Hello, sweet Sugar Pie! I would love for you to pour yourself a hot cup of tea or whatever you prefer and relax as I share with you about someone special who has blessed my life with her ministry of encouraging women and families. You may already know her and if you do I’m sure you’ll agree that she brings to the table wonderful nourishment for the heart and soul.

She has so many facets to her beautiful life. She’s raised and home-schooled four God-loving children and served as a missionary in Europe for several years alongside her beloved husband. She graciously teaches women how to nurture their home and family with beauty, books, music, food, warmth, and love. She loves her family well, in such a way that her children are able to see the goodness of God in their everyday lives. She’s written several books, some with her husband, and speaks around the world changing the lives of thousands of women, giving them the tools to become the mother their children need.

She is so very wise and yet very transparent which makes her relatable and loveable. She does not profess to be the perfect mother nor have the perfect children, but, in my opinion, she did a lot of things right!

Would you like to know who she is? Her name is Sally Clarkson! Her podcast is one of my favorites!! You can find out more about Sally here on her blog.

Sally lives Colorado with her husband Clay. Her oldest son, Joel, lives in New York and is a film score composer, and her other son Nathan is an actor and film producer. Her daughter Sarah is currently studying Theology in Oxford, England. Sarah is married to Thomas and just gave birth to Sally’s first grandchild, Lillian. Joy, Sally’s other daughter, is a graduate student at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland.

This sweet Sister-in-the-Lord has inspired me to start the tradition of an English afternoon tea. A snippet of time,( 15 minutes or so) at 3 in the afternoon, to stop, make a steaming cup of tea (English Teatime or Jasmine Tea are my favorites) and sit down to think, count my blessings, pray, write in a journal, or read. The one self-imposed rule I have is no cell phone allowed. This is a time to step away from the busyness of life and the never-ending pull to look down at my phone to constantly scroll and scan information. We all need some quiet time…to get off the merry-go-round so to speak.  If we want peace and that much-needed feeling of well being then we must make room for it…we can all find 15 minutes! If we sow peace then we will reap contentment.  I love to make these quiet moments as lovely as can be with soft music, a lit candle, and a yummy beverage (It doesn’t have to be tea of course). Three o’clock may not work for you, but I encourage you to find 15 minutes somewhere in your day (maybe when the little ones are napping?) Well, even though I’m not able to have tea-time every day when I do my heart feels blessed and refreshed. It allows me to catch my breath and gain a more positive perspective on the things that are going on in my life.

Teatime is also the perfect time to reflect on my relationships, to ask myself how I can better serve and bless my husband, kids, grandkids, and friends.

“When you learn to take responsibility for your own well-being, you will produce a harvest of influence and grace in every other area that is influenced by your heart-health.” ~Sally Clarkson

I’ve found so many inspiring ideas and thoughts to ponder in the several books that Sally has written!

“One of the marks of a godly woman is that she takes responsibility for her soul’s need for joy and delight. A woman is a conductor, who leads the orchestra of her surroundings in the songs and music of her life. God is a God of creativity and dimension, and so He is pleased when we co-create beauty in our own realm, through the power of His Spirit.
It was a profound realization when I understood that I could become an artist with my very life.” ~ Sally Clarkson

The books that I’ve read so far and treasure are The Life Giving Home, The Life Giving Table (Her special family recipes included!) and Own Your Life.  I always read with a pen and a highlighter to mark the words that jump off the page and capture my heart so I can easily find them again.

“Investing in your soul life is the secret to becoming elegant, distinguished, gracious, refined, and spiritually captivating. But soul refining requires intentional planning and prioritizing. Women who grow more lovely with time have practiced pouring into themselves all that is excellent, wise, graceful, good, and true.” ~Sally Clarkson

Sally’s newest book, co-authored with her husband is The Life Giving Parent. It will be released May 1, 2018.

I encourage you to find out more about Sally! I believe she will bless your life as she has mine. You can listen to her podcast online or on your smartphone. Her voice is so soothing, comforting and reassuring.

One last note about Sally…she recently went to England to be with her daughter for the birth of her grandbaby and had an unfortunate accident where she fell and injured her eye. It’s quite serious and so I ask that you would join me to pray for complete healing and restoration of her sight. It amazes me that even though this situation is painful and distressing she continues to encourage and bless her readers and podcast listeners. She shared this photo on Instagram with this caption; “Ahoy, Matey!!! Nathan has now …dubbed me ‘The Life Giving Pirate”.  She’s the cutest!

Thank you for having “tea” with me today!

Would love to hear from you in the comments below!

Bless your family…make home sweet!

Aunt Ruthie

23 Comments   Leave a Comment

Oh my! Have you heard about the Smart-Phone App Life 360? It is a must-have if you have teens or younger ones with smartphones. It uses GPS tracking to show you in real time where your family members are, how many miles away they are,  how long it would take to get to them, and how much battery use they have left on their phone. It also gives you a daily driving report so you can see where they’ve been throughout the day.  I downloaded the app when my daughter Summer was in High School and it gave me a whole lot of comfort for this worrying mama-heart…to know she was safe at her destination or on her way home. I’m sure you can relate if you’ve ever been up late waiting for your kids to get home! Lol! 

Fortunately, I only had to use this app for safety reasons to see if my daughter made it to her destination. But it would also be extremely helpful if kids were not being truthful about their whereabouts. I remember years ago I would ask my mom how she found out about something and she would reply “A little birdie told me!”. So think of this as your “Little Birdie”! Lol!

Here are some ways that make this app extremely valuable:

• If you’ve lost your phone you can find exactly where it is, down to the address.
• If a family member goes walking, running,  hiking or to walk the dog, you could check to see where they are in case they’ve been gone longer than usual.
• If a family member is on a road trip, camping, hunting, even canoeing on a river you could keep tabs on them.
• If you’re at a large event like a football game, concert, county fair, soccer game, you can find each other if someone gets lost.
• If you’re at a park, the beach, the lake or even at an amusement park like Disneyland, Disney World, in my case Silver Dollar City, again you can find each other. A lot of times we go separate ways and when you’re wanting to meet up again and the other person isn’t answering their phone. With this app you can see where they are.
• If you come home and wonder where everyone is you can find out in seconds by opening up the app.
• If you want to see if hubby is on his way home so you can start dinner…you can do that. I use this a lot!
• If your kids walk to school or ride the bus you can see that they’ve arrived safely. (In light of the recent and tragic school and concert shootings, you would be able to pinpoint exactly where your loved one is).
• My hubby is in Real Estate and often has to drive in very rural areas, sometimes sketchy and sometimes in stormy weather, this allows me to see he has safely reached his destination.
• It also provide directions to get to your loved one.

I’m sure there are a dozen more reasons why this is a must-have to make sure your family is safe which will give you peace of mind. The good news is this app is FREE!

So, basically, each family member would need to sign up on their own smartphone to create and connect to your own “Family Circle”. If I had younger kids, and they had an iPhone it would be mandatory for them to have this app. No, if’s and’s or but’s about it! Lol! No sense in getting gray hair sooner than you need to, right?! LOL!

The wonderful thing is when you first tap on the family member’s photo to check on them it opens up a map with the town and street names to show you where they are. But then when you zoom in with your fingers it takes you to the virtual-Google Earth view of where they are like the photo above (Summer was driving near a restaurant).  If they are moving or driving the little photo icon moves too so you can follow where they are going. It’s pretty amazing!

There are several other options like a one-tap check-in button, a text feature and a panic button that sends a HELP ALERT to everyone in your Life360 Family Circle.

Last fall there was a request for prayer on Facebook by friends here in Branson. Their High School student did not arrive home after the football game. The parents contacted the police to start searching for their child around two in the morning. The police were able to Ping the phone of the missing teen but it only showed he was in the vicinity of a 5-mile radius. Of course, our family prayed and my mama-heart felt so bad for the family at how scary this was. I kept thinking if only they had the Life 360 App they would know exactly where their child was and could go straight to him. Thank the Lord, they found their son at a friends house, safe and well. He had fallen asleep and didn’t call home. I’m thinking after the hugs and a few tears he might have heard the words “Yer in a heap of trouble boy!” Lol.

So even though I love the olden days and old fashioned ways this Mama-Hen is thankful to have the technology that allows me to connect and keep in close touch with my loved ones.

It does a mama’s heart good when she knows her kids are safe and sound. I encourage you to get Life 360...it’s FREE! Just go to the App Store on your phone and download it!

Here are some other posts you may like to read;

Stocking Up For Emergencies: A Good Mama Is Prepared

7  Reasons Why I Switched From Plastic to Glass In My Kitchen

Old Fashioned Home Remedies

My Farmhouse Country Store

I’d love for you to share

your favorite apps in the comments below!

Bless your family…make home sweet!

Aunt Ruthie

3 Comments   Leave a Comment