
By Ashley McIlwain
It had been nearly 24 hours since there was any sign of life. All that was left were ashes. Gray. Cold. It never crossed my mind that anything could become of it.
Yet, as I piled some newspaper and kindling wood together carefully in my usual teepee formation, before …
By Ashley McIlwain
What does it mean to be “forward thinking?” Many of us think of it in terms of progressive thoughts and ideas. Perhaps establishing a new and brilliant way of conceptualizing and understanding life. Someone who is forward thinking is ahead of the ballgame in their thoughts, plans, and …
By Ashley McIlwain
We’ve all witnessed it … the meltdown of a random child. You’re trying to enjoy a quiet dinner for two, but instead you’re being served a big plateful of wailing child with a side of yelling, desperate parent. Perhaps you’re pushing your cart along in the grocery store …
By Ashley McIlwain
Married life is an adventure. There’s always something to learn, explore, and overcome. You laugh, cry, fight, make-up, grow up, speak up, and shut up. It’s epic, memorable, fun, exciting, and worth it. Marriage is everything it’s cracked up to be and more, but it’s definitely a lifelong …
By Ashley McIlwain
Life is tough. There’s no way around it; it’s just full of valleys and mountaintops, ups and downs, highs and lows. At one time or another for one reason or another, we all experience pain, heartache, brokenness, sadness, and sickness. It’s inevitable and unavoidable.
Since we can’t do anything …
By Loryn Purvis
If you were to ask me what my greatest discovery in food has been while living in Southern California, you might be surprised at my answer. I would unequivocally declare that the one food I have come to love like never before … wait for it … is …
By Steve McIlwain
Hubs here.
Ephesians 5:22-25:
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit …
By Ashley McIlwain
“So, when are you guys going to have some babies?!”
This was a question posed to my husband and me … at our wedding reception. We hadn’t been married but an hour, and the baby question was already being asked. I remember being dumbfounded wondering if it was some …
By Ashley McIlwain
It’s not you, it’s me.
We’ve all heard this cliché line often associated with a break-up. Men and women everywhere use it as a means of ending a relationship that is less than desirable for one reason or another. Maybe you’ve used it or been on the receiving end …
By Ashley McIlwain
You’re sitting at a restaurant and can’t help but notice the family sitting at a table nearby. The kids are playing games on their iPads and gaming devices oblivious to the world around them. The mom and dad are completely engrossed in something on their phones not paying …