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The Flourishing Family

Faith, Family, Health and Home

  • About
  • My Novel: Aliisa’s letter
  • Remembering Steven
  • Healthy Birth Practices
    • Preparing for Birth
    • Waiting for Labor to Start
    • Pelvic Measurement: Will the Baby Fit?
    • Emotional Support and Guidance During Labor
    • Is the Intervention Necessary?
    • Pushing Positions
    • Mom & Baby: Skin to Skin
    • A New Perspective: Home Birth
  • Family Health
    • Essential Oils
    • Colds Flu and Garlic
    • Calendula for a Healing Salve
    • Measles and the MMR
    • What about Vaccines?
    • Easing Painful Periods
  • Affiliate Links
  • Privacy Policy
  • About
  • My Novel: Aliisa’s letter
  • Remembering Steven
  • Healthy Birth Practices
    • Preparing for Birth
    • Waiting for Labor to Start
    • Pelvic Measurement: Will the Baby Fit?
    • Emotional Support and Guidance During Labor
    • Is the Intervention Necessary?
    • Pushing Positions
    • Mom & Baby: Skin to Skin
    • A New Perspective: Home Birth
  • Family Health
    • Essential Oils
    • Colds Flu and Garlic
    • Calendula for a Healing Salve
    • Measles and the MMR
    • What about Vaccines?
    • Easing Painful Periods
  • Affiliate Links
  • Privacy Policy
  • Gift of Life
    Abortion - Children - Faith - Family - Women

    Life is a Gift

    January 23, 2026 - By Carol

    Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday. We write for five minutes with a prompt. Kate’s prompt is UNUSUAL. It is unusually cold today. The thermometer outside of my window registers -10 degrees fahrenheit and that is -23 celsius. It reminds me of the year that I went on…

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  • Angel Appears to the Shepherds
    Christmas - Faith - Family

    Why Were the Shepherds First?

    December 19, 2025 - By Carol

    Recently I attended a concert that my granddaughter sang in. As I listened to the choir sing Angels from the Realms of Glory, my thoughts lingered on the second verse.  Shepherds, in the field abiding,Watching o’er your flocks by night,God with man is now residing;Yonder shines the infant light Why…

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  • Chocolate & Books
    Book Reviews - Family - Marriage - Women

    Chocolate and Books

    November 14, 2025 - By Carol

    Chocolate is my favorite sweet treat. Sometimes I will have a bit while reading a book. But that is dangerous. Chocolate tends to melt on fingers and soon there is a smudge on a page that must be quickly addressed.  My worst disaster with a book was not caused by…

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  • The Farmer's Market
    Family - Finland - Nutrition

    Fall Farmer’s Market and the Homely Vegetable

    October 31, 2025 - By Carol

    Today is the final day of our local farmer’s market. It is a pleasant outing and I go almost every week to purchase fresh produce. I will miss it. Many of the vendors had crates of apples. The apples are beautiful and abundant this year. I was delighted to find…

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  • Fall Film Release
    Family - Health - Parenting - Vaccines

    HHS and Children’s Health

    October 24, 2025 - By Carol

    One definition of capacity refers to leadership: legal qualification, competency, power, or fitness. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services, and he has angered and upset people. Why? At one time Kennedy was involved, as a lawyer, in environmental issues. Parents of vaccine…

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  • Abundant Apples
    Family - Michigan - Nature - Recipes

    Applesauce Cake

    October 17, 2025 - By Carol

    The apples are abundant this fall. The trees on the old farmland were heavy with fruit.

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  • Autumn Art in Nature
    Book Reviews - Faith - Family - Nature

    A Conversation About Truth and Beauty

    October 11, 2025 - By Carol

    My husband, my sister and I spent a week in Upper Michigan, enjoying the brisk breeze bringing the fall season. Each day the color of fluttering leaves became more vibrant. It was a visual treat as we worked—we had chores to do because we were closing the house for the…

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  • Book Reviews
    Book Reviews - Children - Faith - Family - Health - Parenting - Women

    Recent Reads: Biography, Historical Fiction and Research

    October 3, 2025 - By Carol

    Standing on High Places is a biography of Hannah Hurnard written by Isabel Anders. Hannah Hurnard wrote the allegory of a Christian’s life titled Hinds’ Feet on High Places. Anders follows Hannah’s life from her choice to follow Jesus and her decision to pursue mission work. She began evangelical outreach in…

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  • Children - Faith - Family - Health - Prayer

    Prayers for Our Country and the Children

    August 29, 2025 - By Carol

    Over the summer I have been reading the Psalms. I have noticed several themes. In a majority of Psalms, God’s steadfast love is mentioned. When great difficulties occur, the psalmist cries out to the Lord for help. The Psalms acknowledge that God is sovereign. This morning I was reading Psalm…

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  • Forget-me-nots, Good Words
    Faith - Family

    Words that Linger

    August 1, 2025 - By Carol

    In the last years of my Mom’s and my Dad’s life, they experienced memory loss. They struggled to remember names of friends and sometimes family members. But they remembered the words of hymns that they had sung over the years.  There are hymns that linger in my memory, associated with…

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Welcome to my blog!

As I write, I give thanks for God’s design of the family and the gift of His word, the Bible.

It gives me joy to be a woman, a wife, a mother and grandmother. For many years I was a childbirth nurse, assisting mothers and their babies.

 

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My faith journey throughout Steven’s illness is included in this anthology

I was featured at the senior salon pit stop
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