Salty Zebra

  Hey there! I'm an Amazon Associate, which means I earn a commission when you click one of these links and buy something. This does not change your cost at all.  I'm so excited to share with you the Bible study I'll be starting tomorrow! It's through a ministry called Love God Greatly . I've been doing Bible studies with them for over five years, since the fall of 2019. Their studies use the SOAP method that I've been fond of for many years. Just in case you haven't heard of this before, I'm going to break it down for you here. If you are interested in following along with me, you can send me an email to subscribe to my posts, or even do the study yourself by ordering the book or downloading the free app .  S  The "S" in SOAP stands for scripture. All SOAP studies are digging into God's Word. Typically, for Love God Greatly, they will offer a longer scripture passage to read for context and depth and then suggest a specific scripture or ...

  Hey there! I'm an Amazon Associate, which means I earn a commission when you click one of these links and buy something. This does not change your cost at all.  A wise pastor in my past shared with us a story about a study that was conducted. They watched children at a large park. There was a play structure in the middle and fields with grass and trees all around it. They noticed that the children stuck pretty close to the play structure in the middle, hardly playing in the grass at all. A fence was put up around the park and the kids spread out! Next thing you know, the kids are climbing the fence. They're running all over the grass, climbing the trees, having a grand-old time. You see, the kids weren't comfortable at first because they didn't know where the boundaries were, they didn't know what was ok. Once the fence was up and gave definition to the "safe space" they felt free to spread out and play.   When my children were little, a godly woman whos...

Hey there! I'm an Amazon Associate, which means I earn a commission when you click one of these links and buy something. This does not change your cost at all.  I don't know about you, but I can totally identify with the family in this picture! Now, I would certainly never sit where they're sitting, but sometimes the world can feel like this in even common situations. I mentioned in a post a few days ago that I struggle with light sensitivity. I also have a hard time with noise. This can be an extreme thing, like a concert (or any given Sunday at our church), or something as simple as a fan or water running. It takes on two presentations: I can't hear or process things well if there is background noise and lots of noise tends to overwhelm me and make me shut down.   What do I mean by shut down? It was really extreme before my brain surgery last year. We were at Disney World celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and the noise/stimulation got to be so much that my bra...

 Have you ever given travel insurance much thought? We often don't think about these things much until we are faced with a need for them, and then it is too late! These days whenever you book some form of travel you are given an opportunity to add travel protection to your purchase. While it is typically a small percentage of your purchase price, adding on one more thing  often feels burdensome at this point in the process. You've already been nickel and dimed for your seat choice, your dining choice, your drinks package. No! We're not paying for ONE MORE THING! The downside to this is then your investment is not covered should the unexpected occur.   Our family has had two experiences involving travel insurance that have cemented our decision to always cover our purchases, with very few exceptions. The first took place on my first cruise in 2010. My grandfather passed away a week before the cruise embarked and the date of the memorial service had not been determined...

   I've always been a bit of a, "glass is half full" gal. My default is to find the positive in a situation, which sometimes annoys my family, but I hope overall has given them a better experience. One common phrase we use about this is, "Seeing the world through rose colored glasses." This phrase is not always intended positively as some people perceive this outlook as a negative. They would contend that I am not adequately preparing for the trouble that might come my way or that I'm getting my hopes up unjustifiably. My husband, for example, is more of a preparer.   One of the big shifts that came to our household from Covid was the backup pantry. Many, if not most, people have a pantry. In ours we mostly store backups for open items in our kitchen. For example, if there's an open bottle of ketchup in the fridge, there should be a sealed one waiting to replace it in the pantry. When scarcity came to town in March of 2020, the backup pantry was born. It...

 When I adopted my daughter from Liberia, West Africa, I was concerned that she would be hurt by careless comments and questions from others. Thankfully, those were few and far between and neatly handled by the list of replies I had dreamed up while lying in bed at night worrying about it 😏. What I never expected was how much of an issue it would become once she grew up! When she was little, most people encountered us with her in my shopping cart or holding my hand. It was clear that we were together. Now, however, when we are separated sometimes things go awry.  A couple of years ago, my daughter and I were flying home from a trip to Hawaii. We were flying standby and were not able to get seats together. My super-sweet daughter bought me a bag of my favorite popcorn during the flight and asked the flight attendant to bring it back to, "my mom, in row 17". I noticed the flight attendant walking back and forth a couple of times, clearly looking for something, and then I clued...

 Today would have been my Grandmother's 94th Birthday, but she passed away this fall. In her honor, I wanted to share today some of the memories I have of her and some of the lessons she taught me.  As far back as I can remember, my Grandma is there. One of my earliest memories is of looking out of her window eating frozen peas and hot dogs. Yes, they were still frozen when we ate them - it was a treat, don't judge!  She raised a family that stayed close in their child-rearing years. I got to grow up with all my cousins running around her house, inside and out. Grandma's house was filled with things that told stories: spoons on the wall, knick knacks from Japan, an extensive doll collection. What my cousins and I remember with a shudder was her dragon-headed foot stool. We all swore that thing was possessed, and it would reach out and bite your toes as you walked past!  I will forever remember Grandma's kitchen. I remember coming into her house and being met wit...