Darlene Brock

Darlene, President of The Grit and Grace Project, is crazy enough to jump in the deep end then realize she may not have a clue where she’s landed. She has spent her adult life juggling careers in the music business, been an author, a video producer, and also cared for her family ... some days drowning, other days believing she’s capable of synchronized swimming.

High-School-Graduation-A-Mom's-Rite-of-Passage

High School Graduation: Things Are Changing, but for the Good

My eldest daughter’s high school graduation had befallen. I’m not sure how we got here. Yes, seems like only yesterday… On the other hand, I had the wrinkles to prove it wasn’t! Created not only by the passage of time but also probably gained by potty training failures, elementary school multiplication tables, middle school emotional swings, high school auto accidents, and a revolving door of boyfriends. We had to shop for a little white dress to go under the white graduation robe. We couldn’t have a bright red dress showing through, now could we? This was just one of the activities, plans, and expenses as we prepared for the day we had all worked so very hard for. We had an entire list. […]

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Easter, the greatest love story ever

Easter, the Best Love Story Ever Told

I sit this morning, alone, watching as the sun crests the peak of my home. It is quiet, with a waterfall in the background and nature sounds playing their melody. I ponder the gravity of this season. It is once again Easter, the celebration of the best love story ever told. I am reminded of the week’s beginning. The triumphant entry of Jesus, in humility seated upon a donkey, as he arrives at the city of Jerusalem. Greeted as the conqueror, the expectations of those who lined the streets were high as they placed palm fronds before him, expressing their delight at his arrival. The same people who were there to laud his entry, within a few days, were absent from his

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5-Colors-Every-Woman-Can-Look-Great-In

5 Colors Every Woman Can Look Great In

I’m sure you have landed in the dressing room with a handful of clothes that you think might just work. As you slip that really cute top over your head then look into the mirror the shriek you emit is audible five stalls down. Is it the lighting in this dressing room (which shall we all say is the dumbest thing a retailer ever installed?) or does this color just make me look horrible? It could be the yellow/blue/gray light that shines down on the top of your head, but it’s often the color of the clothing. I know if I put that tan khaki tone anywhere near my face the next step is to take that shovel and dig a 6-foot deep

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Mary Bethune, an Educator Living a Life of Grit

Mary McLeod Bethune was born in Mayesville, South Carolina two years before the end of the Reconstruction (the time after the Civil War that slaves were adjusting to their new lives) to parents who had been slaves.1 Even though Mary and her family were free, they still lived in poverty. When she was nine years old, Mary tagged along with her mother to take a basket of freshly washed and ironed clothes to her former master’s house. They had to go around the home to the entrance in the rear, the one through which the blacks could enter. In 1884 in Mayesville, South Carolina, there was absolute segregation between the races. Her mother went inside to take the family their clothes and receive

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Who's the boss

Who’s the Boss? 5 Ways to Be the One in Charge

Whether you have a two-year-old or a 10-year-old there are some days you may wonder who is in charge. It certainly doesn’t feel like it’s you. You won’t win every battle nor should you expect to.  You can’t put it upon yourself to effectively crack the whip, so to speak, impeccably correcting each and every transgression any child is capable of. But there are a few absolutes you need to incorporate into your life just to keep peace on the home front, guide your kids toward acceptable behavior, and some days, to simply maintain your sanity. 1. Know your child. There may come a time when you find your child disassembling the new toy that you spent an hour on just successfully

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The-Reality-of-STDs-Hard-Conversations-You-Need-to-Have

The Reality of STDs: Hard Conversations You Need to Have

There truly are some conversations we would much rather avoid. The ones that create angst in both the discussion starter and the recipient, whose terrified expression is begging you not to continue! An honest talk about STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) has to be in life’s top five! This is definitely not sunny chatter over the dinner table, or light banter with the store clerk like you’re talking about the fair weather. But the reality is that our current societal statistics require us to have these talks. We absolutely must have them with our children. We absolutely must have them with our dating partner. Today’s studies tell us 1 in 4 females between the age of 15 and 24 have an STD*, currently a full

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Men and Women Equal Not Identicial

Men and Women Are Equal, but Not Identical

From the first moment a little girl announces, “When I grow up I’m gonna be a…” her parents tell her that she certainly will be. She can do whatever she dreams, and that’s true. If she loves sports—they’re all available. Education? Any field of study is obtainable. Career path? There is none blocked. This generation has all the “equal rights” created by the resolute females of the 20th century. Courageous ladies desiring the privilege to vote, to pursue higher education, and to have careers that matched their talents fought this battle. They changed our world. It is them we should thank for giving our daughters a future without limitations. Yet, as each daughter enters her teen years, most realize that the level playing field of opportunity

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If Your Kid is Being Bad, Does That Make You a Bad Mom 2

Your Bad Kid Doesn’t Make You a Bad Mom

You have just received your first phone call, the one every mother dreads and hopes to never receive. The preschool wants you to know that your child is hitting or biting or kicking. That little guy or girl, who has never shown this behavior before, has apparently turned into the class tyrant. It was in kindergarten when my daughter demonstrated her prowess in tormenting others. I dropped this sweet, little dressed up diva at her elementary school and all was going relatively well for the first few months. Then I received my first phone call. She had kicked a little boy. This led to discussion, punishment, and resolution. A week went by and then I got the next call; she had hit another student.

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Sending-Your-Kids-to-College—Separation-Anxiety-or-Blissful-Freedom-

Sending Your Kids to College—Separation Anxiety or Blissful Freedom?

So you’ve just spent hours in the Target dorm room aisles… Shopping for color-coordinated linens and accessories for your daughter’s new dorm room. Or, if it’s your son, you were probably trying to convince him that he actually needs a bedspread to go along with his trunk full of technology (that will absolutely make it into his new “college student man cave”). Now you’ve delivered them, set up their new world, and driven or flown away. You feel the anxiety of their absence. Can they get along without you making sure the laundry is done, the curfew is adhered to, and the insurance is paid? Well, you’ve spent the last 18 years getting them to this point, so the assumption is that

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My God in the Darkness

My God in the Darkness

My almost two-year-old had quit walking. She wouldn’t stand without crying and was running a constant fever of 102. After three visits to the pediatrician and one full week of pain for her and sleeplessness for us we found ourselves filling out the paperwork to admit our sweet little girl into the hospital. No one knew what the cause of this illness was, as she continued to get worse. There’s nothing more painful than watching your child suffer. Not skin scrapes or even broken bones. But suffering from something that you see on every medical professional’s face that enters the room, is not just a mystery but is truly serious. As I look through my life challenges, I’ve lived long enough to

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2020 Is Full of Chaos What Is God Doing

In These Challenging Times, What if God Has a Purpose?

It seems that every conversation I find myself in has this sentiment as part of the discussion: “It’s been another crazy year, hasn’t it?” We seem to be looking at one another with disbelief, uncertainty, and discomfort. What do we do when we meet? What should (or shouldn’t) we say? Are we wearing masks, shaking hands, bumping elbows? Do we skate around the issues of injustice, destruction, hopelessness, and mankind divided, seemingly forced to take sides? Even saying “mankind” is currently taking a side. Are we mumbling through conversations because there is fear on every front—fear of misunderstanding or even harm? I step back from these encounters and think, “What is God doing?” In my lifetime, there have never been challenging times

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let us remember this memorial day

Let Us Remember, This Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day, the day that we mindfully set aside in order to honor those who have paid the ultimate price. Today we lay wreaths on graves and place flags in the ground, recognizing each gravesite of both men and women who have fought and died for the greater good. These courageous soldiers have battled against evil while defending those who could not defend themselves. Today it is our duty to remember the fallen. There have been hundreds of thousands of Americans who’ve died in war since the very first was waged, the American War for Independence. The countless lives lost in each battle, from the American Revolution through today’s wars in the Middle East, have left behind mothers, fathers, siblings, wives, husbands and children. It is not only

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Another School Shooting, We Must Prepare Our Kids

In the Wake of Another School Shooting, How to Prepare Our Kids

Another school shooting and our hearts clench. The image of another mother clinging to a photo of the child instantly taken from her while doing nothing more than attending school rips the hearts and strikes fear into every other parent. While the debate will continue on gun control, that’s not the discussion I want to have because I think there is something much more pressing that every mother needs to do. Prepare your kids. In every part of their lives, it is our job to prepare them. The thought of having this be a conversation required to raise children today seems almost outrageous. But we have to face our current reality, so it is one we unquestionably need to have. It’s time

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Happy Mother’s Day! Raising Great Girls, Free Now!

Moms, it’s almost Mother’s Day! As an act of solidarity with my fellow girl moms, I want to give you a gift. I didn’t have boys, so if you’re a boy mom, I can’t help you as much there. But from May 5-9, my Raising Great Girls Kindle eBook is absolutely free. If you’re anything like I was in my motherhood journey, you probably have times of feeling every insecurity, a bit of a failure, with a boatload of mom guilt mixed in. I’m sure you also have seasons you think “I’ve got this!” and you do! But no matter the season you find yourself in, I want to give you some of what hindsight taught me: hard-earned wisdom that I share

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The-Real-Mother's-Day

Celebrating All of the Real Mother’s Days

I know we’ve all been convinced that Mother’s Day occurs each year on some Sunday in May—the day to be celebrated if you’re a mother…if not, to celebrate the one that you call mom. I sometimes wonder if it’s a restaurant and retail conspiracy. But I’m here to tell you that this day is not the Mother’s Day that I love. Yes, it’s on the calendar, and all children, spouses, and various family members are required to give gifts or send flowers. They feel like they must take you to a restaurant to wait in line for an hour, along with every other mother in the city where you live, and crowd around the table with over-worked servers trying to accommodate the big families

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True Purpose Is Found in How We Care for Others

I watch as a woman I dearly treasure is overtaken by the stronghold of dementia, and I resign to the fact that none of us has control or the ability to change this course. Repeated stories and angry outbursts, followed by confusion—this has become the norm for this strong, kind, and loving lady. While these are not the actions of the aunt who has impacted my life so significantly, it’s where she finds herself in the twilight of her life. But my heart doesn’t stay where she is today. Instead, it leads me to the actions throughout her life. The deep and constant investment she made in mine. These will always be part of my treasured memories, keeping residence in my heart.

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5 Tips for a Great Job Interview

5 Job Interview Tips to Help You Land the Position

Through the years I have hired (and fired) a lot of different people for a bunch of different positions. I’ve hired accountants, truck drivers, radio promoters, executive assistants, and even band members. The good news is the firing part didn’t happen often because I quickly learned the qualities I wanted in any employee. Something I frequently noticed while interviewing for a position was the majority of people were not very good at this process. They didn’t interview well! But those that almost always rose to the top had a few of the same job interview approaches. They possessed many of the same character traits. They got my attention and inevitably landed on the top of the pile to pick from. If you’re

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