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It’s been a week of gearing up for the new year on the blog. Thank you all for joining me, sharing encouraging comments, and being such inspirations! Here’s a recap of the 7 most popular posts I shared this past week, in case you missed any of them:
2 Books I Read This Week + What I’m Planning to Read Next Week
Our Year In Review: Part 1 & Part 2
The 10 Best Books I Read in 2014
Cut Out Processed Food in 14 Weeks: Free Online Course
I was listening to the Read Aloud Revival podcast about Starting a Reading Streak a few days ago. Sarah encouraged her listeners to print this nifty free calendar and hang it somewhere conspicuous to remind yourself to read aloud to your children every day — even if just for a few minutes.
I promptly printed the calendar and stuck it on our fridge. Not only because I really am committed to doing a better job of reading aloud to my kids this year, but also because I love checking things off.
That love of checking things off stems back to my childhood. My mom made chore lists and achievement lists for us in various areas — when we were toddlers and getting potty-trained, a chart to check off how many times we brushed our teeth every day when we were a little older, and so on.
Little white boxes on a piece of paper hung in a can’t-miss place beckon me to actually do stuff and follow through with stuff, not just set goals and then forget about them.
Maybe you’re the same way? If so, I encourage you to choose one goal for this year that’s highly important to you. It could be anything that you feel will make a lasting difference to improve your life and/or the lives of those you love.
Here are some examples:
There are so many great ideas I could list, but you must just choose one thing. Decide on that one thing, keep it simple, and then commit to follow through with it every day by printing out the mini calendar and checking off each day that you hit your goal.
We’re only three days into the new year, but the constant reminder of that calendar on my fridge has served to motivate me to make reading aloud with my kids — even just for a few minutes — a priority each of those three days. I’m excited to see how many days long our reading streak will continue for!
Want to join me? Choose a goal, print the calendar, and then leave a comment here letting us know what goal you chose!
I read a few more books to end out my 2014 total at 86 books read. If you missed it, be sure to read my post on the 10 Best Books I Read in 2014.
I didn’t set a total reading goal for this year (believe it or not!), but rather set a goal to read one fiction book per month, one read aloud book to my kids each month, and one book on marriage each month.
This feels entirely doable and also leaves a lot of extra wiggle room for me to read a number of other books, too, as I have time and am inspired. I’ve tried book lists and book plans for the year in the past, but I find I glean so much more from books when I choose them based upon whatever mood I’m in or whatever subject I’m currently researching or area I want to work on in my life.
Since we’re starting fresh this week, I’m also going to start fresh with my book list. My plan going forward in 2015 is to post a recap every Wednesday of what I’ve read the following week and what I’m planning to read the coming week.
That way, you can get a peek into what I’m reading (and hopefully get some book ideas to add to your library list!) and I can keep a running total of the books I’ve read this year and my thoughts on them.
Books Read This Week
We’re two days into January and I’ve finished two books so far. That’s a pretty good pace, eh? 🙂 I don’t think I’ll be able to keep reading at the pace of one book per day, but who knows?
Here’s what I read:
The Miracle Morning — So this book came highly recommended, but personally, I felt it was full of a bit of hype. It did inspire me to make the most of my mornings and do a better job of getting back to my discipline of early morning rising, but I felt like the author did a whole lot of self-promotion in the book (constantly plugging his site, his other book, his coaching, his speaking, etc.) that it felt too sales-pitchy and hyped to me. But I’m also quite the cynic. 😉
52 Ways to Wow Your Husband — One of the things that I committed to do this year was to read at least one book on marriage every month, so I figured I’d go ahead and get started on that goal. 🙂 This book had a lot of great ideas in it, a lot of stuff that just felt like fluff and filler material, and a number of ideas that wouldn’t work at all for our marriage. However, I read part of it when we were on a road trip and it was fun to ask Jesse some of the questions and it sparked some good conversation between us.
James and the Giant Peach — This is our current read aloud. We just started it and, so far, the kids are loving it.
Steal Like An Artist — A friend highly recommended this one and it’s been on my list to get a copy for forever as a result. I finally got one and am hoping to read it this week!
I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) — I’m SO close to being done with this one. Good stuff!
The Anxiety Cure — As someone who struggles with anxiety during different seasons of life, I’m on a mission to learn more about it and what I can do to help prevent or minimize it. I read Sleep: It Does a Family Good by Archibald Hart two years ago and learned so much from it that I picked up this title to check it out, too.
What Alice Forgot — This one keeps getting recommended to me, so I finally decided I’d see if it lived up to the recommendations. 🙂
Glimpses of Grace — So many people have told me I must read this book. I’m about a 1/3 of the way through it and am finding it thought-provoking it.
The One Thing — I keep seeing this one mentioned over and over again, so I thought it’d be a great read to start the year out with.
Dashing Dish: 100 Simple & Delicious Recipes for Clean Eating — This book showed up in my mailbox from the author last week and it looked like a cookbook I’d definitely be interested in checking out.
Long Walk to Freedom & Kaffir Boy — I’m reading these because, well, I can’t tell you just yet. But I will say that I have a secret I’ve been keeping for quite some time and I get to tell you all about it on Monday. Feel free to leave your guesses in the comments. 😉
Our New Morning Time Basket
I read Teaching From Rest this week and was so inspired to start doing Morning Time with my kids each morning (basically, a time to gather and read together and study some of those things you always want to study in homeschooling but don’t always get around to).
My plan is for us to pray, sing a hymn, work on Scripture memory, read a devotional, have the kids practice handwriting skills while I read a short piece from The Children’s Homer or a history book, and then have the kids practice sketching pictures from nature while I read our current read aloud book.
That’s my plan — we’ll see how it goes! I allotted an hour and 15 minutes for this and I think that should be more than ample time. I’m excited and the kids are, too!
What did you read this week? Did you set reading goals for 2015? Why or why not?
After bombing most of my 2014 goals, I went back to the drawing board and decided to drastically simplify my goals for this year and focus on those that would really be soul-filling for myself and encourage me to really invest in my marriage and children.
I spent a few weeks considering what worked and what didn’t work and what I wanted my priorities to be in 2015. After contemplating this, I wrote out a rough draft of my goals and then went over them with Jesse last week and he helped me refine and tweak them.
I’ve been sitting on my finalized goal list for a week and I have to tell you that I’m so excited about these goals for 2015!
They feel challenging but still realistic and this is making me all inspired and motivated — instead of feeling like I’d set goals that were so lofty inspiring and motivating.
Without further ado, here’s my finalized list (and yes, some of you are going to be very excited to see that I’ve included financial goals again!):
My 12 Goals for 2015
Marriage
- Read 1 book per month on marriage.
- Write at least 1 love note to Jesse each week.
Motherhood
- Read at least 1 book aloud to the kids per month.
- Write 1 love note to each child every month.
Myself
- Complete all She Reads Truth 2015 Bible Studies + memory work.
- Read 1 fiction book per month.
MoneySavingMom.com
- Hire a local personal assistant.
- Launch 2 courses (we’re planning one for spring and one for fall — stay tuned!)
- Launch our new product line (slated to soft launch in the summer).
- Release my third book (slated to come out November 2015).
Money
- Increase last year’s overall giving totals by 10% in 2015.
- Finish funding our Rental House #3 Savings Account (we’re beginning the year at 35% funded).
So there you have it! I’ll post updates at the beginning of each month to let you know the progress I made in the previous month.
If you set goals for this year, I’d love to hear what they are! Leave a comment listing them or linking over to your blog post about them. Here’s to a year of living with purpose, intentional, impact, and meaning!
Need some goal-setting help?
Check out this post on 10 Questions for Moms to Ask in the New Year and 35 Spiritual Goal Ideas for the New Year.
You can also sign up for a FREE Goal-Planning Workbook.
If you missed Part 1, be sure to read it here first. We left off in June — here’s a run-down of how the rest of the year went:
We began the month by heading back to Kansas to celebrate the fourth of July. It was good to go back, though Silas had a lot of asthma struggles when we were there, so we didn’t get much sleep at night as a result.
The following week, I flew to Chicago to give the keynote presentation at the Firefighter Wives’ Ball — which was my first time to ever attend, let alone speak at, a ball. It was quite the experience, as I wrote about here.
Jesse also started playing on our church’s softball team this month. I was so excited to see him taking initiative to do something fun and I felt like it helped him to start turning the corner in a small way. He also met with our campus pastor about possibly being apart of the men’s small group they were starting. Again, after weeks of him really struggling, for him to be taking strides to work on personal development and plant roots was huge to witness.
At the end of the month, we took a family trip to South Carolina to visit my sister and her family and for me to attend the She Speaks conference. We had a great trip and we realized how wonderful it was for us to be able to just pack up and go somewhere without having to plan months in advance due to Jesse’s full schedule.
August found us on the road as a family again, this time for an 11-day trip to Arkansas and Branson, MO. We spent the first part of the trip with my family at our annual extended family trip to Bull Shoals Lake. We then headed to Branson, MO, to meet up with Jesse’s family and got to Silver Dollar City.
While there, I also learned to knee board, which I was pretty stoked about!
I also started working on writing my next book in August. The first two weeks of the month, my ghost editor and I spent hashing out some of the bones of the book’s outline and then on August 15th, we jumped in full force.
On August 19, we re-launched Grocery University and you all blew us away by buying thousands and thousands more copies of the course than we ever dreamed. We’re learning never to underestimate you all. 🙂
Near the end of August, I flew to Las Vegas for Michele’s dad’s funeral. It was a bittersweet time — it was such a gift to get to be there to support Michele and to witness how much her dad meant to she and her family. But on the other hand, our hearts hurt so much for our friend and her loss.
The first week of September, Jesse began meeting with the men’s small group from our church — a group that has turned out to be such a gift and encouragement to him. Silas also started soccer this week and some local friends generously offered to come over and help me finally get some things hung on my wall. I was amazed at what a difference it made in our home to have wall-hangings up!
This month, my friend, Ginger, came to visit for a weekend. Her husband was deployed at the time and the days were getting long for her. So it was fun to plan an impromptu girl’s weekend at our house. We stayed up way too late talking, but it was oh so worth it! 🙂
We celebrated Jesse’s birthday this month really simply and just as he wanted — spending an evening hanging out in downtown Franklin and trying out a new-to-us restaurant that he’d been itching to go to. The kids all saved up their own money and I took them to dollar store (at their request!) to buy him gifts. I had so much fun watching them giggle and plan and wrap their gifts for him — and then he had so much fun opening up each one!
September was also the month where I realized that trying to homeschool, write a book, and run a blog all at the same time just wasn’t working. I was run down, exhausted, and felt like I wasn’t really doing a good job in any of the three areas.
So Jesse and I sat down and had a real heart-t0-heart talk about what our options were. I was feeling really at my wit’s end and unsure of what to do. Well, Jesse came up with an idea that I never saw coming and would have never even thought or considered to suggest myself… he said he’d like to take over homeschooling while I finished up my book.
He’d already been doing part of the homeschooling and I knew he’s such a great teacher, but it’s a big task and I didn’t want him to feel like he had to do it. As we talked more (and I sort of tried to talk him out of it!), I realized he really wanted to do this.
And so I handed homeschooling over to him for the next two months and I buckled down and got in full-on book writing mode.
This turned out to be a completely blessing in disguise as Jesse was still struggling and grappling through what his calling in life is and what he was supposed to be doing in this new season. He had made some good strides in the right direction, but taking over homeschooling gave him a new purpose and drive that I hadn’t seen before. He OWNED the homeschooling, and in doing so, I saw his spark really come back again.
It also helped him to solidify more long-term what he wanted to do and that he really wanted to make being involved in homeschooling an important priority.
My Mom & Dad came to TN for my birthday — which was so kind of them. My dad helped do a number of projects around the house, my mom and I got to spend quite a lot of time talking and hanging out together, and they also took the kids one evening so Jesse and I could have a date night!
Kathrynne had her first swim meet — something she’d been wanting to do for awhile but had been really fearful of. Watching her go out and face her fears with courage and bravery blessed my Mama heart more than words can say!
I feel like I spent almost every waking moment of October working on my book manuscript… I ate, drank, and slept (or more accurately didn’t sleep!) book-writing. The hard work paid off as I made a LOT of headway on it in October and had almost finished the rough draft by the end of the month!
The last week and a half of October were spent at the Allume conference and back in Kansas again. It was wonderful to get to spend some quality time with dear people — and so refreshing after it felt like I’d been completely holed up all month long!
The first bit of November was spent polishing up my manuscript in order to send it out to a few friends to critique.
Once that was done, I left for MN to go speak at the Hearts at Home conference and then meet up with Jesse in Colorado for the Platform Conference. I had really been looking forward to both conferences, but as it turned out, finding out that Michele’s cancer had come back made the week really, really hard for me.
A few days after we got back home, our dear friend and previous mother’s helper, Susanna, came to stay with us for a few days. I was completely physically and emotionally drained and God knew how much I needed her to be staying with us for a few days. She was like an angel in our home — loving on our kids, doing our laundry, doing some organizing and cleaning projects, and just all around blessing our family at a very deep level.
While she was here, Jesse and I drove up to Atlanta with some of my team for a meeting with the company who is designing and manufacturing our product line in 2015. We’re really excited about the possibilities and what the future holds there!
I made another quick trip to Colorado for a one-day filming project and then got home just in time to unload my suitcase, wash my clothes, and repack it to leave a few hours later to go back to Kansas for Thanksgiving.
The day after we got back home from Kansas, my sister, Olivia, flew in to stay with us for a few days while we had our end-of-year executive team meetings. I had been really nervous about these as we had some big decisions to make and had spent quite a bit of time worrying over them, planning for them, and praying about them.
Turns out, I should have skipped the worrying part, as the meetings went FAR better than what I could have ever imagined and we all came into the meetings with the same hopes and on the same page — without even knowing it!
We made some big decisions for 2015 that I’m really excited about — namely, to streamline some areas and pare down in some areas so we can prioritize better and have more breathing room in our lives. I’m stoked about this coming year and our mission to be even more focused and prioritized. I don’t regret 2014 in any way, but the pace of it was not a pace of life I aspire to continue at long-term!
The rest of December was incredibly laid back and peaceful — a much-needed respite after many, many full months. We hung out together as a family, we made special memories, we read together, we slept in, we watched movies, we went to a few fun outings, and Jesse surprised us with an overnight stay at the Gaylord Opryland. We’d heard it is beautiful this time of year and it truly was. It was a great way to close out the year!
Looking back on this past year, it kind of takes my breath away that we did as much as we did, traveled as much as we traveled, and accomplished as much as we accomplished! I truly feel like God’s hand was so faithful to carry us through over and over again when we were tired or fearful or overwhelmed. We got to see Him show up on our behalf and give us what we needed to do what He had called us to.
Our faith grew so much this year, our marriage grew so much, our relationships with our kids grew, and, probably the biggest blessing for me, Jesse had a major personal transformation this year. Honestly, while he was busy with law school and then different legal jobs and then running his own law firm, he never stopped long enough for me to realize how much he was struggling deep down — with fear, insecurity, and feeling like he wasn’t good enough.
As we processed these things together and I challenged him to replace his long-believed lies with truths (just as I had learned to do myself a few years ago), he slowly ever so slowly started changing from the inside out. It’s been a beautiful thing to witness!
He’s now so full of life and drive and ambition, but also just so happy. He loves overseeing/managing all the legal and financial aspects of our business, he loves managing our two rental houses, and he’s getting a lot of opportunities to do pro bono legal work — which he finds so much fulfillment in. Plus, he’s loving being in charge of our kids’ sports and extracurricular activities and helping with the homeschooling.
Sopping wet after riding a water/boat ride at Silver Dollar City together. 🙂
These struggles and the growth over the past year has only served to strengthen our marriage at a deep level. So looking back, I am incredibly grateful that we made the decision to move — even though it didn’t make sense to a lot of people and even though we weren’t even quite sure how it was all going to play out.
For the sake of our marriage, our spiritual growth, and our personal growth, it was every bit worth it — and we’re only six months into this adventure! We’re excited to see what 2015 holds!
Happy New Year!
2014 comes to a close today. During the month of December, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my goals for 2014 and considering why I fell so short on many of them. In fact, I only completely finished 4 goals.
Here’s the final tally:
Marriage Goals
1. Read 6 marriage books.
2. Write 50 love notes to Jesse.Mothering Goals
3. Read 40 books aloud to the kids. (We only read 10 books aloud together. :()
4. Finish memorizing Romans 1 together. (We didn’t work on this that much together, though I worked on it quite a bit myself and have most of the chapter pretty solidly memorized.)
5. Go through a cooking course with the kids. (I didn’t do a formal course, but my kids did learn quite a few new basic cooking skills from Jesse and me while working beside us in the kitchen. So maybe that sorta half counts?? ;))Personal Goals
6. Read through the Bible. (I switched to She Reads Truth studies in the fall and fell in love with them.)
7. Memorize Romans 2. (Well, I only got a few verses into this one.)
8. Run a 5K race and go through P90X again. (Um, gulp, don’t even ask about this. Because it was pretty much a total bust.)
9. Read 150 books/ebooks. (I think my final count is going to be under 90.)Blogging Goals
10. Write 150 substantive content pieces for the blog.
11. Write 50 DIY/Recipe posts for the blog. (I think I maybe ended up with around 35-40 total here. So not terrible, but not great either.)
12. Blog about/participate in the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge .
As I reflected on what went wrong where, I came up with two specific reasons I fell so short on many of my goals:
This was a big problem for me. While I’m all about challenging ourselves and growing and stepping outside our comfort zones, I also think we need to temper our ambition with a healthy dose of reality. I didn’t do a good job of that when making my 2014 goals.
In fact, some of them were just too big from the get-go and they sat on the paper and sort of mocked me all year long. Goals like reading 150 books and reading aloud 40 books just were far too ambitious with everything else planned for the year.
And because they were too far outside my reach, instead of motivating me, they discouraged me and made me feel like I was failing. In reality, I read 10 books aloud to my kids and read over 85 books personally. I should be celebrating that, not beating myself up about it.
So, as I posted about earlier today, 2014 was a BIG year for us. And honestly, I didn’t really account for that at all when I made my list of goals.
Which is a fatal mistake.
I kind of forgot we were going to be moving cross country, that I was releasing a book, that I would be traveling 2-3 times per month, that I would be writing another book, and that I would be losing my amazing full-time local assistant.
Yeah. I’m so incredibly bright like that. 🙂
Don’t ask me why I didn’t even think of any of those things when I was mapping out my goals. I guess I was just naive. Or overly ambitious. Or just plain brainless. Or a combination of all three of these things?
I also didn’t take into account that it would take us all a good five months to adjust to life in TN and to find a routine and rhythm with our new lifestyle. It took us a number of failed attempts and trial and error before landed upon what we’re currently doing — Jesse and I working half days while the other one is homeschooling/with the kids.
We now love this lifestyle and it feels like such a healthy fit for us and our kids, but it took some time to figure out what worked best and during that time frame, there was quite a bit of tension and upheaval and feeling fairly chaotic and disorganized — which didn’t lend itself to a lot of progress on my goals. 🙂
A peek at my hen-scratched, very-non-Pinterest-y 2015 Goal List in the making — more tomorrow!
With these things in mind, I tried to be much more realistic of life, time restraints, and projects already planned for this coming year when making my goals for 2015. I’m really excited about the list of goals I ended up mapping out and will share those with you tomorrow. Stay tuned!
How did YOU do on your goals for 2014? What did you learn from your failure and success?
2014 was such a growing year for our family. I spent some time looking back over the year and it still amazes me all that happened! Just for fun, here’s a run-down with some of the highlights:
The year began with a bang: I released my second book in January, was on Good Morning America, traveled to NYC for a media tour, hit the New York Times list — all within the first few weeks of January! Crazy!
Kathrynne also turned 9 this month and had asked if she could plan her own birthday party. She blew me away by writing out meticulous and detailed plans, choosing the activities, making the guest list, putting together invitations, sticking with a budget to buy all the supplies, and putting together all the party favors!
That girl has mad party-planning skills — and she loved every minute of the planning part! It’s been so fun to see her blossoming, growing, and maturing. Her personality is so different than mine in so many ways and yet she has the biggest heart and loves me so fiercely that it constantly humbles and touches me.
I recorded my book as an audiobook the first week of February. We broke it up over three days since I’ve learned that my voice only holds out strong for around 4 hours.
The third week in February, we took a much-anticipated trip with two other couples to Belize. It was such an adventure requiring many different methods of transportation, lots of new sights, tastes, and experiences. And we had a wonderful time of unplugging (mostly) and just resting and soaking up the sun and beautiful views.
This month was booked solid with traveling and moving preparations. We had initially planned to move April 15th, but when we started looking in earnest for housing to rent, the house we found and loved wasn’t available until May 1, so we extended our move date until April 30 which bought us a little more time.
Jesse spent the month taking care of the hundred and one moving details and wrapping up things with his law firm so he could officially shut down right around the time we moved.
I traveled to Colorado to spend a few days with three dear friends of mine (Michele, Renee, and Kathi) in a cabin Buena Vista. It was such a good time — especially because we were able to rally around Michele right before her cancer surgery.
The next week, I traveled to Colorado (again) for radio recordings with Focus on the Family and then flew from there to Illinois for the Hearts at Home conference. The following week, I was back on the road again — this time to Nashville for the Teach Them Diligently conference.
We started getting into the final stretch of our big moving day, so the month of April was packed with, you guessed it, packing and paring down the house.
It was also full of many, many goodbye get-togethers. Honestly, while I felt so loved by so many people, goodbyes are so hard for me so this part of the move was really draining. I wanted to be strong for my husband and kids, but I had many moments when I wondered what on earth we were doing!
This was an especially hard month for our kids. They’ve been so brave in the whole move thing, but they all had to grieve in their own ways and we did our best to have lots of conversations, be cognizant of their needs, and to make sure that we did all we could make the transition as smooth for them.
I only had one trip this month — and Jesse got to come with me! We went to South Carolina for another conference and my parents and most of my siblings came to. For most of them, this was their first time to hear me on stage and that was a big unnerving for me. But they were all so encouraging and I punched another fear right in the face!
The week before we moved, Jesse went to Phoenix for a conference on email marketing. The timing of the conference wasn’t that great, but he really wanted to go and since we had wrapped up just about everything at home, it worked out just fine — and I’m so glad he went because he learned so much and had a great time.
(We’ve known for quite some time, that we’ve outgrown our current email service, but we’ve struggled to figure out what to upgrade to. We spent a lot of time this past year researching different email services, researching, test-marketing, and talking to business owner after business owner. We’re so grateful to have finally landed upon a solution the past few months… and I think it’s going to be the perfect long-term solution!)
Our moving day arrived. There were so many bittersweet things about this day… so many emotions. Excitement. Sadness. Eagerness. Fear. All rolled up into one.
My sister, Olivia, drove with us to TN to help us unpack and that was SUCH a gift. We ended up driving the 15-hour trek straight through and made it to TN completely exhausted, but grateful to have arrived!
It was so weird to drive up to “our” house for the first time. We’d rented it sight unseen so it was a little surreal to drive up and know this was going to be home to use for the next two years. (Our good friends the Scheers had gone through it and done a video tour for us long-distance, though, and we’d had extensive conversations with the landlords. Otherwise, we probably would have never felt comfortable signing a two-year lease without seeing the house first!)
The week of the move was a whirlwind. My sister helped us get almost everything unpacked — I knew we had a busy summer, so it was important to get it done right away or it might not happen for months! — and the community welcomed us so warmly. Within the first week, we had met most of our neighbors and many of the folks who have become dear, dear friends to us. And that was such a gift!
I can’t believe my baby is 5! So grateful he still loves mama snuggles!
We went back to Kansas for Jesse’s brother’s graduation and to celebrate Silas’ birthday (it was very important for him to celebrate his birthday in Kansas and we wanted to honor this as a way to help him make the transition more smoothly).
The following week I flew to DC to speak at a conference, the following week to speak at a conference in FL (and got to go to Disney late that night for a few hours — my first time to go to Disney! I just wish my family had been able to come with me!), and then a few days later I flew to Arkansas for a radio taping with Family Life.
I love this boy more than words can express! And he loves his mama well — here was a tea party he set up for us and invited me to. 🙂
My brother and his wife came and visited us for a few days and we had fun exploring some new areas and showing them some of our favorite TN places.
Kathrynne also started swimming lessons this week and Silas had soccer camp. We wanted our kids to plug in as quickly as possible, so we encouraged them to each one activity that they’d like to participate in over the summer and we signed them up for it almost as soon as we moved.
Kathrynne wasn’t being pushed in her swimming classes, so we asked around for some more recommendations and found a homeschool swim team that she was able to qualify for — which was thrilling for her as making a swim team had been a months-long dream for her.
Kaitlynn turned 7 this month and asked to go to the mall for her birthday (typical fashionista!). We had a fun mommy-daughter date.
She also started ice skating lessons again (her chosen activity). She had taken lessons before in Kansas, but this time around, she had a new drive and commitment to them and, pretty soon, she started really advancing.
The ice program encouraged us to enroll her private coaching, in addition to group classes, and we’ve been so proud of how hard she’s worked! Her goal was to make it through all eight levels of Learn to Skate by the end of 2014. She’s finishing up the final level and now has her sights set on the Olympics… which might be aiming just a wee bit high, but I’m not going to any way discourage her enthusiasm or drive! 🙂
June was also the month that we for sure knew we’d found a church home here in TN. We were pretty sure that we had picked out a church that we felt would be a good fit for our family, but you never know until you go and visit for at least a few weeks.
We were so grateful that not only was Fellowship Bible everything we’d prayed for and hoped for in a church, but it was so much more. We’ve been beyond blessed by the gift of this church — especially the depth of the preaching.
Jesse had a sort of identity crisis that started in June and lasted well into August. It was a hard, hard, hard few months for him — and for us all. I’m positive our kids have never seen Mom and Dad struggle and argue so much.
I had expected this might happen, but I was completely unprepared for how difficult it would be for me. I didn’t know whether I was supposed to be the sweet, loving, listening, and empathetic wife or whether he needed some hard, strong truth to be spoken to him.
He struggled to figure out who he was apart from his job. He realized that he’d always defined his value and worth by what he did (stressful positions as an attorney/running his own law firm) instead of who he was as a person.
He struggled with some really dark days and was depressed and stressed. I am so grateful for the solid people around us who walked with us through this time and encouraged us, prayed for us, and loved us in the middle of our mess. It wasn’t pretty, but I truly clung to the belief that it had to get worse before it could get better. And it did — as I tell you about in part 2. 🙂
…to be continued tomorrow.
If you have plans and hopes to get some areas of your life in order this coming year, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite 18 ebooks to help you organize your home and life, manage your time better, and be more organized in your grocery-shopping and menu-planning.
Note: Some of these are only available as Kindle ebooks. Others are available as Kindle ebooks, PDF downloads, or even printed books, too.
21 Days to a More Disciplined Life
Do you have ideas, hopes, and dreams for what you want to accomplish in your life, but you feel like you’re being held back by a lack of personal discipline? Are you easily overwhelmed by your big ideas or projects, and you just don’t know where to start and how to make real progress? Do you find yourself making “all-or-nothing” plans for transforming your life, and then three days later you crash and burn under the weight of your plan?
What You Can Expect to Learn From This Book:
Are you exhausted and overwhelmed with life? Do you wake up feeling like you’re already behind — and you haven’t even gotten out of bed? Do you spend most of your days just trying to make through the day?
If that’s you (or someone you know!), you need to get a copy of my book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. I wrote this book because I get it. I’ve walked the road of feeling spent, worn down, and burnt out. And after burning the candle at both ends for far too long and hurting my health, marriage, and family in the process, I finally reached a breaking point.
The day I finally hit rock bottom and said, “I can’t live like this any more!” was the day I realized I didn’t have to live in such a frantic, stressed, and overloaded way. There was a road out of survival mode!
In Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, I share candidly about the struggles I faced along the way and the strategies I learned for success. This book is not a fix-your-life-overnight handbook (sorry!). Instead, I’ll take your hand, and gently guide you through a step-by-step journey so that you, too, can:
Living Well, Spending Less by Ruth Soukup
Tell Your Time: How to Manage Your Schedule So You Can Live Free by Amy Lynn Andrews
This little ebook’s wisdom has done more for my efficiency than any other book or time management product I’ve ever read or listened to. It’s well worth your time — and it works, provided you actually do what the ebook tells you to do.
28 Days to Timeliness: Tips and Confessions From a Semi-Reformed Late Person by Davonne Parks
Do you feel like you’re always behind and late? I know the feeling. As I’ve often alluded to here, I’ve struggled with getting places on time all of my life. Some of you don’t have any issue with this — and I try not to envy you. Others of you can likely commiserate with me in the always-behind-and-barely-making-it-out-the-door issue.
By the grace of God, I’ve made some huge strides over the past few years in getting places at least almost on time (we’ve even gotten some places early recently!). I’ve also been working diligently on getting things done early so I’m doing a better job at not waiting until the last minute for projects and deadlines.
I’m so encouraged at the progress I’m seeing and the fruits I’m reaping of various habits I’ve been working on putting in place. But I still have a long way to go! That’s why I so appreciated reading 28 Days to Timeliness.
28 Days to Timeliness was written by a Davonne Parks, a “semi-reformed late person” (as she calls herself) who wants to help others figure out how to streamline their routines so they can get out the door faster and stop being late. Each chapter is broken down into 28 short, easy-to-read segments that will take just a few minutes to go over each day. The beginning of each segment contains an inspirational quote, and included at the end of every chapter is a practical course of action that can be taken to really initiate the discipline of being on time.
Davonne and I might as well be two peas in a pod. She gets me. I laughed at her stories (I even shared her hilarious wearing PJs to church story with my husband — who thought it was so funny that he shared it at a recent family gathering!). I nodded my head in agreement with so many of her points. And I picked up new practical ideas for overcoming lateness.
What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam
Since getting up early has made such a difference in my life, I was especially excited to read Laura Vaderkam’s ebook, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. It’s a short read, but packed with lots of inspiration as to how to use your mornings well.
It’s not enough to get up early, though, you also need to make sure that you wisely prioritize your time and energy in the early morning hours so that it effectively benefits your day — and your life. In this ebook, Laura shares a peek into the lives of some very successful people — and how they are structuring their lives to make the most of the morning hours. What works for them might not work for you, but I promise you’ll be inspired to make the most of your mornings — whether or not you are an early riser.
One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler by Tsh Oxenreider
I read this ebook over the course of a week and a half–in little bits in the morning as I was doing my warm-up and cool down on the treadmill before my morning run. I enjoyed the book so much that I had trouble getting off the treadmill every day because I just wanted to keep reading!
As you probably well know by now, I love the concept of breaking things down into bite-sized manageable pieces. And Tsh’s ebook does just that. It gives you 52 bite-sized steps you can take to become more efficient, streamlined, and organized.
You know those things you always say you want to do someday? Like planting a garden, switching to natural cleaners, composting, setting up a system for paper clutter, organize your photo collection, learning to cook from scratch, setting up menu plans, planning regular date nights, or regularly turning off technology? Tsh gives you the tools, motivation, and encouragement you need to slowly make those positive changes you’ve hoped to make. And she makes it simple and doable.
Now I have to tell you: Tsh suggests that you pick one project per week for a year–thus the 52 projects. However, I’d suggest to maybe slow the pace down a bit and just pick one project every other week or once a month. That way, you can really take your time and let the changes really sink in before moving onto something else.
Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
This book is jam packed with practical ideas for prioritizing your time and life so that you make the most of your days. One of my biggest takeaways from the book was the challenge to start the day out by doing the things you like least first, you’ll get them out of the way so you can enjoy your day more and be more productive and fulfilled. Read more about some of the things I gleaned from this book here.
Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Simple Living by Tsh Oxenreider
I was excited to read Organized Simplicity, but truthfully, I figured the message of this book would probably be something I was well familiar with. And I figured the book would be filled with ideas I was mostly already living out.
Well, I was wrong. In fact, it’s hard for me to describe in words how reading Organized Simplicity impacted me. The beauty of the book drew me in, but the message of the book convicted me more than I ever imagined it would.
As many of you well know, I love simplicity and I strive to only have a things we love and use in our home. But in the last few months, consumerism and busyness has inched its way into my heart and life — without me even realizing it.
Reading Organized Simplicity was a wake up call for me. It forced me to examine my life, stuff and to-do list in a whole new light. I realized that maybe I wasn’t as much of a minimalist as I thought I was — especially if you were to open some of my closets and cupboards! 
I usually go through our whole house from top to bottom twice a year and aggressively eliminate things which we no longer love and use. And while this book inspired me to do another total house overhaul, more than just eliminating stuff, it caused me to dig down deeper and examine my heart and what simple living really means for our own family.
Tsh’s thoughts in chapter seven on streamlining your life so you can savor the moments that matter especially hit home for me. Life can become so busy. Organized Simplicity really challenged me to be purposefully intentional and prioritize my life so I don’t miss out on those precious fleeting moments.
The Early to Rise Experience by Andy Traub
This ebook is not for someone who isn’t willing to endure some discomfort and put forth some effort. If you’re happy with how your life is and you’re satisfied with your mornings and your productivity, then you probably don’t need Early to Rise.
Or, if you’re a mom who has young ones and you’re thankful for every second of sleep you can get, you also probably don’t need to read this ebook. {The last thing you need is to feel guilty for getting sleep that your body desperately needs!}
However, if you struggle to get up in the morning and you struggle to be productive during the day wish you could regularly get up earlier and get more done in the mornings, Early to Rise will challenge and motivate you. It’s broken down into easy, manageable steps to get you started on the path to consistent lifelong early rising.
If you want a structured way to turn your goals into daily tasks that you actually get done, then you’ll want to check out the Goals & Priorities Diary from Get Organized Wizard.
It contains:
It’s a simple but powerful approach that helps you spend time where it counts, and have more time for goals that genuinely matter. The Goals & Priorities Diary is a structured and motivating way to organize your life, achieve your goals, and get important things done.
Want to get organized in 2015 but feel cramped for time? Get Organized Wizard has a great resource to help you out — and it’s available for just $4.95 right now!
The Organize-In-5 Diary gives you a 5-minute organization task for each weekday in 2015 and then you’ll get a 5-minute relaxation task for Saturdays. This plan tackles your home, closets, computer, health, finances, work, time management, relationships, family, and more! Even if you have a very full schedule and little extra time, you can still get your home and life in order with this ebook.
168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam
We all have exactly the same amount of time: 24 hours in each day, 168 hours in each week. We all get to choose how we’re going to use those hours — whether wisely or frivolously. Laura Vanderkam’s book, 168 Hours, is based upon the premise that, if we were to step back and look at our week as a whole, we have more time than we realize. And we are probably squandering more time than we think.
This book gives real-life, practical examples for becoming a better manager of your time. It profiles a number of different individuals in different situations and shows how they are using their time well or specific ways they could improve their time usage. This book is not about stuffing our lives more full with longer to-do lists and more responsibilities, but about focusing on a life well lived. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to better steward their time or find more fulfillment in how they spend their 168 hours.
Abundant Simplicity: Discovering the Unhurried Rhythms of Grace by Jan Johnson
I loved this book. The cover and layout have an instantly calming effect and the author did a great job of challenging you to consider the rhythms of your life and whether they are in sync with the priorities you want to have.
She encourages you to not just strip your life of all the non-essentials and pare down to the basics, but instead to really examine why you’re doing what you’re doing, why you own what you own, and why you’re leading the lifestyle you are. This book is deep, rich, and soul-stirring.
Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Achieve Tomorrow’s Success by John Maxwell
If you want to make the most of your days, Today Matters will give you practical, step-by-step help and inspiration. The author makes a case for why today is your key to success and outlines 12 decisions and disciplines you should implement into your life and work toward mastering in order to achieve greater fulfillment and success in life.
Plan It, Don’t Panic by Stephanie Langford
This ebook on menu-planing is a fantastic resource for anyone who really wants to menu-plan but is struggling with how to do it. Written by my friend, Stephanie, it provides the tools, step-by-step help, and practical inspiration you need to successfully plan and follow menus.
Even though I’ve been menu planning for years, this ebook breathed new life into my resolve to menu plan and gave me lots of helpful suggestions and fresh advice. I found some new tips and websites to try out that I’d not heard of before and also found it very helpful to step back and examine if my current method of menu-planning is working well for our family or not.
This ebook covers menu-planning on a budget, eating from the pantry, how to create rotating menu plans, how to incorporate freezer cooking into your menu-planning to make life simpler, and how to serve your family healthful meals without spending hours in the kitchen every day.
The wide range of topics it covers includes:
You want to know one of my favorite parts of the ebook? She included full four weeks of meal plans at the back of the ebook. Reading through fully-laid-out menu plans that others have put together always gives me new ideas and suggestions to try at our house. I also loved all of the helpful printable forms and worksheets at the back of the ebook.
Your Grocery Budget Toolbox by Anne Simpson
If you are hoping to cut your grocery bill this coming year, but you want to still eat healthfully, I highly recommend this comprehensive ebook. Anne shows you in detail how to eat well on a limited budget and how to do so without spending a great deal of time and effort to do so.
This ebook is well-written, in-depth, and worth every penny — especially if you are new to frugal living and feeling discouraged about the high prices of quality groceries.
What books would you add to this list?
I’m honored and excited to be joining Sally Clarkson, Angela Perritt, and Sarah Mae for a free online webcast to celebrate the launch of Sally’s new book, Own Your Life.
This online Girl’s Night will be Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at 9:00 pm ET/8 CT/7 MT/6 PT
If you need some encouragement from other women to live your life on purpose and not just barely survive each day, be sure to tune in. It’s going to be so much fun!
We’re going to be discussing some great topics, including:
Plus, you can be sure that there will be a lot of honesty from each of us imperfect women as we talk about our own struggles in this area, things that have helped us, and what we’re still learning. 🙂
I love to read. Not only does it open up new worlds and new ideas to me, but it inspires me as a blogger, thinker, speaker, and writer. Of the 82 books I read in 2014, here were my top 10 favorites:
1. Hands Free Mama: A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To Do List, and Letting Go of a Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters — As a Type A gal who struggles to slow down, this book really challenged, impacted, and motivated me. If you need some encouragement to spend less time distracted by devices and busyness, I’d highly recommend this book. For more inspiration, check out Rachel’s blog: Hands Free Mama.
2. The Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages — If you’ve heard me give my Say Goodbye to Survival Mode talk this year, you’ll remember that I read the Fantastic Five for Him from this book. I loved the five simple but highly impactful things this books shares that wives can do to show their husbands they love him. And my husband (and other guys I’ve asked) have agreed that the list is spot on! If you are married or planning to get married, do yourself a favor and get a copy of this well-researched book. Even if you don’t agree with everything in the book, I’m pretty positive it will make you step back and examine how your actions and attitudes toward your spouse.
3. Secrets of Dynamic Communication — If you are an author or a speaker (or you hope to become one!), I can’t recommend this well-written book highly enough. Ken Davis is a dynamic speaker with years of experience and he’s a goldmine of wisdom. By following the things I’ve learned from him, I’ve become a much more effective and engaging communicator.
4. Chasing Francis — I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book, but the title and description intrigued me and it was endorsed by Mark Batterson (an author I love — see below!), so I read it. And I’m so very grateful I did because it messed with me in a very good way. It challenged me to step back and really examine my beliefs and how I’m living out those beliefs.
5. In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day — Since I’ve loved the other Mark Batterson books I’ve read, I picked up this title based upon his name alone. And it turned out to be the best book I’ve read in a long time. In fact, if you’ve spent any time with me in the past three months, you’ve probably heard me talk about it. If you are struggling with direction, wondering what your purpose in life is, and questioning what you were created for, do yourself a favor and read this book. You just might not be the same ever again!
6. Love Idol: Letting Go of Your Need for Approval — And Seeing Yourself Through God’s Eyes — I highly, highly recommend this book if you find yourself (like me) having perfectionistic, people-pleasing tendencies. It’s well-written and engaging, but more than that, the message is powerful, freeing, life-changing!
7. The Nesting Place — Confession time: I’ve never nailed anything on a wall on any house I’ve ever lived in (friends & family have taken pity on me and done it for me), but this book moved me at a deep level. I want to stop making excuses that “I’m not a decorator” — borne out of my own insecurity and concern over what people will think or that I’ll do it all wrong.
Instead, I just want to be free to experiment, take risks, and try new things — not only when it comes to our home decor, but in all areas of my life. It’s time to say goodbye to performance, perfectionism, and people-pleasing… And to start living with braveness and boldness.
8. The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You — One of the perks of being an author & blogger is getting to read pre-release copies of great books like this! If you feel overwhelmed with life and can’t seem to find time to recharge your batteries, I wholeheartedly encourage you to pre-order a copy of this book.
I’ve long admired how Jessica manages to do so much, and yet still have time for things she loves — like hanging out with friends and family, scrapbooking, and blogging. In The Fringe Hours, she unveils her secrets to success and gives you the tools, tips, and techniques you can use to find time in your full schedule to refresh yourself and refill your tank, too.
9. Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life — Ya’ll. Do yourself a massive favor and go pre-order this book. It is SO good. Michele is one of the best communicators I’ve ever known. The way she paints pictures with words moves and inspires me as a writer.
But her book is much more than beautiful word pictures; it’s the story of a woman finding hope and peace in the middle of messes, heartaches, and unexpected difficulties in life. Highly recommended.
10. Me Before You — This was one of the most heart-breaking, compelling, and thought-provoking books I’ve read in a long time. I thought it was very well-written and found it hard to put down. In fact, I read the entire book in one day! Caveat: This book is not written from a Christian perspective, has quite a bit of language, and the plot line deals with suicide in a very raw form. I didn’t agree with the outcome of the book, but it made me dig deep and think hard… and books that do that are ones I feel are very worth my time.
What were your top reads from this past year? Any books that I must, must read? I’d love to hear!
Download a free 2-week menu plan for Aldi. This menu plan is mostly whole foods with real ingredients.
Want to get your finances in order in 2015? Here are some free resources to help you get started.
Download a free copy of Dave Ramsey’s Guide to Budgeting.
Set up a free online Mint.com account to track your income and outgo and stick with your budget.
Create a budget for the year and calculate the difference between your budgeted and actual expenses with this free Yearly Budget Calculator from Vertex42.
Work out a proposed household budget with this Household Budget Worksheet from Kiplinger.
Get out and stay out of debt with the free BudgetTracker.com.
Are there any free online budgeting tools you use not included in this list? Please let us know in the comments.
It’s been a big year for our family — with lots of changes, lots of new experiences, lots of goodbyes, and lots of hellos. We’ve grown as a family, our marriage has grown, this blog has grown, and I’ve grown a lot as a person.
I spent a few hours today going back through all of the content pieces I posted this past year and picking out the top 10 posts. It was quite a walk down memory lane to go through these and remember the highs and lows of this year and to see how I’ve grown in my openness and authenticity this past year…
1. How Do You Find Good Friends — this post on my journey from feeling lonely and not good enough to cultivating some amazing real-life relationships sparked a flood of comments and emails from people who are also desperately hoping for deep relationship. If you struggle to find and maintain good friendships, be sure to read this post.
2. 5 Keys to Have a Strong Marriage — Even During the Storms of Life — this post was written after we experienced a rough, rough few months in our marriage after we moved to TN. The principles in this post have carried us through many a storm of life and helped us to stick together in the midst of it. If you need some encouragement or ideas to strengthen your marriage or are just going through a rocky patch, be sure to read this post.
3. My Nail-Biting Habit, Shame, and What I’m Learning About Authenticity — this post was hard for me to write since it was so personal and putting myself “out there”. The response of encouragement and “I struggle with that, too!” completely blew me away and encouraged me to continue to be really authentic in my writing.
4. We’re Headed to Nashville & Some Changes I’m Making on the Blog — I wrote this post as we were driving from Kansas to Nashville to make our big family move. This post was monumental for me as it was the day I decided to really change the way I’d been blogging and go back to my blogging roots.
I’m so grateful I made this change as it’s brought back so much passion and love for blogging for me. It’s been the best change and I’m so thankful to have you all along with me on this ride! And in case you missed it, here’s a post on why we moved to Nashville.
5. I’m Done With Being a People Pleaser — This post was a follow-up to my announcement on our moving to Nashville post that I was going to be going back to my roots as a blogger. In it, I opened up about why I had struggled to be open on my blog the past few years and what changed for me.
6. How I Stopped Yelling at My Kids & How It’s Changed Our Home — This post was one of my most-shared-posts ever. Apparently, I’m not the only one who struggles with yelling!
7. Let’s Stop Photoshopping Our Lives — I was a little embarrassed to share this post, but at the same time, I really want to be real and authentic on my blog. And well, this is the real deal. We certainly won’t be featured in Better Homes & Gardens or as Best Home on Pinterest, but that’s okay. 🙂
8. Why We More Than Doubled Our Grocery Budget — This was another post that I was sacred to push publish on. Honestly, I waited for weeks to write it because I had no idea how it would be received. But by and large, you all were incredibly supportive and you reminded me why I love you all so much!
9. This Crazy Journey I’ve Been on the Last 10 Years (and Yes, You Can Make Money Blogging) — I had so much fun writing this post and reminiscing over the last almost 10 years I’ve been blogging. If you’ve ever wanted if it’s possible to make money blogging, I think my story will encourage you.
10. Dear Mom Who Is So Tired of Living on a Tight Budget — If you’re feeling overwhelmed and discouraged about your budget as we head into 2015, this post is a must-read.
What were YOUR favorite posts from 2014? I’d love to hear as I make plans for 2015.
It might feel like you can’t do much, that you don’t have much to give, that you don’t have much to offer to world.
But you do. There is only one you. And the world needs you.
Love generously. Give of yourself. Take time to smile, to listen, to give a word of encouragement, to write that text, to pick up the phone and make that call, to ask forgiveness, to cheer instead of criticize, to pour into others.
There is a lot of heartache, hurt, and hard things in the world right now. Instead of cursing the darkness, lashing out in frustration, or getting frustrated over things we can’t change, let’s light our own little candle and hold it high. And then inspire others to also light their candles, too.
Let’s spark a revolution of light and hope. One small candle alone can’t produce much light, but collectively, if we each let our lights shine, we can make a huge difference.
Let’s be the light this Christmas!
One of the greatest gifts in moving to Tennessee has been quickly finding a new church home. We’ve been challenged, inspired, uplifted, and spiritually fed each week through the preaching, as well as being blessed by the people and their warm hospitality and hearts for the Lord.
During the Christmas season, our church has been encouraging families to adopt a theme of “Less Under Our Tree, More For the World.”
While the adults in our church have been encouraged to give and make a difference, I’ve loved the strong emphasis they’ve placed upon encouraging the children to give, too. They have given the kids specific needs and ways that they can help with their coins and dollars.
These specific needs and dollar amounts have been a huge inspiration to our girls and they’ve been spending time doing chores, emptying their piggy banks, counting change, and soliciting donations from us for the special Global Christmas Offering on Sunday.
Earlier this week, I discovered this sign that they had put in our hallway as a reminder for us all to keep contributing any loose change this week.
As I’ve observed my girls being so passionate about finding ways they can contribute and impact other children around the world, it’s motivated me to look for ways to be more of a giver in my own life.
And Kathrynne and Kaitlynn’s desire to give is rubbing off on Silas, too.
Last week, I took the kids to the The Greatest Christmas event here in Nashville. Ann Voskamp was one of the main presenters, along with Ellie Holcomb and Amena Brown. This event was sponsored by Compassion, so halfway through, Ann shared about the opportunity to sponsor a child and how it could make such an impact.
When Ann finished sharing, my kids all looked at me, eager to do something about it. I quickly leaned over and reminded our kids about the girls we write notes to/support and the moms & babies we support through our CSP.
I want to be able to regularly write notes to our Compassion girls as I know this is so important to them, so we’ve opted to only sponsor two girls (plus our CSP) so that we could be more faithful about writing to them.
And honestly, I was feeling like that was enough. Or so I had told myself.
But then, 5-year-old Silas looks at me intently and said, “But what about the boys? We need to support the boys, too.”
I was speechless. There was no quick comeback for that plea.
So, I sat there for a moment and then said, “You’re right. We need to do something for the boys, too.”
I hesitated before I responded, “Would you like to pick a boy for us to sponsor?”
His eyes lit up and he excitedly responded “Yes!”
The next day, Silas and Jesse looked through all the children waiting to be sponsored on Compassion’s site and finally chose 6-year-old Gerald from the DR.
Silas instantly felt a connection to Gerald because they are almost the same age and they both love baseball. Watching his enthusiasm over making a difference in Gerald’s life reminds me that giving our children opportunities to be involved in impacting others’ lives is one of the greatest gifts we can pass on to them.
We don’t have much figured out as parents — other than that we have so much left to learn! — and every day, we struggle with attitude issues and character issues. There are days when it feels like nothing we are trying to teach or live before them is sticking.
But then there are moments like this past week, when we realize that they are watching and learning. And I’m so grateful for these hearts and their desires and willingness to have less under our tree so we can give more to the world.
If our kids can someday leave home knowing that there are a world of needs around them, that money will never buy happiness, that there is so much fulfillment that comes from giving, and that money is just a tool to be used to change lives, they will be well on their way to living contented, rich lives — no matter their income level or career.
