Category: Thematic Focus

How to Be an Encourager

Written by Whitney Jordan of Polka-Dotty Place

Everyone needs to be encouraged. It makes people feel special, loved and appreciated. I’m a positive person by nature and love to encourage others. I find myself looking for ways to be an encourager and it makes me happy to know that other people feel supported and loved by my actions.

I thought I’d share a few lists with you today of ways you can be an encourager.

Your Spouse:
1. Pack a special lunch for them with an encouraging note to let them know they are loved and appreciated.
2. Send an e-mail, text or make a quick phone call during the day to send some love their way. I send pictures of our daughter, encouraging texts and check in to see how his day is going.
3. Invite your spouse to go on a date with you so you’ll both have something to look forward to throughout the week.
4. Make time to slow down and debrief about your days – pick a time that works for both of you and look forward to it each day. You can do coffee in the afternoon, chats after dinner, after the kids go to bed or you can always make time for pillow talk to encourage each other.

Your Child(ren):
1. Smile at them
2. Tell them they are doing a good job and encourage them to try new things with your support
3. Plan a favorite activity to do with them. My baby is 8 months old and her favorite things right now are bath time, going for walks and having me sit and play with her on the floor. I make time to do those things with her because I want to encourage our relationship and for her to know that I pay attention to the things that she loves. I also want her to feel special and know how much I love her.
4. Turn off the TV and encourage their love for reading by reading with them. Find a comfy chair or reading nook in your house and enjoy books together.
5. Fix food together and encourage them to try new things.
6. Introduce them to new things – hobbies, restaurants, sports, people, books – and encourage them to work hard and stick with something that might be hard at first.

Your Family:
1. Stay in contact with grandparents, aunts, cousins any way you can – emails, phone calls, texts, snail mail or face to face time are the perfect opportunities to encourage each other. I have found that blogging helps me to keep in touch with my family. They encourage me when I keep them up to date on what is going on in my life.
2. Plan gatherings and be intentional about spending time together. Let them know when you’ll be in town or when you are available and then set aside special time to spend with them
3. Call them on their birthdays and/or send them a birthday card. I know that so many people are on Facebook but there’s nothing like opening your mailbox and finding a stack of handwritten notes on your special day.
4. You can never go wrong with calling someone just for a quick chat to brighten their day.

Your Friends – real life, on-line, bloggers or lifelong friends:
1. Plan a friend date and share your current events with each other. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate event but I have found that even a quick date encourages me and helps our relationship grow.
2. Spend time together and update each other on your lives. It’s challenging to encourage people about specific things if they don’t let you in on their lives.
3. Ask for prayer and encouragement from them and offer it in return. It’s always nice to know that someone is thinking of you and praying for you.
4. Work on a fun project together and help motivate each other to complete it. You could plan time to do a DIY project, a renovation, craft, baking challenge or craft together.
5. Exercise together and help each other stay motivated to meet your goals.
6. For far away friends, make phone calls or Facetime dates to stay connected or exchange emails, texts or snail mail regularly – it’s amazing how a quick note can make someone feed loved and encouraged.

Strangers: This may seem a bit odd but you can definitely encourage complete strangers.
1. Hold the door for someone who has their hands full
2. Let someone go ahead of you in line
3. Talk to your cashiers when they are ringing you up – ask about their day and wish them a great day
4. Smile and make eye contact with the people you encounter
5. Share a coupon with someone waiting in line with you
6. Buy a coffee or a treat for the person in line behind you

Hello! My name is Whitney and I blog at Polka-Dotty Place. I am a new mom and my family recently moved to Arkansas. We are enjoying the state and like to spend our weekends exploring our new home. I love to take pictures, blog, organize, make lists, bake, accessorize, do DIY projects and watch football. I am always looking to make new bloggy friends so please stop by and say hi.

Friendship for Good {Blogger of the Month}

Friendship for Good
Written by Jody Dilday, Miss February 2014

Thinking about February’s Theme “Using our Voices to Change the World” immediately calls to mind my group of “do-gooder” friends. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to tell you who we are and how we got started.

In April of 2008 I got a phone call from a lady in my neighborhood I knew but not well. I knew that she worked as the Community Giving manager for one of the most respected companies in Fayetteville, but she and I had spoken only once in a professional setting. Lisa said she had an idea that she wanted to share with me and a handful of other women, and would I come over one night next week for a glass of wine? Ummmmm….. Sure!

On the appointed evening six women gathered around Lisa’s kitchen table. Each of us, at Lisa’s direction, had brought an appetizer to share. As we introduced ourselves to one another (most of us were strangers, only connected somehow to Lisa) and shared a meal, Lisa began to share her vision with us.

She told us that several years earlier, she read an article in Real Simple magazine about a group of women in Washington, D.C. This group of friends gathered once a month for a “girl’s night out” at various restaurants around DC. One night, one member made an observation about how much money they were spending each month dining out, when what they really looked forward to was their time together. They decided then and there to continue their monthly gatherings, but to do them “potluck” style and contribute the money they WOULD HAVE SPENT on dinner into an account to help others in need. They called themselves “Womenade.”

Lisa was inspired by the idea. But as a busy working mom with 3 teenagers, she didn’t have the time to add one more thing to her life. So, she clipped that article and hung onto it . . .for FIVE years! Fast forward to April 2008. Lisa felt that now she had the time, and she still had the interest, so she picked up the phone and extended an invitation to women she thought were like-minded and whom she wanted to foster a friendship with. And here we all were.

Needless to say, we loved the idea. And because the founders of Washington Womenade wanted the concept to spread and did NOT want there to be any formality or red tape associated with their idea, Womenade of NWA was born that night.

Over the past 5 years we’ve met each month (sometimes taking a summer hiatus) at a different member’s home. We all try to bring a dish to share each month. Sometimes that’s a take out pizza and sometimes it’s a bag of chips, but mostly we bring something we prepared at home. Dues are $25 a month, and we have a Womenade NWA checking account. We are not a registered charity (no bylaws! Yippee!) so our gifts are not tax deductible. It’s philanthropy for philanthropy’s sake.

When one of our members hears of a need in the community, we bring it to the group. Collectively we decide whether we should give money or help them “connect the dots” to other resources in the community. Ideally, we want to help out in situations where individuals would otherwise “fall through the cracks.” Our little group of women and our collective $25 gifts have kept a young pregnant couple from being evicted from their home; we’ve helped a single mom and her daughter furnish an apartment when theirs was destroyed in an explosion, and we’ve contributed to a fund to help bury a boy killed in a fire.

We’ve also harnessed the power of our individual networks to raise awareness and support for causes we believe in. We hold two large gatherings each year where some needed item serves as admission. Great food, beverages, networking, and SILLINESS are signatures of Womenade parties. At each gathering, we share the concept of Womenade and encourage others to begin their own Womenade groups.

Some examples of our parties include:

Womenade Panty Raid – collected 360 pairs of new underwear for the Families in Transition Program at Fayetteville High School
Bring Bling – collected gently used prom dresses and accessories for the Glass Slipper Project at Fayetteville High School
Supporting the Girls – a crazy bra-decorating contest held each fall (now in its 4th year!) has collected hundreds of new bras for area women’s shelters
Womenade PJ Party – the biggest and best slumber party NWA has ever seen! Also in its 4th year, the PJ Party is held the Friday or Saturday night before Super Bowl Sunday. It’s an all night dance/food/gab fest at the Courtyard by Marriott in Fayetteveille. Admission is a NEW pair of pajamas for the area women’s shelters.

@JDilday with a group of friends affectionately known as the “Lutheran Chicks” at the #NWAPJParty14 on February 1, 2014.

As a social worker by training, a non-profit executive by profession, and a “do-gooder” at heart, I find that Womenade of NWA has been another outlet of service for me. And yet it is so much more. These Womenade ladies have become some of my closest friends. They are role models to me. They are my sounding board, encouragers, and confidants. We are Womenade.

If you’d like more information about starting Womenade with your friends, email me at @jodydilday@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to help you out!

Wisdom from the Middle: Using Our Voices to Change the World

By Jessica Herring of Wisdom from the Middle

I find that people are very concerned about change. I don’t necessarily mean concerned in a negative context. I just feel that people fixate on the idea of change and what that will look like, how it will affect them. When we’re children, our teachers and our parents usher us through the myriad physical, emotional, and social changes that we will experience on our path to adulthood. I get to experience the other side of that coin as I witness the changes of my seventh grade students while they battle through the throes of adolescence. But these changes are ever so slight and daily changes. They may change our own personal worlds, but they don’t change the whole world.

As we come into the phases of adulthood, we tend to focus less on these everyday changes and more on the way our world is changing, and boy, does it seem to be changing! Sometimes, it can feel like we can have little impact on such a great big world. Sometimes, it can feel like just keeping up with all those changes is good enough. But then I stop to think, is keeping up really enough?

As a middle school teacher, I spend my days with students who are in a very egocentric phase of life. Whether you remember it or not, you and I were both equally selfish when we were twelve and thirteen. It’s just a time in life when your own personal drama is far more important than whatever else is going on around you. I try to make it my personal mission to pull my students out of themselves and into the rest of the world. We spend a lot of time on social justice issues, both in a historical context and in the world around us. I want them to understand issues that are pertinent to their lives, and I want them to realize that their voices can make an impact. They can use their voices, and their writing, to change their world.

Right now, my students are writing anti-bullying speeches in the style of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Dr. King was one person who realized he could use his voice to change his world. Several of the students at our middle school have come to this realization as well, and they’ve formed a leadership team to plan a Bullying Awareness Week. Watching them “be the change they wish to see in the world” gives me great hope for our future. If they can be social activists in middle school, a time when the weight of what the world thinks is exceptionally heavy, I can only hope they will grow into adults who understand the power of one voice of positive change.

I can’t just encourage my students to use their voices to change the world without modeling that same behavior. I have to walk the walk, too. As a writer and an educator, I want to change the landscape of my profession. Every day on Twitter and on the news, there seems to be a negative story about education. Whether it’s a discussion about Common Core or a news story about an educator who made bad decisions, the general word on the street is that things in education aren’t going well.

The problem with this media slant, is that it simply isn’t true. There’s a lot of good going on in classrooms all over our state and our country. There are educators connecting through social media for professional development who are using their voices for change, impacting classrooms outside their schoolhouses and across state lines. I want to be a part of that change. I want to continue to use my voice to emphasize the positive things I see happening every, single day. Making the choice to be unflinchingly positive may seem like a small step toward changing my world, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s the first step toward a major shift in thinking in the schoolhouse.

Jessica teaches middle school in Central Arkansas where she encourages her students to change their world for the better. She lives in Little Rock. Read about the work her students are doing and the lessons they are learning on her personal blog, Wisdom From the Middle.

Twitter:@jessicarae929
Pinterest: jherring929
Google +: Jessica Herring

START By Being Honest

By Emily Jones of Grow A Leader

We tell ourselves the same lies. I’ll start tomorrow. I’ll start Monday. I’ll get around to it later.

Whether it’s losing weight, finishing a project, eating healthier, or making any significant change, we give ourselves a future date to fail. We say we’re going to start, but let’s be honest. How many times have you actually started? Or maybe you did start. You started and it lasted a few days or a couple of weeks until you stopped and made something else a priority.

The truth is that we set ourselves up for failure more often than success by making hollow promises that we’re going to do better, be better, try harder, and really make a change. We want things to be different, but we speak in generalities. How do you measure better? Working harder? These are vague statements that we make with good intentions that end up leaving us frustrated and in surrender.

To start we first need to assess where we are. To lose weight, measure yourself. To run a marathon, test how far you can go. Take a pre-test to specifically and analytically look at where you are as of today.

Next, set reasonable goals for yourself. Ensure that these are achievable and healthy for you both physically and mentally. Prepare yourself that the greatest achievements are won over time, not overnight. Set many small goals instead of one large one, and take into account setbacks. Cheat days, injuries, mistakes… these are not failures, but rather experiences and obstacles to learn and grow from.

After the goals are set, list out actionable next steps that should occur. Review each one to ensure that you are setting yourself up for success and as many quick wins as possible. Don’t set yourself up to fail or pretend that you will be able to do more than possible in the beginning.

Find an accountability partner. You don’t have to announce your plans to the world, but find one or two people to discuss your goals with. Make sure that these are people who will be your biggest supporters as well as your challenging coaches. Surround yourself with people who will push you to the next level and not accept excuses on making progress. These should be positive thinkers who believe in you, not negative downers. You will have enough negative voices in your head.

Remember that no day will be perfect. Don’t wait for the perfect weather, perfect time, perfect place, or perfect scenario. Just start. Even the smallest of actions is greater than none at all. Don’t wait for tomorrow, start now. Start as soon as you’re done reading this article. Start and encourage others to do the same.

Your goals and your biggest dreams will take time to accomplish. Time will pass whether or not you work towards them. A month, six months, or a year from now, where will you be? Still breaking promises to yourself or proud that you started and are continuing on this great journey? Be an inspiration to others. Show them what can be accomplished by just starting.

Most importantly, start by being honest with yourself.

Emily Jones is a Revenue Cycle leader within the Fort Smith, AR community. She launched the Grow a Leader blog with the intent of sharing leadership insight and advice for young and growing leaders. Her passion is working with others on personal and leadership development. She is married with four children, ages 3 – 12. She enjoys writing, reading fiction and leadership novels, and is venturing into entrepreneurship.

START Supporting Others {Wordless Wednesday}

This year I want to “START” being more conscious about building up and supporting my blogger friends. Because a group is always stronger than one.

Paige lives in Northwest Arkansas where she love her job (marketing PR for a non-profit), her husband (especially when he makes her dinner), and her puppies (even though they make her sneeze).
Blog: approachingjoy.com Twitter/ Instagram: @approaching_joy

The Start of Something Grand {Blogger of the Month}

The Start of Something Grand
Written by Miss January 2014, Whitney Sutherland

Sometimes I consider myself lucky to have some crazy friends and other times I’m surprised by the adventures that they talk me into. 2014 is going to be a Grand year thanks to two of my dear friends, Jon and Lori.
Photo credit: Grand Canyon National Park Service

Jon and Lori are coordinating a group trip to run the Grand Canyon. Rim to Rim is what this is known as in the running community. It is a self-supported run done on the trails within Grand Canyon National Park. Most runners will leave from the South Rim of the Canyon and head to the North Rim via one of two common trail options. There are several water stations along the way and the famous Phantom Ranch at the bottom where there is a small canteen store.

Lori has been talking about this trip for months and finally she said the magic words that convinced me to explore it for my training this year…”No Drop.” This means no runner left behind. The group is making a commitment to not run for time rather to run for the experience and to stay together throughout the run.

This month I have spent plenty of time debating in my head the practicality of this trip. The run itself will be about 23 miles (my longest run so far is only 13.1 miles.) There will be lots of elevation change as we will run down into the canyon, across the Colorado River, and then up the other side. And lastly, the big challenge, it’s on trails!

As a runner, I have done almost all my running on the road. Every year I compete in one or two cross country races on groomed cross country trails but I rarely venture off road onto actual trails. That all changed today…today I began my Grand Canyon training with an 8 mile trail run with the group.

The Crystal Bridges Trails

Making our way onto The Urban Trail

We worked on elevation training on the infamous Presidential Bush Push Hill.

We worked on descent training with a few sections of trail stairs.

I hung towards the back so that I could take my time navigating the roots and rocks. I rolled my ankle and tripped a few times but managed to keep myself upright. The trails that we have are much rockier than what we will encounter in the Grand Canyon, thankfully!

Always time for a selfie!

In addition to incorporating trails into my training, I made a pre-commitment to the adventure by booking hotel reservations. We are looking at a mid-October trip date and reservations are starting to fill up at the more desirable hotel options. I’m 95% sold on the adventure and I must admit that I am terrified as much as I am excited for the trip! It’s such a big challenge and that is terrifying but if I believe in myself and put in the training I know that I can do it!

I’ll be sharing more of my training over the next months on my blog and I will definitely be incorporating more trail and off-road running into my routine! It’s going to be a Grand year in 2014!

A Kid Again {START}

A Kid Again—How we took a teen into our home and he took us into his heart…
Written by Katharine Trauger of Home’s Cool!

Sonny* called us boring.

Probably we are. A retired educator and her scientist/pastor husband, we submitted him to schedule, rules, actual food, bathing, vacuuming, and other marks of civilization that he deplored. However, if you consider all it meant for a sixteen-year-old boy to live within a family,instead of with a drugged mom, you’d call it a life-changing start for him.

His appetites for real food and for real entertainment matured slowly. Chess, dirt racing, walks in the woods, and great old movies competed with fresh smoothies, steaks, salads, and homemade pizzas for a chance at wooing him away from memories of life in what he called “a pigpen”.

Sonny had never had a dependable father-type and latched onto my husband like a puppy. The man could do no wrong, in Sonny’s eyes, and could drive home a serious lecture, if needed. Before long my husband had him bathing, submitting to haircuts, and wearing a belt!

How to use a washcloth, how to cut meat with a fork and knife, how to eat something that’s not sweet, how to use a ruler, tell time, multiply, or write cursive were among the many basic skills he lacked. Yet his reading level was high and his knowledge of history, beyond mine. He agreed to home schooling and we filled in gaps as we encountered them.

Before long, a crazy quilt of new ideas from history, biology, algebra, and even spelling, swirled around him, forcing his timidity to bloom into hundreds of questions. I became his sounding board. What a joy! What a test of my counselor training!

And what a kid! In spite his horrible past, Sonny was pure in thought and starved for truth. Weturned him loose in our library and he almost always had a book in the car after that, instead of pretending to sleep along the way.

Yes, we forced Sonny to attend church with us. He did not like it, except once a month, during church dinners. He actually desired learning to cook and created a delicious cherry pie to bring tohis first church dinner. The attention that brought him, from the sweet grandmas, was just what he needed. During the weekly drive home from church, he’d pelt us with amazing questions that proved he’d only been pretending to sleep during the sermon.

My husband, being Sonny’s alpha-male, required he attend a men’s retreat with him this Fall. While they were there, it seemed only natural that Sonny give his life over to the Lord. Radical changes immediately sprouted into his everyday routines. We cherish several quotables from this new-sparkle time in his life, the greatest of which, probably, is: “It is ridiculous to argue about putting God in a box. God IS the box. We are the ones in a box.”

I still get tears when I realize the depth of the core work God created in Sonny’s heart that week. As he grew and matured, his prickly personality relaxed into someone we could freely befriend. It became a time of great advancement for him, spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Sonny’s mom has reclaimed him, now. Says she’s well, now, after five months of rehab. It saddens us, but we realize we were not in charge, but only tools, chosen to give them both a new START in life.

We pray they take it.

*Not his name.

Katharine is a retired educator/counselor, living in the land of love
and Delight! She blogs at Home’s Cool! and at The Conquering Mom. When she is not busy furiously typing on a netbook by candlelight because of an ice storm and her laptop battery is weak, she enjoys poking more logs into
the fire and having another hot coffee/cocoa/tea. Her tenth grandchild
is due in March.”

START Today {Wordless Wednesday}

A year from now you will wish you started today.

Whatever your goals are- There is no better time than to start today.

Amanda Farris is a wife to her super hero hunk of a husband and a mother to 3 little kiddos. Amanda is a teacher/coach who hung up her coaching whistle after she got promoted to motherhood. She is a runner who loves all things sports and outdoors. She loves early morning traveling, long coffee chats with her husband, and fresh flowers on her table. She is an adventurer at heart and has a great talent of unintentionally becoming over-busy (that’s a bad thing). So she is constantly reevaluating her life priorities which keeps her on her toes and helps her to live life passionately and deliberately. You can find her occasionally blogging at www.embracinggrace.org. Come Join the Adventure.

My START in the Kitchen {Blogger of the Month}

My Start in the Kitchen

Written by Miss January 2014, Whitney Sutherland

Here’s a throwback pic of me around the age of 12 cooking up some pancakes in the kitchen. Fun fact…if you look closely you will see tons of chocolate chips in that pancake which is the only reason I would have been eating that pancake since I don’t actually like pancakes. Also, you have to check out the 1990high fashion that I was rocking – oversize Rugby shirt and curled bangs.

Back in the early 90’s I was just getting interested in cooking…really baking. What can I say; I’ve always had a sweet tooth! Growing up we didn’t have cable TV so I would watch PBS cooking shows like Yan Can Cook and The Frugal Gourmet. I had a very healthy imagination and would host my own cooking style show as I baked at home. Total dork!

Below is one of the first recipes that I remember selecting out of one of my mom’s magazines. I can’t believe that she saved the magazine clipping but she did. My mom has a very extensive collection of recipes and a few years ago I just mentioned this cookie and she told me she still had the recipe. Score!

The recipe is dated from the October 1991 Woman’s Day magazine. Because it’s a photocopy of a magazine clipping it doesn’t photograph that well. But here you go…it would be perfect to make for your sweetie on Valentine’s Day as long as they like chocolate as much as I do!

Fudge Crackle Kiss Cookies

2014-01-19 18:35:09

Yields 25

This saucepan cookie is moist on the inside, crisp on the outside.

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Ingredients

1 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ C butter
3 squares (1 oz each) unsweetened chocolate
1 C plus 3 TBSP granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
25 milk chocolate kisses unwrapped

Instructions

1) Mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
2) Put butter and chocolate in a heavy 3 quart saucepan. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool, then stir in 1 C sugar, the eggs, and the vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until blended. Cover and chill 1 ½ to 2 hours until dough is firm enough to shape.
3) Heat oven to 300 degrees. Have cookie sheets ready.
4) Roll slightly mounded measuring tablespoonfuls of dough in balls. Roll balls in remaining 3 TBSP sugar.
5) Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes until crackled on top and firm to touch.
6) Place cookie sheet on wire rack. Immediately place a chocolate kiss on each cookie, pressing down slightly. Cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes before removing cookies to rack to cool completely.

Notes

Per cookie: 86 cal, 3 g pro, 7 g carb, 9 g fat, 26 mg chol with butter, 65 mg sodium

By Whitney Sutherland

Adapted from Woman's Day 10/15/91

Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/

START the New Year

Written by Kimberly Campbell

The word start is one of the most anticipatory words and also one of the most terrifying. But, every January millions of people vow to start many projects, attain goals, or project the outcome of the new calendar year with words like “resolution” and “goals”.

What is most exciting about January is the prospects of what this new year can hold: will it bring success or failure, love or separation, weight gain or weight loss, or any other possibility that avails itself to you. What is most terrifying is pretty much the same as the above. But, with it comes a sense of failure.

I personally love the start of a new year. It allows me to get a new calendar for blogging, cooking, photography, writing, and weight goals and plans. It allows me to set attainable plans for the coming year. Also, it is my birthday in January, so I not only have a new calendar year, but a new year of life! It is very exciting to start January!

How do you plan on starting (and continuing what you start) the New Year? Do you plan to start a new exercise routine, new cooking goals, continuing education classes, or maybe you are going to start doing less. Having goals is not about filling your life and schedule with more things to do. Some of us are completely too busy in life; we need to orient our lives to be less busy and focus on what is most important.

How do you make these plans and goals?

Start by reviewing the past. What did you like about yourself in 2013? What do you wish you could change about what happened in this last year? In order to view the new year with correct lenses, you need to look back at last year.
Start by asking your heart what is important to you. This is important. Especially when you spend a lot of time on blogs and other forms of social network, your heart can get pulled in so many directions that you lose sight of who you are. Look at yourself in the mirror and journal; spend some time by a fire or with a cup of coffee. Explore your mind, desires, and what drives you!
Start by seeking the advice of others. It is clearly important to have a supportive community around you. These are friends or family that can help you attain these goals by first helping you plan the goals. These are people who may see some things in you that you might not see in yourself. These insights will help you in your planning.
Start writing attainable goals. Goals are not easy to accomplish if they are too grandiose or too vague. Make them specific and time sensitive. Here is an example:

A bad goal for a blogger would be: I want to be blog more
A good goal for a blogger would be: I want to post three blogs a week
A great goal for a blogger would be: I want to blog 3 times a week and include a photograph that I’ve taken with each one and post each post on social media sites to increase my blogger influence
See the difference?

So, what are you going to start doing in this New Year? And if you don’t get all of your goals started on January 1 – it’s ok. Any day of any year is a GREAT time to START living and being who you are Designed to be!

Kimberly Campbell is a wife and mom in Little Rock, AR. Her husband is a worship pastor and she has two boys less than 2 years – adorable! She loves to blog over at http://kd316.com and enjoys living creatively with cooking, writing, and photography. She loves being outdoors with her family and running!