I’ve been struggling with the burdens of friendship recently. I believe passionately in community. If you follow me on any platform, you might’ve noticed. I started this blog, a Mothers Ministry, and a neighborhood Bible Study to help encourage women and build community for myself and others. I feel strongly that we need a village, a solid reliable community, to do this earthly life.

Yet I am learning the hard way when you’re far from family in a new area, sometimes you have to build your own village. I want to be obedient to the call to build community for women, particularly mothers, and be an encourager as the Holy Spirit leads me.

My husband and I have been involved at our church for 10 years, and a year ago we began hosting a weekly small group. It’s been good for us because we’ve been able to get to know new people and make new friends. We’ve been helped by our group and we’ve been able to help others.

But, still, people are messy. And when you deal with messy people, life can get messy, too. Hence, burdens!

Feelings are a funny thing. On the one hand, our feelings are valid and it’s okay to acknowledge them, feel them, and give them to God. 1 Peter 5:7 says “Cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you.”

On the other hand, feelings don’t define us and shouldn’t be where we spend our time. I get stuck here. A lot. I am good at labeling my feelings and acknowledging them, I think, but I tend to hang out there and struggle to move on from them to do something productive. I’d rather find a way to “not feel them,” or I seek out justification for them rather than trying to identify the heart of the issue.

Does this ever happen to you? Can you relate?

A Crash Course on Cloth Wipes, Creams, Powders, and Rashes

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Welcome back, fluffy Mama! Today’s course is gonna bump you up into the intermediate level of cloth diapering. I’m here to share with you my tips, tricks, and hacks about CD, including using cloth wipes, diaper safe creams, powders, and how we combat diaper rash (which, THANKFULLY, happens way less in CD than in sposies). If you’re new to cloth diapering, or you have no idea what I just said, I encourage you to check out my previous posts about getting started on cloth diapers!

Well, Hurricane Florence got me motivated to prep my house and hunker down, and as a mom of two little kids, that means more than making sure we have enough water, bread, and batteries. The more I started to think and prep for losing power, the more I began to realize how important it is to have activities for the kiddos. And I realized how easy it is to assemble new, free/cheap, fun activities for little kids with things you probably already have in your house!

This makes hurricane prep, power outages, sick days, or a boring afternoon just a little more fun and exciting. You can pack them away for the car or a trip, or only take them out in times like these to keep them exciting. Who doesn’t love a few cheap (or free) and activities that double as learning and fine- and gross-motor skill development?! Here are the top busy bag activities that I either had the supplies on hand to make already or found easily at the grocery store/pharmacy while I was out and about.