by Anna | Nov 14, 2018 | 31 Days to a Less-Stress Holiday Season, A Moment of Christmas, lifeblog
‘Tis the season to prepare for the holidays! Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas will be here soon – before we know it, in the blink of an eye, before we can say ‘Jingle Bells’. Soon we will be up to our elbows in meal prep, gift buying and...
by Anna | Mar 7, 2018 | encouragement for moms, lifeblog
Soulful 70’s rock is probably my favorite musical genre. The only other era that comes close to matching the joy of this genre is music of Bing Crosby, Etta James, Eartha Kitt, Judy Garland… The music of the 30’s and 40’s brings me joy, but the...
by Anna | Dec 15, 2017 | A Moment of Christmas, lifeblog
I’ve been doing quite a bit of speaking this season, to church groups and moms groups and groups of parents. As I’ve prepared the talks for each gathering, I’ve realized that I am a perfectionist. You could say I’m a perfectionist in recovery, but...
by Anna | Oct 25, 2017 | encouragement for moms, Reader Favorites
It’s cooling down here in Minnesota, snow forecasted this weekend even though we topped at 80 degrees last week. The sticky, long, dog days of summer dredged deep into to September, and now in October the nights and early mornings bring a chill. And the trees . . ....
by Anna | Jul 25, 2017 | lifeblog
*spoiler alert ahead, in case you haven’t seen Moana yet* I’ve been struggling lately, words unspoken weaving their way into anxiety and outbursts. Right now who I say I am – girl with blog – isn’t all that true. It’s more like...
by Anna | Jul 4, 2017 | at (in)courage
While not anywhere near the entanglement of modern day slavery, there is definitely a culture of enslavement right here in the free world. We are bound, all right. Maybe with proverbial chains, but nonetheless these shackles are our reality: Fear. Low self worth....
by Anna | May 16, 2017 | lifeblog
There is a myth that many – if not most – of us have bought into, hook, line and sinker. We spend money on courses and ebooks, spend time listening to podcasts and video recordings, and spend energy frantically searching for proof that this myth can in...
by Anna | Dec 7, 2016 | A Moment of Christmas, lifeblog
The boxes are piled shoulder-high throughout the basement, full of every single earthly possession we have. In the next three weeks there will be four preschool/church Christmas programs, my son will turn 5, a writing deadline will pass, Christmas Day will come and...
by Anna | Sep 8, 2016 | lifeblog
Twenty-seven years later, Jacob Wetterling has been found. The horrific details have been dredged out and pushed into the light, and collectively we begin again the grieving process of a boy most of us never met, but whom all of us mourned. He changed our Minnesotan...
by Anna | Aug 17, 2016 | at (in)courage, recipes
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty...
by Anna | May 24, 2016 | lifeblog
Collapsing into the couch, I stared out across the pond out back, too spent to actually see anything in my view. We’d just had the world’s worst trip to the store, hot on the heels of a day that wouldn’t quit being crappy, and I sent this SOS text to...
by Anna | May 7, 2016 | lifeblog
There are parents without carseats, diapers or pacifiers. Mothers who do not have bedtime rituals or middle of the night feedings. Parents without hand-stamped necklaces or birthstone rings. Parents who no longer have children. These are the other mothers – the ones...