Guided By Grace Life Coaching

Caught up in the mundane. Busy with the essentials. Blessed beyond measure. Yep. That about sums up my life. Yours too? Know this: I am not writing this post with a spirit of complaining. I look around and very quickly realize just how blessed I am. I am just busy keeping my plates spinning. Trying not to worry about which one will fall. Crossing my fingers that none of them really will. Such is the life of a Mom, right?! As I write this, I'm listening to a great talk by Andrew Kern ( listen to it here ). He is talking about the culture that we live in. He says that we are a culture full of anxiety. Yes. When I get caught up in the spinning plates, that's what I'm feeling. Anxiety. One of the things he challenges us to do (and which I want to make my personal "summer homework") is to take Philippians 4:8 and write each adjective onto an index card. Then, we are to take only 1 minute a day to write about what comes to mind when we think about living our liv...

I do believe summer is around the corner! These warmer temps are making me get excited for the reality of a much slower schedule this summer. Summers are normally always slower for us (that is, compared to the school year), but this summer - we're working even harder than normal to keep lots of white space on the calendar. This Momma is burned out! Well, I'm feeling much better now that the roar of basketball season & CC are behind us. Even though Little League is also a busy time of year, having the more relaxed pace of school during the day makes them not feel so rushed. Plus, it's only 6 weeks of busy-ness instead of 6 months. Although, as I type this, Luke is having his guitar lesson and I've got fajita stuff simmering on the stove so we can have a quick bite to eat before we head out for Mikayla's game and Luke's team pictures. But, just the fact that I have brain cells left to blog means that things must be slower. As we finish out the school year (t...

So, I am realizing that I have a problem with over-booking myself. I mean a chronic problem. I'm not talking about double-booking either. I mean just plain putting too many things on the calendar each week.  I have heard from many people that creating white space on the calendar is one of the best things we homeschool moms need to do. It's really rather funny that this is an issue. I mean, after all, isn't lack of socialization a common reason non-homeschoolers list for why homeschooling wouldn't work for their kids? Right. I have yet to meet a homeschooler who has any problems in this area. The problem...is staying home! The reason I feel the need to blog about this today is that we've just reached one of those "it will be good when" moments in our schedule. You know, "It will be good when ____ is over. We'll have more time for ___." You probably have those too. For several weeks I've been thinking how much more time I'll have to: ...

Ahhh...a beautiful thing has transpired since my last post: another great season of homeschool basketball has come to an end. I always know that basketball season is going to be busy.  I try to mentally prepare myself. I do truly enjoy all the people and the places it takes us. But, by the time we get through four months of twice a week practices (times two), 30+ games between the two teams, and one ultra-intense two-day tournament to finish it all off...it's time to take a break! And, so we did. This basketball season was book-ended by a family vacation (on purpose). Shanty Creek before, and Florida after. The BEST vacation I get every year is when we head to Florida. There my Mom is waiting to spoil us rotten. Maybe me more than anyone. For one week, I don't have to worry about meal-planning, cooking, or even laundry. It's the best! Regardless of the weather, this trip is a hit. So here I am now, all refreshed and relaxed. Looking at more white space on my calendar ...

It's January in Michigan and the sun is shining. That makes this a GLORIOUS day! I'm enjoying some quiet time and bursting with excitement about how the Lord is answering my prayers. I couldn't wait to share them with you! One of my 2012 goals was to: spend more regular time in prayer in the mornings after Dave leaves for work AND to reach a deeper level of connectedness with my "Tween" twins. I'm nearly in tears now thanking God for such swift & obvious answers to both of those. Let me back up... Even though we homeschool, I sometimes feel like my kids are growing up so fast that I don't even really get to fully "know" them. Life seems to be so constantly busy that weeks and months go by without me feeling like we're getting any quality 1-on-1 time. I found myself at the beginning of January feeling this overwhelming sense of urgency to re-connect with my kids. Particularly the twins. I know how important these "tween" year...

As I was reading through my personalized Verseability cards (see previous post), I came across this verse: "Jennifer, the Lord your God, will make up for the losses caused by those things in your past that have brought you disgrace and harm." Joel 2:25 This verse resonated with me so much! One of the things that seems to weigh heaviest on my mind is our finances. I'm so thankful for the blessings and provisions that God provides us daily. I'm also never too far away from the pit of guilt and shame caused by some pretty poor financial decisions from the past. I'm working to stop that crazy cycle. We're working to become debt free. Progress is slow, but still progress. This week, though, I had a dream that was all about a scary financial place. I can tell that the enemy is trying to keep me in a bad place. Trying to keep me stuck in the rut of guilt, shame, and worry. And then God spoke to me through this verse. A verse I didn't even remember ever hear...