Everyone knows how important it is to get a good night's sleep. However, for many women sleep can prove to be elusive. When a women's hormones are out of balance it can cause sleep disturbances; the reverse is also true: not getting enough sleep can cause hormones to become unbalanced. This can lead to aContinue reading "Five Ways to Improve Your Sleep"
Why is cutting sugar important as a perimenopausal woman?
Day 3 of no sugar. I'm pleasantly surprised that I haven't had nearly as many cravings for sugar as I've anticipated. I have candy and ice cream in my house (I have four kids after all!) but so far so good! I'm eating lots of protein and quality carbohydrates (lots of veggies!), so I thinkContinue reading "Why is cutting sugar important as a perimenopausal woman?"
Just Breathe.
Just breath. It’s one of the simplest things. Most of the time we don’t even think about it! And yet, it is an incredibly powerful tool for reducing the stress hormone, cortisol. This week I am challenging myself to starting my day with deep breaths and I’m setting an alarm in my phone to chimeContinue reading "Just Breathe."
Three Daily Practices to Change Your Life
It seems like everyone these days has a formula for happiness. Do this. Don't do that. Follow these steps for instant happiness. I don't know that these three things will lead to happiness every minute of every day (what a laughable goal anyway), but I do know that the quality of your life will beContinue reading "Three Daily Practices to Change Your Life"
Embarking on Homeschooling
Several years ago, I homeschooled my two oldest children for two years. After much prayer, we decided to put them into public school (they actually were selected in the lottery for a charter school!) after a very rough year (Raegan was born during the school year and I had post partum depression). Julie was inContinue reading "Embarking on Homeschooling"
Searching for the Perfect Christmas Tree
Every year like Clark and his family, we load up the family truck and head out “to select the most important of Christmas symbols,” the Beard family Christmas tree. Tree lots or trees in the box don’t do it for us. Nope. We need to do it like our fore-fathers. We get out into theContinue reading "Searching for the Perfect Christmas Tree"
Setting intentions
The problem with most resolutions is that they are vague ideals: to lose weight, to make more money, to fall in love, to do better at cleaning the house. What we call resolutions aren't really a course of action or a plan. What we call resolutions are more often just pie in the sky hopes. And while hoping and dreaming are very important in their own right, without a set of objectives to reach the goal, they are often in vain, without coming to fruition.
It would be an honor: 4 qualities to implement in our lives
Recently, Carissa and I had a proud parenting moment. We attended the induction ceremony for the local chapter of the National Honor Society to watch our oldest daughter, Julie, be inducted. It was both an exciting and proud moment for us as parents. Julie had been downplaying the event and was even surprised that allContinue reading "It would be an honor: 4 qualities to implement in our lives"
Beauty: the keyhole to eternity
Beauty has the unique ability to pull back the curtain of our cares and worries and leave us fully exposed to one moment in time when our souls resonate with eternity.
To everything there is a season: Sukkot 2017
To everything there is a season… We are in the midst of Sukkot, what Christians might know better from their Sunday school lessons as The Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths. God gives the directions for celebrating in Leviticus 23. 39 “‘So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gatheredContinue reading "To everything there is a season: Sukkot 2017"
That Shalom Life 