Throughout the last 10 years, I have been in both of these places……more times than I care to admit….

“Stage 1″

The days seem longer than you’ve ever imagined they could be….

Gone are the dreams you one had…..for after all they were based on Hollywood glamour, their perfectly flawless and always happy endings.

You’ve traded your dreams of romance filled nights, for romance movies and books.

You soar with the romance dreamed up and put on display.

You’re thankful for some kind of romantic feeling in your life….

Or…

“Stage 2″

You’ve given up on your dreams, and have shut down any kind of romantic feeling you have left. Movies and books make you cry, and long for that which you don’t have.

You find it easier to shut down that part of your life vs. being bombarded with the overwhelming feeling of being unloved.

While Hollywood certainly doesn’t help us live in our real lives well, it is not fully to blame.

We weren’t created to love by our feelings…..or even our actions.

Feelings are deceitful…..just as our hearts are…..

Love is a choice….

“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove. Oh no! It is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken.” (Shakespeare Sonnet 116)

“Is love a fancy, or a feeling? No. It is immortal as immaculate Truth, ‘Tis not a blossom shed as soon as youth, Drops from the stem of life—for it will grow, In barren regions, where no waters flow, Nor rays of promise cheats the pensive gloom. A darkling fire, faint hovering o’er a tomb, That but itself and darkness nought doth show, It is my love’s being yet it cannot die, Nor will it change, though all be changed beside; Though fairest beauty be no longer fair, Though vows be false, and faith itself deny, Though sharp enjoyment be a suicide, And hope a spectre in a ruin bare.” (Hartley Coleridge Sonnett 7)

How we feel, is not the measuring stick for love. Love goes through ebbs and flows, there will be days you don’t like each other, but you must still choose to love.

Should you find yourself feeling unloved, I ask you to look to the One that created you, loves you as the imperfectly perfect creation He made you to be.

Are we not unlovely at times, to Him whom loves perfectly?

Did He not choose to love us, in the greatest way possible? By His Son’s life as a sacrifice for our souls? (John 15:13 KJV)

God’s love alone is perfect, and it is not based on feelings. It is His choice to love us, no matter if the feeling is reciprocal or not. His love is never ending nor failing.

May we truly grasp the depth of His love, and see His love that He presents to us over and over again through ages past and each day we live.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39 KJV)

The post Dear Wife Who Feels Unloved appeared first on Simply Helping Him.

My dad is truly the dad every girl wishes she had.

I’ve never wondered if my dad would always be there for me, because there’s never been a time he wasn’t. Through every storm in life, he’s been there to hold me, reminding me of God’s word and there to support me through all of it.

My husband….

it has been such a blessing to watch him grow as a father.

From swimming and wrestling, to sports and boating; the kiddos truly love spending time with their dad.

I enjoy just sitting back and taking in the moments he spends with our  little blessings. What a joy it is to behold!

My heavenly Father is my #1. He is everything that I need, even when I don’t realize it.

It is in Him I am able to move from unfulfilled to fulfilled, no matter where I am in life.

I am so very blessed to have these 3 to celebrate, and be thankful for today!

Happy Father’s Day!!

The post Fathers in My Life appeared first on Simply Helping Him.

I don’t have a family fun letter day for you, but I do have a new set of penmanship printables for y’all! I hope your kiddos are enjoying them as much as mine are!

Ephesians 6:1 is the text for this week’s printables.

Printing 

Kindergarten

2nd Grade

Cursive

3rd Grade

4th Grade

The post Printables for You & a Getaway for Me!! appeared first on Simply Helping Him.

I am very excited to have her join me in this lil ministry, and I am open to more bloggers joining us as well! If you are interested in co-hosting with us, please let me know in the comments or email me at ~ simplyhelpinghim (at) gmail (dot) com

Angela Czepinski is a believer and follower of Christ.  She is married to Tom and they have 3 boys. Living in their dream home built in 1900, complete with a white picket fence and gardens they are always busy learning!  They celebrate 18 years of marriage this year along with home schooling high school to all 3 boys which they have been doing for 12 years now.  Not the high school part but the home school part!

Visit her at her blog where she is aspiring to be creative, passionate & witty! Cooking, cleaning, gardening, knitting, sewing, crafting or family.  She also weaves in her home business Hen & Chicks Soap. It is made right in her home kitchen where they are made in small batches. She blogs for many reasons one being her love for learning which helps her stay sharp.

She was not raised in a Christian home but praises God for faithfully teaching her by His Spirit and the ladies He placed in her life how to be a Godly woman.  Now she wants to share her walk and why she loves the title woman.

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 As always all posts linked up will be shared across all of my social media!

The post Introduction #2!!! With Wisdom Wednesday Link Up appeared first on Simply Helping Him.

From pretty make up, beautiful hair, to stylish clothes; sometimes that’s all people think makes a woman.

Yet, this is not what a woman was made to be, what she should look like, or what she should be known for.

As a society we have idolized women’s looks; from her body, to her attire. All of which can act as a mask, hiding who she truly is inside her shell.

Today is my first post as a contributor over at Womanhood with Purpose……follow me there to read the rest of this post……

The post What Does It Mean to Be a Woman? appeared first on Simply Helping Him.

Our summers are very laid back, due to the commitments we typically have throughout the school year. I love that the kiddos spend their days playing using their imaginations. We also spend a lot of time together as a family, whether it be having a BBQ and eating on the deck, taking a stroll on the beach, or cuddled up reading books before bed. These are the best times in my mind, they’re unplanned and create wonderful memories to look back on.

Being a Texas girl, my view of summer is very different from what I have now in Maine. My kiddos don’t know what Texas summers are like, but they do like the idea of them. I’m not sure they’d love the 100+ degree temps like I do, since they didn’t grow in them like I did.

Summertime in Maine hasn’t even really arrived yet, we’ve had a couple “hot” days, but they’re always followed by cool days. Summer heat doesn’t stick around long here. August is usually our warmest month, and September cools down rapidly.

Throughout the summer my kids spend much of their days outside playing, whether it be building forts, swinging, catching frogs, ants, salamanders, or whatever else they can get dirty doing!

Last year we went “camping” (my husband’s version is much different than mine LOL) on Father’s Day weekend, he just called today and we are going again! It seems that is his gift of choice for Father’s Day. It also might be our new family tradition! The kiddos are very excited to be going again! Last year I spent much of my weekend writing for my lil corner here as I wasn’t feeling well. I’m hoping to do a bit of writing again, without the latter event. We will be staying in the same cabin I believe too!

Our year has been cooler/wetter than usual, so my garden isn’t doing as well as I had hoped. I am still hoping to get the cooler temperature veggies to grow for me. I had high hopes for this year, but I am learning to just be thankful for that which I get!

The lettuce, cabbage, blackberries and raspberries seem to be doing well. The kiddos love to grab a handful of berries while they’re outside playing! They’re the perfect snack!

I encourage you to not over plan the summer season, be sure to allow time to just be a family and enjoy time together. Sometimes we feel like we need to check the boxes showing we’ve used every moment of “free time”. This doesn’t allow us to have any spur of the moment ideas, and I’m learning that sometimes they are the best times we could have and we often miss out on them.

Slow down. Enjoy Summer. Cherish your family.

The post Slow Summer appeared first on Simply Helping Him.

One thing that can’t be said for summer is that it isn’t busy. It is a different busy than the school year, but it is still busy.

Last week, I wrote a vastly popular (insert unladylike snort) post entitled 20 Inexpensive Summer Date Ideas.  I mentioned in that post that reconnecting in relationships is the foundation of my summer plans. Time with God, my husband, friends, extended family and…

My kids.

I know, I know-I am with them practically 24-7. But summer is the time to hang as a family. Our focus isn’t school work or extra-curricular activities. It is making memories as a family. Memories in the everyday and the once in a life time.

If this is my goal, it requires intentional behavior. It requires scheduling my priority-family time. If I am not intentional, it won’t happen. The summer will fly by in a blur and we’ll be back to school before I can blink.

We have a busy ministry month in June with a retreat (I am cooking for it, and Mr. Hippie is hosting and teaching) a girls’ discipleship week (I am training how to teach kids’ Bible clubs), and 2 vacation Bible schools, but after that, we are free as birds.

We are doing nothing exotic as we got pretty exotic this past winter. We are just living…

What family time am I scheduling into this summer?

-Literary lunches. We started this tradition last summer and continued it throughout the school year. Every day I make my kids lunch and then I read to them for 30 minutes. We have worked our way through the first 6 Harry Potter books, plus 3/4 of Team of Rivals. We will finish HP and Team of Rivals this summer, and then I am on the lookout for another series.

last summer…Meres has surely grown

-Tuesday evening Blues. From mid-June through mid-August, one of our local small towns hosts a Blue’s concert in a park by a river every week. We join up with the BFF and her family for a picnic, and enjoy the music, conversation and outside.

-Bike rides. I have new wheels, and while I am in training for a tri, my intention is to get all of us involved in this whole biking gig. I will put Meres in a seat, have LC pedal behind, and the boys will be solo. We have several great trails around that go through parks. I see picnics and pedaling in our summer. As soon as we get bikes up to snuff.

-National and State Parks. We within relatively short drives of several of the Great Lakes. Lining the lakes are State and National Parks. I am planning to get to a State park at least 4-5 times this summer. Plus I want to make it up to Sleeping Bear Dunes for a climb to the lake.

-Camper. We own a camper that is parked about an hour from our house. There is not much to do where it is parked, but it is definitely worth going-if only for the campfires. I am thinking of hiring out my living room painting. If I do, the kids and I will spend some time up at the camper. Wading in the creek, swimming in the gross lake, playing at the park, and burning lots of wood in the fire pit.

-Same old. We’ll do the things we always do…we’ll go to the bff’s mom’s pool. We’ll pick blueberries. We eat outside on our picnic table. We enjoy time with both sets of grandparents.

You don’t have to plan a vacation or even a stay-cation to have an intentionally great summer. You just need to plan moments. What are you planning for the summer?

The post Being Intentional About Summer appeared first on Simply Helping Him.

I am very excited to have her join me in this lil ministry, and I am open to more bloggers joining us as well! If you are interested in co-hosting with us, please let me know in the comments or email me at ~ simplyhelpinghim (at) gmail (dot) com

Without further adieu……….

I am Meghan, a running shoe wearing and pony tail kinda girl, wife to an amazing man, and mama to two littles.  My family and I recently moved from the South to a small town in Nebraska- what a change!  We are a Christ following and homeschooling family, though just beginning our journey in homeschooling.  I recently read that our family is part of a whole new movement- the Crunchy Conservatives!  I laugh when I hear it, but it’s a pretty good description of our family- cloth diapering, baby food making, homeschooling, gardening, nature loving, natural remedy using, families who have a strong Christian faith and plan to save their children’s generation from becoming the “generation ME squared.”

I write about my humble attempts at being a home maker, while raising children who love Christ. I have a Bachelor’s of Science in Early Childhood Education so I naturally love learning, and teaching.  I also write about my love for Christ, and all He is teaching me through my many mistakes and experiences as a mama; I hope my readers can relate and love to hear their stories.

I am a mover and shaker- when I have an idea, I want to implement it now.  It is hard for me to sit back and let someone else have control- God is speaking to me daily on how to just be still and be present in Him, become a better wife, and mother.  I love writing to challenge myself, and hope to inspire others.

The post Introducing!!! with Wisdom Wednesday Link Up appeared first on Simply Helping Him.

We bought a large Elmer’s Tri-Fold Display Board and made holes in it with a razor blade. Then we decorated it to look like a great big frozen yogurt cone.  The glitter sprinkles were made using Elmer’s Glitter Paint Pens.  We made one side a list of Rules and the other side a list of High Scores.  The scores are written on sticky notes so they can be changed out as scores improve!

Everyone had lots of fun playing the Bean Bag Toss game!

We taped lines on the floor at three different distances from the board so everyone would be challenged.

Rule #4:  Only those old enough to read the rules have to obey them!

It cracks me up to see the kids’ faces when we give them a big treat like this.  They RARELY get sweets!

What a fun way to spend a rainy day!

The post Indoor Summer Family Fun ~ Carnival Games appeared first on Simply Helping Him.

Have you ever noticed how the bright spring sunshine streaming in the window brings to light all the dust balls, fur bunnies, fingerprints, smudges, and other evidences of less-than-perfect housekeeping? Have you noticed too, that the ever-advancing calendar brings to light all the untaught chapters, unwritten papers, and unmet academic goals — all evidences of less-than-perfect homeschooling? There’s something about fewer than forty days of school and standardized testing looming on the horizon that can send homeschooling mothers into what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim called a “slough of despond.”

I am the first to call homeschooling mothers to excellence. As children of the King, we should ascribe to a higher standard. We represent the Lord as well as homeschoolers everywhere, and should do everything “as though we were working for God, not for men” (Colossians 3:23).

I’d like to call homeschooling mothers to another standard also, and that is the standard of grace. Grace knows that any step toward a goal is progress, and doesn’t condemn when the highest goal is yet unmet. Grace knows our hearts; hearts that love the Lord and our families and earnestly want to be the best wife/mother/educator that we can be.

Should we strive for excellence? Absolutely. Will we always attain it? Absolutely not. As your school year draws to a close, my prayer is that you will finish well, with excellence and with grace.” This one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is a head, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward.” (Philippians 3:13-14) Let’s meet at the finish line!

Application Questions:

What is the balance between striving for excellence and bestowing grace on yourself and others? What does that look like from day to day?

Action Step for This Week:

Remember that the homeschooling journey is a marathon, not a sprint, and every step toward the goal of educating your children is progress. Extend grace to yourself as you strive to finish the year with excellence.

Prayer of Commitment:

“Lord, help me find the balance between my desire to homeschool with excellence

and the reality that I sometimes fall far short of this goal. When necessary, help me extend grace to myself, my children, and those around me. Send me wisdom and insight to plan the last few weeks of school in order that we might finish this year well. More than anything else, enable our homeschool to glorify You.”

The post Dust Balls, Standardized Testing, and Grace appeared first on Simply Helping Him.