My mother told me: never discuss religion or politics. That is about all I talk about.
My life has changed. While our children were little my husband rarely to never took vacations, and we couldn’t afford to travel anywhere, anyway. I centered my life around the home and gardening… then put lots of time into blogging. All those occupations were in sync with my intensive demands of homelife (raising ten children while homeschooling), allowing for creative expression while not... 
My disclaimer on this post is that I’m going to use illustrations that come from my experience in the church, but don’t think that people act like typical people just because they belong to a certain socio-economic or religious group. If you do that, you are going to miss the whole point. Pixie Dust and The Wizard Behind The Curtain Before I get to that story, let me tell you about an old... 
January is my number one planning month. I like to plan, but in the past I had more plan than execution which always translates into disappointment and frustration. In more recent years, I moved into an action-oriented way of doing things which then resulted in the type of LaLaland distraction which I have always been prone to. Come to think of it, I wonder if my love of planning had some of its origins... 
More often than not we leave out an important partner in our planning and dreaming. People write books on this fact, and we often buy those books. But we tend to look at the whole as a project list of bits and pieces. Maybe that is where a vision board comes in, to bring together a visual map of all the components, including the all important motivation for the entire goal we started out with at the... 
I came across an interesting concept, new to me, but not new. It is like making an idea board for your dreams, with the view of making them a reality in the coming year. It is called a vision board. It is a cross between idea maps and collage art which I find a fun idea, even if it doesn’t accomplish the original intent of inspiring motivation throughout the year. You can make your personal art and... 
And how knowing that will make a difference for your 2012 resolutions Everyone hates New Years Resolutions, it seems, or if they don’t outright hate them, they feel discouraged by the prospect of yet another set of resolutions biting the dust around, oh say, March. I think that comes from confusing the intent behind resolutions, goals, and plans. How do we turn our dreams into reality without being... 
:: repost from 8/22/08 :: I’ve been told a lot of things. Pray for this. Fast for that. Attend this meeting. Give. Serve here.Take care of the nursery there. Be nice. Be strong.Spank your kids. Don’t spank your kids. Clean your house better. Be involved. Be smart. Take care of yourself. But not too much. I could go on for quite some paragraphs if I really wanted to and put my mind to it…... 
Humility is the second character trait in my series, but once I gave it some thought I realized how very important a trait it is. Humility isn’t on par with many of the other virtues, it is more of a cornerstone virtue. I came to this conclusion as I was thinking about the fact that there is “false” humility, where we think we are being humble, but are fooling ourselves, and counterfeit... 
I wanted to call this “Guilt, Shame, Duty, and Responsibility” but I was thinking about a personal conundrum and not the entire spectrum of the guilt and responsibility of the human race! Although I wonder if we don’t look at such questions in the broad terms rather than the specific circumstances of life? Usually, looking at the broad terms tends to tempt us to dismiss our own... 
My husband took a book out of the library, and while reading it, said, “You really ought to read this book.” Now let me tell you the backstory on this… it was a self-help book; I always read self-help books, not him; I always end up reading his books, which he never seems to finish- because I am more of a reader than he is; and, last but not least, I wasn’t in the mood for a... 
I was trying to figure out a way to reconcile the usefulness and virtue of the trait for this month, Grit, and the need to protect the dignity of others, as well as the need to change direction when necessary. To relay some of the hard lessons I learned in not being overzealous in the application of something that can injure others or dig oneself into a rut. I think I found it in the pearl. Most know of a... 
It makes sense to create an aggregation of inspirations when trying to develop a character trait. Some of our character building efforts are the motivation and inspiration to acquire them, and some are the nitty gritty, rubber meets the road, work of intentional action. This post is in the inspiration category ( I guess all blog posts would be, wouldn’t they?) Scott Howard posts nuggets from Seth... 
Here I am, waiting on God. I do that quite a bit. Once, I found it a virtuous thing; at the moment I find it the only alternative. What I really want to do, it seems, is give up. Just give up. I am tired of trying to fight the good fight and even when, or maybe especially when, I seem to make progress in seeing light…especially light for and within my family…. all the light seems to go out.... 
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Nicholas Christakis, a physician and social scientist at Harvard, found when examining data from a long-term study of the residents of Framingham, Mass., health habits can be as contagious as a cold virus. By his calculation, a Framingham individual’s chances of becoming obese shot up by 57 percent if a friend became obese. -People Who Forget To Die
0Through Liz’s Example 
“Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass … it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”0
This is the bible study I did last summer- I recommend it. Esther Leader's Kit: It's Tough Being a Woman
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