It is incredibly scary to consider that with just one tap of a finger, our children have access to everything good and bad out on the internet. My son is 12 and my daughter is 10. They both have birthdays in the next two months and I’ll have a teenager and an 11 year old! About a year ago, I came to the realization that the oversight of my children’s use of their iPads was not sufficient. I could not be peeking over their shoulder every minute of the day, making sure every website they visited was safe. This past […]
Read MoreThe Kitchen Is Not Just For Cooking But For Connecting
{Cue the Confetti!} We are to our final week of the Making Your Home a Haven Series! Next Wednesday, we’ll begin a special Thanksgiving Series to keep our candles and prayers going! This week we are focusing on the kitchen – the heart of the home. At the bottom of this post you will find this week’s challenge, some fun conversation starters for kids and Women Living Well’s Favorite Recipes! The kitchen is not just for cooking but for connecting. God created taste buds, the sense of smell, and the eye that is drawn to beautiful things – to please our senses. […]
Read MoreThe Power of a Positive Woman in Her Home
Sometimes life throws us a curve ball. As we seek to make our homes a haven, reality strikes — headaches, hormones, financial pressures, and difficult relationships stand in the way of our dreams. Recently, I was listening to a speaker who said, “we should balance every negative interaction with 10 positive ones”. Our negativity can become like a heavy cloud in our homes when we are expressing frustrations (not just about our husband or children) but with the world in general. We can seem unhappy and make others feel like they are walking on egg shells when they are around us. […]
Read MoreIntroducing…Our Puppy!!!!!
Snowball has arrived and stolen our hearts! She is now exactly 4 months old. Back in April I wrote a post titled “What I’ve Feared All My Life.” The secret is out – I’m deathly afraid of dogs! But I’m hopeful this puppy will help me face my fears. This is my first pet (yep, never even had a goldfish friends) and google has been so helpful! So do you want to see how this adventure is going for us? How the housebreaking (gross), groomers (there’s blood involved) and vet (hello – cats!) have been going? Lexi and I made […]
Read More4 {Radical} Ways To Love Your Husband & Children
The modern women of today, want it all. We want husbands, children, college degrees, corner offices, a big house, weekends away with the girls, designer bags, a size zero waist, no wrinkles and to be –world travelers. But keeping a family together in the midst of those pursuits…is tough. Let’s face it – husbands and children get in the way. Husbands take time, compromise, and energy to please. Children stretch our waist lines and fill our designer bags with diapers and sippy cups – hardly the life we imagined. And so when reality sets in that our husbands and children […]
Read More10 Disney Frozen Party Ideas – Food, Games and Fun!
Last Friday we had a fabulous Disney Frozen Pajama Party with Lexi’s 3rd grade Homeschool Group. (The group is called Classical Conversations – sadly we were missing two of the girls.) Alexis wanted me to do her hair like Elsa’s coronation. So this was our version. (I followed this video >> here <<. There is ribbon in her bun but it’s hard to see.) Pizza was on the menu but is not show below. Here was our menu: Blue Party Punch with snow<<<click on the link for recipe The Craft While waiting for all the girls to arrive, we cut snowflakes out […]
Read MoreHope For Single Moms
Are you a single mom? Angela Thomas was a single mom for 7 1/2 years. Her story and the hope she offers in this video below is simply beautiful. I pray you will find comfort, wisdom and encouragement from her here. (If you cannot see this video – click here) Walk with the King,
Read MoreTeaching Our Children To Judge
A great post by Mitchel Owens at ForTheFamily.org Does the notion of teaching children to judge make you nervous? Does it seem wrong? Aren’t we suppose to love one another, not judge one another? The world tells kids (and adults) not to judge because judging equals intolerance. In an effort to bolster the argument, some may even point out that Jesus said we shouldn’t judge each other. Such reasoning sounds good, right? Wrong. We MUST teach our children to judge if we hope to prepare them to one day stand firm in their faith. The irony of the world using […]
Read MoreFor Moms – Embrace This Season of Life
Mother’s Day is this weekend, so I want to celebrate Moms! Sometimes we can grow weary. The noise and chaos that children bring can make us frazzled. The toys spread through out the house and the dirty clothes pile – it all seems unending… BUT there IS an end. One day the children will grow up, and they will leave. This season of life does not last forever. In our home, the door of the little years has slammed shut in my face. No more Barney. No more Matchbox cars. No more Big Wheels or picture books. I seriously […]
Read More5 Gift Ideas For Your Mom or Dad
Mother’s Day is right around the corner and if you are like me, sometimes I’m stumped as to what to buy for my mother. So here’s a few ideas if you are in this predicament. My grandmother passed away last summer and when we were cleaning out her house – a Mother’s Day Gift our family made for her was on her dresser. I was blessed to be the one who got to take it home. It’s a memory jar. All of the grandkids and great grandkids wrote out our favorite memories on 52 slips of paper so she could […]
Read MoreWhen Your Child Doesn’t Want to Go To Church
From our guest Lynn Donovan: Wow my friends, one week passes swiftly. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for welcoming me to your home here on the web. Thank you Courtney for allowing me to be part of your amazing family. I love you! I remember a time when my daughter said “Mom, I don’t want to go.” I stood staring at my daughter’s small face glaring back at me with pinched determination, her arms crossed in a defiant stance. In that moment I felt a panic creep up my neck, followed by a twinge of fear; but […]
Read MoreNotes From the Sally Clarkson “Mom Heart Conference”
Me and Sally Last week I flew to Dallas, Texas to Sally Clarkson’s Mom Heart Conference. I was blessed to get to spend the weekend with Angela and Whitney. And lots of other friends: {pictured below – top row L to R: Kristen Kill, Chrystal Evans Hurst, Kat Lee, Angela, Whitney; bottom row: Deb Chapman (mother of 11 – wowsa!), Me 🙂 } As I wait to catch my plane home, I’m reflecting over my notes and want to share some of the key thoughts on motherhood that challenged or blessed me this weekend. Motherhood is from the cradle to the […]
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