START ACCEPTING GRACIOUSLY AND STOP REFUSING HELP

Until we can receive with an open heart, we’re never really giving with an open heart. When we attach judgment to receiving help, we knowingly or unknowingly attach judgment to giving help.” ~ Brene Brown ~

I don’t ask others for help. I don’t e...

#WCW MARY BETH'S STORY

What do you call a mom and a successful Physician’s Assistant who leaves her career and moves her family literally around the globe to Ghana, Africa?  Mary Beth.  You call her Mary Beth, because she is an everyday wife and mother just like you and I who had the courage to tak...

BUY LESS STUFF TO MAKE MORE MEMORIES

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt ~

Ah, the holidays, a time for giving, receiving, and most likely overspending. Data suggests th...

THE POWER OF TRADITIONS

“Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho.” ~ John McClane ~ 

In our house, it is not Christmas until Hans Gruber gets thrown off Nakotomi Towers. Santa, Christmas carols, and twinkly lights ain’t got nothing on John McClane. Every year we watch this movie and every year I feel t...

ALONG WITH GUILT, COMPARISON, AND EXPECTATIONS

There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.” ~ Erma Bombeck ~

In my house, about 99.9% of Christmas magic making falls to me. I’ve always taken this job seriously since there are few things more special to ...

AND DONE WORRYING ABOUT HOW TO BE A GOOD MOM

“The very fact that you worry about being a good mom means you already are one.” ~ Jodi Picoult ~

I’ve wanted to be a good mother since I was a little girl. I imagined a big happy family, chicken roasting in the oven on Sundays, homemade lunches with sc...

#WCW RACHAEL'S STORY

Rachael’s story is a powerful reminder of our ability to overcome life’s hardest setbacks with bravery, love, and utter fearlessness. When Rachael and her husband couldn’t conceive a much wanted baby, even with all the help science had to offer, they found the courage to let go...

AND HOW TO PRACTICE BEING GRATEFUL IN YOUR DAILY LIFE

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” ~ Melody...

WHAT I WISH I KNEW BEFORE KIDS

“I don’t know what’s more exhausting about parenting; the getting up early, or acting like you know what you’re doing.” ~ Jim Gaffigan ~

Parenting four kids while trying to keep my identity and sanity is by far the hardest thing I have ever done.  It wasn’t drugs, or...