Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “challenges”
@bethvogt Life stopped abruptly for me last week, thanks to unrelenting muscle spasms in my jaw. Forget powering through the pain – sleeping was the wiser choice, curling up in my bed with either a heating pad or ice pack pressed to my face. Not how I planned to spend the week. Several days in, I was in bed – …
@bethvogt Yesterday I was praying about this blog post, having pretty much determined I wouldn’t write one for today. And yes, I always pray about my blog posts. I told God if I didn’t have an idea by five o’clock, I wouldn’t write one. No harm, no foul. I’d just figure he was giving me the week off. Five minutes …
@bethvogt My youngest daughter, Christa and I had an argument two weeks ago. Arguing is unusual for us. It’s unusual for me to argue with any of my adult children. That said, a rather intense verbal wrangling occurred, with both of us saying, “You wanna’ go?” at some point. It sounds better when an almost 20-year-old says it. Christa here. …
@bethvogt There are times grief throws us to our knees. We gasp for breath even as we try to grasp hold of what we’ve heard. It can’t be true. It can’t be . . . A longtime friend, someone I love and respect – someone who has shown me kindness again and again – died by suicide a few …
@bethvogt Let’s talk about the movie Mission: Impossible 3, shall we? No spoilers, I promise, although the movie released in 2006. My family’s been watching the Tom Cruise series and my son-in-love says the third movie is his favorite. I’m all for a good chase scene and you’re guaranteed at least one of those in an M: I movie, plus …
@bethvogt I was talking with my daughter-in-love, Meagan, when she said, “Healthy is hard.” Her three-word statement was one of those “This is so true!” moments. You know what I’m talking about, right? You’re in the middle of a conversation with someone and they say something that reverberates inside you as if someone hit a massive gong with a hammer. …
@bethvogt I worry about my mother-in-law every single day. I’m familiar with humorist Erma Bombeck’s assessment of worry: “Worry is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” Still, I find myself rocking away day after day. Ruth – “MiMaw” to her four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren – turns 102 years old in …
@bethvogt I went to a restaurant for the first time yesterday, after saying “yes” to my friend Shari’s spontaneous invitation to lunch. As I drove to the Thai restaurant, I realized this was my first time eating out since Colorado closed down because of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s been almost 3 ½ months since the World Health Organization (WHO) …
@bethvogt I spent the past four years writing a “Little Women gone wrong” women’s fiction series about a trio of sisters trying to discover if they can move from a truce to trusting one another. Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. Magicians don’t reveal how they do their tricks, right? And authors don’t reveal what’s hidden between the covers of …
@bethvogt When I chose “listen” as my One Word for 2020, I had no idea how this year was going to play out. None of us expected any of the circumstances of 2020. I’ve found ways to manage the ongoing chaos. I start each day by reading Psalm 91. Limit how much news I watch. Look forward to the …
