Virtuous Woman
While on our vacation in New York City, we stopped by the Rockefeller Center. It's an iconic place to visit and surrounded by high end stores. We found ourselves walking into one jewelry store and were oohing and awing the entire time. One of the pieces was a ruby bracelet...gorgeous and extravagantly-priced, too! A ruby is a traditional gem like an emerald or a diamond. How many of us, if we wanted to purchase of one these spectacular pieces of jewelry, would be able to? I'll check in with my husband, but I have an inkling his answer rhymes with
Healthy Habits To Start Today
Summer is winding down and fall is in the air. That means we just have a few more months of 2024! If you’re like me, you’re wondering how has this year has gone by so quickly? As we start to get back into our routines with school and work, I want to encourage you to do something to improve your overall physical health before the end of this year. I’ve been on somewhat of a health journey for the past 2 years. I have learned and am continuing to learn something new almost every day. I have found that making
A Fight to the Finish Line
When I am about to embark on something new or momentous, I set out with great anticipation and excitement. Yet, I have found myself feeling like it has just been a fight to the finish line. This summer, my family and I were able to enjoy a beautiful vacation. We were filled with excitement. The weather was beautiful and God’s grandeur was all around us to soak in. After a ride that felt like forever, we arrived at our first stop. Among the towering trees and majestic mountains, there was a suspension bridge. We were captivated. We watched hundreds of
Jabez- the One who prayed that Prayer
Four years ago, in the height of Covid, masks and social distancing, my son left for college. We weren’t sure what the next four years would hold. He wasn’t sure either. Would he make friends? Good friends? I mean the right kind of friends? And in a world where everyone is either staring down at their phone and/or wearing a mask (and you can’t tell if they’re smiling or scowling), would it be even possible to make new friends? For the first few weeks of school, every time we spoke on the phone, I’d ask the same set of questions.
Relationship
Competition is in my blood. My parents were both competitive students growing up and it got passed down to their children. One of our favorite things to do in Sunday School was memory verse competition. The student who recited the most number of verses won First Place. The weeks leading to the big day were spent feverishly repeating verses over and over. Game faces on (our Sunday school smiles), we would walk up to the mic and fire away. While I didn't get top prize every time, that was always my goal. That's one of the reasons I have memorized
You Better Work!
Job is one of my favorite books of the Bible. (Does that make me crazy?) It has all the makings of a great novel- character establishment, conflict, villains, and a happy ending. When God finally answers Job, the prose is so beautiful. It reads like poetry. The imagery is so vivid and moving. This time, as I read along with our Old Testament reading plan, I had some different insight. Maybe it's the season of life I'm in. Maybe God is really trying to drill home a lesson to me. Maybe I'm lazy. During the course of the book, Job
The Season is Now
I recently came across some thoughts from Pastor Craig Groeschel that made me stop mid scroll. He wrote… “Someone needs to be reminded to be careful not to wish away the season you once prayed for. You may be living in the middle of an answered prayer and not even realize it. For me, it’s easy to be focused on something in the future. ‘One day when…’ is a common way I’d start my sentences or think in my mind. Lots of ‘one days’ have come and gone. Now I’m trying to tell myself, ‘This is the day I’ve been
People Are Like Shoes
Confession: I was a big fan of the show “Friends”. (Please don’t judge me.) If you are willing to admit that you were too, which “friend” did you relate to the most? If you have known me for 2 months or 2 decades, it probably didn’t take long to figure out that I am Monica. Cleaning makes me happy (True story: I was so excited to start using my new Swiffer duster that I actually took a pic with it.) Everything has a home and every space has a coaster. And bonus, I married my best friend, too. 🙂 If
Teamwork
When I was a newlywed, I quickly discovered how different my husband and I were about tackling household tasks. We each had our own style of folding laundry. We had different definitions of what tidy looks like. My thought was, “I’ll just do it all by myself!” However, the Lord humbled me and showed me how to take the best from each of our methods and work together. Don’t get me wrong - there was a learning curve, but there has been peace and joy as we divide and conquer based on our strengths. God truly helped us to see
The Little Ducklings
My neighborhood is an entire ecosystem. Behind our house, there is a farm with cows and a donkey. There is a pond on the farm that is home to some ducks. On the street behind us, several of the homes have chicken coops. We've caught two snakes in our garage and found a few turtles in the culverts. Early in the morning you can often here the high pitched screeching of coyotes, and we have the usual rabbits, squirrels and occasional skunks. One day, I was in a rush to drop my kids off and there were two geese, just
