Deborah Smith was One of Our Greatest Answered Prayers.

You might be thinking, “Well, who is Deborah Smith?” Where to even begin? Deborah Smith was one of the greatest ladies I have ever met. She was definitely one of the wisest people I have ever known in real life. In fact, I cannot think of anyone wiser. I always thought of Deborah as a godly mentor who I aspired to be more like. Deborah blessed our entire family’s life. She changed us for the better. And she passed away this past week from a very aggressive cancer. Deborah could not have been older than her fifties either, so she […]

7 Encouraging Bible Verses for Women to Make Your Day Better

These are Bible verses, and a few whole Bible stories, that I find especially encouraging, as a woman. I hope you will too. Some of these are specific to women, and some of them are helpful for everyone. Being a woman can be an emotional roller coaster, it seems like all the time. When life is extra challenging, I also write some of these verses and others on post-it notes and stick them all over my house so I can get the encouragement I need just to carry on and keep trying. What I love about these particular encouraging Bible […]

7 Favorite Things to Do When Life is OverWhelming

Moving this year has me feeling like a hundred layers of overwhelmed. And what do you do when you feel too overwhelmed to do anything at all?? Today I decided that sometimes the answer is to watch a Hallmark movie. Every day has plenty of work to do. Can you ever actually run out of work to do? I don’t think I have run out of work to do in seventeen years. It has to be seventeen years, because that is about how long ago I had my first baby. Is this just me justifying enjoying free time? Oh well, […]

Good Reasons Not to Fret Over all the World’s Problems

This article is the second part of my series on Handling Stress. As I mentioned in my last post, Psalm 37 has always been a huge inspiration to me when I am going through a hard time. The very first two verses of Psalm 37 remind us not to fret because of the evil we see in the world. Evildoers will soon fade like the grass. All these problems and people are temporary. Life on earth is temporary. I feel like this is God telling us to chill and to stop freaking out. This is funny to me because honestly […]

37 Tips for Handling Stress (The Stressed Out Series)

Welcome, to my new series on the blog: The Stressed Out Series. If you have been here before, you know the theme of our summer was moving. Actually, the theme of the whole first half of the year was moving. Now we are moving on to the theme of stress management, because as it turns out if the theme of your year is moving, stress is going to come along too. Most of the boxes are unpacked, but I still have not found JD’s clothes, the scale, or my Fitbit charger, just to name a few. School has already begun, […]

5 Reasons to Not Take Yourself so Seriously

Today I realized something important. I have been taking myself too seriously. Do you ever do that? Have you ever been in the middle of a personal crisis and suddenly realized, “Wait a minute. I need to chill.” Life does not have to be a serious, sad thing. Instead, let life be what you want it to be. Yes, we have had a hard summer, but I have to remember that it is also still funny. This week lots of funny things happened, and I did not laugh at any of them! Have you ever had a phase like that? […]

The Whole Truth About Moving Stress & Anxiety

This is my whole truth about coping with moving stress. I am not doing an amazing job. No, I am not even doing a good job, not even a decent job. In fact, let’s be real. I am at a fairly low point. Notice I did not title this article “how to handle moving stress.” That was on purpose. I would have no business writing that. Why am I so stressed? I don’t fully know. As a whole, this move, which started out extremely shaky, is going MUCH better now. Finding a house was a nightmare. But that’s done. We […]

How to Have a Successful Personal Monthly Planning Session

This is another one of my FAVORITE new ways I have found this year to truly feel like I am getting my act together: the monthly planning session. I originally called it my monthly meeting with myself. But to sound more sane, we will just say “monthly planning session.” The idea of setting aside time to do a monthly planning session is another tip I learned from vishakablone.com. What do I mean by personal monthly planning session? I’m glad you asked. This is a time during the first week of the month where we plan out the whole month that […]

God is with You in the Storm.

The other day, I saw a tweet from Tony Evans: God is with you in the storm. You are not alone. — Tony Evans (@drtonyevans) April 26, 2022 “God is with you in the storm. You are not alone.” We are in the middle of planning and preparing for our move. Life has felt like a sad little storm lately. It isn’t a hurricane. It feels more like when it rains for days and days on end. You know those times? And everyday is gray, and you keep hoping to see the sun again? All of these problems keep popping […]