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Don’t Let the Dream Kill the Dreams, Part 2
We tried to sell the land. It didn’t work. We tried working with a realtor, but no one was willing to list it for what we wanted, or even at a bare minimum, what we owed. We sold our rabbits and chickens. (Except for my oldest son’s favorite rabbit. We kept her. More on that story in a future post.) We gave away countless things so we could leave the most important things we needed in storage. We were in the process of trying to figure out finances and how to do the next step when my husband had to take an unpaid leave of absence from work. There were…
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Don’t Let Your Dream Kill Your Dreams, Part 1
Sometimes chasing after a dream can lead to the destruction of more important dreams. Learn what we did when we went through one of the most difficult trials of our lives.
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Your Identity is Found in Christ: A Case Against Personality Tests and Spiritual Gifts Tests
People in the church often turn to personality and spiritual gifts tests to help them determine who they are. Here are some of the problems with that approach and what you should do instead.
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Updates From The Farm
We have a little farm. It sounds funny to think that because right now it just feels like a handful of animals and a small garden. I haven’t shared much recently because frankly it’s felt like we’ve been sprayed with a firehose with one thing after another slowing our progress. I hurt my ankle when I stepped in a hole and struggled to stay off it so it could heal. I have a tendency to do more than I should. Then my hubby hurt his back right when I needed the most help digging and prepping garden beds and planting vegetables. So instead of the 15 small beds I had…
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How Can a Mom Focus on Her Health?
I remember when my third child was born. I was so tired that it was a chore to function each day. I worked from home and was back working 3 days after I gave birth. There was no “napping when the baby napped” for me. I had a 5-year-old and a 22-month-old and a newborn and let’s just say that the exhaustion was real. The idea of getting up and exercising or focusing on healthy meal planning was near impossible during this season. The stress of this season lasted a long time and in retrospect, I believe I was dealing with some post-partum depression and anxiety. I didn’t know what…
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Is Your Pride Keeping You From God’s Blessing?
This season has been really hard financially. We live mostly paycheck to paycheck and have received a lot of help from our families off and on. It’s not something we’ve had to do much of in our 15 years of marriage. In fact, most of the time it’s been easy. I worked a 9-5 that paid really well. My hubby worked one too and we lived a modest lifestyle, so even if one pay period was rough, we could usually recoup things within a few weeks. Do you remember the Israelites in the wilderness? They trusted God daily for their sustenance. Manna from heaven. Meat that just flew in. God…
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There are Giants in the Land
After about 3 months of living in the promised land, I want to tell you something important. We often think that stepping into the promised land is easy. That’s it’s going to be a vacation. But I want you to know that there are giants in the land. When God spoke over us that we would enter in to the promised land, he never said it would be easy. He said He would be with us. And while I knew this in concept, I have gotten to experience this principle first-hand. Do you remember the story of Moses? He led the people through the wilderness and the Red Sea that…
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4 Key Ways to Keep Kids Healthy
We all want our kids to be healthy. We want them to thrive in life. But what does it take? When I had my first son I thought the key to healthy kids was some sort of mysterious thing. My oldest got sick a lot and while I followed all of the typical advice, it seemed like he caught EVERY. SINGLE. COLD. It was rough. When he was two, we discovered that he had a casein allergy and was sensitive to gluten like myself. The allergist of course said to remove the offending foods and gave me a long list of things to avoid. Talk about tough. This kid could…
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Parenting Through Change
Parenting is hard. Let’s face it, kids don’t come with a handbook and just when you think you’ve got things down, life throws a curve ball at you. Maybe you have a job change and you need to move or your lease got too expensive and you need to find a new apartment. Maybe the world around you changed and you’re just trying to figure out how to raise your kids through it all. Have you ever wondered how to parent through change? It’s not easy. Routines get upended, kids get cranky, parents get crabby, and the stress can overwhelm everyone. The past six months have been weird. I mean…
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Stepping into the Promised Land
I could write a book about the journey we’ve experienced during the past two years to get to this moment. I imagine how Joshua and Caleb must’ve felt when the finally got to cross over into the land the Lord had promised them. The land flowing with milk and honey. We left Colorado for Virginia almost two years ago. It was one year and 11 months if you want to be precise. We left with a vision and a direction. When we got here, nothing went as planned and we ended up renting an apartment instead of buying a home with acreage. To say we were disappointed is an understatement.…
