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Rest and ReSet

by | October 13, 2024 | Encouragement, Faith, Goals, Winter | 0 Comments

The New Year arrives devoid of December’s color, clutter, and chaos. The holidays are over. Life is quieter. Muted. Barren. What is to come? That split second between December 31 and January 1 was merely a change in year, marked only by a new number. And yet, what is...
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Five Love Languages

Somebody Loves You, <Your name here>

by | February 6, 2021 | Encouragement, Relationships | 0 Comments

We can show our love by loving with another person’s love language.

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Over the Rainbow

by | December 1, 2020 | Family, Farm, Relationships | 0 Comments

“When you get a puppy, nobody tells you about that day,” my daughter said, petting her beloved English Shepherd, as we reminisced about the dog that had “raised” my girls. Almost sixteen years before, our tri-color puppy flew from Arkansas to our farm in Virginia....
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Outtake pose

Outtakes

by | October 17, 2020 | Encouragement, Goals, Relationships | 0 Comments

When a friend dedicated his one-minute #sorrynotsorry outtake reel to me, I considered it the highest honor, because Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest subscribers rarely show their fails. Instead social media enthusiasts present a filtered version of life. The best...
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10+ Tips for Growing your Online Platform from NYT Best Selling Authors

by | September 18, 2020 | Goals, Writing | 0 Comments

Growing an online platform presents a challenge for most authors who prefer writing books to self-promoting and following social media. And yet publishers count on an author's platform for marketing. How do authors balance this responsibility when, as award-winning...
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Bummer Lamb

by | April 12, 2020 | Faith, Farm, Relationships | 0 Comments

One Saturday before Easter, my husband heard baby lambs mewing in the corner of our barn. Their first-time mother accepted one but not the other twin. Perhaps it was because the second appeared premature, its eyes unopened, its mouth too weak to suckle. He was a...
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An Up for a Down Day

by | March 5, 2020 | Encouragement | 0 Comments

When I'm feeling DOWN and I need an UP. I take FIVE. It's a simple RX for when you're low. It won’t cure chronic depression, but it interrupts a sadness that might slide into something more. When I offer it to friends, I jokingly sign the RX as "Dr. Ann." 1.     Eat a...
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A Cut Above: The Upside of Shearing

by | February 17, 2020 | Encouragement, Family, Farm, Goals, Parenting, Relationships, Teaching | 0 Comments

My husband tried shearing a sheep. Only once. He claimed, “It looked like the sheep's fleece went through the blender.”  Now each spring our sheep are sheared by a professional; it’s an entertaining event. The shearer hoists the ewe on her bottom so she’s vertical and...
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Q & A on A Beautiful Day

by | December 24, 2019 | Encouragement, Family, Marriage, Parenting, Relationships, Teaching | 0 Comments

In Kindergarten we learned to raise our hands to ask a question. We couldn’t swear, call each other names, intimate kids on the swing set, or swear. We were taught to be kind. "Kinder" actually means children in German, but maybe it's also a good reminder to be...
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