My First Christian Fiction Novel, Easter, and a Mother's Day Card Printable for Kids (Digital Download)

Heartbeat:  My First Christian Fiction Novel Coming Soon

My First Christian Fiction Novel, Heartbeat, is Coming Soon!

Hello!  It has been a while since you last heard from me, but I have good reasons for my absence here on the blog.  First, I have a new granddaughter!  She's is the apple of my eye.  She smiles all the time.  She is such a joy and I'm loving my new position as Nonnie.  Secondly, I took time off the blog to do something I've wanted to do since high school.  I finally did something I've dreamed about for 32 years.  I wrote a novel.  My first Christian fiction novel will be released soon.  It's a novel about 4 women in 4 different circumstances.  3 women find themselves dealing with unplanned pregnancies while the 4th woman's life unexpectedly intertwines with the first three.  It's a novel about life, loss, love, forgiveness, mercy, grace, and healing.  I'll be sure to let you know when it becomes available.  

You might not know about my first publication.  Back in 2016, I was diagnosed with a chronic illness called Crohn's Disease.  I was discouraged at first because Crohn's Disease is a tough disease to fight and manage.  My "pity party" as I like to call it didn't last long because I realized that though chronic illness is tough and it might steal my happiness for a time, it could never steal my joy.  My happiness is based on my circumstances, but my joy is based on my faith in God who is greater than my disease or any earthly affliction.  If you or someone you love suffers from a chronic illness, I hope my little 10 day devotional, When Chronic Illness Steals Your Joy, will help restore a joy that only seems lost.  You'll find it here. 

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Celebrating Easter by Remembering Jesus' Suffering

Easter is just around the corner.  For me, Holy Week has always been somber.  The truth is I don't like to think about the betrayal of Jesus and His suffering.  I like to skip on to Sunday and focus on His resurrection.  When The Passion of the Christ was released, I watched it once in the theater, but I have not watched it since.  I couldn't get it out of my mind for months.  We purchased the movie but we have never even taken it out of its original packaging.  I don't like to focus on that part of the Easter story, but you know what?  We should read about it, watch it, and think about it.  Jesus suffered in our place so we should know all the horrors of His scourging and crucifixion.  It should make me as sick now as it did back then.  It should make us all sick.  It was His suffering that paid for our sin.  It was His suffering that gave us a way to eternal life in Heaven with Him.  Without the suffering, there would have been no death, no sacrifice, no resurrection.  Jesus did suffer.  He died in our place.  He rose again.  He is alive today and He offers the free gift of eternal life for those who believe in Him and repent of their sins.  If you would like to know more about the free gift of eternal life, you can learn more here.  

If you've never watched The Passion of the Christ, you can watch it here via Prime Video or you can purchase the Blu-ray version below.

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Mother's Day Coloring Card Printable

Looking ahead to Mother's Day, I've created a cute little Mother's Day card that is perfect for kids to color for their moms in honor of Mother's Day.  

Mother's Day Card Coloring Printable

After downloading the printable, your child can cut out the card, color it, fold it, and give it to Mom.  When folded correctly, the card is blank on the inside so your child can write a personal Mother's Day message for mom, draw a picture, or maybe complete a hand-print or thumb-print activity.  Mom will love it.  You'll find the printable here.

Celebrating Easter

As we move into Easter weekend, I hope you enjoy your families, but please take time to read about Jesus' suffering and death. Then, rejoice because He lives again!  I'll make it easy for you.  You can read the Easter story in Luke: 22-24 right here on BibleGateway.

Snowman Drawing and Writing Practice: If I had a snowman, I would . . .

When kids tell their own stories, they exercise their creative thinking skills.  It's even better when they draw their stories. Then, they get to exercise another type of creativity.  Telling stories helps kids develop language skills and writing those stories helps them learn to organize their thoughts and practice sequencing events in their minds and on paper.  Even younger children can practice these skills with this snowman writing practice activity.

Snowman Drawing and Writing Practice

Snowman Drawing and Writing Practice

This two page snowman drawing and writing practice activity gives children the opportunity to practice creative thinking skills, drawing, and writing skills.  

First, children are instructed to draw a picture of what they would do if they had a snowman.  Then, they are in told to trace the dotted letters and finish the sentence on the second page.  This is a simple activity but one that gives children the opportunity to develop those critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, language skills, hand-eye coordination, writing skills, and small motor skills.

Get your copy of the Snowman Drawing and Writing Practice Sheets here.

More Writing Practice

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Snowman Drawing and Writing Practice

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Weekly Meal Planner - Share me on Facebook!

How are you doing with your New Year health goals?  One of our family goals is to eat at home more.  When we eat at home, we eat healthier.  We love food.  We love our local restaurants and we are a busy family so we eat out way too much.  Since we are busy (much too busy sometimes) and I don't particularly love cooking, meal planning is challenging.  Sometimes I buy too little which leaves us unprepared so we grab something on the way home or I buy too much and we end up throwing away wasted food.  Food is expensive.  I cringe at the thought of throwing away all that wasted food.  A few days ago, I sat down to create a weekly meal planner to help me stay organized.  

Weekly Meal Planner

My weekly meal planner includes space for writing down our dinner menu for each night of the week.  For my family, breakfast and lunch aren't a problem for planning.  We all have a pretty well established routine for those meals.  Meal planning for our family dinners is the challenging part for me.  To make meal planning for dinner even more challenging, one of my daughters has decided to go gluten free.  I have a personal goal to eat cleaner, avoiding all those dangerous additives and preservatives as much as possible.  My husband and my younger daughter don't plan to make many changes to their dietary lifestyles.  That leaves me with the daunting task of coming up with meals to suit everyone's tastes.  It's not going to be easy but my weekly meal planner will certainly help.   

Weekly Meal Planner - Share me on Instagram!

My weekly meal planner includes 4 pages of planning space.  On the left column of each page, there is a colorful note pad image for writing down our dinner menu.  The right column of each page includes space for my grocery list.  After I write down the name of the dish I plan to prepare on the note pad space, I will list all the ingredients in the spaces on the right column.  When I finish all the planning for the week and I've listed all the ingredients, I'll go to my cabinets to check off any ingredients that I already have on hand.  Then, I'll take the planner pages with me to the grocery store to shop for any items not checked off.  I can keep my weekly meal planner clipped to my refrigerator so that my husband and my daughters can keep track of the meals I plan to serve for each night.  

Grab your weekly meal planner here!

I've already tested my planner and it worked out well for us.  I used it to record my planned meals.  I used it to check off my ingredients and then I headed to the grocery store.  Tonight, I'm making a gluten free chicken recipe that I'll share with you in a future post.

In the meantime, grab your copy of my Weekly Meal Planner here and start planning your meals to help you reach your New Year health goals.

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Weekly Meal Planner - Pin Me!