I love gifts! I love receiving and giving them. Now my husband is slightly more low-key about gifts than I am. But Country Boy does recognize quality. When he purchases an item or puts it on his wish list he only wants the best. After years of watching him I have come to trust his judgement. So I’m pulling together 12 hard-working gifts for the outdoor man in your life, that we have tested, to make gift giving just a little easier this season. Whether you are married to a country boy, a hunter, an outdoors man or a construction worker, your man is sure to love these durable and practical gifts! [Read more…]
4 Crucial Steps to Happiness Through Healthy Boundaries
I have a love/ hate relationship with boundaries. I love when I can see my boundaries working and allowing my life to run smoothly. I cherish those sweet moments when it all connects. I rise above my feelings to see the bigger picture and move forward emotionally. Growth is wonderful. Well it’s wonderful when we are at the end of a growth period and can see the finish line! And we can say, “Yes, I made it! I’m awesome!” It’s amazing when we conquer these 4 crucial steps to happiness through healthy boundaries! [Read more…]
Don’t Wear Skinny Jeans and Other Lessons From the ER
Life is tough! It can knock you down with little or no warning. But even on those days that are hard there are moments that cause you to pause and smile and maybe even have a good chuckle later. So today, we are going to look at some deep wisdom (sarcasm) that I have learned from my trips to the ER. This past year, has been one of the toughest years physically so I want to celebrate a little having made it through the year. I am celebrating my SCADanniversary (1 year from my last SCAD heart attack)! Don’t Wear Skinny Jeans and Other Lessons From the ER is my hurrah for those of us who are learning to survive and thrive despite some medical challenges! [Read more…]
6 Survival Tips to Reduce Holiday Stress
Snow, the smell of cookies baking and twinkling lights are all things that may remind us of the holidays. So does arguments, stress and busyness. For some the holiday season represents a positive time spent with family, cooking and shopping. While others struggle with anxiety at the thought of being around relatives, the expectations of trying to be happy and all the preparation required as the holidays draw near. Most people land somewhere in the middle. So how can we mentally and emotionally prepare ourselves this year? We want to enjoy and create some joyous holiday memories while still being realistic about our time and what is out of our control? Let’s lean into this question together to develop 6 survival tips to reduce holiday stress. [Read more…]
How to Know When to Keep or Fire that Friend?
It happened when my daughter was still in the church nursery. She was barely talking, and she was already mentioning her two “friends” by name. I was caught off guard by my daughter’s strong desire to find friends. But what started off as cute antics has grown. Those girls are still all friends 11 years later. And fortunately, no one still bites each other any more! Deep friendships are something most of us long to find. Friends can make life so much more fun and the hard times more bearable. Other times our friendships can be a source of great personal anguish. So how to know when to keep or fire that friend is a survival skill we should all attain. It will help us to draw and treasure the right friends and walk away from people who will drain us.
3 Inspiring Mompreneurs for the Aspiring Creative
Dreaming of creating a business? Would you love to bring in some additional income, but not sure how to juggle your time as a mom? I want to share with you 3 inspiring mompreneurs for the aspiring creative.
When I was in college we had email. And that was it. Oh, and the fax machine. I hadn’t even heard of the internet. So as a woman, I had two choices: Career woman or Stay-at-home-mom. So I got to hand it to the generation behind me that rode the internet wave and developed their own choices. Out of this generation has sprung the Mompreneur movement. Mompreneurs want to develop their interests on the side while keeping family a priority. So if you are dreaming of a future business here are 3 inspiring mompreneurs for the aspiring creative. [Read more…]
6 Ways to Break Free of Parenting from Guilt
If you look up mommy guilt on the internet there is a lot of information. Feeling guilty as a mom is common. We all want to feel like we are doing a good job and that we are accomplishing this all important job of parenting. For this post though I want to go beyond some of the surface areas to look at the deeper issues below. When we parent from a wounded place we set a pattern of parenting from guilt that hurts our authority as a parent and adversely affects our child in the long run. So let’s ditch the mom guilt and discover 5 ways to break free of parenting from guilt. [Read more…]
A Bride’s Guide to Marrying a Country Boy
Before I met my man I knew nothing about hunting. OK, I knew a few things. You know the Bugs Bunny episodes when Elmer Fudd “hunts” the rabbit? That was the extent of my knowledge. Hunters talk to themselves and wear black and red jackets! So I had a few things to learn. Since you, my lovely readers, have been digging deep the past few weeks, examining your priorities and looking for ways to strengthen your families, I thought we should have some fun on this post! So I’m sharing all my wisdom and experience here to create a bride’s guide to marrying a country boy! Feel free to share…just don’t judge me!! 🙂 [Read more…]
Pursuing Your Passion while Achieving Your Priorities
Several years after college, I interned at the Albert B. Sabin archive in Cincinnati. At the time, I was a single mom working full-time as a flight attendant pursuing a master’s degree in Library and Information Science (I know, crazy, right? I’ll come back to that). Albert B. Sabin was one of the men credited for eradicating polio with his oral polio vaccine, in this country and around the world. We are talking huge accomplishment. But as I combed through his life I saw all his time spent away from his family. There were several broken relationships in his personal life. It made me wonder. At the end of our life what will really matter? Does accomplishing a great goal or dream outweigh the cost to our personal life? Is it possible to pursue your passion while achieving your priorities? [Read more…]
10 Healthy Habits to Strengthen Your Family Bond
When my kids were younger I felt like I had more time to devote to each little step forward. As they grew life seemed to go faster and faster! It felt harder to keep an eye on the big picture of what I wanted for my children when I was just focusing on what had to be done for that day! As a blended family, Country Boy and I knew we were going to have to make strengthening our family bond a priority. Otherwise we were in real danger of acting separately from one another and not as a cohesive group. And at the end of the day, what matters most to us is not the to do list, but the relationships within our family and the character of our children. Here are 10 healthy habits to strengthen your family bond that we found benefited our family. [Read more…]
