Coronavirus and COVID19 Articles You Need

Is There Any Good from 2020? If You Say “Yes,” Don’t Feel Guilty

When my son died by suicide back in 2015, I was halfway through a four-year term as a municipally elected official. For the two years remaining in my term, I felt overwhelmed and stressed. Life was not a good place for me. My son’s death had left me questioning my faith and I felt like I had no solid place to plant my feet. The next couple of years were spent hustling for work, dealing with a husband who had just undergone his second brain surgery and, well, trying to survive. I remember wanting the world to stop and let me off. There were days I didn’t want to be alive. Not that I wanted to die, but I was just so […]

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Sure, It Was a Disaster… But Not a Failure

By Laila Schell / Motherhood

Lately I’ve been feeling like a failure and I just can’t seem to shake it. Maybe it’s because I’ve been with my kids for six months straight and I literally can’t remember the last time the house was clean and quiet. Or maybe it’s because we’re smack in the middle of a pandemic and every single decision I make (or don’t make) has me questioning whether or not it’s the right one, and whether or not some crazy butterfly effect will take place six months down the road, where I’ll look back and realize I have done something terribly wrong. Either way, I just had to sit down and write about it because I have a feeling I’m not the only one,

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How to Pray for All Those in Education Right Now

By Carey Melton / Life & Culture

There is a popular tagline among teachers these days that reads, “Teaching is my superpower. What’s yours?” We get it printed on coffee cups and t-shirts and display the thought proudly. I suppose, now, everyone in the country deserves a t-shirt, but I’ve always thought it to be a privilege to be able to do something that so many people claim they could never do. I hear all the time, “I could never be a teacher because I would—”(I’ll let you fill in the blank). We’ve all seen the hilarious memes and videos of parents leaving messages for their teachers begging for forgiveness and demanding school to go back. I believe those sentiments are real and I feel their pain! The last

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Is School Starting or Not? Hope for Stressed Moms

By Darlene Brock / Health & Beauty, Motherhood

I was in Walmart recently as they were filling the shelves with the annual back-to-school supplies. It’s 2020, and a new school year is starting. Or is it? Are they teaching in the classroom, or is the education they offer online? Or, are you faced with the option to choose? If you’re like most parents looking to their school board for guidance, you are still in uncharted and uncertain territory. As in most things, information comes from every side, and what it brings is almost impossible to weed through because it remains contradictory. The American Academy of Pediatrics says kids need to go to school, “the APA strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal

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6 Things to Treasure About Pandemic Life

By Amy Saxby / Life & Culture

I’ve learned in life that it is really important to look back. To reflect. To pay attention. While COVID-19 still moves among us, many of us are beginning to step back into the very gray area of normal. I don’t know about you, but I want to emerge into the new normal different from when the virus began. In some ways, I don’t want to go back to the life I lived before the virus. The way the world stopped caused all of us to tremble, worry, and anxiously wonder what will happen next (at least a little bit). It caused us to literally stop in our tracks, cancel all of our plans, and sit still. We have all felt the question…”Now

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How to Get Over the Pandemic That’s Not Over – 139

By This Grit & Grace Life Podcast / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More 2020 has not gone as hoped. We anticipated “clear vision” and big revelations…not fear, isolation, and a complete disruption of life as we know it. Even though we have to stay stuck in this rut a little longer, there is a way to let this modern-day plague propel us forward. Taking with us the lessons we can learn and blessings to gleaned from this unprecedented time in history. If we look to the bright side, the quarantine did give us all a forced fresh-start. Perhaps through deepened relationships, or finally having time to recognize what part of life was draining. You’ve come to realize

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Behind the Music With Colton and Annie Dixon – 137

By This Grit & Grace Life Podcast / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More Have you ever heard it said, “Life imitates art?” American Idol’s Colton Dixon might tell you, “Life creates art.” He and his wife, Annie, join Darlene and Julie for a casual chat about how much of his new music was inspired by life, their experiences as a couple, and the challenges they have faced. You will hear how they met, how they rely on each other during changes in his career, and the most terrifying—being pregnant with twins during a pandemic. The couple shares the personal stories that inspired the music on his new self-titled EP Colton Dixon—including chart-topper, Miracles and why his first love song,

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This Is How My Bright Idea Turned Into a Microwave Fire

By Allison McCormick / Life & Culture

I’ve always considered myself an intelligent person. Not a brainiac by any means, but someone that exercises good judgment and who thinks through things completely before taking action. That was until last week! Last week provided a new perspective on my mental fortitude and judgment. Here’s what happened. My friend was making fabric surgical masks. You know, the kind you can put a filter inside to give greater protection from our invisible viral enemy—the Covid-19 pandemic. She made them from fun cotton fabric and gifted me with a blue floral one. She had neatly tucked a filter into the pocket and reassured me that it would protect me from all that attempted to assault my respiratory system. What I failed to recognize

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There Is Clarity to Be Found in Your Trials

By Melissa Dyer / Faith

While I wouldn’t advertise this on Facebook for fear of the comments, there are some benefits the epic quarantine of 2020 brought on for me, both practical and spiritual. Our busy family remembered how to linger at the dinner table, play games together, and enjoy our own home. These are some practical benefits. The spiritual ones took longer to process, but once I plunged deep into the uncharted waters, I found my way. Surprisingly, this strange season distilled unparalleled clarity in my faith. Where I once assumed that a change in my immediate circumstances would relieve the aching in my heart, I’m now a little wiser. The same painful trial I was enduring before the coronavirus remains. And even though I experienced

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How to Adapt When You Have No Control

By Jodi Shultz / Faith

Hey sister, have you ever noticed that when everything else feels out of your control and hard to handle, you can find a sense of power and joy in deciding to change something? I’ve always joked that when a woman feels the need to make a change in her life, she has four options: her living room furniture, her purse, her shoes, or her hair. I’ve witnessed it many times in my career as a hairstylist—when a woman experiences major life disturbances or gets antsy with life in general, the quickest solution is to get bangs, chop it off, or switch up the color. Coco Chanel said this: “A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.” Ah yes,

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When You Need to Shift Your Heart, Attitude and Mindset

By Allison McCormick / Faith

I woke this morning with this nagging sense of sadness. It sat with me as I ate breakfast, followed me throughout my morning, and then nestled close as I sat to read. I wrestled to identify a reason for the emotion. Until, I stopped and reflected on our new reality—a world of imposed limitations, social distancing, forced confinement. And now, experts are telling us it could be weeks before we flatten the curve and move towards our post-virus norms. Certainly, a reason to be sad. A friend shared, “We are relational people.” And as relational beings, we mourn the loss of our freedom, the touch of a friend, the interaction of our tribe. If we are honest, we are all a little

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A Few Things You Need to Know About People With ADHD

By Melissa Solle / Life & Culture

At this point in the COVID-19 situation you’d think we have this daily routine, this new “normal” figured out. You know, the wake up, get-through-the-day, go-to-bed routine. Yet, here I am, still over-thinking every little thing. I have ADHD and so does my teenage son. This lack of normalcy is harder than hard. We thrive on routine and rhythm, and it’s missing. Those of you who struggle with ADHD personally know what I’m talking about. Those of you with kids who have ADHD really know what I’m talking about. When I was diagnosed with ADHD (as a college student) 25 years ago, I realized that I have to learn some coping mechanisms, some unique and interesting ways of making my scattered brain

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Rough Air and Empty Stadiums

By Jessica Anderson / Faith

I am a baseball wife, and I am a flight attendant. It’s the perfect combination. While my husband travels for away games, I fly all over the world, and we both reunite three days later. When my husband plays overseas in the winter, I hop on a flight courtesy of my flight benefits to go cheer him on. If we need extra income because my husband is a minor leaguer, I work extra hours. If I need time off because my husband is home for once, I swap my schedule and get the days off I need. My husband will tell you that being a baseball player is a dream come true for him. For me, being a flight attendant is a

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3 Ways to Adjust to a New Normal in the Pandemic

By Jennifer Schoonover / Life & Culture

Today is a new day, a gift. A blessing and an opportunity to share my story with other women in hopes that it will help them through these uncertain times of disruption to our every day lives. One thing is for sure, we are all walking without a road map through a valley of a global pandemic called the coronavirus, or COVID-19. I got a little wrapped up in the drama of it all and my depression took over for a minute. Okay, a couple days really, but I was trying to sound “hip.” I watched the news as China was hit with this crazy virus that seemed like something from the movies. It was far enough away and outside of my

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This is What Jesus Says About Equality for Women

Jesus Gave Up All Comfort So That He Could Comfort You

By Ashley Johnson / Faith

Have you ever felt abandoned by God in your pain? You seek His face, but it cannot be found. You turn the pages of your Bible, searching and searching, turning every stone for a word of hope. You pray. You cry. You plead… Father? Are you there? Are you real? Can you hear me? Do you see me? Do you care? Where are you? I need you. I’m hurting. Help! I feel like a fool for trusting you, and yet… I have nowhere else to go. If you don’t show up, I have nowhere else to turn. No one left to call. I wonder how many people are this place right now. All the Bad News… Enduring crisis. Grieving a loss. Weary

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10 Simple Tips for This New World of Homeschooling

By Ashby Duval / Faith

Anyone new to homeschooling out there? Too soon to joke? This has probably been a pretty stressful few weeks for you getting thrown into the deep end like this. I’m hopefully here to help but not as an expert; otherwise my Grit and Grace title of “Hippie in Heels” would have to be replaced with “Hypocrite in Heels.” I’ve been homeschooling for four years but many days I feel like I fall short. So, if that’s you right now, just know you’re not alone! Even the ones who were already doing this pre-social distancing feel that way at times. I’m going to give you the same pep talk that I give to myself when I’m so overwhelmed I feel like hiding in

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This Is How Mom Can Save the Day When Plans Change

By Melissa Dyer / Motherhood

From the “Love My Senior” Facebook profile frames to the “Drive-By Birthday Party” article on Patch.com, disappointment is lurking around every corner. While I was walking (a healthy 6-feet-apart and then some) with my neighborhood friend, she shared some of the other disappointments to the mix: canceled bridal and baby showers, weddings, anniversary trips, etc. The emotional buoyancy we acquire through the natural rhythms of milestone celebrations seems to be elusive right now. That is if we fail to make contingency plans. Maybe the celebrations might look a bit different than we had planned, but that doesn’t mean they need to be skipped entirely. I’m in this with you. My son is 18, a high school senior who has not committed to

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