Knowing God as my refuge has given me peace and hope. When I faced a cancer diagnosis or navigated end-of-life issues with my parents, I knew God as my trusted refuge.
Learning begins in our early days of life and continues through to the end.
In college, I studied human development and grew an appreciation for how we grow, change and learn.
I continue to learn a variety of things, such as creating new recipes, blogging, writing a book and releasing it, using technology, visiting different cultures, and studying the Word of God, to name a few.
One skill that I continue to develop is piano. I started lessons when I was 13, after I already knew how to read music. My parents were hesitant to purchase a piano because of the cost, for fear that my brother and I would not continue with it. Both of us proved our parents wrong, as music has been an important part of our lives to this day.
Piano became a refuge for my sanity throughout the uncertain years of high school and turbulent home life. As my skill improved, I found peace through moving my fingers over the keys playing songs like Bridge Over Troubled Waters.
My piano study continued several semesters into college, until I no longer could fit it into my schedule. I knew I would take more lessons…someday.
I married my college sweetheart. Knowing my love for piano, he surprised me by purchasing a used piano six months into our new marriage. I still found time to play, although not regularly due to learning adult life with a job and home. I still knew there was more to learn.
Fast-forward a decade. In my early thirties, with two young children, I found a piano teacher who could explain improvisation. My desire was ripe to build upon my classical foundation. Four months of lessons revitalized and totally changed my style of piano playing. I continue to draw upon those lessons today.
Improvisation showed me there is more than one way to do something. It has challenged my creativity to step out of my comfort zone. This has been a valuable skill to adapt to many areas of life, not only music.
Fast-forward a few more decades. My piano has moved from Illinois, to Kansas, and to Arkansas. Several years ago we inherited an antique baby grand from my husband’s family. It needed a lot of work when we got it, but we decided the piano was worth the restoration.
Our family has expanded with grandchildren.
When I held our first grandchild, I hummed a new melody to him.
After returning home from that sweet visit, I figured out the song on the grand, putting words to the tune.
Tears filled my eyes, with gratitude for the gift of new life combined with the gift of music. I’ve sung that lullaby blessing to each of my five grandchildren.
Playing piano brings joy and peace to my soul. It is where I can release and express emotions. I love playing exuberant Christmas music. After each biopsy or cancer diagnosis, I prayed through my fingers, playing peaceful hymns.
In the past few years, I’ve started giving piano lessons to pass on my love for music and piano. Also, I play in the worship band at church each week, growing in the skill of playing a digital keyboard.
There is much to learn about music and piano. Studies have shown it improves your brainpower and calms your emotions. The skill can be learned over a lifetime. I plan to keep my fingers moving on the keys for decades to come.
Blogging takes a lot of trial and error, a lot of learning. In September I’m honored to be the Arkansas Women Blogger of the month with the “learn” theme. Over the past 8 years I’ve learned much about blogging.
As a speaker, I wanted to have a blog to share hope through devotionals. The reason I speak and write is to encourage people in their Christian faith through the struggles of daily life. The blog wasn’t the first component of developing my platform. It became an important part of it, helping me write content for my book.
Over the years, I’ve developed a communication ministry that has expanded with technology. My first website (2005) did not include a blog, just information about me and my speaking topics. In 2008, I started a blog on a separate site.
My very first blog post was:
“I hope you can find a moment of hope and inspiration on my blog!”
That’s it. No pictures or links. Only one sentence. I didn’t know anything about blogging or SEO, but wanted to get my writing on the web. I have learned a lot since that first blog post in 2008.
In 2011, my website and blog were combined at nancykaygrace.com when I moved everything to a WordPress content management system.
About my writing
The GraceNotes newsletter was created after some of my stories were published in Chicken Soup for the Soul books, devotional compilations and magazines. GraceNotes became the way to spread any publication news; I also included a short devotional in each one. It has continued every month since 2007 and is available for sign-up on my website. Eventually I hoped to have enough content for a book. Blog posts added more potential material for a book.
I planned on self-publishing the book, but the deal fell through when the company went bankrupt. I lost money and hope for a book. Discouraged, I attended a writer’s conference to hear from God what my next step should be. I hadn’t planned on pitching anything to any publishers, but when an appointment opened up, I took the opportunity. The publisher was interested and eventually offered me a contract.
My first book,The Grace Impact, a devotional about God’s grace, was created from the GraceNotes newsletter, blog posts, and my speaking presentations. It was awarded the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book of the Year Award in the Christian Non-fiction category at an awards ceremony in Chicago.
The Grace Impact was also Finalist or Honorable Mention for three other awards.
My communication ministry now consists of speaking, the monthly GraceNotes e-newsletter, my weekly website blog, and weekly Internet radio show, “Living Life Unedited.”
Last year I attended the Hot Springs ARBU and was impressed with the people I met and the content of the conference. I couldn’t talk very well because of tongue surgery in early August. I’ve had tongue cancer twice, so if the doctor sees anything worrisome, my tongue is biopsied. Thankfully last year it was not cancerous. Attending ARBU 2015 was a step in my recovery with encouragement to keep blogging.
My advice to any creative person is to just do the next step. Move toward your goal, one step at a time, pressing through the barriers of resistance.
I’m looking forward to the Megaphone Summit where I will be presenting a workshop on Internet Radio. Hope to see you there!
When you live on a dairy farm, a typical day is really hard to describe due to dealing with all the things you have no control over such as a thunderstorm that wasn’t predicted the day you are trying to bale hay or the neighbor’s phone call letting you know the heifers are standing in the middle of the road.
Even with the chaos on a typical day, these are things I love every day down on the dairy farm:
Starting my day with a little Bible study and prayer, topped with a strong cup of coffee…
Stepping out of the house and walking to my job across the yard…
Checking on the cows being milked…
Responding to the call to come to the hay field…
Welcoming a new baby to the farm…
Returning to my office for supper…
Enjoying a dairy treat and feeling proud to know that I work every day to provide a safe,high-quality milk for my family and yours every day down on the dairy farm.
Awkward—I’ve been there, haven’t you? It’s a word that describes how I feelwalking into a room of strangers, showing up late for an important date, or the first attempt of trying anything new.Life is full of awkward moments but so many times, a little encouragement can change awkward into a moment of grace.
Down on the dairy farm, watching a newborn calf take the first step is a perfect example of how encouragement overcomes awkward.After birth, the calf’s mother immediately begins licking the calf to stimulate breathing and circulation and clean it off. It’s common for the calf to try standing up within an hour of being born.
Standing for the first time is a picture of awkward and happens with numerous failed attempts. During this process, Mama giveslicks and nudges the baby until the moment of standing. Encouragement turns awkward into success.
Awkward moments in my life have often been changed by a smile, a kind word, and a little encouragement.Encouragement in the awkward moments moves me in the forward direction a lot like the calf and I’m thankful for all those encouragers!
I feel honored to serve as Arkansas Women Bloggers Ms. August. In fact, it’s a down right awesome privilege!In my circle of blog friends I’m known as a dairy blogger, a dairymom blogger, or an agriculture advocate blogger.
I’m a native Bentonville girl, educated as a nurse, who married a 3rd generation dairy farmer and have raised the 4th generation down on the Arkansas dairy farm.Until the farm became part of my life, I did not realize that less than 2% of our population is producing all the food we consume and many of today’s consumers are three generations removed from any connection to how food is produced.Sharing our dairy story through school programs and farm tours has been part of my life on the farm and I’m rather passionate (that might be an understatement) about how we are connected to that nutritious dairy food you find in your refrigerator.
My Spotted Cow Review blog was born in 2010 to offer another way to “open the barn doors” and share the truth, treasures and transitions down on our Arkansas dairy farm. It’s a place to get your dairy questions answered on the Q&A page, find what I’m thankful for on Dairymom’s Thankful Thursday’s page or learn what’s happening on the farm.
I was in the infant stage of blogging when I connected with Arkansas Women Bloggers. I had my passion and purpose for blogging, but little understanding of the importance of branding, the multitude of ways to reach out into the world, the technical skills to improve my blog or any Arkansas blogging friends. I’ve come a long way from being afraid to push the button on the computer to blogging. As Ms. August, I’m one of Arkansas Women Bloggers’ models for anything is possible!
Arkansas Women Bloggers definitely lives up to their motto—Gather, Grow, Connect. Thank you for allowing this dairy farmer to be a part of the blogging herd and for inspiring Ms. August!
When I think about this blog’s greatest hits, I go back to its roots.
I have waxed poetic through the years about my faith and I’ve written-how to manuals on starting your own backyard garden, but when it boils down to it, my favorite posts are about my family. That’s why you’ll find a common theme in this sampling of posts that mean the most to me. I hope you find a little something special in them, too.
{I will disclose here that there is an abundance of teardrops on my keyboard as I’m sorting the words I’ve written about my children over the years. I have tissues at the ready.}
One of my favorite posts about my oldest son, Nathan, is a letter I wrote to him on his seventh birthday. This post is about how terrifying it is to know the baby you carried home from the hospital has to make his own way in this often-cruel world. Just because it scares me, however, doesn’t mean I have any doubt in him:Birthday Letter
Owen is my middle child with enormous brown eyes and a wild streak to match. I’ve written about him destroying my living room in seconds flat, and I’ve written about him getting teary whenever he sees a sweet commercial. This post has some real admissions of how tiring motherhood can be, but this little guy has a way of waking me up: To My Rotten Kid
I didn’t have to search the Nora tab to know what post I wanted to share about my curly-haired girl. The words in this post began swirling in my head months before I met her. It’s about hoping my daughter grows up to independent, carefree, and open to going where the wind blows {I had no clue how right I would be}: My Wildflower
When it comes to postpartum posts, this is my favorite. This one is dedicated to the new mom, and how powerful and strong and invincible she is… stretch marks and all: The Shape of a Mother
One of the best things that helped me through the loss of my second pregnancy in March 2010 was writing. I wrote blog posts to help myself understand how I felt and share my emotions in a way I couldn’t say out loud. This post was published five years after my miscarriage, and these words still ring true: Still Standing
Of course I wouldn’t have the inspiration to put these words together and throw them into cyberspace without the man who hatched the idea to start this family in the first place. This is one of my favorite posts about my relationship with my husband: Easy Eight
Thanks for reading this month, y’all! I hope you’ll find me on Facebook or Instagram, or keep up via my blog. It’s been an honor sharing my words with you this month, and I’m eager to see which wonderful writer will wear the crown next.
Today I’m sharing a typical day of life with the Bauer Bunch.
Such a request can range from two boys chasing each other through the house with light sabers to one girl accidentally taking Cookie Monster for a potty swim. There’s not much of a norm around these parts. Instead of giving a play-by-play of what I do throughout my day {which could easily turn into a book}, we’re going to do this snapshot style. This is a peek into a Friday spent at home – on the hour, every hour. Are you ready for this? Hang on, because here we go!
8:00 I roll over in my bed to see Owen chase Nathan out of my bedroom, followed by the sound of one boy laughing and one boy shrieking. Curious, I crawl out of bed and start the coffee.
9:00 I hear the princess call my name from her crib. I open the door and start the “looking for Nora” game. Apparently my voice wasn’t nice enough. I exit, close the door, and start again.
10:00 I tell Nora she looks beautiful this morning. She tells me I’m gorgeous and asks for three more waffles.Her attitude sours when I deny her request. I count to ten.
11:00 There are laundry, Legos, and tiny Shopkins as far as the eye can see. That coupled with one soggy diaper means it’s time for me to stop working on blog posts and kick it into gear. Also maybe I should get dressed.
12:00 Nora cries because there aren’t any beans, but it turns out macaroni and cheese will suffice. Nathan shows me a skin he made on a Minecraft editor and I once again jot “learn more about Minecraft” in my mental to-do list. Owen asks for a bowl of shredded cheese and Ranch.
1:00 The cleaning bug bit after lunch and my house looks like a whole new world. I even walked outside to give my chickens non-boiling water. I tell the kids it’s time to wind down because we’re all taking a nap. The boys know this is a clever ruse to trick their sister, but I’m wishing it was not.
2:00 Nora finally gave in and is snoring from the crib. I am forever folding laundry. Why does it seem like more laundry comes out than goes in? Is it just me?
3:00 Crayons cover the table and pieces of loose leaf paper fly as the boys draw everything from World of Warcraft characters to Daddy holding a balloon. I use these quiet minutes to catch up on social media and make sure my calendar contains some form of blog plan.
4:00 I get the text that Jonathan is on his way home from work and do a happy dance. This time, I correctly get Nora out of her crib, and we scramble to clean a house that has somehow come undone again.
5:00 Jonathan arrived home about 15 minutes ago and the Bauer Bunch rejoiced. Owen cried tears of joy because he missed his Daddy and I cried tears of joy because he’s willing to open Capri Suns.
6:00 My dear husband is mowing the grass as the heat index reads 99. The boys are jumping on the trampoline and droplets of kid-flavored sweat fly through the air. Nora and I look at our garden for two minutes, then head back to the living room. We perform a jazzy dance to a Bubble Guppies song about coconut water. Who’s winning here?
7:00 Like many summer nights, we don’t realize it’s dinner time until it’s too late. Owen shows me a video of a random kid opening Ghostbusters toys and Jonathan jumps in his truck to round up grub.
8:00 Nora and Owen are making a ring in the bathtub.The shampoo turns the rat’s nest on my daughter’s head into perfectly spiraled golden curls. It’s not fair, I tell you.
9:00 I offhandedly mention the lightning bug I spotted floating by the trampoline, and now we’re all outside in pajamas.
10:00 Everyone’s asleep in their beds, so it’s time to pop the popcorn and the wine cork and have a little grown up time.
I am flattered to be chosen to represent the Arkansas blogosphere for a month. I appreciate every one of you for welcoming me and making me feel like my voice is one worth hearing.
I suppose I’ll adjust my tiara and take it from the top. Hi! My name is Jessica and I write about adventures in motherhood at Life With the Bauer Bunch. My husband Jonathan and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary in June and in a decade we’ve collected memories and lessons, two sons and one daughter. Those are the basics, but I’ll dig a bit deeper.
Long ago in a faraway land {Conway}, I snagged my first professional job as a staff writer for the local newspaper. I burned the midnight oil covering government meetings and late-breaking news, then sat in a dark newsroom to get the city’s stories told. While the hours weren’t a great match for the family we were starting, it was a dream come true. I was getting paid to write.
After trying to prove myself for a few years, I was asked to begin a weekly column on the topic of my choosing. I chose motherhood. I wanted to encourage, inspire, and relate to my readers. This was long before I heard the word blog, but it was the precise moment I became a mommy blogger.
Life With the Bauer Bunch was born as Nathan’s Daily Adventures in February 2008. My first post was about how adorable Baby Nathan looked on a Sunday afternoon. Hard-hitting stuff. I created this blog to share photos with my family, but it eventually evolved into more.
I quit my job at the newspaper in 2009 and we moved to the southwest corner of the state to focus on a new business, a growing family, and a slower life. I didn’t miss the three-hour city council meetings, but I did miss telling stories. I wanted to use my voice, so I turned to my blog as an outlet.
Through the years I’ve written on a range of topics because motherhood is amazing and terrifying and miserable and hilarious. My purpose is to share it all. I’ve shared my miscarriage and birth stories. I have written about struggling to keep my head above water and I’ve tooted my own horn. Sure, I will fill my space with the kids’ accomplishments like an online refrigerator {it’s my blog, after all!}, but my focus remains the same. I want to encourage, I want to inspire, and I want to relate to you.
That being said, keep up with me this month and beyond, won’t you? I’ll be hanging out here on Mondays in July and you can always find me on my blog. I can’t guarantee it will be funny or powerful or unrelated to chickens, but I can give you the Jessica Stamp of Approval that it will be real. Thanks again for letting me share.
It’s a little hard, three and a half years later, to pick out my “fav” posts.
But that’s what I’ve been asked to write about, in this, my final week of being Miss June on Arkansas Women Bloggers.
I’ve loved doing it. Thanks again to the powers that be for inviting me to the party.
Like a first child, my first post has to be one of my favorites. I initially began blogging about my empty nest experience, terming it NestAche. I didn’t quite know what people would think, presenting myself as being totally vulnerable and acting the part. But write it I did, just the way it happened. My first full day of empty nest… I’ve gone on to write several posts on the topic, with one of the more visited (and pinned…) being how to prepare for empty nest before you ever get there.
But then, the second child comes along, and you love them just as much. I liked this post, about letting go with intention, because I knew I was moving on in my own journey, with empty nest, with blogging, with my life. It was a marker for me.
Times really were changing, and I was changing with them.
The third child turned out to be twins. Written within a few months of one another, they are by far my most popular posts. On very different subjects, and launched from my new website, I was floored by “going viral”. This initial post on Perfectly Hidden Depression (PHD) sparked more than a hundred private emails to me. People wanted me to know how relieved they were — that someone was describing their lonely and painful life. I have since become passionate about the topic, and am researching and writing a book.
The second twin was fairly casually written in my sunroom, right before my 24th wedding anniversary. I wrote about what marriage was for me, and what it wasn’t. I called it “Marriage Is Not For Sissies.” 50,000 shares and 200,000 FB likes later (on The Huffington Post) and I was almost catatonic. I was skewered for using the word “sissy,” which I had no clue had any homophobic meaning, and HuffPost changed it. It’s what my brothers called me when I was scared of something.
That taught me to Google things before I wrote them down.
Two others bring a tear to my eye — both about my own personal life. And grief. I’ll let them speak for themselves.
As a speaker, I wanted to have a blog to share hope through devotionals. The reason I speak and write is to encourage people in their Christian faith through the struggles of daily life. The blog wasn’t the first component of developing my platform. It became an important part of it, helping me write content for my book.
