July's Top Tens

Thanks to you all for making this month so great! I love the interactions we've had as we've been encouraged by the truths in God's Word and applied them to our lives. This has been a great month "back to blogging" after my recent break.

Thanks to my top ten referrers this month:
Home Sanctuary
Blog Frog
The Coupon Project
The Youngman Family
Lesson Pathways
Complete Organizing Solutions
Gather in Spirit
Inspired to Action
Oh Amanda
After Bedtime Blog

And, in case you missed them, here are the top ten most read posts from July:
Scheduling Spiritual Formation
Amazed by God
Week in Recap
Catching up on Life
Top 10 Tuesday: Link Challenge
Using the Lord's Prayer as a Guide
Praying for One Another
Defined by Grace
Does God love me MORE or LESS?
Upgrading in a MAJOR way!

Be sure to click a few of the links: say "hi" to my referrers and catch up on any posts you might have missed.

And, as always on link-up posts, leave me links in the comments for posts/blogs you think I'd be encouraged to read/visit. I love sharing links!

This post is being linked to Company Girls Coffee 7.30.

Suffering from insomnia?? Try a "popping" a prayer!!

Every few months, I suffer from insomnia. One of these days, I'm going to break down and buy some Tylenol PM to help me fall asleep, but until then, I'll just "enjoy" my quiet time alone w/ God.

One of the biggest challenges for me when I'm trying to fall asleep (regardless of how tired I am) is trying to quiet my brain down. It goes, and it goes, and it goes. Obviously, tonight is all about my plans to attend Relevant '10 coming together this week.

I've found one of the best ways to combat my brain is to just start praying about whatever I'm thinking about at the moment. If it's weighing on my brain, then I need to lay it at the feet of Jesus - acknowledge that He is in control of the situation/details and that I don't need to spend all night awake thinking about it.

In Matthew 11.28, Jesus says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." He promises to give us rest if we let Him carry the burdens of life. We need to be "casting all [our] anxiety on Him, because He cares for [us]" (I Peter 5.7).

Turning over my anxieties and burdens to Him, I rest in the fact that He is sovereign and in control over all of life's circumstances and trials. I can leave the details in His hands to work out in His timing and rest in peace.

Amazed by God

This week has been overwhelming with incredible provisions and revelations about God's will for me as it concerns me attending The Relevant Conference this October.

When I first heard about The Relevant Conference, I started praying about the possibility of attending, though if I'm honest I had little faith (if any) that it would happen. There were just too many obstacles in my way:

• Money - The cost of getting to the conference alone was going to be more than I thought I could possibly afford, let alone the conference ticket and hotel cost.
• Timing - We're moving this fall, AND I'm taking more classes towards my MA, not to mention trying to arrange childcare and whatnot.
• Reality - I'm still "new" in the blogging world and am working to build my blog. Aren't these conferences for the "big hitters" in blogging?

After considering the obstacles, though I dreamed of attending, I resigned myself to praying for those who would be attending and living/learning vicariously through them. Until last week, that is...

Last week, I was filling out my new BusyBodyBook planner with various dates for the fall. I still had Relevant on my list of dates, so I penciled it in to remember to pray for those attending. As I did, I noticed that the dates fell during my "week off" from classes. I wondered if this was a sign from God that I was supposed to be considering attending after all. (I didn't get a break between previous classes, so this was a surprise to me.)

I put a comment on Facebook regarding my decision to start praying about the possibility of attending again, listing my concerns of finances and childcare. Within the hour, God had provided the childcare, thanks to my sister!

I decided to pull out the sponsor letter I'd written way back when to update it and started praying about finances for the conference. Sarah Mae and Alicia graciously proof-read it for me, and I sent it off to sponsor-hopeful-number-one. The quick, but kind response was "we'd love to but we can't per company policy."

I re-personalized the letter and sent it off to sponsor-hopeful-number-two. This time, I got a "we'd love to but we can't sponsor the whole thing." I was so glad to have a sponsor on board, even if it was only a partial sponsor - that meant I was 3/4s of the way to Relevant (timing, childcare, and partial funding).

Knowing that I was going to need to come up with some of the money myself, I started exploring other options.

• Yesterday, I decided to start selling my Disciple's Cross necklaces, keychains, and zipper-pulls online. I created a website and also put my product in a few giveaways to hopefully sell my current stock and need to get more!
• I opened up ad space on my blog (see ads on the right sidebar - click over to the blog if you're reading this in a reader), generating some extra income each month.
• I also sent an email to my MA program to see about getting credit towards my MA for attending the conference. They said "yes", so now I have to design the "course" that I'll be taking for credit. Having it count as credits for school will allow me to include the cost in my school costs, lessening my out-of-pocket costs!
• I found someone with an Early Bird ticket that I could buy.
• The cost to fly isn't that much more than it would be to drive, and would save a LOT of time, so I'm looking into that possibility. Otherwise, I have a potential carpooling buddy to help split the cost of the drive.

I'm still praying for all the pieces to come together, but I am so excited to see God work! His hand is definitely all over this, and I can't wait to see how He uses this in my life!

Top 10 Tuesday: Link Challenge

I've hit a sort of writer's block this week - I can't seem to come up with anything to write. I was reading some blogs this morning, and I came across Oh Amanda's post for Top 10 Tuesday, and I decided to copy her idea.

1. My first post - way back when this blog was going to be all about me and improving my writing abilities.

2. A post I enjoyed writing the most - I actually REALLY enjoyed writing this post.

3. A post that led to great discussion - It's always fun to read your comments about my three-year-old's quotes!

4. A post on someone else's blog that I wish I'd written - There are so many great bloggers out there, and I enjoy the encouragement I get from so many of them. It's hard to pick just one post, so this is a link to some of my "Must Read" bloggers.

5. My most helpful post - I'm not sure that this is the MOST helpful post, but a lot of you commented that it was helpful for you.

6. A post with a title that I'm proud of - I needed to re-read this post today... I'm struggling to get out of bed again!

7. A post you wish more people had read - I think this is a critical subject, and I would love for more people to read and share this post!

8. A post with no words - I'm not sure I've ever posted without ANY words, but here's one with few words (comparatively).

9. A post you never published - I actually don't have any posts in my drafts folder... I tend to write them, or not. I do, however, have a list of ideas for blog posts that I haven't pulled out since I made it... I guess those would count as unpublished posts, right!?

10. Do you remember any of my posts? Any that stand out? That were bad? That struck you? That were funny, sad, happy, etc? I'd love to hear what stands out to you about AP Freewriting!

This post is being linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

Praying for One Another

Let's take some time to pray for each other today.

If you have a prayer request that you'd like us to pray for, leave it in the comments. Then, take a minute to pray for the other requests that have been left. Let's lift one another up to the throne of grace, knowing that our prayers will be heard and answered.

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. - Hebrews 4.16

BusyBodyBook Winner...

Laura J won the BusyBodyBook planner! (Random.org was used to determine a winner.) Congrats to Laura!!

If you didn't win, but would like a BusyBodyBook planner (which I HIGHLY recommend - I just can't say enough how much I LOVE this planner!!!), hop over to the BusyBodyBook website to order one for yourself... you won't regret it!

Thanks to BusyBodyBooks for providing the planners for the review and giveaway!

Week in Recap

This has been quite a week! I'm so excited about all that God is doing here on the blog and in my personal life as well - He has me in a state of constant excitement when I think about how He's working in my life!

Monday, we talked about Scheduling Spiritual Formation - we need to be proactive in making sure we are growing spiritually. Don't miss the chance to win a BusyBodyBook planner - giveaway ends tonight!

Tuesday, we were reminded that there is a difference between knowing ABOUT God and KNOWING God - it's important that we "taste and see that the Lord is good."

Wednesday, I spent some time answering a question that one of you emailed me about God's love for us - aren't you glad we can't earn His love?!?

Thursday, we were reminded to define ourselves by God's grace - the things of this world are temporary, but our position in Christ is eternal!

What has God been doing in your life this week?

I'm linking up to Company Girls Coffee 7.23.

Defined by Grace

What DEFINES you? If you had to write a definition of who you are, what would you say?

Lately, it seems like God is trying to remind me of what truly defines me. My pastor's sermon on Sunday was about this topic. A book I'm reading this week has brought it up a number of times. A blog I read yesterday brought the issue to mind. It seems like it keeps popping up, so I decided to verbalize it for myself yesterday.

I posted the following on Facebook on Tuesday: Motherhood does not define me. Neither does being a wife. I am defined by my relationship to God – justified by the blood of Jesus, being sanctified daily through His grace, and looking forward to the day when I will be glorified with Him in heaven! Everything else is temporary and can change in a heartbeat – only He is eternal!

Our definition is found in who Christ is and what He has done rather than in ourselves and in what we have done.

If you do not know Christ, you are defined as "lost, unregenerate, unrighteous". The Bible says that all our good works are like filthy rags to God. He is perfect and can accept nothing less than absolute perfection. We've all messed up - even if it's just "a little white lie", it keeps us from being perfect. There is a consequence for our failure to live up to God's standard of perfection - death, eternal separation from God. BUT, Jesus paid that penalty for us when He died on the cross. He not only died in our place, but He came back to life, defeating the power of sin (the mistakes we make) and giving all who trust in Him the opportunity to have eternal fellowship with God! If you have not trusted in Him, please email me and I'd love to take more time to share with you this amazing gift of grace that He has given us!

We are all defined by His grace - whether we've accepted it or not is the only difference!

Does God love me MORE or LESS?

Recently, I received a question from one of you:

Obedience is pleasing to GOD... some obey more than others..... so that must mean that he is WELL pleased with some and just pleased or NOT pleased with others... so with that all said and done does GOD love us ALL the same? and just not as pleased with me as he is with the one who is WELL obedient? and of course can you back that up with Scripture?

At the time that I received it, my brain was swamped with other things, and I didn't have the time to sit down and think through the answer to this question from a biblical standpoint. I knew the answer, but I needed to search the Scriptures for the "proof text" to support my answer.

God's love is unconditional. The most basic example of this is found in Romans 5.8 - "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." This verse shows us that God's love for us is not based on anything we do (or don't do), but rather is based on Himself and who He is. God loved us enough to send His ONLY Son to fulfill the debt of sin on our behalf while we were still sinning and didn't have a relationship with Him. If God loved us that much in our sinful, unregenerate state, then nothing we do (or don't do) can make Him love us any less.

The New Testament uses a Greek word to describe God's love for us: agape. We see the definition of this agape love in 1 Corinthians 13.4-8a: "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."

God's love is not based on anything we do/don't do. Do you love your children any less when they are disobedient? Do you love your children more when they are obedient? God's love for us is like that of a parent (though He is perfect in His love, unlike us). While you may not be pleased with your child's disobedience and/or may be extra pleased with his/her obedience, your love for them is the same regardless. This is God's love for us.

Do you have a question that you'd like me to address in a future post?

What does HONEY have to do with KNOWING God?

There is a difference between knowing ABOUT God and KNOWING God. 

“He that is spiritually enlightened truly apprehends and sees it, or has a sense of it. He doesn’t merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart. There is not only a rational belief that God is holy, and that holiness is a good thing; but there is a sense of the loveliness of God’s holiness. There is not only a speculatively judging that God is gracious, but a sense [of] how amiable God is upon that account; or a sense of the beauty of this divine attribute.... There is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness” (Jonathan Edwards, emphasis mine).

Do you know ABOUT God, or do you KNOW God?

"O taste and see that the LORD is good!" Psalm 34.8a

Scheduling Spiritual Formation

Friday, I asked the question, "What are you currently doing to grow spiritually?" on the AP Freewriting Facebook page.

A few months ago, I learned that if we want to grow spiritually, we must be proactive, participating in the spiritual disciplines on a daily basis. However, I've failed to be proactive in my spiritual formation, as I failed to plan.

Enter the BusyBodyBook planner. This incredible planner (and believe me, I've used a number of different planners) is exactly what I needed to incorporate a proactive approach to spiritual formation in my daily life.

Why is this planner different? This planner has 5 columns for each day. Each column has its own heading. My column headings include: Family, Supper, Spiritual Formation, Blog/Ministry, and BBC (my grad school). Having a separate column for each major area of my life helps to ensure each area is adequately planned for, and it allows me to focus on each area separately (rather than all jumbled together).

Since God has been talking to me about prayer recently, I plan to include specific prayer requests and activities under the Spiritual Formation heading for the next few weeks. I will also be including my Bible study plan and Bible memory schedule under this heading.

What about you? Do you need to start being more proactive in your own spiritual formation? Would having a BusyBodyBook planner help you to better plan your spiritual formation activities? If so, I have good news - I'm giving away a BusyBodyBook!

How do you enter? (Must complete all.)
1. Subscribe to the blog - RSS or email.
2. Leave a comment letting me know what spiritual discipline you need to work on this week. (Be sure to leave me a way to contact you if you win.)
3. Tell a friend about the giveaway/blog: "Win a @BusyBodyBooks planner at APFreewriting! http://tinyurl.com/winbbb @apichea Pls RT"

Be sure to visit the BusyBodyBook site to check out all their planners and calendars, and while you're there, be sure to download their FREE weekly grids!

This giveaway is open from now until Friday (7/23) at 11:59pm EDT. The giveaway and product reviewed were provided by BusyBodyBook.com. Winner will have his/her choice of current planner designs.

Why does my kids' toy room always end up looking like this?

Probably because in the same room (aka the kitchen/dining room) my stuff looks like this:

I cannot wait until each of these areas have a room of their own in our new house! I'll have an office upstairs (hopefully with LOTS of bookshelves!!), and they'll have a playroom downstairs. 

Only two (or three) more months!!

I'm linking up to Company Girls Coffee 7.16.

Using the Lord's Prayer as a Guide...

Monday I mentioned that I've started using the Lord's Prayer as a guide for my morning devotional/prayer time. I've found this guide to be extremely helpful in structuring my morning devotional time and prayer time as it relates what I'm reading to my life and gives me a way to approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4.16).

On our recent vacation to Pennsylvania, we visited Parker Hill Community Church (Dickson City Campus). Wouldn't you know, the topic of the sermon was the Lord's Prayer?!? (I told you that God has been speaking to me about prayer a LOT lately!) The way that the pastor broke down the Lord's Prayer and taught us to use it as a guide stuck with me.

To listen to the message, click on "Simple Prayer" (July 3). 

I added to the basic "form" that he developed from the Lord's Prayer a few other things I've been learning about prayer, and I have a new "format" for my morning devotions/prayer time.

The Lord's Prayer starts with acknowledging who God is. I choose an aspect of God's character or one of His names and use my concordance (or Scripture I've memorized) to find 3-5 verses/passages that reflect the character/name. Then I ask the question, "And why do I care?" (thanks to a recent challenge from my brother). This takes the exercise a step farther, relating the name/character to my life.

Next, the Lord's Prayer requires our submission to the will of God. I ask myself and God what things in my life that I'm trying to control and what I need to submit to His will. Once I make a short list, I spend time giving them to Him - releasing my hold on my life and letting Him have control.

Finally, the Lord's Prayer directs us to ask God for the things we need each day. This is where I spend the time asking the Lord for the needs in my life and in the lives of others.

I'll be teaching more on the Lord's Prayer, and prayer in general, this fall, but I wanted to share this structure with you as I've found it to be very beneficial for me. I've also put together a printable outline that you can use to journal, etc. Feel free to make copies for your personal use and share the link with others.

Disclaimer: Any printables I share are free for personal use, but are not to be used for commercial purposes.

The Power of the Tongue

This morning, in my morning devotion time, I was reminded of the power of the tongue.

I've been praying through Praying for Your Husband (as well as The Power of a Praying Wife) in my morning devotion/prayer time, and today's focus was on his words.

I don't know about you, but my words tend to get me in trouble more often than not. I often speak without thinking (often wanting to look intelligent, but revealing myself as less than), and I often find myself regretting that I said something.

A humorous example of this was on our recent trip to PA. We were driving down the highway when I noticed a cop sitting in his car along the side of the road trying to catch speeding vehicles. Out of my mouth I heard: "There's a cop! He's using a stun gun to catch speeding vehicles!" My husband, who was driving, immediately started laughing. I knew what I had said wasn't right, but my brain couldn't recover quickly enough to correct myself (I couldn't think of the word "radar"). All I could do was laugh it off.

Unfortunately, we're not always able to laugh off our "bloopers" or "misspeaks". Often times, when we speak before we think, our tongue has a negative affect on others, causing pain.

James 3.5-10 (NASB, emphasis mine) speaks of the power of the tongue: "So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way."

Our tongues have the ability to tear down or build up. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit" (Proverbs 18.21). We need to be in control of our tongue, taking the time to think before we speak. 

Ephesians 4.29 instructs us to use our tongues to edify one another: "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear."

Has your tongue gotten you in trouble recently? How are you using your tongue to edify others? Look for opportunities today to use your tongue to build others up!

"The Lord's Prayer" by R.T. Kendall

I was super excited when I received an email for the newest non-fiction books available for review from Bethany House Publishers and saw a book on The Lord's Prayer on the list. As I mentioned yesterday, I have been learning a lot about prayer lately (seems to be what God is trying to teach me right now), and I'm getting ready to do some teaching on prayer this fall, so this book was just what I wanted to read!

I grabbed my highlighter and plopped in my recliner on Sunday afternoon (it came in the mail on Saturday) to start gleaning truths about prayer from the insight of R.T. Kendall. It wasn't long and my book was very blue (the color of my highlighter). Soooo many great truths and revelations in this book - things I knew but hadn't applied, new truths pulled from other passages, an in-depth look at each phrase and its purpose.

I devoured the book in less than a day (with multiple interruption). It was that good. This book definitely changed the way I view the Lord's Prayer (and prayer in general), adding to some other truths that have recently altered my view of prayer as well. I can't wait to re-read it as I prepare to teach on prayer this fall!

Thanks to Bethany House Publishers for providing a copy of this book for review.

"Beguiled" and "Never Say Never"

While on vacation, I had a chance to catch up on some "leisure" reading. I had received a number of books from Bethany House Publishers to read and review, plus I picked up a number of books from our library (and we won't mention the books we bought at the $5 Christian Bookstore at the outlet mall while we were gone), so I had plenty to choose from! In the end, though, I ended up only making it through two books (both at the beginning of the week) from BHP: Beguiled by Deeane Gist and J. Mark Bertrand; and Never Say Never by Lisa Wingate.

Beguiled immediately struck my interest, as I have enjoyed previous books by Deeane Gist, and I'm a huge fan of suspense fiction. Beguiled had a little bit of everything in it: romance, plot twists to keep the reader guessing, and plenty of suspense.

From the back cover:
Rylee Monroe, a dogwalker in Charleston's wealthiest neighborhood, never feared the streets at night. But now a thief is terrorizing the area and worse, someone seems to be targeting her.

Reporter Logan Woods is covering the break-ins with the hope of publishing them as a true-crime book. The more he digs, the more he realizes this beguiling dogwalker seems to be at the center of everything.

As danger draws ever closer, Logan must choose: Chase the girl, the story, or plunge into the shadows after the villain who threatens everything?

As I finished the book, I was satisfied with the ending (everything seemed to be resolved), but I felt as if part of the development of the resolution was missing. I'm not sure if it was because I read in little snippets (15-20 minutes at a time) or if something was actually missing in the story. I guess you'll have to read it for yourself to decide...

Never Say Never was my first exposure to Lisa Wingate. Living in the heart of Texas, Lisa writes Texas romance fiction from a first-hand knowledge of the culture and people. Reading the book was like walking into a small town in Texas and watching life go on around me.

In Never Say Never, Kai is transplanted from the coast to a small town inland during a hurricane. Everything she has in life, save what she has in her microbus, had to be left behind. With no family to her name and a road life, she has no idea what she is in store for when she meets up with Doretta and her friends on the road to evacuate the coast. Meeting Doretta means being introduced to Kemp. Readers learn the true meaning of "home" and are reminded to tell their loved ones, "I love you," in this touching story.

From the back cover:
Kai Miller floats through life like driftwood tossed by waves. She's never put down roots--and she doesn't plan to. But when a chaotic hurricane evacuation lands her in Daily, Texas, she begins to think twice about her wayfaring existence. And when she meets hometown-boy Kemp Eldridge, she can almost picture settling down in Daily--until she discovers he may be promised to someone else.

Daily has always been a welcoming place of refuge for those the wind blows in, but for Kai, it looks like it will be just another place to leave behind. Then again, Daily always has a few surprises in store--especially when Aunt Donetta Bradford has cooked up a scheme.

I enjoyed reading this book, and I look forward to reading more books by Lisa Wingate.

Thanks to Bethany House Publishers for providing me with copies of both of these books to read and review.

Is that You, God?!?

Have you ever noticed that life seems to have a lot of "coincidences"?

Take for example: Yesterday, I decided to switch up my morning devotions as they were starting to become "routine," and I wasn't approaching them with the proper attitude. I was approaching them as something to check off my list - to say I had done them.

So, this morning, I got up "early" (before J left for work and two hours before the kids got up), grabbed my Bible, a notebook, and some recent sermon notes. (Not the coincidence I'm going to talk about, but lately everything I'm reading/hearing is about prayer, including the topic of study for this fall on the blog and in my ladies' Bible study!)

Having been recently studying the Lord's Prayer, I used it as an outline for my devotional time (I'll be sure to share this outline later in the week) and prayed through it, using Scripture to guide my prayers.

One of the things I found myself praying about, and submitting to God, was the issue of finances - both for school and for our house. I gave the issue to Him, knowing that both are His will at this time and thus He will work it out in His timing and in His way.

Not an hour later, and I chipped a veneer. Now, you may be wondering what chipping a veneer has to do with praying about finances for school and building a house. Well, we seem to have bitten off about as much as we can chew (pardon the pun) right now financially. We're living within our means, but we're having to stretch those means a bit in order to be able to save for some of our upcoming expenses (school, house, etc.). Thus, we don't really have the "extra" money right now to fix a broken veneer (we'll have to take it out of the money we've set aside for appliances and such).

But, knowing that God is in control of ALL of our finances (and ALL the details of our lives), and having submitted control of that to Him just this morning, I'm not fretting (like I might have otherwise) over the additional expense that we'll most likely be occurring this week due to the chipped veneer.

Isn't our God awesome?!

This fits right in with something I was reading last night: At the end of the Lord's Prayer, we pray "lead us not into temptation." When we pray this, we are actually praying that we will not be tested prematurely due to temptations from within - that we will be ready to withstand the test when God deems it time.

Had I not spent the time with God this morning and submitted that issue to Him, my reaction to the extra expense this week might have been drastically different. But, I chose to obey in getting up, spending time in the Word and prayer, and submitting control to Him.

And thus, when the trial/test came, I was able to claim 1 Corinthians 10.13: "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it."

God allowed me peace in the middle of a "crisis," when I may not have had it had I not obeyed. Thank You, Lord!

What "coincidences" have you noticed in your life lately? How has God been talking to you?

I'm back!

My life has finally slowed down to "normal". No more school til the middle of August. No planned events away from home (aka vacations) for until Labor Day. Nothing on the calendar outside of our weekly schedule (mainly church) and a few miscellaneous appointments.

I'm SOOO ready for a break! And, I'm ready to get back to writing. I'm super excited about something I'm planning for the fall (will be prepping for over the next month or so while I'm "school free") - we are going to be learning and growing together!

As I get back to writing, I'd love for you to suggest some ideas for topics that you'd like to see on the blog. I have a list of ideas that I'd like to write about, but this blog is just as much about you as it is about me, so I would love your input!