As I ponder and praise Jesus’ coming as a baby, the coming of Christmas this year, and His return at the end of the age, here are a few ways, words, melodies, and moments lighting my life with hope and peace and gratefulness and reflection during December and Advent. 1. Lighting a candle on my kitchen island […]
The Hope of Further Up! Further In!
We awoke to the most gorgeous blanket of snow we’ve seen on our Kansas plains in a long while. Cedar branches powdered, porch posts piled, and my round outside table blanketed. I gazed in awestruck admiration out my front window. Venturing to the basement door, I flung it open for a few frosty pictures. Retreating […]
When Hope Is Long In Coming
There’s a beautiful batch of snowflakes filtering down outside my window this afternoon. They make me unabashedly happy. Big, glorious flakes of snow aren’t entirely common for my part of Kansas. It’s a bit like living in a snowglobe. The snow spells out Christmas, Advent, and cozy all swirled together. As I’m contemplating hope during […]
Hope Everlasting
A tear trickled down her cheek, past her nose, leaving a wet streak from tear duct to chin. The heaviness had been hovering, edging nearer until it draped around her like a dark suffocating blanket. Loneliness mocked and voices of inadequacy sniveled in derisive, biting anger. She shivered despite the stifling weight flung around her […]
Christmas Under the Stars and Behold by Lauren Daigle
As November ends and December turns up on our calendars, I’m anticipating the Christmas season and HOPE! Hope is my focus word for this Advent season. Christmas and Jesus, the baby in the manger, is hope come to earth. What a gift! I have a playlist mix of Christmas songs and hymns on my iPod. […]
Lilla Rose Aurora Flexi Giveaway + Black Friday Sale
It’s Thanksgiving and turkey and pie and shopping and gratefulness and almost Advent and savoring the season of the birth of Jesus. A simple gratitude list for me today holds: waking up to God frosting our farm with a light snowfall while we slept pulling piecrusts out of my freezer adding shelves to our storeroom […]
Holy Land Illustrated Bible
I’m a homebody much, much, much of the time. I deeply love and appreciate cozy home. Thus, I’m not a world traveler nor have ever aspired to become one. Still, I do have a list of places I’d love to visit and Israel is one of them. On this note, I’m happy to announce……….. ToDaY, […]
Beautiful Word Coloring Bible For Girls
As the calendar counts off the days in November, I’ve been counting gratefulness AND I’ve been anticipating Christmas. As I anticipate, I’ve been contemplating the HOPE Christmastime represents. If I were asked to describe the season in one word, that would be the word right now. Christmas embodies hope.Christmas gives the best gift by offering […]
Advent Books and Reading
For several years, I’ve chosen a specific book {or books} to read for Advent and the Christmas season. When I had younger kiddos, we had a set of children’s books for Advent we delighted in reading. This year I have a small stack of reading I’ve been anticipating. Honestly, it’s probably too large. But I’m […]
JORD Giftset and a Gift Guide for Christmastime
The rustling of wrapping paper and the sharp sound of Scotch tape tearing greeted me as I stepped through the basement door. I inhaled the scent of sugar cookies, my Grandma’s classic treat. No one made them like she did. Her basement was a busy bustle as aunts and cousins gathered to lend a hand […]
Read a Bit {The Key to Love}
When this book title popped into my inbox as one to review, several details caught my attention and drew me in. A bakery named The Pastry Puff Set in Kansas! In a town named Story. Petit fours A Book Club discussing Pride & Prejudice A love of Paris French macarons thanks to Revell for sending […]
In Which We Look Inside the Inspire Prayer Bible
Bible study. Beauty. Bible Journaling. Interacting with the text. Coloring. Creativity. Focusing on prayer. Writing out prayers. This beautiful Inspire Prayer Bible brings them all together. I’m so happily delighted to bring us this Bible + a giveaway this week. Tyndale sent me these Bibles to review. There are so many lovely details and features […]
Though the Fig Tree Does Not Bud {Habakkuk Bible Study}
The words were beautiful.They spoke of such hope. Of deep faithfulness. Of choosing gratitude, despite.Perhaps they resonated because of my perchance to wince and complain, grumble and frown. The dishes had stacked up. While my back was turned. I’d only left the kitchen to lay wooden track in place and help my little son arrange […]
Gifting A Neighbor As They Re-Establish Hearth and Home
This morning I’m considering… What would I especially wish for if I had to replace all my earthly possessions? In the Kingdom of God, we know value and life and eternal significance lies in things unseen and beyond our physical realm of life here. However, many of us are given lives filled with dishes and […]
Half the Battle
The wind blew in fierce yesterday afternoon. It was sunshine and ninety degrees with a very large side of windy. It calmed in the evening and then hit again about nightfall in full, shrieking fierceness. I’d left a couple of windows open in the kitchen. Before anyone had the presence of mind to close them, […]
The Beauty of Little Acts of Kindness Matters
Last week, in the middle of a few busy days, my son slid the mail pile onto my kitchen island. It’d been bumping around in the farm pickup. My farmer man had plucked it all out of the mailbox right after lunch. Now, late afternoon found me flipping through it. Smack in the middle was […]
