Growing up, our church had the tradition of reading The Tale of Three Trees every Christmas. If you haven’t read it, you should. I was always drawn to the 3rd tree. In the story, the 1st and 2nd trees had more material ambitions. The first tree wanted to hold beautiful treasure; the second wanted to…
So far in my faith walk, God seems to present me with themes, or teaching moments, that span over several years. Hopefully that isn’t a sign I’m just a slow learner. I can remember in high school God poking at all my wounded places until I would fully surrender to Him. Giving over those false…
Sometimes motherhood leaves me feeling like an empty vessel; I’m all poured out and have nothing left to give. All the emotion of it. The mental exertion spent trying to outwit my 5 year old. The physical exhaustion of chasing a toddler around. It’s no joke. At the end of the day, the week, the…
There are certain things my spirit won’t seem to let me move on from until I put pen to paper (or in this case, fingers to keyboard). I have been chewing on this subject since December, and here I am still ruminating over it. I can’t shake this deeply moving story in the Bible about…
Prologue: The events you are about to read happened a year ago this week. Mind you, it was weeks after publishing my essay about how my spirited middle child has taught me not to judge other moms (To My Mom Friends….I Don’t Judge You). Knowing I wouldn’t want to completely forget later on, I typed…
Maybe it’s the result of growing up in the generation that was told, “You can do anything if you just dream big!” Or perhaps it’s the consequence of our over-saturated social media world where individuals are no longer trying to make it in their own community but instead competing for national, even global, recognition. Or…
Perhaps you are just perfect or have it all together, but I have certain hang-ups that continue to pick at me. I’ll think I've conquered it only to see it rear its ugly head again. At my core, I have always struggled with never feeling “good enough.” When I mess up I am quick to…
A few weeks back my husband and I took a trip out to CA to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Normally Mr. Frugal, I was shocked we did anything more than a weekend away. But he played the deals and penny pinched for almost 2 years to surprise me with this trip to get away…
Mother's Day is a bit of a sacred holiday for me. As in, after Christmas and Easter comes Mother's Day in holidays with a strong emotional attachment. And it's not because of some egotistical reason that I just love being showered with gifts and thanks by my family. Each year, as Mother's Day approaches, I'm…
I didn’t plan on writing this blog. I had other topics near to my heart I was drafting. That was the plan. But then God decided to move. A few days ago I had grand intentions of being Super-Star Mom; of juggling it all and being just fine doing so. But a stretch without the…
