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New Media to Buy for Yourself and Give Away: 4 Books and 2 Songs by My Talented Author Friends
The following is a short list of friends who put in the hard work and did what it took to launch their words into the world. Besides ordering these treats for yourself, they make great gifts for Mother’s Day, graduation, Father’s Day, birthdays, etc. Each image below is a link. In alphabetical order, so no one gets their feelers hurt…. Nicole O’Meara When Morning Dawns: The Hope of God’s Presence in Your Storm Nicole’s life changed the day her lungs started bleeding and she could barely breathe. If you or anyone you know battles chronic illness, this is a fantastic resource poised to encourage young and old alike. Nicole and…
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8 Simple Things We Can All Declutter and Donate Before Spring Cleaning Our Homes This Year
Lest you think I’ve mastered decluttering in my own home, let me assure you… it’s an ongoing battle. I mostly write these things to hold myself accountable, but I’m stoked you’re coming along with me today. This of course is not a complete list of what could be decluttered before spring cleaning. It’s just a nudge to help you start. And clearly, to help me start again too since I found more things I could easily part with! So here are my eight things to declutter instead of cleaning around them. Spring cleaning can happen next month. First, let’s work on getting rid of these…. 1. Outdated Electronics From VHS…
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Chronic Disappointment: 5 Ways Our Family Has Dealt with a Year of Long Covid Pain
This week marked one year. Also known as Long Haulers, this title is for people who still experience symptoms more than 4-12 weeks after being diagnosed with Covid-19. If we’d known our teenage son would go this far past three months of being sick, I’m pretty sure we would’ve bought stock in heat packs, ice packs, melatonin, back scratchers, electrolytes, muscle rub, and baby aspirin. Here are the five things we’ve done in order to deal with the never-ending pain and frustration. 1. Tests, Drugs, Pain Killers I gave western medicine a chance at the beginning for two reasons. One, to make sure our son Brock didn’t have anything life-threatening…
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Heart Attack vs. Acid Reflux: How Our Trip to the ER Taught Us the Difference and How To Be Prepared
After an hour and a half of sleep last Tuesday, I awoke to a gnarly feeling across my whole chest that grabbed both shoulders, clenched my ticker and wouldn’t let go. If that’s too manly of a description for ya, here’s a more feminine version: I felt a smidge of pressure around my décolleté with a petit side of warm fuzzies gently pushing on my heart. Any-way… the point is I couldn’t sleep. Back, side, front, other side—didn’t matter. I couldn’t get comfortable and the pain intensified so I finally got up. Within minutes I stood in our family room staring at my phone arguing with myself about whether or…
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5 Ways to Untangle Your Tinsel: Tackling Christmas Without Tackling Your Family
Ever found yourself stressed and annoyed at just the thought of getting ready for Christmas? I know—it can happen to anyone. Our culture tells us we can do it all but fails to equip us with the tools to get there. So when I catch myself thinking, “This year is going to be so much better than last!” I know high expectations are looming. Here are a few things I’ve started doing that help make this season a tad less hectic. Disclaimer: The way I created this list was by struggling with all five of these things. So don’t you dare think I have these mastered or even managed. I…
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My 4-Day Frustrating Forced Phone Fast: What I Learned in the Silence of Being Unplugged
Day: Saturday morning Location: Apple store Issue: Stripes on screen I stood on the curb at the quaint mall, 20 minutes before they opened, fifth in line. I hid my irritation around the nearby strangers, but inside I felt my nerves starting to get on each other. It’s fine. I’m sure it’ll be fine. It’s just stripes. A few stripes are fine. It’ll be fine, right? Oh my gosh—what if it’s not fine? “Hi. How can I help you?” I turned my phone in the man’s direction. “I have an issue.” “Ohhh, yes.” He tried to hide his best-guess diagnosis, but I knew he knew. My issue consisted of irregular…
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Leaves Turning 80: New Season, Old Skin, and an Organized Dental Office
My before-and-after title works better if you’re a Wheel of Fortune fan, I know. Lucky for me, my dad is a lifer. I grew up with the sound of an audience clapping and the tick, tick, ticking wheel coming from my parents’ room… Every. Single. Week night. The memory sits permanently nestled in my hippocampus with no plans of vacating the premises. Like, ever. Faithful as a sunset, the 7:00 show always caused a tug in my soul. Do homework or solve a puzzle with my dad? I didn’t love the show, per se, but the before-and-after category always sucked me in. See what I’m doing here? Turning leaves, Vanna…
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Baby Steps, Bob: How to Replace the Overwhelming Thing with the Next Thing
If you’ve seen one of my favorite movies, What About Bob, you know taking baby steps (literally) is what got Bob Wiley out of his own head. Repeating the words “baby steps” also got him on a bus, through a sliding door, and on a boat… all things that previously terrified him. Similarly, if you’ve read Bob Goff’s books or listened to his podcast, you know he loves the word ambition. Always challenging people, he does a great job of encouraging his audience to figure out what they want and go for it. Sounds effortless coming from a man who already possesses ambition… and a bank account to back up…
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September Fire, Welcome Rain: The Disaster in SoCal This Week and How Your Family Can Help
If you hadn’t heard of the town of Hemet before the 5th of September, you’re not alone. Nestled inland from the Temecula Valley and Riverside, it’s not exactly a vacation destination. It’s the town we go through to get to Palm Springs, Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead. If you’ve never been there, here’s some context: And just a few miles away sits the de facto international Scientology headquarters; a huge and bizarre compound you would not want to be a part of. Combine all that with a handful of garage meth labs, a growing fentanyl problem and one of the highest homeless populations in Riverside County. So it hasn’t exactly…
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Dealing with Disappointment: 5 Things I Learned from a Rough Family Vacation Last Week
I know, I know. Simply being on vacation should be reason enough to not complain, right? Having money to pay for gas, a cabin, and fun activities should override any thoughts of disappointment if it didn’t go as you planned. Aaaaand there’s the issue: it didn’t go as I planned. Before you roll your eyes and label me “entitled,” hear me out. I realize none of us actually deserve to go on vacations. The majority of the world has probably never come close to even having such thoughts. But since I live in middle-class America and my husband and I both work hard to be able to play, here we…
