Category: answered prayer

Accepting Life As It Is While Maryland Returns to Full Virtual School

4 kids, answered prayer, stay-at-home mom
Accepting Life As Is While Maryland Returns to Full Virtual School

A month ago, COVID case numbers were down, and they announced that we would gradually start sending the children back to school. The funny part is that it was only for one day a week anyway. Around half the county signed up for this, and the other half elected to just stay full time virtual. Wow! There were so many people who were not so terribly desperate for a quiet day that they actually chose to stay full virtual. All […]

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My 10 Favorite Memories from 2019

accomplishment, answered prayer, Army Wives, family, military life, stay-at-home mom

Can this also double as our year-end Christmas letter? I’m thinking it can. I’m going to do these in order of the year and my memory. Most things that happened have been forgotten, of course. But here are 10 happy memories. #1. The snowed out promotion ceremony All set for a stressful day at the Pentagon, when SURPRISE, snow buried D.C., and we got to have Alan’s promotion ceremony in the comfort and relaxation of our own home–in the basement, […]

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How To Overcome Your Stress Ball Ways

answered prayer, Bible, Bible verses, big family life, faith
How To Overcome Your Stress Ball Ways

***Ad disclosure: This post contains links to Crystal Paine e-courses. I do earn a profit when you sign up for these courses.*** I can be a serious stress ball. If there’s a problem, it’s a “crisis.” When things go wrong, I feel like it’s all my fault. Self-chastisement is my specialty. Getting the kids off to school in the morning is my #1 flip-out trigger. If you don’t believe that I am capable of total lunacy, you have clearly not […]

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My Brilliant Plan for How to Plan

answered prayer, books, organizing, parenting, prayer

**This post does contain affiliate links, which means that when you purchase through links on this page, April collects advertising fees from Amazon.** Was I always a little flaky? I don’t know. For years, I could get away with being very loosy-goosy with my planning because I was a stay-at-home mom of preschoolers. We moved all the time too, so by the time people developed expectations of me, we were off and away to the next town. Over the years, […]

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Moving Day, the Surprise Party, and the Power of Good Neighbors

answered prayer, blessings, family, friends, God provides, parties

On Friday night, I snuck into my home town. My parents were expecting me at 8:45pm, but truthfully I arrived at 7:30 or so, but I didn’t want them to know that. They were still staying at the rental house, but I did not go straight to the rental house. I went by my childhood friend, Kristy’s, house. We were on a mission, you see. I grew up playing with Kristy and the other neighborhood kids. Kristy’s grandparents lived next […]

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A Letter of Hope from 2003

answered prayer, attitude, goals, God provides, military life, New Year's goals, war letters

This week is Veteran’s Day, and as the wife of a veteran it’s a holiday full of meaning for me. In honor of Veteran’s Day, I thought I’d share this letter that I wrote to Alan on New Year’s Eve, 2003. Alan was in Iraq, and I was living in Texas. What started out as this nightmarish, depressing event (sending my husband to war–I was all of 22 years old) had gradually turned into a year of growth and new […]

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A Place to Write Out Answered Prayers

answered prayer, attitude, blessings, family, God, God provides, prayer

Yesterday we sang this song at church. I wish I could remember the name of it, but it was something like “Do you remember?” I could not stop my tears while singing this song. Sometimes, I have this problem that once my water works start it feels impossible to turn them off!! All of a sudden, I lose all ability to be tough or cool. I become total mush. Does that happen to you? It’s embarrassing, but it’s healing, and sometimes […]

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Deep Thoughts from Magic Kingdom 2016

answered prayer, attitude, Florida, God, parenting, summer, vacation, walt disney world
Magic Kingdom

This was the best surprise I’ve ever pulled off. We are not typically adept at keeping exciting news to ourselves. We are the kind of people who announced we were pregnant the second we found out. But this time we played it cool. We DID tell the boys we were headed to Disney World. However, we did NOT tell them that I copied my friend Amy’s Disney itinerary as closely as I could, so our Disney vacation would be shared […]

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The 9th Move: Empty Houses, “Bees”, and Good-byes

answered prayer, California, military life, moving

I know you are probably expecting an update on the cross-country move. Well, all I can tell you is that: 1.) We are still negotiating repairs on our new house, which may end up delaying our move-in date. So so sad!! I’m choosing to hope for the best. Moving in July 1st or bust!!! 2.) JD and Dan are having trouble adjusting to the “bees”, and by bees, they mean GNATS. and 3.) The big boys spent their last day […]

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When We Met Matthias: Story of a Military Family

answered prayer, babies, family, military life

I’ve kept a tiny secret from my blog audience. Well, not all that tiny…8 pounds of secret at least… No…I didn’t have another baby. I did better than that. We brought this baby home with us, but we haven’t taken leave of our senses. We brought his mama home with us too. hehehe Aren’t they precious? It was just a few weeks, a few of the fastest weeks ever. See, Emma’s husband is a friend of ours, from church, and […]

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