Brenda Rodgers

Author: Brenda Rodgers

  • Summer Planning Guide 2019

    Summer Planning Guide 2019

    We’re a month into summer. That’s right. In Georgia, the girls got out of school in May. So the fact that I’m just now sharing my Summer Planning Guide is telling. When summer came I didn’t realize how depleted I was, and I went into a hole – literally. I just hung out at home with my girls, not communicating with many people, and rested. It’s been well needed.

    But summer is my time to refocus, plan, catch-up, and have fun! Now I’m ready to do that. Since I am a former teacher, I have always operated on a “school year” schedule instead of a “calendar year” schedule – even before I had kids. September, or really August where I live in Georgia, is like my January 1st. I use the unstructured time I have in the summer to prepare for the upcoming school year by getting the house organized and do projects I don’t have time to do during the year.

    Summer is also a time I like to work and play with my girls. Yes, I’m that mom! It’s the teacher in me. I use the summer to work with them on skills that we don’t have time to work on during the school year. These include habits I want them to practice, chores I want them to learn, and academic areas they need to develop. Of course, there’s always a lot of reading!

    Making memories is also important to me. For me, it’s not about creating a fairytale childhood, but making much of the little things. I have found that if I add the word “party” to any daily event it makes it so much more fun. “We’re having a breakfast party!”, “a movie party”, and “ice-cream party”, a craft party”, “a cooking party!” Therefore, I try to be intentional with fun things to do around the house and fun places to visit. My girls love to cook and they love crafts. I include these two activities into our weekly summer routine.

    From all of this, it sounds like I’m some super organized, type-A mom, however, nothing could be further from the truth! I’m not a schedule person at all! I’m a four on the Enneagram, so typical me detests lists and schedules. Instead, I want to do whatever I feel like doing that day. But what I’ve learned is that if I allow my four-ness to govern my summer, then it ends without me feeling like I used it wisely. So I make lists. And I plan. I have to use resources like this to get anything done, and I have to make myself use it!

    Summer Planning Guide 2019

    This year I’m using the Summer Planning Guide that I created, and it’s also available to you! It has helped me get all of my thoughts in one place and make a plan. This is how I use it:

    • Monthly Calendars: I use the monthly calendars to write in all our standing appointments, camps, trips, and vacations. Then, I schedule days of the week that will be “craft day”, “cooking day”, “field trip day”, “friends day”, and “swim day.” Every day we spend time reading, doing chores, and doing any other school skills they need to practice.
    • Day Trips: Then I make a list of local “field trips” I want to take the girls on, and I write those in the calendar.
    • Crafts and Cooking: Next, I make a list of crafts and recipes for the girls and me to do together. For the crafts, I ask them what they’d like to make which almost always includes painting! I also look on Pinterest for ideas and shop our local Hobby Lobby store and Oriental Trading.
    • Summer Learning: I use the “Summer Learning” page to make a list of skills that the girls need to practice over the summer. This always includes reading! For EG, the goal is for her to read by herself 20 minutes a day. I also read to her every day. The goal for ME is for me to read to her at least 5-10 books a day.
    • Summer Reading: This page is to jot down picture books, chapter books, or book series that I’d like to read with the girls over the summer. My favorite resource for book lists is the Read Aloud Revival. You can have her monthly booklist delivered to your inbox every month. I use this list to reserve books at our local library.
    • Home Fun List: We’re all familiar with the “Mom! I’m bored” statement, right? Well, I try to be prepared with a list of fun home activities the girls can do over the summer. Some of these include simple toys and games that we already have and some of the new ones I purchased. Check out this post for ideas.
    • Bible Verses to Memorize: We try to memorize one Bible verse a week. I have these available for purchase in my shop, or you can sign up for my monthly newsletter and have them delivered to your inbox each month for free! This is how I do Bible memory.
    • Summer Fun Sheet: Our rule in the summer, and really all year, is that the girls can watch two shows in the afternoons around 4:00 (or while I’m making dinner) if their other daily chores and tasks are complete. We do not have an iPad or tablet, so they are not choices for my girls. Their only electronics is the television except for the occasional times they use my phone. I print this page on cardstock, then I laminate it. We use dry erase markers to check off the tasks they do each day.
    • Daily Routine: I use this daily routine sheet just to get a general idea of how I want the day to go. It is super flexible!

    This summer planning guide is available to be printed or to be edited on your computer. Check out more details here. And Happy Summer!!

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  • 20 Home Summer Activities to Beat Boredom

    20 Home Summer Activities to Beat Boredom

    As summer approaches, moms fall into one of two categories. There is the mom who can’t wait for her kids to be home and who looks forward to less structure. Then there’s the mom who dreads the long summer months because she has to create structure! No matter which mom you are, the inevitable, “Mom, I’m bored!” comes. Having a list of home summer activities has helped me so that I’m not scrambling to find something for my girls to do on those summer days.

    This year I created the Summer Planning Guide to help me be intentional about summer and create fun memories. A Summer Planning Guide is a digital product that you can print or edit on your computer. It includes fifteen pages of planning sheets. A Home Fun List is included in the guide.

    Most of the summer activities on this list are toys and supplies we already have at home. Others I picked up as special for summertime.

    20 Home Summer Activities to Beat Boredom

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  • 11 Things I’ve Learned in 11 Years of Marriage

    11 Things I’ve Learned in 11 Years of Marriage

    Yesterday I sat at the hair salon in the same swivel chair I sat in eleven years ago the morning of my wedding. It’s surreal because in eleven years life has taken me far and wide. Now I’m right back where I started.

    11 Things I've Learned in 11 Years of Marriage
    Photo Credit: Mark Parsons Photography
    11 Things I've Learned in 11 Years of Marriage
    Photo Credit: Mark Parsons Photography
    11 Things I've Learned in 11 Years of Marriage
    Photo Credit: Mark Parsons Photography

    It was June 15th, 2008, a Sunday and Father’s Day. I put on my dress in the old building next to The Chapel on North Campus of the University of Georgia. The Georgia humidity laid on us like a winter blanket even at 9:00 in the morning. The sun joined hands with it and beat down so much that we tried to keep the sweat away for pictures outside.

    There were times while planning the wedding that I was over it. Elopement sounded like a much wiser idea. But on that day the fairytale unfolded, and it was perfect. I tell people it has been the only day of my life where I was the center of everyone’s attention. Joy and kindness made me as happy as I could be. I loved it, I admit.

    The ceremony started at 11:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. I asked the pastor to make the ceremony feel like a church service and let God get the glory. That’s what he did. There was a full sermon with communion.

    Fuscia pink – my favorite – decorated the surrounding. I walked into the reception ballroom and my breath skipped. It was more beautiful than anything I imagined. My florist showed she was an artist.

    11 Things I've Learned in 11 Years of Marriage
    Photo Credit: Mark Parsons Photography

    My favorite part of living in a college town is having college students in and out of our house all the time. When I came home from my hair appointment, the topic of marriage came up with the babysitter. She’s a second-year vet student here in Athens. Then later that evening the same conversation came up with my little ME’s swim teacher. She just graduated from UGA. Both of these young women are in their first wave of friends’ weddings. I told them there would be another wave in their late 20’s. I asked both of them how they feel about their friends getting married since neither of them is dating anyone seriously. For me, it was hard.

    My best advice for my young friends was this – your worst day single will be a good day in a bad marriage. Marriage is hard. Really hard. And it’s not something to go into mindlessly.

    11 Things I've Learned in 11 Years of Marriage
    Photo Credit: Mark Parsons Photography
    11 Things I've Learned in 11 Years of Marriage
    Photo Credit: Mark Parsons Photography

    Of course, walking into our wedding reception I was not thinking about marriage being hard. But after eleven years, I’ve learned a few things while admitting I still have much to learn. So my second quick advice is, even though marriage is hard, it’s worth it because it has eternal significance. God’s doing a good work through marriage.

    Here are 11 things I’ve learned in 11 years of marriage:

    1. Staying married is a miracle and pure grace from God. It surprises me that the divorce rate isn’t higher.
    2. Anyone who says marriage isn’t hard is either not honest or not self-aware. However, we’re made to do hard things.
    3. I’m more broken than I ever thought was possible which has led me to need Jesus more than I ever thought I did.
    4. Don’t compare your husband to someone else’s. God chose your husband for you because He knew who you needed to grow closer to Himself.
    5. Every married couple could benefit from counseling. Yes, every. single. one. Just do it.
    6. My first advice to my little girls and the college girls I mentor is: Marry someone who loves Jesus more than he loves you.
    7. Opposites might attract, but commonality will benefit you.
    8. Marriage is a divine, spiritual mystery full of more depth than I ever realized. I wish I had understood this mystery just a little bit before getting married.
    9. When my husband hurts me I can look deep within him and identify with his hidden wounds. This gives me compassion and empathy and allows me to love him when I don’t feel like it.
    10. Jesus loved us when we didn’t deserve it. Therefore, He commands me to love my husband when he doesn’t deserve it. Love is an actionable choice, not a feeling. And this doesn’t mean being a doormat. Healthy love includes boundaries.
    11. There’s no need to add to the Bible and make “marriage rules” that don’t exist. It’s okay if my marriage looks different from other people’s.

    You probably see that I do not sugar-coat life. Maybe it’s that Enneagram four within me. What I realize, though, is that the romance is in the broken. That’s what makes things beautiful. Look at Jesus. This is the Gospel. Marriage is Gospel work.

    Nothing I write should discourage you, but inspire you to charge ahead and do the hard work. Defeat the enemy who wants to steal us from all that is ours. We are living a fairy tale life. As women, we’re the heroines making beauty out of ashes by allowing a Savior work through us wives. Marriage is a high calling. A high calling with eternal significance. Stay the course, pray hard, and look to Jesus.

  • When Your Girl is Struggling and You Don’t Know What to Do

    When Your Girl is Struggling and You Don’t Know What to Do

    My girl’s had a hard few months. She’s been struggling. It’s led me to meet Jesus in her room late at night when she doesn’t even know I’m there to pray fierce prayers. Should I toughen up or show mercy? What is it that this girl of mine needs? I honestly don’t know.

    Tonight our good friends from North Carolina sent EG this letter that her daughter wrote at school. Our girls met as one-year-olds. Despite different temperaments, they became fast friends turned best friends. EG calls her “sister.” Her mom became my close friend, too.

    When I showed the letter to EG all of her emotions from the past few months came flowing out. She busted out crying, saying that she never gets to see her closest friend, her “sister.” My heart broke for my girl. I sat holding her, her head on my shoulder, crying with her.

    My girl has to suffer to meet Jesus.

    I know that my girl has to suffer in order to truly meet Jesus. Otherwise, she’ll never know her need for a Savior. I know this because that’s my story. But boy, I hate it. For the most part, motherhood has been smooth sailing until now. But it’s getting harder. Everyone said it would like they said the time goes by fast so enjoy it and you point your finger down your throat to gag. You’re so tired of hearing it.

    Now my girl is dealing with real-life, big girl issues. And you know what? Some of them are issues that I’m still struggling with as a 42-years-old woman. I think that’s been the strangest part. Sure, they’re more “mature” at 42, but I feel what she feels. I think the way she thinks. Why am I dealing with the same issues I dealt with 30 years ago? Do they ever go away?

    Even if these issues never fully go away over my girl’s life, I want God’s truth to bury deep roots into her soul so that at least she has the tools to think truth and move on quickly. I want her to be emotionally intelligent and mature.

    If I can’t find the words for my girls, I want to give them my presence.

    When Your Girl is Struggling and You Don't Know What to Do

    As I sat there holding my girl I searched for the perfect words to say. But I had none. So I just held her. And let her cry. For the first time, I can’t make it better. I have to let her sit in her sadness. Growing up I missed this. I don’t remember being held as I cried. Instead, I remember being left alone to deal with it. If I can’t find the words for my girls, I want to give them my presence.

    In the same way, God does not always speak to us. We don’t always know the answers, the next right thing to do, the choice we should make. Sometimes we have to sit in our sadness knowing that His presence never wavers. He’s always right there, holding us, even when we don’t hear Him or even feel Him. If my girls experience my unwavering presence, I pray that they begin to know God’s unwavering presence.

    I pray that my girls know God’s unwavering presence.

    There will be a day when I am not able to physically be with my girls when they’re suffering. I want to prepare them for that day by being the best example of God’s love that I can be for them now. So for now when my girls are struggling and I don’t know what to do, I’ll hold them.

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  • When My Daughter Told Me She’s Awful {an Easter story}

    When My Daughter Told Me She’s Awful {an Easter story}

    My daughter stared at me with a stoic stare, “No, I’m not,” she said, “I’m awful.”

    Fear ran through my veins hearing these words come out of my six-year-old girl’s mouth. Her response to my praise, “You’re such a good girl, do you know that?” made my mind swirl with what I should say next. Do I argue with her to convince her that she’s not awful? Do I reprimand her with, “I never want to hear you talk about yourself like that again!” Or maybe I dig deep to get to the source of who or what put these thoughts in her head?

    “Really? Why are you awful?” That’s what I came up with.

    “Because of my sin,” she replied matter-of-fact.

    At this point my fear turned to gratefulness, as crazy as that sounds. I knew I needed to do some work to help her understand that her sin is awful but that she is good, however, one of my prayers for my daughter has been that she recognizes that she is a sinner. I knew that until she came to the realization that she’s a sinner she couldn’t come to the realization that she needs a Savior.

    When we moved into Rodgers Manor, as I like to call it, not only did we inherit a Victorian home but about an acre or so of gardens came with it. It’s really beautiful. Two years ago we moved here, and up until now, I haven’t wanted anything to do with gardening. What you need to know about me is that I’m a city girl. Like growing up and even until I got married I lived where there was a grocery store a mile to my right and another grocery store a mile to my left. My garden was a concrete jungle. I kid you not. Getting my hands dirty even to gain something as beautiful as hydrangeas and roses wasn’t worth it to me.

    This year something changed. I don’t know what exactly, but I regularly weed and prune. I even like it, including the dirt caked under my nails. The girls help me weed the gardens, and this is where I took it with my daughter.

    What is your favorite flower?” I asked her. She told me a pink rose. I’m guessing that’s the only flower she knows well. “Imagine that you are a tiny rose seed. God plants you deep in the soil. He takes care of you, giving you water and sunlight. You grow taller. Your pink pedals stretch wider and wider. God looks at you and thinks that you are the most beautiful rose He’s ever seen.

    Then something starts to grow all around you and up your stem. It tries to strangle you and take you over so that you’re no longer beautiful. These are the weeds, like the weeds in our garden. Weeds are like sin in our lives. Sin wants to take over our lives leading us further and further from Jesus.

    But Jesus is like our Master Gardener. When Jesus died on the Cross He made it possible for all those weeds, all that sin, to be cut away – just like we pull the weeds out of our garden and cut them away from our flowers.

    But what happens in our garden? Do the weeds stay away? No, they come back. And our sin comes back, too, because we have a sin nature. Just like we can’t get rid of the weeds in our garden forever, we won’t be perfect and without sin, until we get to heaven.

    However, this is the good news – Jesus’ death on the Cross makes it possible for us to one day be perfect with Him in heaven. And until then? His blood covers us in righteousness. So, sweet girl, you are not awful. Your sin is awful just like my sin is awful. But you are very, very good. Jesus looks at you and smiles. You’re His beautiful rose.”

    Yes, our sin is awful, and apart from Jesus, we are awful people. But there’s Good News … this Easter meditate on Jesus’ blood literally covering your body. This is His blanket of protection over us which makes us righteous and new in His eyes. Weeds will always come, but Jesus’ blood allows them to be removed. Then, seeing Him face-to-face in heaven one day will make us completely holy as He is completely holy.

    As I tell my girls, when Jesus was being nailed to that Cross, He was saying your name. He was saying each name of every person who ever had lived and ever would live on this earth. Praise be to God!

    Happy Easter!

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  • A Morning Playlist to Remind Your Daughter of Her Identity

    A Morning Playlist to Remind Your Daughter of Her Identity

    Every morning we have about a twenty-minute commute to my daughters’ schools. The first drop-off is to my oldest girl’s school. She’s in kindergarten. The second drop-off is to my youngest girl’s preschool. I wanted to use our time in the car wisely, so I made a Morning Playlist for us to listen to.

    Several months ago we subscribed to Amazon Music. It has become one of the things I wouldn’t want to live without. There’s practically every song you could imagine right at your fingertips. This includes children’s Bible songs, soundtracks, learning songs, and of course my favorites (give me some good alternative music, but no country, please!).

    The songs in our Morning Playlist remind my girls and me of our identity in Christ before our day starts. Listening to these songs has become our most favorite thing to do in the morning and something the girls look forward to.

    Whether you use Amazon Music or another music subscription service, download these songs for your commute tomorrow morning!

    Our Morning Playlist

    “Wonderfully Made” by Ellie Holcomb

    “You Are Loved” by Ellie Holcomb

    “Be Kind to Yourself” by Andrew Peterson

    “You are Enough” by Sleeping at Last

    “You Say” by Lauren Daigle

    “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made” by Seeds Family Worship

    “Wonderfully Made” by Seeds Family Worship

    “A Woman Who Fears the Lord” by Seeds Family Worship

    What songs about our identity in Christ would you add to this list? I’d love to hear! Leave a comment or email me.

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