• Faith,  Life Inspiration

    The Last 24 Hours

    September 25, 2017

    Tweet If you want to emulate Christ, you must know Christ. And so often, I think the American church has got it all wrong. I don’t think it is fair or right to point fingers and there are many Christians and churches who are doing it right. Ultimately, I think each of us must evaluate our own lives in light of the life of Christ. Are we seeking to live like He did? As I have blogged about quite a bit recently, the idea of hospitality and serving others seems to continue to be a theme God is pressing into my soul. I think it is because for so many…

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  • Faith,  SchmittFarmhouse

    Put Down the Expectations

    April 24, 2017

    Tweet My word for the year was authenticity. And right now, being authentic means admitting to myself (and ya’ll) my expectations set me up for a dark dive into struggle.  See, buying your dream farmhouse with dreams to fix it up is very different from living in said dream farmhouse in need of fixing up. Pinterest boards full of Farmhouse decor are exciting, but ants covering your counters and bathrooms not working are not. I have spent hours aimlessly wandering or doing nothing because I am so overwhelmed by it all. Perhaps though the aimless wandering gave me ample time for much needed soul-searching. I realized in all this expectations…

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  • Faith

    You Are a Missionary

    March 28, 2017

    Tweet Growing up, the term missionary was reserved for a group of people who left the comforts of America to go serve a foreign people group. I believe God calls people to serve in remote parts of the world and missionary is a very accurate term for them. As a church, we should support and pray for them and continue to send people around the world to serve. But this Sunday, the pastor at my church asked us to consider the fact we were indeed all missionaries. If Jesus is Lord of your life, you are part of the mission of God. You are a missionary.  Over and over in…

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  • SchmittFarmhouse

    It Starts with Sacrifice

    March 14, 2017

    Tweet   In September of last year, my dear husband and I looked at a house. It was a big white farmhouse on three acres and we immediately fell in love. And I mean in love. We started talking and dreaming and pinning ideas on a secret Pinterest board. The house was a foreclosure so in our budget and although we were not looking for a house, this house was perfect. It had almost every detail we wanted in a house. It also had a lot of details we didn’t want like mold and mice.  But nevertheless, we moved forward.  Did you catch above we looked at it in September?…

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  • Life Inspiration

    The Best Chocolate Cake

    February 20, 2017

    Tweet A few months ago, after a period of some significant health struggles, I cut gluten and dairy out of my diet. The transition wasn’t terribly awful, but it has been a constant source of lessons in self-control, self-care, and humility. I hate asking other people to accommodate me so much so that I spent a lot of money on a lot of tests to tell me what I already knew. I needed to cut the gluten and dairy. But hey, now I have a doctor to blame my extra fussiness on right? In all seriousness, it had been a rough season of mothering, working, volunteering, and struggling every day…

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  • Faith

    Scandalous and Scornful

    January 25, 2017

    Tweet Scandalous. Scornful. Unusual.   And no, I am not talking about any current political or celebrity figure. The book of Matthew and thus the New Testament begins with a genealogy. You know, the ever long passages of scripture going “so-and-so begat so-and-so.” The passages we are tempted to ignore, skim over, or skip past to get to the meaningful text. The verses we can use to support our stance or encourage or admonish. Who cares about a long list of someone’s family tree. The thing is, you can learn a lot about a person by exploring their ancestry. You can find out a lot about someone by knowing where…

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  • Faith,  Working Mom

    Independent. Multi-Tasker.

    December 27, 2016

    Tweet This was the description of women summed up by an author in a book I was listening to the other day. She polled a bunch of women and the theme which emerged was independent, multi-tasker. In other words, women think they can do it all and they can do it all alone. Talk about feeling hit by a ton of bricks. I could totally relate. I feel the exact same way. All.the.time. Although I might replace the word can with the word should. I should do it all and I should do it alone. Isn’t that the message our culture sends?  Be the perfect wife, mom, employee, church attendee…

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  • Community

    Why #boycottTarget is Not the Issue

    April 26, 2016

    Tweet #boycottTarget If you pay any attention to social media, you have seen the #boycottTarget hashtag. Petitions are being formed and hundreds of thousands are flocking to sign them. I have seen flyers circulating telling people to stop shopping at Target, to call your local store manager and express your disappointment, to stand out front and make your voice known, and even one which suggested printing more and hanging them in your church. Normally I like to shy away from political things. I would rather write about sunshine and unicorns than anything politically popular, but sometimes something just strikes a chord in me so today I have to add my…

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  • Community

    The Hadassah Group

    September 16, 2014

    Tweet Whew… It has been a whirlwind of a few weeks and my poor blog has been neglected to say the least.  Usually writing is an outlet for stress, but lately I have been trying to spend more time reading my Bible and writing in my journal so this writing got pushed to the back burner.   I have also been experimenting with eating healthier which is a fun adventure all in itself (more on that later).  What I really want to share with you today is a vision finally turning into a reality!  (can we all take a deep breath first?) Two years ago I first read about an…

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