I love Christmas.  Growing up my family enjoyed wonderful traditions that have been passed down to my own children, things like:

• opening pajamas on Christmas Eve
• hiding the “good stuff” at the bottom of the stockings, buried underneath fruit and walnuts
• making Christmas Chains, which we call “Advent Chains” today.

After I married and had children, I passed these traditions down to my own kids, and we are also making new traditions, all of which I hope my children will carry with them into their own families.

During the month of December, my writing team over at 5 Minutes for Faith will be sharing Christmas Traditions, from our home to yours!

You don’t want to miss learning how:

• one family uses the Christmas cards they receive throughout the year.
• a family uses Christmas carols to bless their family devotions.
• someone serves the elderly through music.
• one family bakes goodies filled with love.

Will you visit us during the month of December, and share your favorite traditions with us in the comments?  Be sure to subscribe to 5 Minutes for Faith so you don’t miss a post!

I am over at 5 Minutes for Faith today, talking about when life puts up that wall in front of you that you can’t seem to get over.  Here’s a little teaser:

Summer is just about over and the kiddos will begin school again in about five weeks.  I will have a 4th grader attending public school, a 7th grader who I will be homeschooling while working full-time (called and a little crazy), and a “home-schooled with a tutor” senior who will finish high school at the end of the first quarter (just a few months behind his class).

As a full-time working mom with a husband on unemployment, summer did not afford us a vacation to “get away from it all”.  Life kept going, just as it was before summer.  School, work, “training them up in the way they should go”.  I never allowed myself to slow down, to sit and be still, to savor the moments that took my breath away.

Will you head over to 5 Minutes for Faith to read the rest of my post?  I would love your thoughts.

I am over at 5 Minutes for Faith today, talking about His grace.  Here is a little snippet of what I wrote:

As the sun rises, my feet hit the floor and I stammer into the shower.  How could it possibly be morning already?  My body is tense, still feeling the weight of yesterday and already taking on the cares of the morning.  As I stand beneath the warm water I pray, “Lord, give me grace for another day”.  And these days have been blurry lately.  There seems to be no start or finish, rather just one continuous blob of “more to do”.  My daily routine begins as I prepare my youngest for school and head off to work.  I love the church where I am privileged to work.  There is a constant flow of people and I love what I do.  But ministry can be exhausting as well.

Will you head over to 5 Minutes for Faith today and read the rest of my post?  And while you are there, why don’t you have a look around.  There are some beautiful posts there.

Have a blessed week friends!