more aligns with her mother & (ahem) speak her mind this morning. Though her move of verbal bravery struck a chord with me, I applaud her audacity. And, well, with what she said, she wasn’t wrong. Let me set the stage by saying this: Somewhere between wake-up, breakfast, and get-ready-for-church time, my 8 yr old decided to join the fashion police and start questioning my life choices via my wardrobe. (This is the child that will wear a baby Grogu shirt and hot pink shorts. Out in public. On purpose. Just because. I just felt you needed to know that before moving on.) So there we were - just Hannah and me - looking at my church outfit this morning, & the conversation went like this: Hannah(hesitantly): “Hey mom, is that what yo...

Backrow Baptists

Growing up in a Southern Baptist church, I always heard jokes about "backrow Baptists" being the backslidden ones. Meaning, (in jest, of course) if you sit on the back row of a Baptist church, you've got grievous sins in your life and you're probably somehow backsliding from the Lord. So you can imagine my surprise when my husband suggested we sit on the back row of church today. (In his defense, other Baptists sitting in the area were being good Baptists in that they were taking up all the aisle seats and perfecting the art of not making eye contact in order to not have to move to a seat-in-the-middle.) So there we were, sitting on the backrow, but not backslidden. (To my knowledge, I'll have to confirm with my husband on that one later. haha) Very shortly, the service began. The worship music was inviting and on point. After a few songs, in walks the reason I believe God had us strategically placed on the back row today. In walked a woman with her toddler son. ...

The "Why?": How to grow in wisdom & discern our motives through questioning

Mommy, why. Why? Why?? Why?!?!?!!?!?!?!? Why, why, why, why, why... As any mom (or dad) soon recognizes, the question "Why?" is an ever-present and ever-pressing question often posed over-and-over-and-over-and-over again by our young kids. (Anyone else, or is it just my kids? lol.) The problem with the question "Why?" (other than the fact that it comes at an annoyingly strong pace sometimes) is that we often think we outgrow it. More than just a rather effective annoyance tactic from toddler to parent, the question "Why?" has power if we afford to give it the space, silence, solitude, and time to work as it should. --- I believe God has so knit each one of us together, so that we all each have strengths and weaknesses. We use our God-given strengths to serve and encourage others, and we use our God-knitted-together weaknesses to be lifted up and served by others. (Note: Weaknesses are not the same thing as personal proclivities to sin, as we'll discuss...