Week 1: Hope Do you ever overwhelm yourself with Christmas activities? To the point you forget about Jesus’ birth until you’re sitting in a Christmas Eve service? I’ve been there more than I’d like to […]
Do Hard Things. Allow them to shape your gratitude.
The night before my family adopted the 10-week-old German Shepherd/Chow Chow puppy, the bully-of-a-neighbor kid jumped our wood fence and did damage to the backyard. (And I think, maybe, our toy poodle.) We went to […]
“I would for sure want to sit at the Thanksgiving table this year with my dad, Herb. He passed away when I was 21 years old. He never got to meet my husband, Jason, or my two little boys,” says Kelly Flora, owner of Flora Bloom Market. “We would laugh at all the crazy stories of parenthood, and I would thank him for the lessons he was trying to teach me when I was younger.
I am thankful the Lord fought for me, even when I wanted nothing to do with Him.
Brooke Rathbun
Katrin Scott
Melinda* had been asking me for months to cook up something so we could serve it together at the Veterans Coming Home Center, a drop-in day center for the unsheltered in Springfield, Missouri. Since she […]
Jessie Smallwood
I give thanks for all you have done, I won’t forget all the battles you have won. The words to this song were counterintuitive in the wake of devastating loss. Yet there I was, singing […]
Leaders, Roll Up Your Sleeves
Lead can be a four-letter word, especially when things go wrong. In media and literature, leadership is celebrated for the perks of power, options, and success or mourned because of abuse, avarice, and failure. While […]
Shelby Chante Photography
“If I could sit at anyone’s Thanksgiving table this year, it would belong to my aunt Kristal,” says Kendra Hinkle, co-owner of Lavish Grazing. “I love talking pie, coffee, “Gilmore Girls” and life happenings with her. Maybe even discuss some Harry Potter theories. Or the latest quirks of our furbabies: Harry, Chloe and Luna. Also, how great her mashed potatoes turned out this year. Thanksgiving is truly the best.”
The Gillioz Theatre, which celebrated its 95th anniversary in October, is hosting National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation on Nov. 26. Visit the Gillioz website for more information and to purchase tickets. The Gillioz is located at 325 Park Central East in Springfield, Missouri. Please note: If Clark would have lived in A Christmas Story, his mouth would have been washed out with a bar of soap.
It seems as though I have way more storms than I do sunshine. I need this bracelet because I need to be reminded my God is the God of the storm, just as He is the God of sunshine and rainbows.
Grace Lee
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella
Cinderella will be on the Springfield Little Theatre’s mainstage, Nov. 19-Dec. 5. Tickets cost $26-34. Buy them online at SLT’s website.
Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer
Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer will be performed at the Judith Enyeart Reynolds School of the Performing Arts for Springfield Little Theatre in Springfield, Missouri, Dec. 3-5. Tickets are $6-8 and may be purchased on the SLT’s website.
Springfield Ballet’s The Nutcracker
Springfield Ballet will present The Nutcracker, Dec. 17-20. Buy tickets (including streaming) online on the SLT’s website.
Brooke Rathbun
In 2016, I was living a different life. Had you asked me then where I saw myself in five years, my plan would look nothing like the one the Lord was laying out for me. […]
Three Bracelets
Three bracelets. One copper. One silver. One gold-plated. words + photographs GRACE LEE The copper bracelet was the first one I started wearing, and it says, “Faithful.” I felt like I was doing what He […]
“I hope our food brings joy,” says Andrew McGowan, founder and farmer at Family Through Faith Farm. “I am a foodie. I love what great food can do to someone emotionally.”
The battles in our lives seem so different from the ones we read about in the Bible, stories of God saving the day in a moment. Those are snapshots; the reality is more like slow motion footage.
Jessie Smallwood
At the end of October, before the rains came, I loaded up another bunch of ripe Big Rainbow tomatoes, as well as several green, ready-for-frying tomatoes. I walked up the street past the green-leaved redbud trees, marched through the still-green grass, climbed the back deck steps and met my neighbors at the door. I handed them the tomatoes and spent 30 minutes or so talking about whatever neighbors talk about.
Cuban Spirit
Reverent. Real. Resilient. Resourceful. These are just a few of the words I would use to describe the people I met in Cuba. By our standards, life is hard there, but they make it work. They […]
“I did my first ink drawn couples portrait, which ended up being my best selling commission, in my freshman dorm room,” says Claudia O’Steen, founder of CO Creations. “I was struggling to think of a Christmas present for my boyfriend and decided to draw one of my favorite photos of us. It gave me all the warm fuzzy feelings when I finished it.”
Conflict and failure are part of life, and a leader who paddles upstream with you determines the difference between tragedy and opportunity.
Philip Herzog
“I love serving the community as a police officer,” says Matt Bashioum, founder and craftsman at Bashioum Wood Builds in Marshfield, Missouri. “… Police officers who work in this area are very thankful of the support the community shows us on a daily basis. We are very lucky to have such an amazing community to serve.”
We have to recognize we are all at different paces and in different seasons. We have to recognize that to fully embrace others.
Katrin Scott
Last issue, I wrote about taking over responsibility for my dad’s medications. When it was time to dispose of it all, I had no idea what to do. I had read drugs (legal and otherwise) were ending up in our waterways, causing health issues for the entire food chain, including you and me and our pets.
Homegrown Journal 