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How to Set Great Goals and Actually Achieve Them
Dear Friends, The beginning of a new year is such a wonderful time for setting goals! Today I want to talk about how to set great goals and actually achieve them! I know everyone enjoys making New Year’s resolutions, but I prefer to set goals. There is just something about New Year’s resolutions that makes them seem like more of an idea, or something you think you might want to accomplish during that year, rather than something you are going to actively work toward achieving. A goal though, seems more tangible, it is something you set out to accomplish, it is not just an idea. I do not…
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Keeping a Gratitude Journal is Amazing for You!
Dear Friends, Today I am sharing the first blog in the healthy habits series. This week I’ll be covering the healthy habits I suggested for our minds. Today I am sharing about one of my favorite healthy habits; keeping a gratitude journal! You might be wondering how is keeping a gratitude journal going to help me in my relationships with others? It is going to help you in several ways but the most prominent way it will help you is that it is going to shift your mindset to a more positive one which will make you happier. It also increases your grit and resilience and can…
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Healthy Habits for the New Year!
Dear Friends, I am so excited to share some ideas I have of healthy habits for the new year with you. These are not just ideas I have for you, these are things I try to implement in my own daily life. Being in good health often makes you happier and more confident which impacts not only you but also your relationships with others. I am so excited about this new year! I don’t know what last year was like for you, but for me and my family, it was amazing in some ways and horrible in other ways, which made it a very trying year. …
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10 of the Best Meaningful Gifts for Spouses
Dear Friends, Today I am sharing my final gift list for the season. This time I am sharing my list of ten meaningful gifts for spouses. Each one of these ideas is near and dear to my heart, and because time is the most precious gift that I believe can be given, most of these gifts are free but do require you giving your spouse the gift of your time. 1. The first gift idea I have is a love letter scavenger hunt. In this hunt you will write a series of love letters and hide them around your bedroom or perhaps your entire house, it is…
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10 of the Best Meaningful Gifts for Children
Dear Friends, I am so excited to share my next ten meaningful gift ideas with you, this time the gifts I’m recommending are for children. These are all gifts I have either given children myself or received when I was a child, and they are still some of my fondest memories. 1. The first gift idea I have is a story written just for them. This story doesn’t have to be long but a child would love to receive a story written just for them that might have their favorite animal or toy or even them as the main character. For presenting it to them you could write it out…
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10 of the Best Meaningful Gifts for Family and Friends
Dear Friends, I am so excited to share with you some wonderful ideas I have for gifts for family and friends this Christmas season. I know that we should not focus on the gifts but it seems that in this season of giving we feel so generous because of the generosity that God showed to us. One thing that I notice about the holidays is that they come and go and the excitement of the presents fades rather quickly. In an earlier post I emphasized that time is the most precious gift you can give. For the next few blogs I will be sharing some of…
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Why a Tree of Gratitude is the Best Autumn Decoration
My favorite Autumn decoration is our Tree of Gratitude! Dear Friends, I have such a fun tradition to share with you today! Roughly 5 years ago I wrote a paper for one of my courses on the profound impact gratitude can have on a person’s life. What I learned effected me so much that I wanted to put things into motion in my family’s life right away that would focus on gratitude. It happened to be close to November at the time and I love Christmas decorations. My husband will tell you I am notorious for trying to get him to let me put up the Christmas…
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Time is the most precious gift
Time is the most precious gift you can give… Dear Friends, I hope you are as excited about the holidays as I am! We always spend so much time and energy preparing for our guests to arrive and put so much care into how everything is put together for everyone. When it comes time to have our holiday feasts and gatherings of all sorts, we can lose some of our time together by being on our phones. Time is the most precious gift we can give because it is finite. Time’s scarcity makes it truly more valuable than anything else which is why when you give it…
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Gratitude Truly Changes Everything for the Best
Gratitude truly changes everything! Dear Friends, In the spirit of Thanksgiving I thought it would be a great time to talk about gratitude. Gratitude is very commonly spoken about these days and yet it still seems to only be recognized for the surface level improvements it has on your emotions. Keeping a gratitude journal is more of a trendy activity at the moment which is wonderful. It is a great thing to keep a gratitude journal for your overall health and well being so it being a trend is truly a blessing. Did you know that gratitude really does change everything? It not only improves your emotional well being, but…
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How to Actively Listen to Enjoy Time with Others
Active listening to enjoy the holidays to the fullest with family and friends with views different than your own. Dear Friends, We live in such a unique time in history. Everyone is more polarized than they have been in any point in my life, and I’m sure yours as well, and we are being expected to choose a side for any opinion we may have. It is as if there is no room for neutrality anymore. This is just so taxing on our relationships with family and friends and it can feel so devastating and isolating. We do not need to lose friends or disconnect from…
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On the sixth day God created the first family
The Sixth Day Family Hello, My name is Amanda. I am writing this blog because I have a passion for helping families and friends build meaningful relationships that will last a lifetime. I am a Christian, a wife, a mother, and a friend. I believe that God did not just make Adam and Eve on the sixth day of creation, rather He made the first family. God did not make us as humans to be alone, He made us be be in community and fellowship with one another. This is shown in multiple places throughout the Bible beginning on the sixth day of creation when…
