Life After 23

Let me paint the picture of where I sit at the dining room table right now.  I am in a navy blue and white tennis dress I got at Goodwill the other day and matching blue leggings I already owned (you're welcome McDonough for not getting a stripper show today).  Because dear husband is sleeping his poor exhausted heart out, I am wearing earbuds listening to a YouTube playlist of Fun. and Casting Crowns .  I just finished dancing like a maniac to a several of my favorite songs, so now my personal fan left over from my college dorm room is trained on my upper body, counteracting the effects of the sweat said exercise and my red mug of coffee is causing.  Kitty is playing with an unused paint stirrer on the floor under a table lamp on the desk-turned-sideboard. I am almost euphorically typing this post, eager to share with you the reason for my happiness on this sunny day.  My husband and I had a huge fight yesterday.  Why would I be happy about that? ...

Breaking News: Full-Time Homemaker Goes Public Why is there such a stigma around the old-fashioned homemaker? Why do we feel the need to say, "Well, I'm a homemaker, but I also..." What is so shameful in today's world about simply being a homemaker? Today, I decided enough was enough. I am a full-time homemaker, and I'm okay with that. No, not just okay, but happy about it! Here's why: I am not letting womanhood down. First of all, how arrogant I am to think that my personal choices for my private life somehow affects the course of woman as a gender. Second, how ridiculous it is for someone else to tell me what I can and can't do as a woman! This is directed at the chauvinistic voices of my past AND the ultra-feminist voices of my present.  If I want to be a career woman, by all means I have that right. In fact, there are plenty of examples of God-fearing women who worked outside the home in the Bible who were praised for their industry ...

I'm BAAAAAaaaaaack!  It's been almost a month past age 23, and I've survived so far.  In fact, I have not only survived, but thrived!  I was so scared of turning 24, and yet scarcely a week went by before the Lord gave me one of the most powerful pieces of my testimony to His Glory I have ever experienced. It is no secret that I have been abused in my past, at the hands of one person in particular.  I have recently been suffering the horrible effects of PTSD associated with said experiences.  I felt that my life was in some kind of stasis because I could not seem to break free of the emotional power this man had over me. A lot of different things coincided at once about a week after my birthday, and I got fed up with it all. I was so frustrated, and as I sat on the edge of the bed venting all of this to my patient husband, it was like something just snapped inside of me. "I have tried and tried, and I am just sick of it!" I told him.  "You know...