I woke up yesterday morning, feeling a little more amorous and sentimental than usual. My dear husband brought me his fabulous cappucino, and I smiled and thought, “He remembered”. We got up and sat on our back porch to enjoy the morning sunshine. I coyly smiled at him and said, “Happy anniversary sweetie”. He said, “What?” so I repeated myself. He informed me, “Our anniversary is the 29th, not the 27th.”  I felt really, really… old.

You see we actually eloped 20 years ago, on the 29th, because it was also the same date in July as our first date(2 yrs prior). We knew we would never forget it. And here I am forgetting the date. Maybe it is just all that I have had on my mind this yr. We have walked through some real storms, and I guess most anyone who remains married for 20 years can say the same thing. Marriage in itself is compromise and selflessness(and forgiveness and forgetfulness). So I wanted to recognize the article I wrote, for those marriages that have weathered some really challenging storms, and plowed through periods where they were not quite sure they would make it through. It is worth the fight.

After my Sunday morning blunder, everything seemed to go downhill from there, and we all had a frustrating and agitated day with each other. We have a lot of impulsive behavior and ADD in our home and somedays I can handle it better than others. 

So I am really grateful that yesterday was not really THE day. Every day should count, and although we had a not-so-good-one, I am truly grateful to have another chance at my anniversary. A do-over. Tomorrow is the 29th, my 20 year anniversary. I will start it by being the first one to make the cappucino. We will get up together and enjoy the sunshine on our porch, and I will make it a better day.

Thank you God for your tender mercies that are new every morning…and second chances.

Hello again! I have been sooo missing the blog world. This has been a difficult adjustment for me to move over to a new blog site. I am still trying to figure out how to get aalll of that previous information and personal pieces of my life moved over with me. It is like leaving a comfortable pair of shoes. I got some prettier ones that are shinier and will impact more people, but I felt really at home in those old ones. They had carried me through a lot. So give me some time to adjust and navigate. I think my biggest challenge is that this all happened during the busiest month of my year!

I just came off the most fabulous weekend of SHINE!!! (Thank you for your support and friendship-Becky!!) -1400 girls and women, all singing accapella (when the instruments would fade for awhile) and it was just beautiful worship. There was so much unity in the teaching and such a sweet spirit. Ayiesha Woods, Lisa Bevere, Debra Cobrae, Pastor Kerri!! I really felt truly blessed to be there and was kicking myself that I had not dragged other girls thatI knew, since I have no daughters. But I decided to take advantage of the excellent price for next year and buy a ticket for someone. I plan on being a volunteer next year.

It was really freeing for me to show my butterfly paintings, with no intentions to sell them. I have not finished the series yet and want to have the broken series for an eventual show, so I just enjoyed them, talked to the ladies about butterflies and brokenness and so many were inspired and wanted to talk about their circumstances and just make a new friend. I loved it!!! Ifelt like the teaching, for me, was life-changing. You know, sometimes you just have an experience and learn some new things, or just get to see your life from an entirely new perpective, and you know you will never be the same. That is the way I felt coming out of there. I was changed. If not from the weekend, then SURELY from the 3 books I bought of Lisa Beveres.

I must admit, I am still trying to work through her book, “Fight like a girl”. Do not know why. …But the OUT OF CONTROL AND LOVING IT book, and the ANGER book, were compelling and I felt like it was her raw and gritty self, coming through the pages, the same one we got to know on stage. She is hilarious and relatable and I felt that we had so much in common with raising boys and marriage.

I also just spoke on a two day trip to Lakeland and Plant City..two womens clubs. The ladies were fabulous and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and sharing our story with them. I was hosted by a wonderful lady in plant city and so appreciated their hospitality. She was a hip grandmom and we stayed up till midnight like two school girls talking about life experiences and such.

I am still amazed at how much our story and Joshua’s life and message can impact others and hopefully plant some seeds of gratefulness, wherever I am invited.

But it was good to be back to my boys and all the ways that I am currently needed and purposed in my life right now. Flag football has started and teacher appreciation week with the PTO, and my art classes that  I love. My husband is needing me to help more with our nutraceutical business and I imagine that the speaking engagements will taper off  some after June.

I was telling a friend earlier today, that although we are in a season of oh-so-busy, there will be a day when we are on the porch in our rockers, twiddling our thumbs, and longing for the days back when we were so needed.

Must go. My husband is coming home late from a church meeting. DId I mention what a SHINE conference can do for your love life???

Thank you God for sweet, Godly counsel, 1400 girlfriends, and the insight for me to get there.

We are taking a class called Financial Peace university by Dave Ramsey. I read his great book last year but found that (for us personally) it does not make a hill of beans difference until both spouses are in full agreement and acountable to each other. The class would be KEY.
In the class we listen to his seminar for an hour, then have a group discussion. Dave is very captivating and teaches, not only about money, but opposite personalities -which we all can relate to!! He refers to them as the nerd and the free-spirit. Most couples have both.
I used to love to watch his show at 11 but then we decided to cut our costs on our cable bill, (from 800+ channels to 66) so I miss Dave, but thank you God for food network and discovery. So now I am still having to learn how to live on a (ooh, its so hard to even say the B word….b.u.d.g.e.t.), but I DO know how to decorate a cake to look like a guitar and find the edible insects with the most protein!!!
I highly recommend this class for everyone. I am putting together a new article on relationships for the website, since it is such an interesting topic that i already speak on, but I know that the root of sooo many couple’s challenges is how to handle finances together. It may not always be the lack of, but what do we do with what we have got? -Learning to be good stewards and in agreement.
Check out his course..You will be blessed.