Life & Culture

I have learned a lot about the art of hospitality, not because I am a master of it, but because I have been the recipient of it. My mother in law is the very model of a gracious host. If you are fortunate enough to be welcomed into her home, chances are you will be met with a smorgasbord of food, you’ll be told to use the nicest towels, and you’ll leave feeling rested and refueled. Every time I leave her home, I find myself inspired and soon lost in a Pinterest-induced coma so that I might craft and bake my way into deserving the title of Hostess-with-the-Mostest. In these Pinterest wanderings, I found myself inundated with images of the trendy pineapple.

Disney Princesses have become a much-discussed and polarizing subject in today’s culture. There is the pro-princess group that still believes in Prince Charming and dancing at the ball. Then there are those who want to throw the princess loving ladies to the dragons, believing they have been lied to about real life. Fortunately for all of us, realism has not been a part of the Disney brand for decades. If it had, cars couldn’t talk, magical nannies wouldn’t appear with umbrella in hand, children would never fly, mops couldn’t dance and toys would be left on their shelf…never leaving the house for their own adventure. We don’t usually go to the movies for realism, there’s enough of that outside the theater walls, so

The Grit and Grace Project is a place for strong women and those who want to be. We know that stories of women who display great strength help inspire more women to do the same. With that in mind, we love to highlight these women—women who do brave things, make hard decisions, keep going when they should collapse, and, more than any other quality, we love women who value life so very much that they are willing to risk their own for the sake of another. That is exactly what Antonina Zabinski did in Poland during the height of the Nazi Reich, and that is why we will be lining up at the box office to see The Zookeepers Wife. “A lovely story about the Holocaust might seem like

I recently helped my mother move from a three bedroom home into a one bedroom apartment. Shortly after that my husband and I also spent several days sorting through his father’s life’s possessions. After returning home from these exhausting endeavors I looked at the things that filled my closets, drawers, and cabinets and realized that as we live life, we accumulate clutter. It’s inevitable. It took about 13 seconds for me to have a complete mental freak out over the future workload I’ve created! This mess would be mine to deal with during the next move we make. Suddenly a new resolution—I will spend the rest of this year tackling this weighty job before it becomes necessary. Here are the 5 things I resolved: 1. If I haven’t used it in two

Named after the city she was born in—Florence, Italy—Florence Nightingale lived her life in England. Her inspiration crossed oceans and ignited change within the community of nursing throughout the entire world. She was reared in enormous affluence and wealth, an extremely educated young woman.1 Florence’s mother was so enamored with social life that when launching her daughters into society she added six bedrooms to their home to accommodate the entertaining she desired. Maids, footmen, and valets, often traveling between two mansions in England, cared for the two Nightingale daughters. There was nothing Florence either needed or desired that was not provided for her easily, elaborately, and with no consideration of the cost. However, though Florence traveled with all economic opportunity, she found herself fascinated

March 8th is International Women’s Day, a day set aside to acknowledge the political, economic, and social achievements of women around the world. With that in mind, we couldn’t help but take the opportunity to recognize a woman who so powerfully embodied grit and grace that she was nicknamed the “Iron Lady.” She left a legacy that extends far beyond her country, Great Britain, and the time in which she held power. She achieved things a woman had never achieved before, but that’s no surprise when she’s the one who said, “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” Margaret Thatcher was born to Alfred and Beatrice Roberts, who lived above the corner grocery

We all know that women impact the world every single day, but we love the fact that the United States has deemed the month of March Women’s History Month. Here at The Grit and Grace Project, we are eager and thankful for the opportunity to recognize, along with our country, the contributions women have made to culture, history, and society. Throughout the month, we will honor some of our favorite strong women of history by posting articles highlighting them and their achievements. Through The Grit and Grace Project, we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know women who have encountered life’s challenges and walked through them, not around them. Because they’ve chosen this brave path, they’ve done so much more than simply endure difficulty—they’ve transformed it into something

In 2012 I spent almost three months living in Singapore as a part of a training program for a year in the mission field (which is a story for another day). I was 21 years old and had only ever left the country for a five-day trip to Costa Rica, so I was full of anxiety and nervous anticipation. I knew nothing about the tiny city-state at the southernmost tip of Malaysia, other than the jokes I’d heard at some point about gum being illegal (and it is … you can chew it, but they don’t sell it anywhere). After nearly 33 hours of travel, I landed. I felt small, homesick, and overwhelmed by how different everything was from home. As I rode with the people who came