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I woke up this morning with the Hot Dog Story on my heart.
The original story happened in the summer of 2008. My kids were in preschool. I wish I had the exact date circled on my calendar because it’s the day in my life that mom guilt transformed into mom grace.
I had no way of knowing it, but I was forever changed by the hot dog incident.
When I first shared my pea salad recipe in the summer of 2012, I shared a recipe that makes two servings. It’s perfect for everyday family life. It doesn’t leave leftovers – yay!
But for holiday gatherings and crowd pleasing picnic or barbecue buffets, I need to scale the recipe up.
Since my pea salad tends to be a popular item on Pinterest around the holidays, I thought I’d share the scaled up quantities for the best pea salad ever.
(for more photos and the original recipe, check out this post on the best pea salad ever)
When my kids were little, I didn’t do anything intentional for developing character in children. It just kind of happened along the way. As they grew older, I relied on the influence of church and Christian schooling to help mold their characters.
It wasn’t like I didn’t care. I didn’t know how.
This fall, as we began our homeschooling journey, the idea of character education threatened to overwhelm me. I felt a huge burden to be intentional in developing good character traits and habits in my sons. I did a ton of reading and researching and praying on the subject. At the end of that obsession, I’m happy to say I found answers.
What I learned about character education applies to everyone. Not just homeschoolers. Not just moms with young kids. Not just kids. It applies to everyone. Even me.
This is my third installment of gifts every mom needs (and can give herself). No matter your budget, age, size, or hair color I can promise you that these gifts are a perfect fit!
In 2012, I shared a guest post on Mothering From Scratch and recommended that every mom give herself the gifts of Simplicity, Significance, and Perspective.
In 2013, I suggested that every mom give herself the gifts of Grace, Laughter, and Peace.
It’s 2014 and I’ve dreamed up three new gifts to give yourself.
Character is generally defined as
the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.
Beyond that, character is generally thought of as “doing the right thing even when no one else is looking.” Without really intending to, many of us have generalized that character is something we develop when bad things happen in our lives. Or we think of it as part of a long list of things we need to teach our children.
Character is so much more than that.
I recently was reading a passage in the book of James and lingered on
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. (James 4:8a)
When I first read the verse, it brought a very clear memory into view. [Read more…]
Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to you and yours. I hope your day was blessed beyond all expectations.
I’ve been busy hostessing – baking and mashing and roasting and all the fun things that come when you host family for a few days. Now that the pies are eaten and the food is put away, I’m sitting down for the first time all day to catch my breath.
In honor of Thanksgiving AND my 15th wedding anniversary, I’m taking a day or two off from blog-land. I’ll be back Monday (or sooner).
Susan
Really. If you are a hostess for a major holiday (like say… Thanksgiving or Christmas) you NEED to buy some M&M’s. Trust me. Send someone out to get them while you finish reading this post.
I’ll wait.
Ready?
Good.
I’ve been on this multi-day journey to Thanksgiving. It started when I asked a group of bloggers to share their best post on thankfulness.
In a season of hectic cooking and cleaning, I was hoping for a little breath of fresh air. What I got was a hurricane. It’s absolutely changed my heart and renewed my soul.
After the first two days, I wasn’t quite sure what God had in store for me. (You may not believe it, but I’ve listed the blogs in the EXACT order that they were given to me.)
It started when I asked other bloggers to share their own Thanksgiving stories. It became a journey of gratitude and transformation.
I only made it through five posts yesterday, but those posts changed my heart.
I have to admit that I approached the remaining list of posts shared by fellow bloggers with a mixture of fear, expectation, and awe.
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