Superbowl commercials have been a cultural phenomenon for a long time. Some folks are more interested in the commercials than the football game! This year, there was one commercial in particular that garnered a lot of attention. Not for how clever it was, but for how...weird? Strange? Kinda gross? Those of you who saw the Puppy-Monkey-Baby commercial know what I am talking about. There were even memes going around on social media about the strangeness of this advertisement. But you know what is the most interesting thing about the Puppy-Monkey-Baby commercial? Everyone remembers the commercial, but almost NOBODY knows WHAT they were advertising. I was recently listening to a sermon about how our lives as Christians should be a billboard for Jesus Christ. This sermon caused me to pause and question myself. I realized that I needed to ask the question, "Am I a Puppy-Monkey-Baby Christian?" Even though I claim to be a Christian, even though I claim that my life is dedica...

This Day in Christian History: February 10 February 10, 1546: "Pray, and let God worry." Martin Luther was one of the greatest reformers of all time. He was born in Eisleben Germany in 1483. He was baptized the next day into the Catholic church, but didn't stay there. He recognized the errors of the Roman church and spoke out against it. But today, I'm not going to talk a lot about the life of Luther, but rather about a letter that he wrote to his wife on this day in 1546. He wrote, "Pray, and let God worry." This quote really stood out to me because worry is a common enemy for me. This year, I have been focusing on two things, first, prayer, or more specifically the word "pray." And second, not worrying. So it was kinda funny when I ran across this quote. Sounds like a piece of advice we all should follow.  I liked it so much, I just had to share it with you. Do you struggle with worry? What is something that has helped you not t...

Today, Special Guest Ada Brownell joins us to talk about her experience growing up in a large family.    Ada is a retired newspaper reporter who also has written for Christian publications since age 15. She is author of five books, two fiction and three non-fiction: The Lady Fugitive; Joe the Dreamer: the Castle and the Catapult; Imagine the Future You; Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal; Confessions of a Pentecostal, out of print but now available for Kindle. Read the first chapter of The Lady Fugitive here: http://ow.ly/CHtxB Ada’s Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06 Her blog: http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com A late October day I arrived in Fruita, Colorado, screaming. The doctor and Mama grinned, but to some ears it wasn’t a welcome sound. Mama and Daddy had seven children. I was the eighth and the fifth girl. The family had escaped from the Kansas Dust Bowl and the Great D...

Today I'm blogging over at Stitches Thru Time! Join me in our Monday morning devotional.   Here's a preview... Amber Schamel here with our Monday morning devotional. I was in church a couple of weeks ago when our pastor shared an inspiring story with us. It touched my heart, so I thought I'd pass it along. There is an ancient tale that tells of an island which many of the ships had to pass. This island was inhabited by Natives with a strange culture. The women would all go out on a sandbar and begin to dance and sing. The poor sailors who had been at sea for many months were absolutely tantalized by the women. Their dance would lure the ships to the island, where the Native men were waiting to attack them, kill all on board and take whatever loot they could. Read the rest of the devotional at Stitches Thru Time

Author and friend Michele Huey is hosting me on her inspirational blog, God, Me & a Cup of Tea. Here's a teaser: Be patient therefore, bretheren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. ~James 5:7 I volunteer about half my time at a non-profit ranch in the Ozarks. One of the many things I help with is the harvest of pears when they are ready for picking. We went out to the   tree with ladders, baskets, sheets, and set to work. It was absolutely unbelievable how many pears were on that single tree! We picked bushels and bushels of pears until we had them coming out our ears. A lot of pears were eaten before they even reached the house. Some were stored in boxes in the cellar. We froze gallons of them, gave some away, and still some went rotten before they could used. Then there were the pears at the top of the tree that were too high for...

Today I'm blogging over at Stitches Thru Time! Here's an excerpt... "Amber, this is really stupid. You should have known better." I have said these words to myself many times, but particularly during my latest mishap. First, you have to know something about me: I love curly hair. I mean LOVE it. I think it is gorgeous and am known to scold people for straightening their luscious curls. It didn't take long for me to notice the common denominator in most women I considered beautiful...they all had curly hair. Add to that my obsession with the Civil War era and their perfect ringlet hairstyles and you have what is more than just a fascination with curls. That being said, it seems almost torture to me that all of my sisters have naturally curly hair, all four of them, but not me. How else do you spell n-o-t f-a-i-r? I have tried almost every method of curling my hair. Hot irons, hot rollers, wands, gels, sprays...yet after all that work, the curls com...