As I wrote 31 Days to Balancing Beauty and the Budget, I shared about the spirit of entrepreneurship and desiring to “write my own song.” Surrounding myself with verses and verbal reminders to see things differently and keep pressing on, [...]
Taking Dinner to New Levels: the Ground (Literally)
Dec30
Sometimes creating special family dinners requires taking your surrounding ambiance to new levels. For our dinner last night, I literally took it to a different level – the ground. It’s been challenging to get all my guys home on the [...]
My Free Gift to You: Our Family Dinner Questions
Dec15
Don’t miss out on my Free Homemade Christmas Coupon Book. It offers another option for a last minute, meaningful gift idea. I am so very excited to share something with you that has been part of our family tapestry for [...]
The Loss of a Dream: Money
Oct3
I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the spring semester of my second year of college. Finally, that awkward freshman phase passed, and new enthusiasm spurred dreams of college life, friendships, and that life changing awareness when you [...]
Family Fun Night: Camp Out in the Living Room
Sep28
When our children were young, Friday family nights consisted of free fun. We prioritized it. We fought for that time together. Now that we have three teen boys (as well as our two younger girls), it’s a bit trickier to [...]
Have You Forgotten How to Have Simple Fun?
Sep2
Sometimes I forget the simple fun that is all around me. For our family, that simple fun is literally in our own back yard. But honestly, it doesn’t matter if you live in the country, city, or suburb, with the [...]
Fight For IT!
Aug11
Last night, my twelve year old daughter made noodles for dinner as the entire family raced in five different directions. Fall sports season has kicked off, and two of our teen sons stood over the pot shoveling food faster than [...]
Grabbing the Moment
Aug4
The summer sun still blazes, but those dog days of summer are over. My moments have flown, and yet I am not savoring any of them. So today, instead of giving every aspect of my life a small, unorganized, unfocused [...]
Building Strong Extended Family Relationships
Jul15
Extended Family Relationships and How that Affects our Children A few years ago, my father challenged us with a 200 – year generational legacy plan. Well, it was really a series of CD’s that he had listened to, and yet [...]
I Wanna, Want to….
Jun26
I’ve had one of those weeks. A week when my big boys were gone for the week, and I had such HUGE plans; so many tasks and projects I wanted to get done. Goals, dreams, and a wonderful “to do” [...]
The “We All” of Family
Jun17
Traditions? What feelings does that particular word evoke in you? If you have been a reader of Balancing Beauty and Bedlam for any length of time, you know that traditions play an integral part of our family make up. For [...]
Cultivating is Key (and I’m not just talking gardening)
Jun12
It’s gardening time on our homestead, and it’s fun to see all the new growth. We tripled the size of our garden, and it was incredibly time consuming. Since we have rock hard, red clay, I spent days tilling, and [...]
Meal Time Magic: the Joy of an Unexpected Blessing
Apr6
Make Family Meal Time a Priority Gather Together over a Shared Meal The Importance of Family Meal Time Laugh More, Laugh Loud Creating Ambiance through Candle Light around the Dinner Table Gathering together around a shared family meal is an [...]
Another Year…Remembering…
Mar3
As we grow older, what feelings do birthdays conjure up for you? It’s definitely not the cakes, balloons and blow horns we had when we were children, especially if it falls on a weekday. We still have obligations, meetings, deadlines [...]
Celebrating 2010 – Thinking Back before Moving Forward
Jan1
In the next week, I plan on spending time reflecting on key aspects of 2010 by celebrating the progress I’ve made, while having some “Come to Jesus moments” with those areas I really need to attack. It’s a little overwhelming [...]
