It’s time to roll in the New Year. Have you made your resolutions yet? How about preparing your family as best you can in case of any emergencies? After having lost our home in the wildfire of 2017, I’d like to discuss the importance of an emergency binder and share how I put ours together […]
Yearly Archives: 2021
#29 It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Christmas is my favorite holiday. It’s also my husband’s favorite, so you might expect us to go all out like Clark from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (one of my husband’s favorite Christmas movies). Rather than straining our meter, we usually just whip out the Christmas decorations as soon as we can—typically the day after Thanksgiving, […]
#28 A Legacy of Communication
Just Is a Four-Letter Word, and it can also shatter the airs of open communication between people if you aren’t careful. If you aim to be that person your children feel comfortable coming to for anything, then you need to validate their feelings, even when you don’t understand them. I try my best to listen […]
#27 Just a Four-Letter Word
You’re trying to get some chores done when, suddenly, your youngest child begins to scream. You turn to see your kids fighting over a toy. The quickest resolution is to tell your oldest, “Just give the toy to your sister so she stops crying.” “But I had it first!” she yells, indignantly. You sigh. You’ve […]
#26 What is Success?
I launched Red Quill just over a year ago on October 2, 2020. As I celebrate my first year in business, I spent some time remembering how I’d dreamed of becoming a book editor ever since I was in my early teens, but was terrified to fail (imposter syndrome, anyone?). In the midst of COVID […]
#25 Choose to Love, part f (final)
(In case you’re wondering about my hair in these pics, I dyed it brown for a few years. Gotta see how the other half lives!) The Rest Is History Throughout all of this, I feel that my husband and I have come out stronger and more united than ever from each of these experiences. I […]
#24 Choose to Love, part e
From Fixer-Upper to Ashes After becoming parents to baby Ember, we moved from town to the countryside when we were able to purchase a little bit of land. The house was not the greatest. In fact, it was in horrible shape and was only a thousand square feet (even less than our first house in […]
#23 Choose to Love, part d
The Next Adventure—We’re Having a Baby! Lane and I welcomed our first daughter in 2016. My pregnancy had been textbook perfect. I hardly had any nausea and I worked right up until the last couple of weeks. I had created a birth plan that I was excited to carry out. I have always prided myself […]
#22 Choose to Love, part c
To Graduate, or Not to Graduate Throughout the time that Lane attended WyoTech, we had to live apart and on a tight budget. Our love continued to strengthen and grow, but the world wasn’t done testing us yet. In April, 2015, Lane’s school shut down without warning the week prior to his final classes. Although […]
#21 Choose to Love, part b
Growing Together in Our Home Lane and I started our journey together in a tiny 500-square-foot apartment. It was just the two of us and a lot of love. Our home did not have a private yard or even a private balcony. If you opened one of the three windows, you’d likely be hit in […]
