As I was scrolling through past Facebook memories this morning, I saw a graphic someone shared with me last year on this day: Anyone who has the word “rehearsal” written on various days of their calendar this month knows that the Christmas season is somewhat less than peaceful, but honestly, we can…

Not the scripture you were expecting to kick off the Advent season? Maybe you were hoping for something from Luke? A verse about a star? A shepherd or two? This year when I began to think about the season of hope, my mind immediately went to Jeremiah. For those of you somewhat familiar with this book…

Confession: I started listening to Christmas music a couple days ago, clearly breaking the No Christmas Music Before Thanksgiving Rule that I set for myself. I also bought a Christmas tree – one of the first ten they sold, apparently – and have been diffusing Thieves and Peppermint essential oils for days. I love Christmas. …

If you were a child in the 80’s, there are a few incontrovertible facts about your childhood: You had a Care Bear and/or a Cabbage Patch Kid. You chewed either Hubba Bubba or Bubblicious, and you likely had a strong preference one way or the other. You read Choose Your Own Adventure books. Thankfully, my…

Hi, my name is Amy, and I have a lot of buttons. (Hi, Amy…) This morning in the shower, which is where I do my best thinking, I began to think about the Advent season. Now that it’s November, I’m requiring every ounce of willpower to keep from transforming my home into a winter wonderland….

Sing it with me: “Thank you for being a friend…travel down the road and back again…” Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I started to think about the fact that Facebook friends tend to follow commenting patterns. There are certain people who always respond to every status in exactly the same way….

Last night as I was headed to bed, my Facebook feed filled with the news that the blogging community lost someone to depression. I didn’t know her. She was a friend of friends, someone who moved through some of the same circles as me and my people. But nevertheless, the news took my breath away….

For the past couple of Augusts, I’ve participated in a special social media event called Blogust. During Shot@Life’s Blogust 2015—a month-long blog relay—some of North America’s most beloved online writers, photo and video bloggers and Shot@Life Champions come together and share inspirational quotes for their children. Every time you comment on this post and other Blogust…

1. They aren’t Christ, they’re Christ followers. Okay, so that’s the most obvious, simplest reason, which I needed to get out of the way before we could continue. For all of the tossing about of the term “Christ-like,” the design of Christianity is that there is one Christ, one Savior, sent to provide us with the grace…

As you know from my fire safety assessment post, June was National Safety Month, and I chose to take that time to assess the fire safety needs in my home. I turned to Kidde’s Home Safety resource to determine if our home had enough smoke alarms and fire extinguishers. What I found was startling. I began the…

As a work from home mom, I try my best to keep on top of all home-related concerns. The kitchen and bathrooms are (almost) always clean, the laundry is washed if not put away, and I enjoy tweaking the decorating around the house to freshen the look and make our home comfortable for my family….

*deep breath* I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus, a believer of grace through Jesus’s crucifixion on the cross. I believe that I am asked to love people and hate the sin in myself. I believe in the separation of church and state, a construct that protects my rights to worship and live as…

Life can be messy. Just this morning I had a conversation with another mom about those long days and sleepless nights of diapering. Apparently the average baby goes through over three hundred diapers in one month of life, and I added that I’m sure my son went through far more than that. Forcing us back to the…

I’ve been told many times that I’m a character. The real question is – which character am I? Fans of Disney*Pixar’s new film Inside Out already know that each of us has a host of characters inside us from the angry version of us to the joyful. You may have found yourself identifying more with one Inside Out feeling…

As parents, one of our biggest responsibilities is to help our children achieve the best future possible. Saving for college is an important part of that responsibility, but creating a plan to set aside funds for our children’s education can sometimes be a tough road to navigate. What’s a 529 plan? How much do I…

The end of last week was a little rough for me. We all have stuff. All of us. And we all have triggers that take that stuff and place it in our consciousness again, bring back feelings we’d rather not feel, cause us pain and anxiety. The recent news about the large, famous family whose…

I often say that I’m incredibly grateful that social media came into existence long after my high school and college days. By the time I was first asked to update my status, I was a happily married, peacefully boring, stay-at-home mom. This saved everyone in my generation from the incredible embarrassment of acting a fool…

I’ve been blogging now for 137 years forever too long nearly seven years, and I’ve never had an interesting About page. Don’t get me wrong- I’ve written interesting About pages. Unfortunately, each clever fact was really a passing thought in my head somewhere between shampoo and rinse/repeat. I have never gotten around to actually writing…

Yesterday I participated in Jen from The Simple Pen’s link-up for posts revealing five things about each writer. My twist was that rather than list five things you may not know about me, I listed ten things – only five of them true. So now it’s time for the big reveal! If you haven’t read…

My friend Jen over at The Simple Pen asked me to join her in writing a post about five things people typically don’t know about me. It’s been so long since I’ve blogged (see the issue of me becoming sick of myself…) that I thought I’d dive right in and give it a try. Then I…

Getting ready for summer travel is always an adventure, especially when you’re bringing along the whole family! Whether you’re traveling with just your children or you’re bringing along grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins, the Walt Disney World resort is packed with fun for everyone! With new dining options and special events around the corner, plus…