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Community
Recently, my sisters and I threw a surprise birthday party for our parents. While reflecting on that day, what really struck me was the powerful sense of community. The room was filled with people my parents would want there the most—their family, siblings, close friends, and even their neighbor, who also happens to be my dad’s best friend since high school. There are people in your life who have just always been there, and for our family, that’s their neighbor. He’s an amazing man who has loved me like one of his own. He’s walked with my parents through it all—losses, surgeries, weddings, births, and every high and low in…
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A New Respect
A New Respect My younger sister has been a registered nurse for the last fifteen years or so. She’s an incredible nurse—and truly an incredible person. She’s always been one of my biggest cheerleaders, and we’ve always been close. So when she was in nursing school and asked me to help her study for an exam, it was a no-brainer. Now, I like to think of myself as a smart person. I’m a licensed elementary teacher. I have a reading endorsement on that license. I even took a class focused purely on phonics—relearning them myself and learning how to teach them to others. But the moment I started reading over…
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Teens and Tech
Raising Kids in the Digital Age We live in a time of information. Everything we could ever imagine—and beyond—is right at our fingertips. All we have to do is Google what we want to know and boom, we have answers. But it’s also a time when a simple Google search can take us down a dark and heartbreaking road. That’s one of the reasons we’ve chosen to hold off on giving our younger children phones. The Risks Are Real I’ve seen it too many times—parents giving their child a phone with the best of intentions, only for things to go south quickly. Social media can be a great way to…
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Fourth of July
Independence Day is a very special day. It marks the moment our country became a nation—when we were set free from the chains of England. July 4th, 1776 may be considered our nation’s birthday, but I believe the real Independence Day is the day Jesus died on the cross. Jesus’s death made our ultimate freedom possible. God came down from His throne in Heaven to be with us—to free us from ourselves and the bondage of sin. Much like our Founding Fathers, our Father in Heaven knew we needed saving. We needed freedom from the chains we had been bound to. Jesus came to bring us that freedom. He was…
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The Stress of Farming
Farming isn’t easy. There are breakdowns—mentally, emotionally, and physically. And for the farmer’s wife, it’s even harder watching it all unfold, knowing you’ve both been doing everything you can to keep the farm running. There’s the physical breakdown. Getting the call or text saying something’s broken and a parts run is needed is nerve-wracking. I have to drop what I’m doing and race out of wherever I am so my farmer can get back up and running. How many places will I need to go to find the part? Will John Deere still be open? Will I need to go to Menards? Where do I even start? Sometimes, even my…
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Marriage isn’t Easy
I can’t be an easy person to be married to. I mean, I’m anxious. I love Diet Dr. Pepper. I like the air conditioner set to sixty-eight degrees. I’m his passenger princess. I hog the blankets and the bed. My poor husband fears for his life most nights because I’m such an active sleeper. But that’s the thing—marriage isn’t easy. Adam and Eve had to go and make everything difficult for all of us. But if it were easy, would it even be worth it? When you weather storms and come out on the other side, doesn’t it make you stronger? Doesn’t it build perseverance? And in hindsight, aren’t you…
