How to Wrap Gifts on a Budget

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Wrapping Christmas gifts can break our budget, especially when we want to give the best presents possible to friends and loved ones. The following are a few inexpensive and creative ways to showcase gifts, ones that create the wow factor while staying within our means. Buy in Bulk Online bulk options to buy wrapping supplies equates …

Yummy Holiday Recipes

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills This is the season to prepare favorite Christmas recipes for family and friends. I enjoy exploring new recipes. If the ingredients look yummy, I’ll try it. This year, I tried three new recipes! This first one is Buttermilk Blueberry Puff, and the author is Joanna Gaines. This sweet treat bursts with flavor. Just the right amount …

How to Keep the Christmas Spirit

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills ‘Tis the Christmas season, and with all the hustle and bustle, we sometimes lose our Christmas spirit. When moments of irritation and frustration threaten your joy, look at these ten ways to bring hope back into your Christmas. Change your music selections to Christmas carols. As you sing along to the familiar classics, think about the …

Thanksgiving Quotes

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills This week reminds us of our many blessings, gratitude, and the love of family and friends. Below are twenty quotes and Scripture that help me value Thanksgiving. “Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” – Lionell Hampton “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your …

Ten Ways to Listen Better

DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills We are approaching Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and all the parties and get-togethers in between. One thing we can count on (besides lots of food and drink): is conversation. To participate in a meaningful conversation, we must first develop the art of listening. Introverts tend to do a better job of listening because their personality will do …

Ready for an Enchanting Christmas Novella?

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills It’s never too early to get in the Christmas spirit. DREAMS AND SECRETS is an Enchanting Christmas Novella that will transport you back near Philadelphia in the 1850s. Great early gift for readers who love a historical Christmas-time clean romance. DREAMS AND SECRETS by DiAnn Mills tells of the tender romance between Emma Leigh Carter and …

Soul Care When You’re Grieving

DiAnn Mills  @DiAnnMills Guest Blogger: Edie Melson Grief is a difficult thing. We all experience it—and we all experience it differently. There is no right or wrong way to face loss, yet many of us feel like we’re doing it wrong. When I lost my father to Alzheimer’s several years ago, I had a well-meaning friend accuse me of, “Doing …

The Meaning of Family

DiAnn Mills @ DiAnnMills Guest Blogger: Deborah Sprinkler @DebbieSprinkle About two months ago, I asked a simple question: How do you define family? The answers proved to be complicated. One reply summed up the difficulty in finding a definition. She wrote, “We have the family we are born into, the family we chose, and the family we join.” Is one …

5 Keys to Navigating a Life Pause

DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Guest post: Candy Arrington @CandyArrington In this age of high-speed Internet, search engines, and cell phones, we have access to instant information at our fingertips, or by asking a voice-activated assistant like Alexa or Siri. Because we are so conditioned to immediacy, waiting has a negative connotation. From traffic snarls to drive-thru lines, we chafe at delays. …