How to Have a Holiday Worth Remembering

There are picture perfect moments you’d like to treasure in your heart forever. And there are times you’d prefer absolutely no photographic evidence so you forget them as quickly as possible. Most of those polar opposite moments come around holidays…one of those being tomorrow. Valentine’s Day. Sometimes you love it. Sometimes you hate it. Most […]

Real Life Christmas

Just wanted to share a taste of real life this Christmas in the Cravillion home. I love holiday traditions. Coziness. Laughter. Memories. But with two children this year in our household, the craziness has multiplied. I’ll be honest, most days this December have been crabby and exhausting, not merry and bright. But the reality is […]

How Nate Proposed {31 Days}

I’m not a very hard person to surprise because #1) I’m generally rather skeptical and #2) I don’t like to spoil surprises so I don’t believe what I hear or I purposely forget clues that I see. So if someone had said to me on December 8, 2010, “Nate’s going to propose to you tonight,” […]

Waiting and Praying {31 Days}

God called me to spend my summer in Colorado praying for Nate, specifically for an open door for us to pursue a deeper relationship. I learned some valuable lessons on prayer through that Sometimes Christians believe that the Bible says God will unconditionally give us whatever we pray for. As I learned more about prayer, […]

Colorado Adventures {31 Days}

It took me two years to become certified to teach English as a second language. I tutored while at Emmaus but my biggest opportunity came the summer after my junior year. I traveled to Littleton, CO, where I spent the summer volunteer teaching an ESL class at a church there. I lived with a family […]

Real Love = Sacrifice {31 Days}

The spring semester of my junior year God took me through relationship boot camp. Nate and I were close friends but I was investing more than he was in our relationship and it was heading south. As two of my other friends who were dating each other worked through some things, I tried to give […]

A Heart for the World {31 Days}

All my life I thought I might be a missionary someday. I visited a friend in Ireland when I was 18. At 19 I met a Kenyan believer who told me about the need in Kenya for women Bible teachers and I prayed a lot about going there. But Peru really won my heart when […]

Truth in the Dark {31 Days}

Shortly before leaving for college I took a Myers-Briggs personality test. I tested as a 100% extroverted ESFJ. One hundred percent. Looking back, it indicated my unhealthy dependence on people. Because I’d spent years wishing I lived closer to friends, I loved being surrounded by Christians at college. I made friendships left and right. Some […]

The Cut Makes me Whole {31 Days}

I’ve always been very opinionated about everything. When I was a freshman in college, everything was black and white to me. One right way to do everything. I had a set of standards for how life worked. And I was right, of course. Only, I was wrong. Not everything in life is absolute. See, when […]

Following a New Adventure {31 Days}

Ever had one of those crazy ideas from God you can’t wrap your mind around? I lived at home for 4 years after I graduated from high school, helping at home, cleaning houses for a living, and writing constantly. One fall a homeschool support group asked me to guest teach in their creative writing class. […]