Experiencing a New Normal

Three years ago the Hospice Auxiliary put on an event called "Share the Love" with all the proceeds going to the Serenity House.  It's such a fun night!  They have a meal, silent auction and entertainment - two of those years was dueling pianos.  We've hosted a table and attended every year.  Since TJ spent the last six weeks of his life in the Serenity House, this event has become very special to Jon and me.  This year was a little extra special - they asked us to speak.  We were honored to be asked and jumped on the opportunity to tell others how special this place is . So, on this the 8th anniversary of when we first arrived at the Serenity House (and the 6th year anniversary of my father-in-law's arrival) - I thought I'd share with you the speech I gave that night. "How do you put into words what the Serenity House means to my family and me?  It was a place I had hoped we would never have to use - ever!  However, in our darkest time, i...

I kissed Jon good bye and slowly rode the escalator up to security.  The butterflies in my stomach were about too much to handle.  I was leaving all by myself to the She Speaks Conference - to say I was a little nervous might have been an understatement.  I knew that God had ordained this trip from the very beginning - every thing fell into place perfectly.  It just wasn't in God's plan for anyone to go with me.  I knew it was the best plan but it still didn't calm my nerves that early Thursday morning. I made it to security - took off my shoes, unloaded my quart size bag of liquids, put my bag on the conveyor belt and made my way through when I noticed my bag was pushed off to the side.  The following conversation happened with The TSA guy and myself. "Ma'am is that your bag?" "Yes." "Do you have anything sharp in your bag?" "Yes, my razor." Then he reaches into my bag - grabs any item I had packed and pulls it out. H...

I was sitting front and center at my very last breakout session of She Speaks anxiously awaiting to soak up everything Lysa TerKeurst was going to teach us about Writing Content That Unleashes the Power of Conversation .  Lysa is the founder of Proverbs 31 Ministries and author to several books - some of which I have read and have impacted my life.  She was going to coach us to write words that move people - it was going to be a three hour long session and I could hardly wait.  She came out and we dove head first into learning the three C's of writing.  I was a sponge - soaking it all up and learning so much.  My pencil could hardly keep up.  When she had finished pouring out to all of us, she gave us an assignment to work on during the rest of the session.  However our time was cut short since we were in the main room where our evening session was going to be held - we had to all get out so they could prep for our very last session.  I not...

Last Thursday, Friday and Saturday I had the privilege of attending the She Speaks conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. It's a conference put on by Lysa TerKeurst and Proverb 31 Ministries. Here is a brief explanation,      "When a woman hears God's call to write, speak or lead, the path isn't always clear. How do you start? Where do you go next? Who can help you? That's where She Speaks can help.  We know what it's like to be confident in the call, but unclear in the course you are to take. Each year we offer workshops and keynote messages that will help bring clarity to your calling. We combine equipping with encouraging, which will lead to greater confidence for you." My hope is to share with you how this conference affected my walk with Jesus and my calling to write. So instead of just making one large post telling you all about what I learned, I'm going to spread it out over several posts (not sure how many there will be) so stay tuned!

Ever feel like you are finally doing what God called you to do only to get knocked down and begin to question was I really obeying God or doing what I wanted to do all along? That has been me for the last month. Over the last couple of years I had really been struggling with my writing. I enjoyed writing but felt like I was repeating the same thing over and over - like I was some kind of broken record. My goal in writing was to encourage and inspire people with their faith walk.  I didn't want it to be something that people went to read and found out what the Goemaat clan was up to.  Well it was as if I had lost that - so I stopped writing. Then I was scrolling through Instagram one day and came along the post from Jennie Allen (founder of the IF Gathering). She writes: My first blog was called: Untangling God and Ponytails (And had 10 followers) My first Bible study (Stuck) was originally called: God and your Emotions (and had clip art flowers on it) Just start. Do i...

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mom's out there.  Mother's day - a day set aside to celebrate and honor our moms.  What are your expectations on Mother's day?  Some want extravagant gifts or breakfast in bed.  Others just want a day where they have to do nothing. And some just want the gift of your presence or time.  Each mother is special in our own unique way - which is great. There are days us mother's can feel very unappreciated.  We do the dishes, fix the meals,scrub the floors, clean the bathrooms, pack lunches, run the kids from here to there.  Moms make sure everyone has clean clothes to wear, food to eat and tries to make sure the house is clean.  Let's not forget about the homework and projects that the kids need help with.  Many moms are the first one up in the morning and the last to go to bed.  Throughout the day we can wear many different hats - from maid to taxi driver.  And then, we mothers compare ourselves to ...

So, it's never been a secret that I have struggled with trusting God since TJ's death (He's still teaching me).  I   In fact I had a friend ask me when I was little if I was the kid that always asked the question "why?"  I honestly didn't know, so I asked my mom.  My mom told me that as a kid I was very trusting of everyone.  Whatever anyone told me I believed it as truth.  Which makes sense why I always thought what my big sister said was fact.  Quick story..... In the 4th grade I remember the teacher asking if any of us knew why we had the hair in our noses?  Oh boy! I knew the answer to that.  I raised my hand high in the air.  I was hoping that I'd actually get picked this time, but no, the smart boy in the class got chosen AGAIN!  His response was to keep the dirt from coming in.  I was laughing - inside my head of course - I didn't want to get in trouble.  I couldn't believe that I knew the answer and the s...

Time. We've all heard the old saying "time flies when your having fun!"   It's kind of crazy how much our lives revolve around time.  And how our perspective on time is different on all different kinds of occasions. When you are little Christmas morning can't come soon enough.  Kids are constantly counting down the time for things they are looking forward to.  In fact just the other day Charlie was counting down the time until his first baseball game started.  I remember when my boys were little I could never tell them what we were going to be doing or where we were going until 5 minutes before.  Otherwise if I made the mistake and told them too far in advance I was asked at least 100 times a day per kid "are we going now?"  The time just can't go by quick enough when we are anxiously awaiting for something exciting or special. Yet there are also times it seems like the wait is taking forever!  You know the kind - when you are waiting on your...

Ever have times in your life when someone shares something with you that inspires you to want to do the same? Or at least try?  That was me this week.  Monday night our church had it's IF table discussion.  It's not really a Bible study - but where woman join together to have fellowship and answer/discuss the conversation cards that are provided.  This month's questions were:                      Who are the people God used in your life to point you to Him?                      Who are the people who prayed for you?                      Share a recent answer to prayer.                      What do you find most challenging about prayer?                      Share your "four by faith" - the fo...

It's been so long since I've written I'm not even sure if there is anyone out there that will read this! Well I'm back!  I've decided to dedicate more time to my writing.    A month ago I started a new job - off the farm.  It wasn't an easy decision - one I struggled and fought with for months.  I had really loved being on the farm and working along side my husband.  After the last four years I finally got to a place where I felt like I was valuable on the farm.  I've learned alot over the last few years - not only about farming but about myself.  I'm not the same person.  I didn't know I was capable of doing half as much as I did.  It's amazing what you can learn when you are thrown into something.  I'm really not trying to toot my own horn - I'm thankful for a great husband who taught me so much.  Spring will be different this year, but we will get through it. I've also been doing alot of reading and studying.  It's ...

I can't believe that it has been over two years since I've written anything.  Stay tuned as I hope to be writing more.

So maybe you've noticed I haven't been blogging much. I'll admit there are MANY things I could write about. However, I'm struggling with what I want this blog to be. Do I want it to be a blog where you read about what we have been doing or what we're up to? Maybe it's a blog you come to to be encouraged, inspired or challenged. Maybe it's a combination of both. Or maybe it's something completely different than all of those ideas. So while I try to decide what this blog should "look" like and what I want to write about please be patient as I try to figure it all out. There might be some changes coming!

We would like to invite you to....... Hope to see you there!

Jon and I have talked this year how we would like to be more involved in our community. Whether that means going to more functions the community offers or participating in them. So when we saw that the North Mahaska Junior class was doing a blind volleyball tournament (to raise money for the after prom party) we knew we needed to participate! So we recruited some friends and formed the team The Dirty Half Dozen. We choose that name since five of the six work in Ag and the other team member works at a dental office - all jobs which we think are dirty! We seriously signed up two days before the event so obviously we didn't have time for practice.  Last night was the night for the blind volleyball tournament. Oh I forgot you might be wondering.....what is blind volleyball? Well it's basically the same as regular volleyball EXCEPT there is a sheet (or we had black plastic) over the net. So you can't see what's coming! We were so excited. We arrived last night, the rules...

Sunday the 8th was the day Anthony's 4H club had planned to go ice skating.  (Just a little FYI... I absolutely love to go ice skating. My Dad used to take us girls on one of Grandpa's farm ponds - in fact one year I got my own pair of skates!).  Well, since families and friends were invited to the event I thought it would be fun for all of us to go and give it a try. Ten minutes after putting on our skates and trying to skate around the rink the thought occurred to me, "WHAT WAS I THINKING!"  Will was having troubles keeping his feet straight which made it hard for him to skate. Anthony was feeling defeated because he kept falling and said it was the worst day of his life. And Charlie.... well he was the only one having fun. I tried my hardest to not get upset and give it some more time. Will finally started to get the hang of it and was really having a good time. Anthony decided to go out and skate with another club member (one who happened to be in TJ's class) ...

With all this cold weather and snow I thought now would be a perfect time to blog about our recent vacation to Jamaica!  Jon and I had planned a trip last Spring to celebrate our 15 year anniversary.  However, the trip was quickly cancelled when Jon's dad became so sick.  We decided it was still important for us to get away to celebrate and to just chill (we honestly haven't had much down time since we lost Jon's dad).  We also thought it would be fun to ask our good friends to go along with us.  We met with our favorite travel agent - Lacey Veenstra-Gay - who we told we wanted to go somewhere with white sandy beaches, turquoise colored waters and do absolutely nothing but soak up the sun!!  We quickly decided on Jamaica! We had such a fabulous time.  It was a smaller resort than we had stayed at in past years - but it was perfect.  It didn't seem overly crowded.  We didn't have troubles finding chairs to lay out on or finding ourselves wai...