• Faith,  Family,  Uncategorized

    2020… Bye Felicia

    This year handed out disappointments and setbacks right and left. It all started in January when our water heater went out. Cold showers are not an option for my wimpy body, so we had to have it replaced immediately. This was not in our budget, so we used our recently paid off Home Depot credit card. Sigh. To save money, my hard-working hubby looked up YouTube videos and replaced the water heater in record time. While we hated incurring the expense, we were grateful that we had an empty credit card to handle the purchase. A few days later, Karly, our dog, began whimpering and squealing in pain. Her back…

  • Travel

    Little Sweden of USA

    I have visited Lindsborg, Kansas off and on for four years. At first glance, there isn’t much to this little town with a population of around 3,300 people. Lindsborg is known as Little Sweden due to its strong Swedish ties. The community was built by Swedish immigrants in the late 19th century. The culture is vibrant throughout the town. My first trip to Lindsborg was with my husband and daughter in 2016. We traveled for six hours to visit Bethany College. My daughter was being recruited for the soccer program, so we visited during the offseason. The February air was cold and fierce. Bethany College Bethany College is a college…

  • Family

    Marriage Secret

    This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you. Recently, my husband and I celebrated 25 years of marriage. We went to dinner and as we sat there talking with our daughter’s college soccer game streaming on my iPad, I began to think about how we got to this place in our marriage. The Backstory We married young; he was twenty-two and I was twenty-one. We met and began dating three years earlier. I had just graduated high school and he was in his first year of college. We both played soccer and met on the…

  • Family

    Journey to Self Care

    From the years 2006-2016, my life was very busy. We were on the go ALL the time. We owed that crazy type of busy to club soccer. Both kids were playing on select teams and had practice on opposite nights, so family dinners were scarce. The weekends were even crazier. I remember times when I had to go to the grocery store at night. Late at night. It wasn’t crowded at 11:00 pm, but the overnight stockers were in the way on most aisles. Nothing about shopping that late was convenient, but I had to get food and necessities for my family. On any given Saturday, we would be gone…

  • Family,  Teaching

    Hey Coach

    Youth sports today are much different than when I was young, in shape, and athletic. I experienced t-ball, softball, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and track. The only sport I truly enjoyed and excelled at was soccer. I started playing at five years old on the Butterflies. We played full field, 11v11. Although we didn’t, we were allowed to slide tackle and head the ball. We kept score. The team with the most wins at the end of the season got trophies or medals and the team with the least amount of wins received a good sportsmanship award. Now, most of that has changed. Our little ones don’t play full field. They…

  • Family

    Never a Housewife

    This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you. Merriam-webster.com defines a housewife as a married woman in charge of a household and defines a stay at home mom as one remaining at home especially to tend to children and domestic duties while a spouse is at work. Both definitions imply that housework is involved. That is something I have never excelled in. Wait, that’s not being honest. I have failed in being a homemaker in every aspect, and, surprisingly, I’m okay with that. If it was up to me, I would have a maid and…

  • Family

    It’s a Life Skill

    This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you. Just a while ago, I ended a Face Time call with one of my kids. My end of the conversation was mostly encouragement, advice, and some ‘Here’s how I would handle it” type of words. I’ve been on the receiving end of this type of conversation many times. Rarely did I truly listen or apply it. I think that’s because I was in an odd place where I wanted to be sad, mad, or even wallow in my emotions for the time being. It wouldn’t be until…