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How do I find peace in the busyness and stress of this season?
“Peace on Earth” We see that in so many places in the lead up to Christmas. Does it reflect your reality right now? Does your little part of the world feel peaceful? I’m willing to guess that few would be able to answer “yes” to that question. This time of year has a way of magnifying the stressors already present and adds a good dose of family angst, high expectations, and busyness in for good measure. That isn’t even including the more global tension, disasters, and conflict. Is there any hope for peace? Is this some unattainable goal for the Christmas season? I’m discovering that it is possible but takes…
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Thankful Thursday
Thankful Thursday is here for another week. This will be the last link up for this year with the fullness of the Christmas and New Year season. Join me in noticing the good in the midst of a potentially busy and stressful season. I know for many Christmas brings a lot of pain and heartache. The privilege of having a child to do Truth in the Tinsel with or make a sheep costume for, or even to be woken up in the middle of the night by. My heart aches for those who battle infertility and I am reminded to be so thankful for my daughter and all the aspects…
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“The Gift of Jesus”- spoken word performance
I have the incredible privilege of being on a MOPS team with the fabulous Eloise Allbury who has been such a huge source of encouragement and blessing in my life. At our final MOPS meeting for the year, Eloise performed a spoken word piece that she had written about what the gift of Jesus means to her. POWERFUL!! It had to be captured on video to share with others. I may not have the best camera or audio equipment but we recorded her performance. Listen to the words and may the truth of Jesus be ignited in your heart. Linking up with Inspire Me Monday and Literacy Musing Monday.
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Advent as a family
The catalyst for me looking into celebrating Advent last year was my desire to instil the real meaning of Christmas in my daughter’s heart and try to drown out some of the commercialism and focus on Santa. I have come to love it for my own heart preparation and focus on Jesus in a busy season too. Last year I tried to pack so many ideas into how we celebrated Advent that it did become overwhelming and another to do at times (you can read about these plans in this post). This year, I am streamlining my plans. I wrestled a little with wanting to create traditions in our family…
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Planning for Advent: including a free printable!
How fast is this year going?! Advent is almost upon us. I loved being intentional with planning Advent activities to do with my daughter last year. I did go quite overboard though trying to include several different ideas all into one season. This year, I plan to pare back a bit and be more focused. I don’t want Advent to become a stressed, rushed time as that defeats the purpose of meditating on and preparing our hearts for the real message of Christmas. To help me prepare for Advent so that I can reduce the stress during December, I created an Advent planner for myself. Before putting up more…
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Advent Week 3: review and reflection on a mini-breakthrough day
There are only THREE days left until Christmas. In fact, I would say two as we celebrate with my husband’s family on Christmas Eve. I know many people say it, but this time has come so quickly. I still feel like it has crept up on my even though I was organised for Advent and have been doing Advent activities. I definitely was not as organised with Christmas presents this year, which has had the potential to be very stressful. More on how my stress levels are going later in this post. If you have missed any of my Advent posts, you can find them linked below:Advent plansWeek 1Week 2…
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Advent Week 3: review and reflection on a mini-breakthrough day
There are only THREE days left until Christmas. In fact, I would say two as we celebrate with my husband’s family on Christmas Eve. I know many people say it, but this time has come so quickly. I still feel like it has crept up on my even though I was organised for Advent and have been doing Advent activities. I definitely was not as organised with Christmas presents this year, which has had the potential to be very stressful. More on how my stress levels are going later in this post. If you have missed any of my Advent posts, you can find them linked below:Advent plansWeek 1Week 2…
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Advent week 2: Keeping my peace despite plans failing
We’re over half way through the Advent period already. Last week, Week 2, was hectic with unplanned for meetings, play dates and shopping trips throwing out my Advent plans. I had two choices, be upset that my plans weren’t being followed or keep focused on the present and getting the most out of each day. I would love to say that I was peaceful and loving all week, with an angelic like nature. I would be lying! Overall though, it was a good week, which ended in an amazing night away with my hubby celebrating our 10 year anniversary and my favourite Christmas event- Heathridge Carols in the Park run…
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Advent week 2: Keeping my peace despite plans failing
We’re over half way through the Advent period already. Last week, Week 2, was hectic with unplanned for meetings, play dates and shopping trips throwing out my Advent plans. I had two choices, be upset that my plans weren’t being followed or keep focused on the present and getting the most out of each day. I would love to say that I was peaceful and loving all week, with an angelic like nature. I would be lying! Overall though, it was a good week, which ended in an amazing night away with my hubby celebrating our 10 year anniversary and my favourite Christmas event- Heathridge Carols in the Park run…
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Advent is almost here!! My plans….
This post may contain affiliate links that help to support me and my family. Thank you for your support.I never used to pay much attention to Advent. I didn’t buy an Advent calendar or engage in any other traditions, apart from putting up our Christmas tree at the beginning of December. My daughter changed that for me. Last year, we used a Little People Nativity set to go through the Christmas story each night with our then two year old. I heard of some other Advent activities that interested me. I figured that three years old would be a good age to start setting up some new Advent traditions that…
Encouragement for women in leadership
