Home decorating doesn’t need to be expensive or overwhelming. Start small and see how you can personalize your house into your home. No matter where we are in life, how many people live in our home or how old they are, we all want a home that fits what we need, want, and like! Often we don’t know where to start or what makes a room “work,” so we try to change everything, all at once—and often end up regretting it. It seems like interior decorators have some magic touch we’ll never have. But as a decorator myself, I’m here to tell you, it’s not true! Decorating is a skill you can learn, starti ..read more

Now that spring is in full swing, we’ve got spring cleaning and organization on our minds! We’ve gathered 6 books on cleaning, organizing, decluttering, and time management to get your spring off to a great start. Once we get that itch to deep clean, tidy up, and purge unnecessary items from our houses, we can’t stop until we’ve started working on at least one cleaning project or another. Sometimes the whole house ends up getting rearranged in the end, but either way, it feels so nice to have a fresh start, clear surfaces, and maybe some new tools in our cleaning repertoire. Time Organizing T ..read more

Learn more about creating a beautiful and clutter-free home on a budget, loving your home, and investing in it. What if you don’t love the home you happen to have in this season? What if it’s in the wrong neighborhood? Or it doesn’t look like the farmhouse home you’ve imagined in your head? What if it’s a rental or military housing? Well, here’s the truth. There is no perfect home. There really isn’t. The House You Have Now But there is the home that you have right now. The one that God has provided for you in this season. And you and I both can learn to truly love our homes in spite of all t ..read more

The baby years are years to cherish and be present in. Here are some practical things you can do to stay present and capture the joy. I have seven children, and during the baby years, I felt like I would be changing diapers forever. But the truth is, the baby years flew by. The days of having an infant look at me as if I was the most beautiful woman in the world are long gone. Nobody besides Jesus will adore you the same way your infants do, and this season of your life is worth savoring. It’s worth marking and remembering and taking time to smell and feel and love these years. Be all here an ..read more

Why do we feel that what’s limiting to us is a bad thing? Maybe it’s a way of remembering we don’t need to be all things all the time. We all have them: life limitations. They look different for me than they do for my best friend or for my neighbor. But all of us have this commonality: there is a life we dream of (daily) and another that we live — and we wrestle with the gap between them. We all subtly ask the question that we don’t often name out loud: where is God when what I imagined for my life right now isn’t what I’m living at two o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon? It was two o’clock on a ..read more

See what a blessing it is to gather your grandchildren together in one place for a fun time of relationship-building and great fun!! Recently I was asked,  “Susan, looking back over your whole life, what is one of the things for which you are most thankful?” Without hesitating I responded, “the Cousin and Family Camps we’ve had with our kids.” For eleven years my husband John and I hosted a “Cousin Camp” for our grandchildren. What is Cousin Camp? We began with five grands from our three oldest families and the last few years, we had all twenty-one grands from all five families. You must ..read more

Do you struggle with letting go of control and holding on to things too tightly? You may want control because you have a fear of the unknown, and thinking about the future makes you anxious. Or maybe it’s a different reason for you, but here’s the truth: God literally has the whole world in His hands. Once you rest in that fact, you can finally start loosening anxiety’s grip over you. Think about it for a moment. The control you’re clinging to, my bet is it’s making you even more anxious.  He Cares for You First Peter 5:7 is a popular verse, and I’m sure you’ve heard it recited to you by ..read more

Check out this list of books and devotionals that encourage us to love our kids more deeply and teach them about God’s truth for Easter. The celebration of Jesus’ resurrection at Easter is just a few short weeks away and with it the opportunity to fill up your child’s Easter basket with stories that will remind them of God’s love! We’ve gathered below a list of some of our favorite Christian children’s books to encourage your child’s faith and growth this spring. What better way to prepare to celebrate the real joy of Easter with your kids?  We didn’t forget about the parents, either! Wi ..read more

How can you experience more joy in your life? Are you sabotaging your joy? There are three things you can practice right were you are. When we think of celebration, we tend to picture a joyful reaction to good news or a reward for an accomplishment. We wait for a reason to celebrate. As a result, we often see our joy sitting on the other side of a dream realized or a goal achieved. Certainly, good news, accomplishments, and dreams are worthy of celebration. But if these were our only permission slips for joy, celebration would be an experience for the lucky few who happen to enjoy favorable c ..read more

Godly marriages are set apart for the glory of God. They have specific standards laid out in Scripture to produce fruit. We aren’t meant to do things the way culture does. God has specifically given us ways to live, not only as a married couple but also as followers of Christ. It’s not about a set of rules but a holy standard of living that we learn to desire as we grow in our relationship with God. These standards are often quite different from those of the world’s. Some are so different that they feel upside-down to our current culture. Do not be deceived. Just because you are Christian, do ..read more