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Five Things I Want My Brother to Remember
Today, I will be writing about five things I want my brother to always remember. As you read I pray that either you will be encouraged to reach out to your sibling, or reflect on your childhood, or the environment you are providing for the children in your life at this very moment. With this in mind, let’s jump right in! 😊 Growing up with you as my brother, I wouldn’t have it any other way! There is no other “childhood” that I would or could imagine that could possibly be any better! You were and are my personal one man comedy entertainment, and you don’t even mean to be…
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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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A Legacy of Playing Together
"Our Sunday school is over. And we are going home. Goodbye, Goodbye. Be always kind and true. Goodbye, we will always be kind and true." Did your grandparents sing this song? My grandma sang this song almost every time we left my grandparents house! She always had little songs that we weren’t sure if she made up or if they were actual songs, but she was very convincing. (The Sunday School song is an actual song 😂 I did my research!) My grandma would have been ninety-four yesterday. She ran ahead to Jesus in 2012 just a couple months before my Paw-Paw, her husband. She grew up with four brothers,…
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Thirteen Years
Wowzers! It has been thirteen years since I began the adventure into the world of small business! This past weekend, to be exact, was my first debut. An outdoor festival, the one and only outdoor booth I ever did! Hahaha! We moved to indoor booths from then on. I have experienced highs and lows, defeat and success. It hasn’t been all rainbows and butterflies, but it has been a learning and growing process that has brought me to today. For that I am extremely grateful. So how about I pass along some lessons learned in the retail business (which can also be applied to a lot of life): Just a…
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Blood on our Hands
Today, my heart is heavy. My mind is in advocate mode. My body is tense and is perturbed. And I am being nudged to speak up. I must and I will. No politics. Just facts and a few questions that we must ask ourselves. “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” -Preamble, The Constitution of the United States of America Let me start by defining some…
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Household Blueprints
What were (or are) the values, virtues, rules in your home that hold the greatest importance? I have a love for words, so let me define these three for us. Values: to rate or scale in usefulness, importance, or general worth. Evaluate. Appreciate. Respect. Virtue: a commendable quality or trait. Character. Honesty. Integrity. Morality. Righteousness. Decency. Rules: a prescribed guide for conduct or action. Blueprint. Guideline. We hear this words used over and over, and honestly I get the meanings confused. Here is how I think of it: If I desire to live a life full of virtues, then this will define what my core values must be, and when…
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The Legacy of Quality Time
Today, I have the privilege and honor to celebrate my Paw-Paw. Yesterday was his birthday, and if he was still here on this side of heaven, he would have celebrated his 93rd birthday! Although I miss him greatly, I know we will see him again. Just as my brother said to him on one of his last visits, “Until tomorrow, Paw-Paw.” We are only promised this moment, and he indeed lived in the moment. He took the events that life threw at him and he made the most of the moments. Just a quick snapshot of some of those life events: 1. his dad passed away when my Paw-Paw was…
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Children Matter. 100%. Period.
I come to you today, as a broken Mommy with a brain full of grief fog. Please bear with me! First, I cannot and will not ignore the loss of children’s lives this week. Never is it okay to get numb to the fact that CHILDREN are having their lives cut short, in any sort of way! When it’s intentionally done at the hands of adults, I can’t even come up with a strong enough word. I grieve with these families 100%. There absolutely has the be a change! Honestly, there has to be a lot of changes, not just politically or policy wise, but heart, soul, and mind change,…
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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…