Tag: blogging

• Working Together – Joy or Drudgery?

  Last night Mim and I went to a fundraising concert for the jail ministry of Dane County. Chance Allies, a Madison group of three musicians – a female vocalist, a pianist, and a bass player, performed lots of jazz classics, mostly from the era of Cole Porter and George Gershwin. It was a wonderful evening.…

  Marian

  August 5, 2013

  Assisted Living, Celebrations, Goals, Jail Ministry, Life’s Challenges, Music, Reflections

  accomplishments, assisted living, blogging, Chance Allies, Country Comforts, Country Comforts Assisted Living, David Allen, fundraising concert, goals, God-given gifts, jail ministry, jail ministry fundraiser, jazz classics, jazz combo, jazz musicians, life calling, life challenges, listening for God, Lucas Koehler, Madison jazz musicians, reflections, spirituality, Tisha Brown, UCC pastor, working together

• What’s in a Name?

  I guess it’s a good thing I never had any kids. I have a really hard time coming up with names for anything. I don’t know how I would have chosen names for my own kids. And then I’m pretty sure I would have had second thoughts that I’d chosen the right names as the…

  Marian

  April 8, 2013

  Book Recommendations, God’s Love, Life’s Challenges, Reflections

  52 Reflections on Everyday Life, Adventures in Hospitality, blogging, Come Lord Jesus, companion booklet, Country Comforts, devotional book, discussion guide, free booklet, George Washington Carver, God’s love, God’s messages, life challenges, listening for God, Listening Guide, names, naming, naming ability, reflections, spirituality, study guide, talking with God, whispering winds

• A Time to Change Plans

  Yesterday afternoon I wrote a blurb for the back cover of my new book on hospitality, COME, LORD JESUS, BE OUR GUEST. I plan to submit my edited manuscript along with cover suggestions to my publisher, Inspiring Voices (a division of GUIDEPOSTS) this afternoon. I’m pretty excited. This is the book I’ve been working on…

  Marian

  February 18, 2013

  Goals, God’s Love, Life’s Challenges, Reflections

  Abbey, assisted living, be kind, blogging, busy, change in my life, change plans, Come Lord Jesus Be Our Guest, Corinne Chilstrom, Country Comforts, Country Comforts Assisted Living, friends, getting organized, God’s love, hospitality, kindness, life challenges, life changes, listening for God, reflections, spirituality, suicide, talking with God, to-do list, whispering winds

• Remembering the past and getting excited about the present

  Saturday evening Mim and I went to a fancy Italian restaurant for dinner. We celebrated forty years of living together. As many of you know, Mim and I met forty years ago at a church Bible Study. I had just been offered a job in Chicago and was staying with a friend for a few…

  Marian

  February 4, 2013

  Blogs, Book Recommendations, Celebrations, Goals, God’s Love, Life’s Challenges, Reflections

  40th anniversary, Abbey, anniversary, author website, blogging, books, Buffalo Ice Cream Parlor, change in my life, daily devotions, devotional book, friends, Gary Gopher, God’s love, Gregory Goose, hospitality, kindness, life calling, life changes, listening for God, love your neighbor, reflections, reflections on everyday life, remembering the past, spirituality, talking with God, WestBow Press, writing

• Transition Time

  It’s official. Whispering Winds Retreat Haven is on break. As of the first of the year, the farmhouse will be home to another family for at least two years. In January of 2015, the farmhouse may reclaim the name of Whispering Winds and come back to life as a B&B-style retreat center again, or it…

  Marian

  December 30, 2012

  Assisted Living, Blogs, Celebrations, God’s Love, New Year, Reflections, Uncategorized

  Abbey, assisted living, blogging, change in my life, Country Comforts, Country Comforts Assisted Living, farmhouse, God’s love, life changes, listening for God, reflections, spirituality, whispering winds

• Salty Cookies, Burnt Cereal, and Learning Curves

    My mom worked in Madison during most of my growing up years.  She compensated for not being around home to supervise me as much as she would like by suggesting projects for me to do by myself, especially during the summer. One project was learning to bake cookies. One of the first times I…

  Marian

  October 22, 2012

  Blogs, Goals, Life’s Challenges, Personal Retreats, Reflections

  accomplishments, baking cookies, blogging, chocolate chip cookies, Christian Book Market, devotional book, e-book, Guideposts, hospitality, independent publisher, learning curve, life challenges, listening for God, monday mornings, personal retreat, reflections, reflections on everyday life, self-publishing, spirituality, Thomas Nelson, whispering winds, writing a book, writing retreat

• Great Expectations for this week – 7 of them!

  For several weeks now, a friend of mine has been posting a list of three things she’s thankful for each day. Usually the lists are just that – three words or short phrases in a simple list format – just a quick statement of things she’s particularly thankful for that day. That practice got me…

  Marian

  July 2, 2012

  Blogs, Celebrations, Jail Ministry, Music, Reflections, Uncategorized

  blogging, church music, getting organized, goals, God’s love, great expectations, great-great-nephew, jail ministry, life challenges, life changes, Messiah Lutheran Church, monday mornings, past and future, personal retreat, pipe organ, reflections, retreats, safe travel, website changes, weekend guests, whispering winds, writing retreat

• A Voice from the Past

  “Good night, Vince.” “Night, Mare.” Then Vince would burst out laughing. That was our end-of-the-workday ritual every day for about a year in the mid-1970’s. Nobody called me “Mare” except Vince. And he called me that only at the end of the day, just so he could say “nightmare” to me as a goodnight “blessing”…

  Marian

  April 30, 2012

  Reflections

  A voice from the past, advice, blogging, business conference, friends, reflections, unlikely friends, writing conference

• A New Year – A New Blog

  One of my goals for 2011 was to start a blog on the Whispering Winds website. Last April, I started a blog the easiest way I knew how, by using the blog add-on in Network Solutions’ website builder, the “easy-to-use” tool I had originally used to build my website. The blog worked, but not very…

  Marian

  December 28, 2011

  Blogs, Goals, New Year

  accomplishments, blogging, goals, New Year goals