Category: daily life

Hello and Welcome!!!

Posted on by Mary
Welcome

HELLO Myy name is Mary and welcome to my little place on the internet, I have been blogging here for about 7 years BUT I have been blogging in general for 15 years! YIKES. Feel free to poke around and get to know my home on the internet.

So who am I?

Like I said I’m Mary- I am in my 40’s. I am married to my red-head hubby and this May we will celebrate 19 years of marriage! We have 4 kids ages 16, 15, 14, and soon to be 12. It goes boy, girl, boy, boy.

We are an animal family too. We currently have 3 dogs and 3 cats and I know horses are in our near future.

I am a Christ follower. This is the single most important part of my life. Because if my relationship with Jesus isn’t first and foremost, the other areas of my life will and have suffered when I lose sight of that priority.

My purpose in life is to make God famous -to bring Him glory in everything I say and do. I’m human and I make mistakes. I fall short but the amazing thing about God is he is full of grace and mercy, He wants me to grow and learn from my mistakes. I am his creation!

And I am a pastor’s wife. Yep my hubby is in full time ministry. As much as this doesn’t define me it is an intragal part of who I am. We just left a ministry we were in for 12 years and accepted a position at the very church we have been attendiing since we left…..it was a God thing for sure and wasn’t on our radar! God really is amazing!

Let’s get a little deeper

I write for 3 reasons

  • For my sanity- I love to write. I have been writing little stories and poems and journaling for as long as I can remember..
  • It really helps me to process th things I am struggling with vs. what I am learning about. I am an avid reader, and sometimes the things I am reading hits a deep . And I become very passionate. Because I want to live a life of excellence in how I live for and serve God.
  • For the growth of others. My thought is, if I’m struggling with something I know I’m not alone. My goal is to help other women grow right along with me.

I am passionate about living with God-fidence…..as in confidence in God, rather than myself. I can’t do anything. I’m a flawed human being who has been saved by Jesus and it’s only through him that I can do anything!

I’m passionate about having a godly influence. So mach so that I have written a HUGe series on the Power of Your influence here in my blog and I have spoken to a group of women on the topic as well. I am a firm believer that we are all influencers whether we like it or not, it’s a matter of WHAT KIND of influence we are. You can check that series out here. (there are 2 sets ones from 2018 and ones from 2021)

I am slo passionate about living a life of excellence for Jesus. Now this has been a struggle for me personally over the last number of years. And even though it has been a struggle for me and I have fallen short doesn’t mean I can’t be passionate about it. Sometimes our greatest struggles are born out of our passion. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not confuse excellence with perfection!

Some fun facts about me

I (am)

  • an introvert- but that doesn’t mean I’m not a little weird or quirky. and that I can’t get upon front of people and speak
  • kinda a nerd…yeah I’m completely ok with that!
  • a creative…..in a whole bunch of ways
  • have been on a journey of learning how to paint…not very good but I love the process
  • have been a missionary as a fresh out of high school graduate and went half way around the world…which was also my first time on a plane
  • did I mention I’m afraid of heights
  • enjoy reading (I think I already said that)
  • want to write a book (can you guess the topic?)
  • know that I have a very specific calling for helping women and girls to bridge the generation gap.
  • passionate about women’s ministry
  • have been a mentor at a Crisis Pregnancy center
  • directed more plays than I have fingers
  • helped build/ design parade floats
  • served on a women’s conference planning team
  • have been a book reviewer for major Christian publishing company
  • have been legally blind since I was 13
  • We have two special needs kids
  • loved to play basketball
  • Heath bars are my favorite candy bars
  • love to cook
  • was a tomboy.
  • have eaten silkworm…..and liked it
  • have used a squatty potty and it’s not the type advertised by a cute unicorn
  • took every wood-working class available to me at my middle and high school
  • enjoy learning new things. BUT it takes me forever to actually take the next step to actually try the new thing.
  • am a planner
  • actually like public speaking (remember I said I was weird and quirky)

My purpose

So now that you have gotten to know me a little better here’s my purpose

Hebrews 10:24 NLT

24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

So let’s join in community. …..

to fulfill that purpose!

This isn’t just about me! I want this to be a safe place for us to grow together and help each other…So join in the discussion in the comments or you can check out my blog’s facebook page.

It’s my goal to make that usable and if you like the page you can get updated when I add a new blog post.

Thank you so much for checking out this post and my blog. I hope and pray for you my readers that these posts will meet you where you are ate! I hope you feel welcome, loved and seen.

Let’s get started together! You can start by introducing yourself in the comments below!

Good Morning Happy Homemaker Monday

Posted on by Mary
morning

Good morning friends. I don’t know about you but I am excited this morning! First off I’m a weird one….I love mornings and I LOVE Mondays! It’s a fresh start and boy do we need one I this household. It finally happened. After two years ( we may have gotten it two years ago but we had no way of being tested) We got Covid. Yep 4 out of the 6 of us. It wasn’t bad. Hubby and I have been vaccinated but even our kids didn’t have it bad either. Snuffy noses, coughs and a sore throat or two. But all in all we are on the mend. This week started out great too because here in upstate Ny we are getting a very nice taste of spring!

Yesterday was also 70!

♥♥ The Weather ♥♥

Like I said yesterday was almost 70 and today is supposed to be 55. No complaints here for sure. The rest of the week is in the 30’s and 40’s but that is SOOOO much warmer than we have seen over the last few weeks!

♥♥ How I am feeling ♥♥

Still coughing and fatigued but for the most part pretty good

♥♥ On the breakfast plate ♥♥

Coffee (as always) and egg whites

♥♥ On my reading pile ♥

  • I’m finishing up the book of Luke this week and jumping into John for my Bible reading  
  • I am catching up on the Life Giving Home
  • Hello Fears ( finishing from the fall)
  • The Secret Sauce to Freelance writing (PDF Book)

♥♥ On my TV ♥♥

Nothing really. we are cutting back TV time. I am listening though to the MOM to MOM podcast

♥♥ On the menu ♥♥

  • Monday-Chicken Alfredo
  • Tuesday–  Pizza Night (Family night)
  • Wednesday-Stuffed Pepper Soup
  • Thursday– Leftover Spaghetti
  • Friday -Sausage, peppers and potatoes in the crockpot
  • Saturday– Sloppy Joe Casserole (we kinda are making it up as we go)
  • Sunday-Loaded Baked Potatoes

♥♥ From the camera ♥♥

morning
white outs from a snow squall two weeks ago

♥♥ Looking around the house ♥♥

Despite all the sickness over the last two weeks the house looks better than we started. Thanks to hubby for helping and the two non-sick kids for stepping up their helping game!!

♥♥ To do list ♥♥

DISINFECT EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!! And mop the floors.

  ♥♥ Today’s Devotional ♥♥

Today I’m reading Luke 22

For More Happy Homemaker Monday posts Check out Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Life’s 5 Greatest Questions (Purpose Driven Life)

Posted on by Mary
Questions

Hi Friends today we are going to tackle life’s 5 greatest questions. These are 5 questions posed at the end of Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life (Not an affiliate link).

But first a little back story

I started The Purpose Driven Life in 2019. The book originally came out while I was in Bible College and many of my college peers (including my future hubby ) had to read the book for various classes. It was not part of my reading so I just didn’t read it.

Over the years hubby and I talked about me reading it but I just never “got around to it”.

So I started it towards the end of 2019 but I was diving deep into it even listening to the messages that went along with each chapter. I was learning so many things. I couldn’t get enough.

I had been struggling with my purpose. That happens when you find yourself living in the expectations of others trying to fill in all the gaps. Things start getting cloudy and lines are blurred. What I didn’t know was God was using this book and the corresponding messages to draw defining lines for me AND for hubby. (he would listen to the messages right along with me. ) I couldn’t read the book in 30 days but I finished the book and messages not long after quarantine hit in 2020.

And this blog post got added to a long list of others.

I knew that I wanted to blog out my answers to the questions BUT……I knew that many of my fellow ministry leader friends and fellow Christians didn’t appreciate the book. And so…I let my fear leave this post on the every growing list of posts that found me crippled by other people’s opinions.

And for the last year and a half this post has haunted me, eveytime I read through the list I would become even more aware that I was not CHOOSING Courage. Even over the last few months I have found myself saying “next week”. I would feel that twinge of fear and hear that echoing “BUT, But, BUT…and the excuses would roll around my heart.”

So today…

Today I am answering these questions. I am not going to get into negative discussions about the book or the author. These are my answers to these questions. These are the things I have had to wrestle through. And the person I have to answer to is God.

So here we go.

1)  What will be the center of my life?  

The center of my life will be Jesus. In everything I say and do I hope will reflect him being the center of my life. I know somedays I will make wrong choices BUT my desire is to quickly get refocused back on Jesus.

2)  What will be the character of my life? 

I want the Character of my life to be that of integrity and purity. Choosing what is right over what is easy. Not looking for my own profit or gain but seeking to be honorable in all that I say and do.

3)  What will be the contribution of my life? 

I want my life contribution to be that of a godly influence to everyone within my sphere of influence. I don’t just want to be good . I want to impact Christians and help them reach their full potential rather than live a life of mediocrity. I want to help Christians choose excellence rather than living in name only, seeing that their lives are fully devoted to Christ rather than only bits and pieces through this blog and personal interactions and teaching.

4)  What will be the communication of my life? 

First and foremost the gospel but then to believers to commit living a life of better Jesus followers. Sharing with other believers how to live more like Jesus and encouraging each other to grow in our walk with Him,

5)  What will the community of my life be? 

First and foremost my family. These are the people I do life with the most. But then it is my connect group, some close friends and my church family and those I serve with as well as my community here on my blog.

THIS IS MY SPERE OF INFLUENCE!

It took me all of 30 minutes to write this blog post and nearly a year and a half to gather the courage to do so.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey. Have you read the book and wrestled through these questions? Did they come easy for you or not so much? Let me know in the comments below.

If you are new here Welcome! I am so glad you are here! Please introduce yourself in the comments below.

Fell free to check out the rest of the posts in the Choosing Courage 100 day blogging project!

Writer’s Block

Posted on by Mary
writer's

It’s taken 94 days- It was something I actually feared coming into this writing Challenge. But not until today did I experience writer’s block. The funny thing about this bout of writers block is that I have lots of topics but I have hit a point where I have hit my word limit.

I deal with this a lot in my everyday life mostly because I am an introvert and when I have used up my words for the day I am don Just let me wrap up in a blanket and go off to sleep.

This is something I have noticed about myself throughout this project. If I wake up in the morning and jump right into writing it’s not a problem BUT…..if I am doing a lot of talking either as I am writing OR before I start writing one of two things happens. I can either write a little and have to pick it up when everyone else is in bed or I don’t write at all and then it is a real struggle toto write the post right before bed. I stuck with it. I posted something every single day BUT I can read through the posts and I can almost always tell you which ones I wrote in the mornings or the evenings (without looking at the timestamp)

My Word Bank

I have learned that I need to spend my words wisely. Because if I don’t something suffers….

I feel bad for people who call me on the phone at night time because my words have all been used up. I never realized it until the other night. Hubby called I found myself repeating uh huh and he asked me if I was still there TWICE. And one thing I have never struggled with is talking to him. We started talking one day and we have never stopped. We can talk about anything.

So as I sat here tonight looking at the two lines of the blog post I needed to write today I asked myself why the words couldn’t formulate in my head clearly- I knew exactly what I wanted to say. I have all my notes.

Don’t Force it

Another thing I have learned is that if it won’t come don’t force it. I did that with a post a few weeks into this writing project. I woke up the next morning and deleted most of it and rewrote it.

When the words don’t come it’s ok. AND it’s took to write an honest post about where you are at and what you are struggling with. Leave the post for that day for another day.

A New sense of freedom

And out of a simple case of writer’s block a new sense of freedom is realized. It’s ok not to meet even my own standards because sometimes life is crazy. Some days it’s ok to do something differently than you had originally planned.

This is just a small snippet of the things I have learned over the last 13 weeks of this writing project. It has been very freeing and eye opening to learn these things.

It gives me a greater understanding f how to move forward in my blogging and in life. This allows me to see why I need to sleep after interacting with a lot of people or a prolonged interaction or intense interaction.

Thanks for joining me on this weird little blog post about writers block and an introduction of sorts to some of the things I have learned about myself during this project. I am sure there is more to come!

You can check out the other posts in the choosing Courage -100 day Blogging Project here..

Strength Divided

Posted on by Mary
Strength

Welcome to the 4th and final post in our DIVIDED mini-series. Today we will be talking about what it means to have divided strength!

I don’t know about you but somedays, weeks, months, or even years I feel like I don’t have any strength left to move one foot in front of the other. Let alone love God with all of the strength I have left.

If I love God with all of what I have left what on earth am I going to use to care fore my family, home and anything else that comes my way.

We buy into lies

We convince ourselves that we con’t have enough to give everyone some of our strength. And we convince ourselves that God doesn’t really want “all”of my strength BUT he wants us to be good stewards of our strength being stingy with who gets some of it and who doesn’t. the reality is God wants ALL of our strength. He wants us to love hime with every bit of strength we have , even if it’s microscopic and seemingly non-existent.

Because it is only when we love God with all of our strength that we find the strength to keep going. Because it is God’s strength.

God’s wants every part of us…

This passage was never about dividing up our being….God wants every single last itty bitty part of us.

He wants all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our minds and all of our strength. He doesn’t want us to be divided in any of these aspects but instead he was us to be FULLY and WHoLLY devoted to him and Him alone.

Our personal strength can be doled out between all of our friends, family,, our employer , our home, our money……but if our strength is all handed out to all of this people and things, then we are divided and we aren’t loving God with all of our strength.

When I try to give little bits of my strength to everyone else I end up exhausted, worn out and frustrated because I just never seem to have enough to go around.

BUT

When I love God with all of my strength, I am enabled to do things I never thought I had enough strength to do. I have more hope, more peace, more love, more grace and more mercy that I ever could have imagined!!!

Because we are no longer striving to live our lives in our own strength, but in the strength of Jesus.

So

Love God with everything you have….all that you are and watch what he does with it. Because out of your dedication to him comes a greater love than we can ever imagine! It is hard work and takes LOTS of dedication and DEVOTION!

Thank you so much for Joining me today on this crazy Choosing Courage 100 day blogging project.. We only have 4 days left! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and if you are new here please introduce yourself in the comments below. I can’t wait to get to know each one of you!

Feel free to poke around and feel free to catch up on the Choosing Courage 100 Day writing project