As you can tell, my blog recently underwent some construction, and I’m thrilled to be sharing this new design with you! I hope you’ll take time to look around the site, check out the categories (faith here, lifestyle here, and culture and travel here), and send me a note of anything you’d like to see on the blog in the future. Faith? Travel? Life? I'm going to try to do more travel posts, so let me know what you'd like to see! I recently had coffee with a dear friend of mine who came into ...
Here We Go, 2018!
I began my blog at the beginning of last year, almost a year ago. You can click here to read my very first post. In that post, I defined a few things I wanted to do in 2017, and now I smile with thankfulness looking back at that post. 2017 has been a wonderful year. My brother got married to the absolute best sister-in-law and friend, they bought a beautiful home, my parents moved where they’d wanted to be for quite some time, and I bought a house close to both! Most of all, we’ve had a great ...
A Different Kind of Gift Guide: 10 Things Money Can’t Buy
It's the most wonderful time of the year! Beautiful reds, shades of green, and dancing twinkle lights are everywhere. We're spending time with friends, family, and the people we love most. But you know how this goes; sometimes we get sidetracked. The focus becomes questions of who to get what and what to get whom. We see a ton of blog posts with gift guides, magazine articles with present ideas, and television commercials with must-have decor. Yes, I love these helpful posts and ...
On Being Thankful
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 2 Corinthians 9:10-11 Because I have so very much for which to be thankful and so very many thoughts on how and why to be thankful, writing about being thankful sometimes leaves me not ...
Be the Courageous Chicken and Carefully Cross the Road
Running for some people is a time to think and to process. For me, it’s more a time to shut down. I mindlessly listen to music or, if I’m feeling rather ambitious, I’ll listen to a podcast episode or audiobook. I don’t mind running the same route as long as it’s one I enjoy, especially on a pretty day. One afternoon, I laced up my tennis shoes and headed out for a run. It was warm outside, but not too hot, and the afternoon sun was high and clear. Per usual, I headed down the same street I ...
Riveting Mystery Books That Will Still Allow You to Sleep at Night
Recently I’ve picked up a few popular psychological thrillers to read. I kept seeing them advertised everywhere, so I started making a list of the one’s I thought looked interesting. I’ve made it through two in the past couple weeks, but I stopped reading my most recent find only a few chapters in. I got the feeling it was going to be a bit too gory, so, long story short (too late), I read some reviews and found out real fast that finishing that book was not going to happen. Classic mystery ...
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
"It's never too late to be wise." Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719. Written by Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe is the tale of a man who dreams of becoming a sailor and has adventure far beyond those dreams. The first few pages open with an explanation from Crusoe about his desire to have a life at sea and his father’s wish for him to find a different desire. Crusoe’s father has a serious conversation with him about the casualties and discomforts of such a life. He ...
When the Choice You Need to Make Isn’t the One Culture Suggests
Making decisions is difficult, but they become increasingly stressful when the choice you need to make isn't the one culture suggests. In those circumstances, it's important we turn to Scripture to seek guidance. But know this: Hard times will come in the last days. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self--control, brutal, without love for what is good, ...
Working, Resting, and Knowing God Is Who He Says
I’ve always been on the move. As a child, I wanted to walk everywhere, which usually turned into running everywhere with a cartwheel or ten thrown in along the way. I’m still occasionally called out for being a mover and a shaker. At a teacher orientation I attended a few years ago, the speaker picked me out of the crowd having noticed that I was shaking my foot. I remember being taken aback because I wasn’t even aware I was doing it. I had a conversation this week with a friend about yoga. ...