February 10, 2017 Julie Manning’s journey into the medical field led her to a career in nursing and caring for others. Eventually though, she found herself on the other side of the stethoscope when she became the patient diagnosed with a heart condition. Manning shares her diagnosis, surgeries, and heartache, both physical and emotional, in…
February 10, 2017 Ah, mid-February. The time of year when New Year’s resolutions often fall to the wayside. Goals are dumped and expectations are lowered. No matter the time of year, we can keep on keeping on, especially if we have a plan in place and some well-placed encouragement in our lives. In…
February 8, 2017 “Is it still winter?” my little guy asked. While the answer was, “Yes,” the confusion swirling around the question was understandable. After all, the sun was beaming down, raising the temperature to almost 70, enabling him to run around outside in a t-shirt and sandals with no socks. And his day…
December 17, 2016 It’s not that I haven’t been working on it. The tree’s up. Plenty of presents are bought. Christmas books have been read to the kids. Must be something about standing in the middle of a big box store less than two weeks away from Christmas that just made me feel as…
November 7, 2016 Oh, this election. We are tired. We are weary. We are in need of miracles or the rapture. And I know we’re out of time, but maybe just what we need is another candidate. Someone to boldly step away from the laundry and come into the limelight, leggings, ponytail, and…
September 22, 2016 I titled my last post “Summer Wrap Up: Part 1” in high hopes of having a few more posts about lessons I learned over the summer. That post was all about being careful when assigning names to things, especially ourselves, because names stick. I’m going to go back and read it again because…
September 12, 2016 It doesn’t matter if the calendar agrees or the thermometer obliges, when you have to wake your kids up at a time that begins with a six, summer is over. When they leave the house with organized backpacks and filled lunchboxes by seven in the morning, the…
July 27, 2016 Mix the headlines, hashtags, and hurts with the heat of the summer and recently it seems that all of it might just boil over. I’ve listened and watched and scrolled and wondered if the whole world might be crashing down. Take the current events and mix them with typical mom…
June 30, 2016 After 17 years of marriage, we’ve learned that we don’t always need fancy dinners or extravagant gifts to celebrate. So over the weekend, as Chris and I celebrated our anniversary, we marked the occasion with some of our traditions, homemade cards and flowers. When Chris brought home several bouquets, I did…
June 8, 2016 Okay moms, raise your hand if you go into the summer with plans and organizers to conquer the season. You know what I mean. You’ve mapped out your daily tasks and assigned each kid a list of chores to keep the house tidy and ready them to be responsible adults. You…