Living as a Victorious Christian Woman

Now that I'm officially a boss, I'm finding that I need the cheerleaders in my life a little more than normal. I'm grateful to everyone who's supporting and encouraging me in this new phrase of my career, and I've put a lot of their words into my journals. I've also made this week's planner spread shake some metaphorical pom-poms, too!   Don't let anyone tell you that your way or vision or preparation isn't enough. I don't have to set up my office, my home or even my planner to make anyone else happy. It doesn't matter if anyone thinks I could do better or differently to make a better finished product. All that matters is that your life, your heart and your creativity are pleasing to God and give you what you need for the day. Yes, I may be the boss, but I need love and encouragement, too. For my planner spread that starts tomorrow, I pulled out all the embellishments I could find that talked about work and being the boss and being motivated ...

One of my four favorite coffee mugs has the fruit of the spirit written on it in a beautiful font. (Yes, I have that many favorite cups. I'm sure you do, too.) Seeing these words first thing in the morning reminds me that there's nothing more beautiful in this world than a woman who is growing and flourishing because of God's word. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 It's a beautiful blessing from the Lord to have all these fruit growing inside us and changing us for the better. The Spirit is constantly at work in our hearts and minds, making us more like Christ every single day. But what about the days when your fruit is just past its peak of freshness? You're becoming just a little bitter around the edges. Your patience is being tried so you've lost a little peace. You're still doing good things, but your actions and reactions aren...

Nothing says spring like beautiful yellows, light blues and darling purples. To celebrate the start of the season, I used Illustrated Faith's Captivated set from the Print and Pray shop. This will be the last full week of the month, so my planner spread says Hello, Spring and Goodbye, March! That camera is one of my favorite die cuts ever, ever, ever. When you cut a slit in it with an X-acto knife, you can tuck one of these little Polaroids in, like you've just taken a picture. So cute! All these sweet layers in spring's pastel colors just make me smile.  If I had to wager a guess, I'd say you could probably find spring-themed or spring-colored embellishments everywhere in your collection. My challenge to you this week is to dig out anything and everything you already own and put together a great planner layout for this week. Get creative, my friends!

Having large, tall dogs means none of our windows are safe. And having tons of wildlife walk around the house every day means the dogs are always jumping around the windows and creating beautiful nose art. So before I wash the living room windows during my spring cleaning barrage, let's see what we can see in those smudges and smears. In the upper right corner of this window is an elephant, or possibly a warthog, walking to the left. Underneath it is a Chinese dragon breathing flames. Kinda sorta. If you look in the middle of this window pane, there are bird wings like it's running to take off. And there are several large flowers around it, including a tulip on the left side, and a large bird head looking down on them. The dogs got a little swoopy and dramatic on this one. And I saved the best for last. Don't tell me you can't see the zombie apocalypse in the middle, as they're running away to the right! Or it could be mummies because their arms are stretched out in...

I'm working on two custom card orders this weekend, and that's both good and bad. It's very good because I love knowing that these friends will be able to bless those who receive these cards. But it's also very sad because they're orders for sympathy cards and encouragement cards, and I hate knowing there are people in our world suffering through so many trials. Sharing God's love and truth is the best way I know to shine a light in the darkness of this world. And if putting His word on a piece of paper in an envelope, then I am blessed beyond measure to serve Him this way. If you find yourself sending a multitude of cards meant to uplift and encourage right now, it can be difficult to come up with words and Scriptures after a while. Here are some of my favorite phrases and passages to include in my sympathy cards, designed to shine the love of God where it is needed most. May the tender love of God bring  peace and comfort to your heart. Praying the Lord will...

Over the past few months, I've been so blessed to have several devotionals to use during my quiet time. My four most recent ones are all from Illustrated Faith, and here's just a glimpse into what I've been learning and how God has been growing me in this season. In November I wrote my way through Gratitude Documented and Project Gr8ful in one notebook. When you're ever in a particularly low place in your life, no matter who cliche it may sound, count your many blessings. Gratitude to God for all He has done and is doing helps us remember that He's working on future blessings, too. One side of the spread is a short prayer based on studying one Scripture for the entire day. Sometimes I wrote a single sentence, while other times I basically wrote a novel. It all depended on how much was on my heart and how quickly I could get it all out in writing. On the other side are three specific things I was grateful for that day. It was never difficult to come up with three bec...

How often do you make a pantry-clearing meal just so you can use up what you have on hand? It's a great way to make good use of ingredients that might be nearing their expiration date, which saves you money and frustration, and it lets you get really creative in the kitchen. Double the practicality and double the fun! So a couple of weeks ago I thawed a pound of ground beef because I had several pounds just sitting the freezer. From the pantry I grabbed a box of dirty rice mix and some small tortillas. And from the refrigerator I pulled out shredded Mexican cheese blend and my favorite peach salsa.   Following the directions on the box, I cooked up the dirty rice, which is one of my favorites! Then I layered the mix with shredded cheese and a little bit of salsa. To wrap them up, I folded in the sides of the tortilla first, then rolled them up into little balls of goodness.  Once they're all wrapped up and topped with a spoonful of salsa and more cheese, I pop them in the oven...

We had our first spring storm last weekend, then a snow storm the middle of the week. Now this weekend it's almost 70 degrees, so I have the house opened up to air out. Welcome to March in Iowa, right? We all look forward to the beauty and renewal that come with spring. If you're like me, you probably check the trees every single day, looking for buds and the very first shade of green. As much as I love the snow clinging to the branches of all our trees in winter, I'm beyond ready for warm days, light breezes and tons of Vitamin D from the sunshine. It's our job to grow this spring, too. If we're not spending time in prayer and Bible reading every single day, it's like not planting our seeds in the ground, but we still expect them to grow up big and strong. It may sound ridiculous, comparing ourselves to stupid little seeds, but Jesus Christ Himself said we were ground, just waiting to soak up the seed of His word. In Matthew 13, we read one of the longest parab...

I cannot believe that it's already the middle of March! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though, because the first two months of the year flew by, too. And now we'll be celebrating St. Patrick's Day this week, so my planner is all ready for the greenest of holidays. One of my favorite collections of washi tape has three or four rolls for each month, so I chose the shamrocks for the top banner. Then I went through every single sticker book I had and pulled out anything I saw that was green. That included some banners, patterned blocks, words and phrases, journal blocks and some adorable hearts. And a few rainbows for good measure. I left the list section of this week's planner pages fairly open because it's going to be a very busy week. Between work, errands, starting our spring cleaning and a surprise or two (for other people, not surprises for myself that I already know about...), I think I'll probably need every one of those list lines. My prayer for all ...

It's been more than two weeks since I was here on my blog, but it feels like a year and a half. My planner hasn't look this blank and new and open in forever. It's actually kind of strange to see it like this! That's what happens when you're a busy woman, juggling all those parts of life by the grace of God. So this week's planner spread touches my heart in a very special way. The very first phrase sticker I chose was "Start with a grateful heart." I've been actively keeping track of everything I'm grateful for right now, which is so important when you've got a full schedule. The very last thing I want to do is become overwhelmed and frustrated because my priorities are out of whack. The whole week is full of truths about God, His word, our persistence and working as unto the Lord. I started penciling in all of this week's appointments and meetings, and it's going to be a busy seven days. That's why having a planner full of Scri...