Hey there!  Here’s a picture of me and my family.  I love this photo, and it make me laugh because although we may look “perfect” the reality was I was yelling at everyone the whole time and stressing everyone out because I REALLY wanted a perfect family beach photo.  I have no idea how everyone managed realistic looking smiles!   Mom fail, but good pic… and a reminder that I’m simply never gonna be perfect!  

I resigned from my role as a senior engineer at P&G ten years ago, and haven’t looked back.  The years when my kids were young were VERY hard at times, but I’m glad I was able to stay home with them.  Now that everyone is at school all day, I prayerfully ask God what it is He has for me to do.  He’s led me to some awesome opportunities to grow, to serve Him, and to serve the community in which I live.  I lead a women’s bible study community at my church, I’m a volunteer counselor for women who need a friendly ear at the Eve Center, my husband and I are on the prayer team together and love to find ways to serve together, oh ya, and I’m occasionally a foster “dog” mom.   

Yes! The season of Lent is fast approaching (it’s March 1st this year), and I have a challenge for everyone to consider taking on…

How about using this season of Lent to get more familiar with the Bible?   How about using 40 days during lent to “read” all 39 books of the Old Testament and 1 book from the New Testament in around 10 minutes or less per day?

How awesome would it be to build a more complete understanding of what happened during the thousands of years that lead up to Jesus’ time on the Cross?   What stories do you wish you were more familiar with?  What prophecies do you hear about but haven’t seen or understood for yourself?

You’re invited to take on the 40 in 40 for lent challenge with a community of fellow journeyers!   We will be using content from The Bible Project, and I think you’ll be blown away by the quality of these videos and how thorough they are!  

Check out 40in40forlent.com for more details!

I have a 12yr old daughter, 10yr old daughter and 8yr old son.  They are awesome and parenting is HARD!!!   We believe fully that our first and most important “disciples” are our children and have tirelessly tried to find ways to create an inviting space for them to grow in their belief that 1) God is GOOD, and 2) God’s ways are good.  We’ve focused on progress and not perfection and are starting to see some solid fruit from all of our efforts.

I’m training on becoming a better listener.  It’s an especially difficult challenge for an “extroverted verbal processor” who has strong gifting in teaching and evangelizing.  This is a MAJOR area of weakness for someone like me.   My daughter recently came home distraught about something at school.   I wanted to “teach” in that moment, but managed to use self-control and simply listened.  It worked out beautifully and the conversation ended in a place I never would have imagined.

I managed to remember it was my time to pick up the kids for carpool this week!!!   SWEET!  Thank you, God for the alarm setting on my phone!  (This struggle is REAL for me!)

“Progress, not perfection”  As a mom we want the best for our kids.  For years I fell into the trap of focusing on all the things that were holding my kids back from “perfection” rather than focusing on the progress we have made and on all the things they are doing right.   It has been transformative for our family to focus mostly on all the progress we have made and what we’re doing right.