You’re driving at night. Headlights guiding through the winding roads, illuminating your path. You notice your vision becoming obscured by an ominous fog. You are driving down a road that you have gone down hundreds of times to get back home. The fog thickens and you begin to worry as your headlights can no longer guide you. So, you slow down, begin to question if you actually know the way the road is supposed to go. Your feelings of anxiety and uneasiness strengthen, and your confidence ...read more
Running Away From Those Thoughts
I’m currently training for a marathon which, believe it or not, is a lot less dramatic than it sounds. When I hear “marathon runner,” I typically think of some sleek, fast, athlete type who zips along with a 7:30 mile time and barely breaks a sweat. Personally, I can’t walk the next day if I try to run a full mile in one go (and, believe me, I am not fast - my mile time is barely at 10:30). I am about as far from that stereotype of a marathon runner as one can get. I hear you wondering how I ...read more
What Is this Feeling?
“I think I’m going to throw up.” “I think I’m having a heart attack.” “I can’t breathe.” “It’s like a wave of despair.” “I was seeing red.” All these statements, made by past clients of mine, have something in common: all are related to experiencing intense, sudden emotions that may come out of nowhere or may have a clear trigger. In either situation, they are overwhelming and make it incredibly difficult to function as one needs to. These intense waves of emotion can be disorienting and ...read more
Counseling for Your Child & What to Expect
If you’re a parent considering bringing your child to counseling, you might be wondering how a counselor can possibly help your child. You might be wondering what to tell your child or what you should expect. You also might be wondering what your role will be—or if you will have a role at all! If you’re considering counseling for your child, I want to commend you because it is never easy to ask for help, and beginning this process can be confusing. Because I work with kiddos of all ages, I’d ...read more
TRUE Self-Care for Overwhelmed Adults & Parents
We hear the term self-care all the time. More often than not, we are probably joking about our lack of self-care, but something I see so often is a misunderstanding of what self-care really means. And let me tell you, when I finally realized its true meaning—woah. It was like a switch flipped. I was surprised at all of the self-care that I had been unintentionally doing in the past few weeks—because I didn’t realize what basic self-care was. Spoiler alert: It’s not just about bubble baths and ...read more
Through the Fire and Coming Out Refined
Being refined. Stripped of all that I knew...All that I held on to. Often thinking to myself "I'll be ok once I know what my new-normal is"...only to realize there wasn't such a thing. Purifying....Sanctifying....Refining.... The title of this blog series first came to me when my late husband Matthew was in the hospital after brain surgery that had not gone so well. I was speaking to a newspaper reporter who had contacted me regarding Matthew's situation and prognosis. Really, at the time I ...read more
From Broken to Blended… Be Intentional, Be Engaging
Living with Intention...... definitely one of the first "must haves" for any Blended Family to be on the path to success. The parents MUST both decide to be intentional in their everyday lives. This takes some planning, you can't be "intentional on the fly". It is about pre-deciding how you plan to interact with those in your home, what your goal/expectation is and how you plan to get there. Most stepparents have goals/expectations, they just don't pre plan or decide how they will ...read more
From Broken to Blended… Must Have’s for Success
Happy New Year!!! The series on from Broken to Blended continues through the month of January. There will also be additional blog topics throughout the week that I hope will stimulate conversation, inspire hope, and get us thinking about "life things" a little deeper. Those blog posts will be for anyone and everyone. Those will begin to be sent out next week. I am very excited about where the Lord is leading me tos share with you the grace and mercy along with some strong convictions He ...read more
The Simple Life
We All Long For It.... But What Does It Really Look Like?? I might be wrong, but I think in today's culture we tend to look at the Simple Life as less responsibility, fwer time contraints being free to do as we wish when we want to, or possibly even not being tied down to one particular place, job or person. I would like to challenge that picture of simplicity if I can It is something my husband and I mention and joke about, to be honest, as we are busy in the hustle and bustle ...read more
Perseverance
Happy New Year!!! The series on from Broken to Blended continues through the month of January. There will also be additional blog topics throughout the week that I hope will stimulate conversation, inspire hope, and get us thinking about "life things" a lithe deeper. Those blog posts will be for anyone and everyone. Those will begin to be sent out next week. I am very excited about where the Lord is leading me to share with you the grace and mercy along with some strong convictions He has ...read more