S Club Mama

Long ago, a woman decided to become a stay-at-home mom. She had zero domestic skill and very little (and hard-earned) mothering instincts. She struggled through learning how to clean toilets and change sheets (anyone else with a short wing-span find this exhausting?!), how to play with baby read stories over and over and over because playing is boring (don't judge). Slowly she learned to love the mothering thing - singing baby songs and preschool songs and reading books over and over and over. She caught onto their love of Superheroes and made them love Star Wars. She loved to play outside with them, pushing them on swings, watching them run through sprinklers or slip and slides. She hung up works of art (some questionable) and kissed boo-boos (and put band-aids on everything because apparently they don't just stop blood but make life all butterflies and rainbows again) and picked up cars and trains and capes. Yet the household thing was still a mystery. Forgetting to vacu

Countdown to Moose's surgery is 5 days. In 5 days he will be tumor-free. We will not know for another year if he is completely seizure free - unless he has one within that time. This past year has been hard and we have been so thankful to have our hope not put into doctors or medicine or well-wishes but in our Heavenly Father. He loves Moose so much more and completely than we do. He knows the best for him; has plans made out for his life. He knows the outcome of this surgery and every step we will take during this waiting period and the waiting period to come. I don't know about you, but His Sovereignty (a fancy way of saying, all-power) gives me great comfort. When I had a chance to read "Steadfast Love" by Lauren Chandler , I knew I was in for a treat. In 2009, her husband Matt (pastor at The Village Church in Dallas, Texas) was just finishing feeding their baby daughter when he had a grand mal seizure (big, convulsing). They quickly found out that he had a mali

If you’ve always wanted or been interested in a Roku, here’s your chance.  Feeln has a great giveaway contest that you can enter next week.  WIN a Roku® Streaming Stick® and watch full episodes of the new heart-felt series ‘The Eleventh’ on Feeln!!!  To enter go to:  bit.ly/StreamingWeek Feeln premiered their heartfelt television series “The Eleventh” last week.  The series stars tv legends Cloris Leachman, Ed Asner, Florence Henderson, and newcomer Ren Harris.  I enjoyed the first episode of this wonderful series.   If you missed my review of the series, please check it out here (attach a link to your review) And for those who may still be unfamiliar - Feeln is the leading streaming service that brings you heartfelt stories of love and togetherness, anytime, anywhere. All movies are handpicked so you spend less time searching and more time with the stories you love. Feeln brings home the exclusive library of Hallmark Hall of Fame features, Hollywood movies and TV seri

Feeln.com is a steaming service (think Netflix, Amazon Prime) that brings you feel good stories, heartfelt stories, including Hallmark Hall of Fame, Hollywood films, tv series, and original series you won't find on other streaming sites. Tomorrow on May 5th, Feeln is releasing it's new original series, The Eleventh. I had the opportunity to screen the first two episodes so I could share with you about them! My first applause is that the series' episodes are only 12-minutes long. And in those twelve minutes, they did a fantastic job of catching my attention. Granted, I love tv so maybe I'm just an easy target, but regardless, the end of the second episode left me in a cliffhanger and I cannot wait to see how it turns out. “The Eleventh” is a Feeln original drama series that focuses on a young girl’s journey to getting to know her estranged grandmother in order to bring closure to the past and unite her family. The acting was really good. I'm used to seeing Clo

I am an introvert-extrovert. Sounds odd but my friend, Cari, is too. Following this oddness I have many friends (as an extrovert would) but I have a small band of close friends (as would an introvert). I love my girls very dearly and never have enough time with them. "The Gift of Friendship" edited by Dawn Camp is a compilation of stories shared from many women (only a few names were familiar to me: Holley Gerth, Liz Curtis Higgs, Tsh Oxenreider, Crystal Paine, Myquillyn Smith, and Lysa TerKeurst) about their friendships. Each story was a grand reminder of how awesome it is to be loved and to love girl friends. image via Amazon I believe I read this book at just the right time. I have felt...not lonely necessarily but kind of a in a funk with a new baby. I just have very little energy to pour into friendships so I haven't reached out like I normally would (maybe this is my introvert self taking charge). However, I am so blessed with a few key friends who have rea

As Mother's Day approaches, there seem to be many things online that have made me cry: a post from JJ Heller's girls encouraging mothers and Nichole Nordemen's song, "Slow Down," and the accompanying video. Tear jerkers. Look them up on YouTube and you will not be sorry (unless you hate crying and then ignore this paragraph). Anyway, Karen Kingsbury has written two books that are tear jerkers, too. "Forever My Little Girl" and "Forever My Little Boy" are cute momento-type books that remind us how fast childhood goes. image via Amazon In each, the parents have just had their little boy or little girl and realize what a gift from God he or she is. There are prayers throughout the book to correspond with each developmental stage. So fast you flip through from babyhood to toddler to school age to marriage. It's an emotional rollercoaster...just like real life. I've watched my big boys grow so fast from babies to elementary age, I c

I read a whole lot of books of varying genres. My favorite non-fiction books are the ones that read like fiction, like you're actually talking with the author. That is what it's like to read a book by Annie F. Downs. She's like your best friend, mentor, and big sister rolled into one. You laugh with her and cry and go "oh" at deep thoughts. Her new book, "Looking for Lovely" has not disappointed me in this aspect. I've enjoyed every second of reading through. image via Amazon There were many times in the book when I starred a paragraph or dog-eared a page or underlined a sentence or two. And not only things that resonated with me, but things I think may resonate with my loved ones. When she wrote "I grew up with a lot of shame...Satan started early with me, whispering into my ear that things were my fault, that I should be so embarrassed when I made a mistake, that I wasn't good enough or strong enough to be who everyone else thought I