Have you had to look a little harder for joy over the past few months of pandemic? Do you find the coronavirus and the news to all be a little discouraging?

Feeling down and being in a place of seeking joy has happened to me many times over the years, not because I am totally Sadness all the time because I am not. It is just that hard times call for digging a little deeper, and we are definitely in difficult places these days. There have been months where I sat down and searched out instances in the Bible where it mentions joy, just to teach myself and help pull out of the funk from moving year after year after year as an Army wife.

That is why I was excited to write out this booklet to share with you what I have found in my own joy-quests. Each of the eight days focuses on easy ways to refocus your mind to a calmer, more joyful place. 

And yes, of course, 8 Days of Finding Joy During a Pandemic is free for all my readers. It is an easy read too, at only 25 pages long.

Here is an outline of what you will find in this booklet:

• What do you enjoy?
• The Importance of Joy
• One Simple Lesson that Brought Joy Back to My Life
• What are you focusing on?
• What is it that we long for?
• Don’t let your joy rest in the hands of others.
• Thinking Positively When You Feel Surrounded by Negatives
• Don’t let the news drink your coffee.

Save it to your desktop while you go through the chapters this week to make it easier to find each day. I decided to give you the whole thing at once because who wants eight separate emails? 

Now, of course, we are not about to solve all your problems with a booklet.

…But I am hoping it will be a pick-me-up/encouraging read for you.

I would love to hear from you all about your answer to the Day 1 prompt, so if you’d like to share, send me an email or a blog comment, and tell me what it is that you enjoy doing.

To download the Choosing Joy booklet, sign up below, and it will be delivered to your email:

And of course, if you are already one of my newsletter subscribers, I have already sent this out to you. Check your inbox!

The post 8 Days of Finding Joy During a Pandemic appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

So how is everyone’s lock down going? Still feeling okay out there, in your own home?

I noticed that some of my Alabama friends went back to church this Sunday. I was like, “Say whaaa?” I can’t even imagine that yet here in Maryland. Because we move so much, my Facebook newsfeed represents people from all over the country, but mostly the South, the D.C. area, and California/Washington state. I am always surprised at how different life is in different states.

The variety of locations make for a fun read on Facebook. Georgia opened back up shops before Alabama, I think, but poor Alabama is the one having the surge in coronavirus cases.

One of my sons has firm opinions about all this, and it is funny because he does not get these opinions from Alan and me. Alan and I stay very busy and rarely even comment on the lock down situation. Alan literally does not have time, and I honestly sometimes forget that we are even in lock down. Day dreaming is my most special skill. It is a coping skill too. If you don’t let things bother you too much, you do live with more peace of mind and less heart problems.

I started to get excited about planning a Disney trip a month ago because I was just certain they would open by the end of summer. Being optimistic is my coping mechanism. Sure enough, they are opening this summer. Alan just started a new job though, so he is reluctant to leave for long enough to do Disney in addition to visiting grandparents and going to the beach. Alan dislikes Disney and takes germs very seriously in a normal year. I think Disney this year might actually give him an aneurism. No matter how many times the boys washed their hands, I don’t think Alan would ever believe they were truly clean.

I still want to go to Disney again soon though. I cannot explain why, but I seriously love it and feel so happy when I am there. Maybe we will wait until cooler weather though. It’s pretty hot to wear a mask outside.

By the way, Alan was NOT working at home for week 11. He actually went to his work building.

This greatly improved my stress level. We loved the idea of having Alan at home, but we didn’t see him when he was working at home anyway. While he was at home, he was literally ALWAYS in my bedroom, with two computer screens on, talking on his phone, and typing. If I went to my room, I had to be quiet. Most days he does not even leave that room for lunch. The boys or I bring him a lunch and a coffee. It’s like room service….but way less fun.

The Army, or I should say Alan’s corner of the Army, is heavily involved in the whole COVID19 thing. Plus, Alan is in the thick of his “command time,” a three year section of an Army officer’s career that they take very seriously. With him in my room, working around the clock, his stress felt like my stress. It was horribly draining. I mean, I hate that he has to deal with it either way, but at least with him back at the office, it does not also become my stress. At this very moment, I am peacefully sitting on my bed, at four-o’clock in the afternoon, which I haven’t been able to do in months, typing this up. Peace and quiet reigns.

Memorial Day

I know Memorial Day is not supposed to be about taking a day off and going to the lake, but man it was nice to do just that this year. We are so grateful for those who gave all for our country. As a military wife, I cannot watch anything remotely Memorial Day related without crying. It was just extra sweet to get that day off this year. We needed it so badly.

Only 2.5 Weeks of School to Go!

I am so excited about this. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! It’s been years since I felt this happy to see summer arrive. As a rule, I am not a big fan of sweaty, sticky summer, but this year is vastly different. Come on over, summer. Hop in my minivan. We are going to Alabama and Florida. We can lock down at my parents’ house just as well as we can lock down here.

I haven’t been this excited to see summer….since… well, since the last time I had to be the teacher. Ha! So much responsibility!

National Uproar

You can’t really talk about this particular week without mentioning the death of George Floyd. Whether you think he died as a result of racism or not, the fact is that he should not have died. Racism in America is also a fact. We all know that to be true. I remember when I enrolled as a freshman at the University of Alabama in 1999 how much racism I saw and felt because my roommate was black. The racism was towards her, not me, but I learned from it. Several different girls asked me, “So are you going to move, try to switch roommates?” No, of course I wasn’t. My roommate, Monica, was ideal. She was a wonderful, mature graduate student, and we had fun together. I could not have asked for a better roommate. We stayed friends for years. She sang the Lord’s prayer at my wedding in 2002.

In my college days, there was controversy over allowing anyone not white into the Greek sororities at UA. I read up on it the other day, out of curiosity, to see if that has changed. I looked at photos and read articles, but honestly, I did not see much change. A few sororities on Alabama’s campus have let in a few people of color, but I did not see many. I’m not trying to villainize the Greek system, but I am using it as an example. You cannot still have these social clubs that keep people out based on skin color and yet say racism in America is gone.

Please don’t send me emails defending the Greek system. I know people are actively trying to change it, and I have faith that they will eventually succeed. One of my best buds was in an Alabama sorority, and she would not agree with the keeping out of other races. She is a kind person, but even she will admit that it happens. Some sororities and fraternities are much worse about this than others.

But I’m chasing rabbit trails. I just wanted to say that I do hurt for the African American community, and I am doing my best to teach my children to treat everyone with equal love and respect. We are all created in the image of God. Underneath our different crayon colors of skin, we are all just people. We are people who were stressed already from the lock downs and are now stressed even more from the racism and the riots. My prayer for our country is that we keep improving in the way we treat one another and that we are able to get back to working together more closely soon.

I thought Will Smith’s quote was quite correct, “Racism is not getting worse, it’s getting filmed.”

Jesus said everything best.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:36-40

I hope you all have a happy week. I’m working on a project, my next e-book, called “5 Days of Finding Joy in a Pandemic.” This one will be free to all of my blog subscribers. I’m hoping to have that finished and available in just a couple of weeks. I’m thinking “5 Days” because I think I can get 5 days done so much quicker than 10, and you can read it quicker too, but I’ve drawn up a draft cover, back when I was planning it to be 10 days. Here’s a sneak peek at the draft cover:

I will let you guys know when I have it all finished up! Thanks for reading!

The post Lockdown Week 11: National Uproar, Alan at the Office, and My Next Ebook appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Yesterday was my volunteer day. That’s the one day per week where I basically go into work like most American adults. Ha! I put on my grown-up clothes–things like trousers instead of yoga pants–and I work for someone besides my family. I mean, I’m a mom, so of course I do work everyday, but on volunteer day I do a different kind of work.

I love it. I re-shelf books at the boys’ school library, and I help Mrs. Dubose with her current project. And once all that is done, I do my favorite part of all. I catalog, label, dot, stamp, and tape new books to go on our library shelves, all while being available to check out books for kids.

These are a few of my favorites for early readers, all on a 1st grade reading level.

This is the best job I’ve had in ages, and I do it all for free. Volunteering or trying out different jobs has been the only way for me to figure out what I enjoy doing and what I don’t.

Don’t wait around for someone to ask you to do a volunteer job. Figure out what you’d like to try and go ask to do that thing.

Otherwise, I’ve always found that if you don’t busy yourself with what you enjoy doing, other people will find work that you may NOT enjoy doing for you to do!

That’s happened to me a few times too. Nursery duty, anyone?? Aughhhhh!!! Every time I’ve ever been given church nursery duty, I lived in dread that week of Sunday because I didn’t want to do it. We all do a better job and help more people when we do what we’re good at, not what we just couldn’t say no to.

You may think it’s ironic that I love working in the library since I wrote this post: How We Got Banned From the Library, but my inability to return things I borrow on time actually doesn’t at all affect how much I love books and cataloging new ones and bringing order to shelves ransacked by tiny hands. How I love it!

I wish I could love restoring order to my house as much as I love tidying up the library. What is that? Why is it that it’s more fun to do things away from home? I got nothing. I can’t explain that phenomenon.

My VBS class made this this summer, and that’s when I realized I could totally be okay with teaching Sunday school. This was fun too! The older I get the more things I find that I enjoy.

So you know what I fell in love with this year? The library. Again. It’s a love I’ve had since childhood, though it worked so much better when I had my ever-responsible mother to make me return the books on time.

This time I’m loving being on the other side of the desk. I even have my own account at the school library now. You know why? You’ll laugh–I hope. See, I checked out a book on Caleb’s account, without his knowledge, and then I lost that book. I know. I still can’t find it!!

Well, my boys, believe it or not, never lose books and rarely acquire fines, so when Caleb went to check out a book and discovered that he couldn’t because he had a way overdue book, he was pretty upset with me…..So Mrs. Dubose did us a solid, and switched that book to my account.

Working in the library has also helped me find more ideas of good books to share with my boys.

That was a month ago. I still can’t find that book. It won’t be the first time I’ve bought a book that I’ve lost. Life will go on. The library is still a great privilege. It’s still saving us money to check out most of our books rather than buying most of our books.

Remember when I was a young adult, and I tried job after job, and felt like such a flake because I couldn’t find one that fit? Well, I’m 36 now, and I’m happy to report that I’ve found several.

Mom. Blogger. Writer. Librarian. Sunday School teacher.

I officially love all of these jobs. How blessed am I!? Sometimes you just have to give things time and trial and error, right?

How about you? Have you ever found your passion through volunteering? What jobs do you love?

The post The Job I Fell in Love with this Year appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

So happy: My friend Amy sent me this Anna/Mickey Mouse ornament, as a souvenir of our Disney trip. Love this!

John David asks me one question every single day.

“Mom, are you so happy? I just want you be happy, Mom.”

If I cry, he can’t take it. “No, Mom! I just want you be happy!”

If I get stressed and start rushing around, “Mom, I just want you be happy!”

If he’s in trouble for something, well, if John David gets in trouble for something he does that thing that little kids do that will melt your heart. He sticks out that bottom lip, his face scrunches up, and he cries, and then he says, “I just want you be happy!”

Apparently, it is exceedingly important to this sweet baby that I be happy…..ALL the time.….And that, of course, is pretty much impossible. But I try my best.

Even when JD goes to the potty, I have to be happy. I’m back there wiping his bottom, and he says, “You so happy, Mom? You so happy??”

Ha! Well, that’s what we get for throwing such a party every time he went potty.

But what a great reminder. What a great reminder to take joy even in the time of small things. What a reminder! Be joyful even when you’re wiping up poo…

I don’t look so joyful at cross country meets. There are gnats y’all, and on this particular day it was 104 degrees. Not even exaggerating.  I just stand there with my kids, looking like this. Inviting, huh?

That’s the thing about joy. Being encouraged by other people is so uplifting, but when you walk around looking annoyed, who wants to talk to you? Well, usually nobody.

So we must somehow find a source for joy that does not depend on other people. It’s great to derive joy from your friends, but until you have friends, joy has to be found elsewhere.

I’ve been searching the scriptures for joyful ideas.

This was a recent yard sale find that I was excited about. YES, GOD WILL!

We can take joy in the promises, provisions, and love of God.

Maybe find a place to sit outside or by a window and read God’s promises. Turn to the New Testament or Psalms when you are feeling down.

“I rejoice in your promise like one who finds great spoil.”   –Psalm 119:162

“Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.”   –Isaiah 49:13

Nonna, enjoying time with her grandsons

“Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say,”The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.” They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out.  “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”   –Isaiah 48:20-22

Remembering what God has already done keeps your faith and your joy strong.

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.  With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”  –Isaiah 12:2-3

“In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony. He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their season; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”  –Acts 14:16-17

I can assure you that basketball brings Joshua great joy.

I wish I could send you all a clone of John David, my daily reminder to “just want you to be happy.” He’s so precious. It is hard to stay down when you share your day with one like him, but not all of you are up to taking care of a three-year-old right now. Take heart.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.  –John 16:33

It’s true. There was Jesus, who they killed for our transgressions, and by his wounds we are  healed. We are forgiven, if we only ask to be. We are loved. He wants to take care of us.

“A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity…. I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.”            –Ecclesiastes 6:3

Some people may roll their eyes at the need for comfort and happiness, but I think that it’s important to try. As John David says, “I just want you be happy!!”

It did make me “so happy” to see JD make a friend at a cross country meet.

JD’s happy place. Do you have a happy place?

Thank you all so much for following my blog. It is a great encouragement to know that I have people, no matter how many times I move, I have people right here. Thank you!! You are a blessing to me. Have a joy-filled week!

The post “Are you so happy, Mom?” appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I have been focusing my Bible reading on joy this past month. See, I have every reason to have joy, but I also have just enough daily life aggravations to sometimes forget to experience joy.

And that left me wondering, “People are always saying to choose joy. How do you do that? Is it a choice?”

Sometimes it is a choice, and you can focus your mind in such a way, and pray, and be doing right things so that you do experience more joy.

But sometimes life is hard, hard, hard, and only a nitwit could possibly be joyful under the circumstances. I don’t think God expects us to be happy during a tragedy, but what about when there is no tragedy?

Right now there is no great tragedy in my life, but there are oodles of nuisances, nitnoid problems, stresses, and hard things.

For instance, this morning was “Sunday dress” day at my boys’ school. See, it’s grandparent day, which we are actually thrilled about, so the school is having the kids put on a presentation, and they want them to look nice. Perfectly reasonable, so it’s my job to make sure the House of Many Little Men is well represented. I’m not complaining about it, and if I had children who enjoyed dressing up, this would not have caused Alan and me serious tension and a pinch in my left shoulder that will not go away.

By the time it was done, I gave up on “well represented” and settled for “at least meets the rule requirements.” They marched in to school wearing nice shirts, khaki pants, belts, and rough-looking tennis shoes. The mere idea of brown Sunday shoes scandalized the boys past where I could push after already dealing with everyone’s dissatisfaction over not going to school dressed like homeless people  wearing t-shirts.

I was crazy excited to hear he did a good job listening and is doing well in kindergarten. Kindergarten is so emotional for mommas!! Note his collared-shirt. Totally meets the “Sunday dress” requirement. 🙂

I love my sweet boys. They had well recovered by the time I dropped them off. They happily told me they loved me and went inside. They couldn’t wait for their grandparents to arrive and visit the Book Fair. You’d have never known what a battle ground getting dressed had been.

But I took a little longer to recover. Why is that? I don’t know. My nerves were shot. Getting kids ready for school any day is tiring. Doing it on “Sunday dress” day is straight up torture. (And YES, I’m beyond thankful I don’t have to braid anyone’s hair!!  It was enough of a struggle just to get all of their hairs to LAY down!!!) I thought to myself that it would take a whole lot of extra Jesus to help me this morning.

When you feel like this, I hope you will turn to your Bible instead of to other things, like  bad food or alcohol. I know. I know. Everyone loves to joke about numbing the pain with a nice glass of wine or a whole box of chocolates. But that is temporary. For true joy, you need God’s Word.

This is a fallen world we are living in, and we all sometimes need help in the joy department. Joy is important. For me, joy is knowing I’ve done the right things, and I have a clear path in front of me. Joy is letting go of any pent-up feelings of resentment that I am harboring. Joy is being directed by the Lord, and feeling what I’m doing is useful.

I will be writing more about this. It’s much too big a topic for only one blog post.

I hope you will take a little time to open your Bible today, and see what God’s Word actually says. The world puts a ton of misinformation out there about our Christian beliefs, and some so-called Christians can discourage you with their attitude. Don’t let that happen! Don’t let the negativity get to you. Open up that Holy Bible, and the Scriptures will speak to you in ways you don’t expect, if not right away, then just keep reading.

Well, John David got soaked in the water hose, and I have to go change him now. And no, he’s not wearing “Sunday dress”. Maybe when his grandparents arrive, they can change him into nicer digs for me. Ha!!

“There is deceit in the hearts of those who plot evil, but joy for all those who promote peace.”    Proverbs 12:20

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”   Matthew 6:33

“When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.”   –C. S. Lewis

The post The Importance of Joy appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.