Written by Miranda Holman

My mixer died today.

For some, that would be no big deal. You would throw it away, and run out and buy a new one, and never think about it again.

But for me, it wasn’t that easy.

You see, that very mixer belonged to my mama for many years. When she passed away eleven years ago my daddy handed it to me.

Now you might be saying, “Well, why did you use it then?”

There was just something nostalgic about that mixer. Maybe it was the memories of my mama standing in her kitchen mixing up a cake for dessert, or getting the mashed potatoes ready for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Maybe it was the comfort I felt holding that same mixer in my hands that my mama had held so many times before me. Maybe it was just the connection I still felt to her as I wrapped my hands around the handle, remembering the times we shared in the kitchen as she would teach me how to cook a certain recipe and knowing I would never experience those times again.

For some it’s just a mixer, for me it was my hope.

The sense of hope that would wash over me knowing that my time with her was not over but the new chapter had just not began yet. Putting all my Faith and Trust into the reassurance that this life was not my end. That my God has a whole new life waiting on me, that includes my mama, when my new chapter of life begins.

As I sat and cried over my mama’s mixer, another thought came to me. Too many times in life, we put all of our cares into our old ways, old thoughts, old things. We stay wrapped up into how things used to be or could have been. In those times we miss the new things that God has placed in front of us.

For some, you are like me, it’s the comfort of the old that makes you feel safe and secure. Its the memories of how life was and you can only see the good parts that keeps you staying in the past. See, I can live in the past memories of my mama and her mixer, but what I can’t see is her daily struggles that came along with life. Her legs that ached after standing in the kitchen cooking three meals a day. The stress of making sure we had food for her to cook another meal. The pain of keeping her Faith in God during times of troubles.

But I can remember the the good memories. Or maybe thats all I want to remember. If I remember the bad times as well, that that would mean that I have to stop living in the past. The place of comfort, connection and home.

That would mean that I have to endure change, and we all know change is a scary thing. Change involves us taking risks into the unknown. Stepping into darkness and not knowing what is coming next. Or as Peter wrote, trusting Jesus enough to step out of the boat onto the water.

But I will even take it one step further. I don’t believe the old is working for any of us. The old keeps us in the familiar, but it doesn’t allow us to grow. Sure it’s safe and comforting, but it’s not progress.

When our garden’s have not grown for a couple years, we come up with a new game plan. Better fertilizer, different brands of plantsand seeds, better pesticides. More water. Less Water and so on.

But one thing is for sure, we change our way of thinking, our vision, our plan, to get our seeds to grow.

That is how our life has to be. When we continue doing the way of the old, we don’t grow. Maybe we are scared of the new, maybe we dont want to put the time and energy into trying new things. But if we can’t get out the past, away from the old, we will never be able to get to where God is leading us in our life.

I challenge each of you to evalute your life. Are you stuck in the comfort of the past? Or are you stepping out of the boat in hope of a better future. Look around you. Find your passion. Don’t live in someone else’s memories. When the old isn’t working…….Make new memories, your own memories. Plant seeds and wait for the harvest.

Miranda, has been married to her sweet husby for 15 years and a homeschool mama to her kiddos Keegan and Lindy. She loves her four-legged, fur babies and they make her life complete. She is passionate about blogging, reading, crafting, cooking, designing, and learning to be a Homesteader!

By Karen Weido

One of the things I am so thankful to my family for is my love of reading. I can remember being a very young child and my mom spending time reading to me. Once I learned to read on my own, I lived with my nose in a book at all times.

I’m also thankful that my kids have developed a love for reading. Both of my children beg for a story each night a bedtime, and both have quite a book collection on their shelves. We have discovered some amazing books during the few years I have been a parent, but my favorite books to read with them are the ones that I loved as a kid. And I look forward to the day my kids are old enough for even more of my favorite books from back in my day.

Probably the first book I ever fell in love with was “Goodnight Moon”. I can remember my mom reading this book to me over and over again while I searched for the mouse on each page. We have this book in all sizes at my house and it is a favorite for my kids as well.

As I got a little older, I loved “I’ll Teach My Dog 100 Words” (although the name of this book has apparently changed). My mom loves to tell the story of me reading this book to her and she thought I was so smart because I could read. Turns out I just had the book memorized!

One of the first chapter books I ever read was “Ralph and the Motorcycle”. There are three books in this series and I have actually started reading them with my daughter. She loves them just as much as I did. As I got a little older, I turned to Beverly Clary’s “Ramona” books. I thought these books were so funny and I could read them so quickly.

What elementary girl back in the day did not love “The Babysitters Club”, or the “Sweet Valley” series?? Is there really anything else that needs to be said?

I also remember my mom having all the Shel Silverstein books on the shelves of our home. I loved reading them all and found the poems to be hilarious. I think I even took one of his books to Show and Tell one day in elementary school.

So there you have it – my favorite books from “back in my day”. What were some of your favorite books growing up?

Karen lives in South Arkansas with her husband and two kids. When she’s not working, chasing kids, or playing on Twitter, she blogs about her family’s life on Ting’s Mom Blog. She also reads books for all ages and reviews them on her book site,Ting’s Mom Books.

By Carmella Fryar

First of all please let me say I am WAY too young to use the phrase Back in My Day. However, since it is September’s theme and because I will celebrate another trip around the sun this month, I decided it would be fun to take a look at social technologies from my back in my day through the lens of those we have today.

Back in my day, we had a family plan. It was a single phone hanging on the wall in our family room. Making and taking calls was confined to that small corner of the room. Going mobile meant upgrading the length of the cord.

We didn’t worry about such things as privacy. Simply put, we had none. My parents heard my side of every phone conversation which usually led to no less than 100 questions after most calls.

As if that wasn’t horrifying enough, for a good while we were on a party line which means we shared the phone line with other neighbors. At any given time a neighbor could pick up her phone to listen in on my conversation. Sometimes she might even join the conversation.

Speaking of joining the conversation, back in my day, CB radios were all the rage. When I joined Twitter a few years ago, communicating with friends and strangers via handle instantly took me back to those days.
My CB handle was Buggy Lady (I had a thing with lady bugs and I’ve always been just a tinge bass-ackwards). Mom was Cosmo (short for cosmetologist), Dad was Bedroom Bandit (give me a break) and my brother was Baby Bandit. My best friend was Daisy Mae.

As Twitter has rules and tools to engage (character limit, hashtags, mentions, lists, etc.), talking on the CB had a unique engagement model as well. When engaging with others on a channel, proper etiquette was to first ask permission to join.

For example, if I wanted to chat with those on the channel 19, I would say, “Breaker, breaker, one-nine.” Usually that would be followed by someone giving me the go ahead to chat, “Come on, breaker.” If I wanted to try to chat with my best friend I would say something like, “Buggy-lady to Daisy Mae, you got your ears on?” If she was on the air, she would respond and we would chat for a bit.

As with Twitter, you could connect with friends or complete strangers and anyone could join the conversation at any given time. If I didn’t hear a response from Daisy Mae, usually someone else would come back with an engaging comment to start the conversation. MOST of the time people respected the fact that we were children, amused us for a bit and kept the conversation PG.

To stay on top of severe weather and road conditions as they are happening today I rely on Twitter. Back then, you guessed it, we relied on our CB radio. We had them in our homes and in our vehicles. Much like Twitter, conversations could be entertaining, informational or provoking. CB’s also came in handy to avoid speeding tickets – that is if you kept your ears on.

For more examples of great CB uses from back in my day, see the movie, Smokey and the Bandit or any episode of The Dukes of Hazzard.”

Back in my day, I belonged to several social networks that included family, friends, piano guild and the church youth group to name a few. Things were quite different back then. Writing on someone’s wall would get you in trouble. Sharing photos meant ordering duplicate prints to hand out to friends. Shared recipes were handwritten (oh how I treasure those in my grandmother’s writing). My pin board was my bedroom wall, which was covered in pins of 80’s heartthrobs. A meet up might happen while cruising up and down Grand Avenue in Fort Smith. Hangouts were in person at the local Pizza Parlour, the skating rink or at a neighbor’s barn.

Let me be the first to say, Thank you, Lord for not allowing the technologies of Social Networks as they are today to exist back in my day. It was already challenging enough to grow up with a very unique name in a quite small town. I can’t imagine my shenanigans being captured and shared online.

I also wonder if our parents would have gotten into hot water had Instagram or Facebook existed back then. For example, our church youth group came over to my home on occasion and my dad would let us drive the ol’ green GMC around in the pasture. We were far from being of proper driving age. We rode around in lawn chairs in the bed of that truck. We jumped off bridges into 6 feet of water. How did we survive to tell the tales?

I hope you have enjoyed stepping back in time with me through the lens of today’s social technologies. Sometimes I feel conflicted when it comes to the conveniences of today. I appreciate how much easier it is to stay in touch with more people than in the past, to capture moments and memories digitally and to share ourselves with the world. However, sometimes I miss the simplicity of the way things were back in my day.

Carmella Fryar, aka Southern Fried Gal, is a marketing data geek by day and a designer wanna-be by night. She has a knack for connecting the not-so-obvious dots which serves her well for both egos. She’s chatty and creative, an ADHD mom and a recovering people pleaser. She shares her brand of crazy along with inspiration for your home on her blog. Connect with her on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

By Talya Boerner

We are five days from the official first day of fall. Can I get an amen?

Fall represents harvest. After a long, sweaty summer spent toiling from can to can’t, harvest is that time to recognize hard work and celebrate crops grown in the South.

Corn. Rice. Cotton. Wheat. Did I mention cotton? Yes, cotton is my favorite.

As a child of the seventies, cotton harvest was much different than today’s process. All the little towns came alive as cotton trailers lined streets waiting for a turn at the gin, the hub of town. Riding the bus home after school, I watched a blur of white from the dusty window as pickers made a second pass through fields. Clumps of cotton lined roads like snow, blown from open trailers.

If we were lucky, there was time after school to play in one of Daddy’s cotton trailers. Our official job was to tromp down the cotton after a load was dumped making room for the next load. We jumped and turned flips and dug tunnels through the warm cotton that seemed to breathe like a live thing. The smell of cotton saturated the air, our hair, everything.

It still saturates my memories.

Fall brings a melancholy feeling too. Carefree summer ends in a flurry of last minute vacations and back to school activities. There’s a slight shift in the temperature. The days begin to grow shorter.

Today, harvest is more efficient. Bales are round. Gins are fewer and farther between. Overall, I know this is a good thing for farmers and agriculture and the economy in general. But I can’t help wonder what my kids will look back on with fondness from their childhoods. Their “back in my day” stories will certainly be different. Do you wonder about this too?

Happy fall y’all!

As the daughter of an Arkansas cotton farmer, Talya grew up making mud pies and does her best thinking wearing gardening gloves. Although she has lived in Dallas since college, she has a continued passion for the Mississippi Delta and returns home to the family farm often. Talya freelances for Front Porch, Bourbon and Boots, East Dallas Advocate and Only in Arkansas. She is working on several writing projects including her first novel. Follow her heartfelt stories about food, farm, garden and life at Grace Grits and Gardening.

By Tammie of Chaos to Christ

Recently I had an opportunity to share a personal story with my teenage daughter thinking it would help give her perspective on a current situation she was dealing with. She was so engaged while I was talking that I felt like I was making a difference. One of those rare moments where I felt like a great mom, a capable mom, one who could lead my teenager through this sometimes chaotic life journey. But that prideful feeling I experienced was short lived. After I was done talking, my daughter sat there for a minute. Then she said, “I love your stories, Mom, they’re so OLD.” Ouch!

And while I am really quite young (that term continues to apply to me even though the birthdays seem to come faster and faster) and determined to age gracefully, I understood what she meant. Sometimes stories and reflections from the past do not seem to be as applicable to our lives today. The world we live in is constantly shifting and changing. And what might have made sense “back in my day” may not seem as helpful today (definitely my hairstyles and clothing choices!).

What I find truly amazing is that every time I open my Bible and read from the pages filled with wisdom, grace, and encouragement is that it is just as applicable today even though it was written over 2000 years ago (speaking of aging gracefully!). My fears and struggles, my doubts and worries, my life of chaos are completely addressed through the scripture. Spending time with Christ in prayer and Bible study each day takes my sometimes weary and burdened heart and exchanges it for peace and soul rest.

Does this sound familiar – hectic schedules, overwhelming responsibilities, and massive to-do lists? Waking up in the night worrying about what you weren’t able to get done, what you did wrong, and what the future holds.

This is the chaos of our lives. But there is hope. It is found only in Christ. He is calling us to a life of peace and soul rest even among the chaos.

Consider joining me on this journey of keeping a focus on Christ. Open your Bible and discover that He wants to provide you with daily encouragement that is just as applicable today as ever.

I’m a thankful mom of 2 kids and have been blessed with a very encouraging husband of 23 years. Just like many of you, my days are packed! During the day, I take care of bank customers and prospects. In the afternoons and evenings, I take care of my family and work on volunteer projects. But my favorite part of each day is first thing in the morning, where I spend dedicated time with my Savior. Consider subscribing to receive biweekly encouraging devotionals at http://www.chaostochrist.com.
facebook.com/chaostochrist (facebook)
@chaostochrist (twitter)
@chaostochrist (Instagram)
pinterest.com/chaostochrist (Pinterest)
tammie@chaostochrist.com (email)