I am a gatherer of resources, a sharer of information to help you find happiness right where you are. Especially in those really irritating places where you wonder if you can get through the day without doing something you’ll regret. I am starting this weekly series—Saturday Sips—as a way to share the multitude […]
Budgeting: Love it or hate it?
January 8, 2014 By
It’s a new month and the new year. That means it’s time for a new budget. Woohoo! Wait—Did you not join me in my celebratory whoop? Does that mean you approach budgeting the same way you approach a spoonful of medicinal cod liver oil? You know, you stick out your tongue, make disgusting noises, and […]
Marriage: What story do you want to tell?
January 6, 2014 By 5 Comments
Last week I discovered this wonderful question: What story do you want to tell about {fill in the blank} in the future? Then, yesterday at church the pastor said this: Everything becomes ordinary. I was struck by the relationship between the two in regards to marriage. In the beginning, your […]
What Driver’s Ed teaches you about solving problems
January 1, 2014 By 7 Comments
When you took Driver’s Education in high school, you were taught to be aware of all your surroundings so you would be safe behind the wheel. As you looked ahead, you scanned the traffic and the roadsides. You glanced regularly at your rear view mirror, where you kept an eye on the vehicles and the […]
How to make better decisions using Walk Away Shoes
December 2, 2013 By
We’ve all made decisions we’ve regretted. Just look at the clothes and hairstyles we thought were the most amazing ever for our senior high school portraits. While we can’t go back in time and make a different choice, we can learn how to make better decisions for our future. Going through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University […]
5 Steps to reduce stress this Christmas season
November 30, 2013 By
Let’s do a quick test. In the next few, short weeks: Several people will surprise you with gifts, and you have none for them. You discover you have double-booked yourself—more than once—for holiday events. You will learn on Christmas morning you will be hosting ten additional guests for dinner that night. If these thoughts make […]
Making room for white space
November 25, 2013 By 10 Comments
Do you make room for white space in your life? This graphic design term is a great metaphor for how we choose to live. To quote graphic designer/publisher Fred Showker of DT&G: White space is important because it refines a design and gives the other elements, image and type, room to exist. Did […]
Discovering Joy: It’s up to you, but not about you, Pt 2
November 13, 2013 By 23 Comments
Welcome to the second half of Discovering Joy. If you missed the first, you can read it here. I wrote previously: I learned that really getting the most out of Allume (a recent blogging conference I attended), or any other gathering in life, really learning to discover joy right where we are, is that it is up to us, but […]
Discovering Joy: Turning neuroses into new roses Pt 1
November 11, 2013 By 20 Comments
Let’s see a show of hands: Who wants to go to a gathering of hundreds of strangers, where you don’t know anyone in real life, many who are more accomplished in their careers than you, have more friends, are more famous, well-spoken, fashionable, thinner, and especially aren’t just so darn plain-Jane average like you? Nobody? We […]
Let your caged bird sing!
November 5, 2013 By 3 Comments
We are all afraid of something, especially if we haven’t found our special something. Especially if we go to work, day after day, and are emptied rather than fulfilled. We wonder if this is all there is. And then we beat ourselves up for not being grateful enough for what we do have. Been there, got the […]
