Friends & Neighbors
- "Life" Books, Aunt-ing, Children, Consider This..., Friends & Neighbors, GRANDparents, Pass it On...
Diapers to Diamonds and Beyond
Time. Somedays is seems like forever ago. Then somedays it feels like just yesterday. Children make my heart come alive, the bursting with joy, cannot hide how happy I am, kind of alive! Join me as I share a few glimpses of life recently, and why this is so. This summer I have to honor of attending two weddings of children, now young adults, that I cared for when they were little. Do you know how many emotions comes with this? A LOT! I am incredibly proud of who they have grown to be and who they have chosen to continually follow and depend on! I am also very encouraged…
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Simply Prepared
Let me start off with asking you a question: Have you ever had a day, a week, a month, or a year, that you have to keep reminding yourself, just do today? Otherwise you think you might explode! If you have, welcome my friend. I hope that you find this post helpful and hopeful in some way today! Now, let me lead with a few facts about myself before we dive in. 1. The following “advice” (not sure if that’s what I should call it- but I’m going with it for today😂) comes from my life of live, learn, make mistakes, get back up again experiences and self-educated research. 2.…
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Where’s the Village?
ALERT: Searching for multigenerational villages investing in the lives of children! Anyone who sees or identifies one, praise Jesus! There IS HOPE!!!! 😊 First of all, let me establish I am a big believer in watching the news. Honestly this has come from my multigenerational influences. Grandparents telling stories of how they would gather around the radio to hear the news – and then being able to see the advances in technology, into 24/7 news channels for them, could be compared to going from no phone to a iPhone for teens today. They were in awe and constantly engaged. It’s just the way technology advances and has influence on us.…
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and then it was Spring!
Spring. Tulips. Buttercups (what we in the south call daffodils). Color. Pink. Yellow. Green. Orange. Blue. White. Easter. Hope. Promise. Children. Eggs. Laughter. Swings. Slides. Sand boxes. Chalk. What do you think of when you think or hear the word “SPRING?” The first things that come to mind for me, childhood core memories. The two metal swing sets we had in our yard. These were the metal swing sets that if you got to swinging a little too high, you started to feel the whole swing set start lifting out of the ground. Anybody remember these? Pretty much the only place that wouldn’t be blazing hot would be the swing…
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A Continuous Conversation
Happy Thursday! Tomorrow, I think, is one of the most fun holidays! St. Patricks Day, A.K.A. in our house, “Man under the leaf day,” because I couldn’t remember what it was called when I was little, so I re-named it 😊 As we do many things in our family. “Fat butter” = hunk of cheese. “Spagatical” = Sabbatical. Just to name a few… I just love any holiday that gets kids excited. Well come to think of it, I guess I’m a kid at heart because I get as excited as they do! One family that I kept years ago, the leprechauns would visit their house and would leave their…
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We Need You!: A Letter to Our Kids
To the kids of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, The biggest thing I want you to remember is this: I am so glad you are here! You have more value than you will ever know! You are indeed LOVED beyond anything you can comprehend! You are needed and wanted in this world! Another big message I want you to remember: The progression of Technology is not your fault. You were simply born in the technology age. Your parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, were alive to watch the crazy fast progress of the digital and media world, but you were born into the already rapidly growing tech age. You are the…
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Name, Claim, No Room for Shame!
As I watch the coverage of Hurricane Ian, I am struck with all sorts of emotion. I am also remembering the documentaries that I just watched barely two weeks ago, “When the Levees Broke” and then the follow-up “If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise,” which are about Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. The devastation, the brokenness, the loss of lives, homes, loss of everything they had ever known. No two stories were the same, but every person, every story was effected by the hurricane. The trauma, the loss, the reactions, no two were the same, yet they all experienced the same horrific storm. Have you ever experienced…
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Where Has All The Clapping Gone?
Only a little while ago we were seeing reports of people opening their windows during the hospital shift changes. Hundreds, millions of people clapping, whistling, making music. All for the work that our healthcare workers, our first responders, our medical researchers were doing. What in the world made us go from celebrating to being severely critical? I am honestly beyond appalled. Do you feel the “I am about to snap” feeling? Well, you would be correct. The past two weeks I have had a few normal doctors appointments, simple routine check-ups. And I have never seen a shortage of staff like there is right now. It’s discouraging to see. Because…
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Celebrate? Now? How?
As I walked back into our house, into complete silence, I wept and couldn’t catch my breath. I just remember thinking, “when will I be able to come back up for air? This hurts so bad!” As I crawled into the bed that I now couldn’t remember her not being beside me in, I wrapped myself in every blanket that was hers and cried and breathed, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!” A deep breath in and breath out, Jesus. Repeated until my heart rate was somewhat normal. Although my head felt as if it was going to explode. I would be lying if I said this was a one time thing. The…
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Truth: “Nevers,” Happen!
“It will never happen to me…” “I never imagined this would happen to me/our city/our family…” We are all human, so we have all thought this at one time, maybe even said it out loud. Nobody wants tragedy to strike, or trauma, or disaster to happen to them or anyone they love. Yet, it does, and we still are repeating these same sentences. Granted we are creatures of habit, so in the midst of panic and chaos, we say and do things that just come to mind that has been stored in our brain for times like these. It’s how we are wired. Let me just ask this: What if…
