Lisa Appelo

Why You Can Rest in An Imperfect Christmas

12.07.2018 By Lisa Appelo 3 Comments

I have a confession to make: we’re one week into December with no tree up yet. We have a balsam fir wreath on the front door thanks to a brother and sister-in-law in Maine and we’ve had Christmas music playing since December first. I’ve bought exactly two presents so far with two that I already need to return, which puts me at net zero.

The other day, Annalise asked me to please bake something. Sure, I answered, and asked her what she wanted, thinking she had some particular craving.

“Just bake,” she answered. “Just bake anything.” Oh, sweet girl. I smiled inside because she was so spot on – this single mom chapter of life has me doing so many things with little time for the baking I used to do.

Our neighbors have had trees and lights up since Thanksgiving weekend. A scroll through Instagram shows friends with kids in Christmas jammies and Advent traditions well under way.

I could start to feel very behind on Christmas.

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A Few of My Favorite Things

11.30.2018 By Lisa Appelo 2 Comments

This time of year. Sometimes I want to bottle it up to spill onto the days when the world gets churlish and uptight.

There’s so much to love about Christmastime, like tapered trees headed home on top of cars and the familiar clang of the Salvation Army bell when I grocery shop.

Here in Florida, the temperature’s dropped enough to finally match the decorations going up through the neighborhood.

Today, as we savor this season and countdown to Christmas, I’m sharing a few of my favorite things. Some are old favorites and some are new discoveries.

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Seven Reasons to Celebrate Advent with Your Family

11.28.2018 By Lisa Appelo 6 Comments

About 15 years ago, I decided I’d had it with Santa. Dan and I were the ones saving and shopping and wrapping and staying up Christmas Eve to put together 42 pieces of a Barbie house while Santa got all the credit.

And that hit home. Santa was getting far too much attention in a season meant for Jesus.

In a season meant exclusively for Jesus.

That year, I went through the whole house and bagged up every Santa decoration, ornament and book to take to the thrift store. We stopped writing letters or lists for Santa, standing in line for pictures at the mall and playing up the fiction that is Santa.

Instead, we collected manger scenes and set them around the house, on the tree, on the front lawn. We bought books that reflected the real Christmas story and started our first Advent traditions.

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Thanksgiving is Too Big for One Day

11.20.2018 By Lisa Appelo 7 Comments

I’ve lived most of my life giving shallow thanks.

Sure, I’ve been grateful when big things happened. I’ve thanked God when he came through or saved my neck.

I’ve thanked God for answered prayer and for those things dear to me — salvation, my family, health, provision, freedom to worship.

But for most of my life, I never saw the simple gifts, the small mercies, the personal love notes all around me.

It wasn’t until I lost the love of my life that I found deep gratitude.

In those weeks and months of hard grief, I was fighting for hope and aching to see God’s goodness when the world felt so horrible.

Opening to a fresh page in my journal, I numbered down the left-hand margin: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. That day I thanked God for the obvious things he was doing.

The next morning, I continued my numbered list: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. I forced myself to think back over the day before. I noted God’s provision, how he lifted my head, small joys.

And so began a practice of daily thankfulness and the gift of daily surprises.

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The Surprise God Gives When We Pray

11.13.2018 By Lisa Appelo 29 Comments

It’s been several weeks of back-to-back big issues. If hard things come in threes, I’ve been over limit.

First, we learned that while my daughter was on a mission trip in Brazil, Hurricane Michael wiped out her belongings in storage. On the heels of that, we had a health scare that sent us scurrying for tests and searching for answers. A different report came in raising concerns for one child at the same time I was walking another through heavy decisions. And that Saturday, as I was prepping to meet some friends, a pipe burst spewing water across the utility room into the kitchen before we could get the water turned off.

I stayed steady through the first couple of issues, handling each one as it came. But when they piled on, I began to buckle under the collective weight.

As a single mom, no one person in my life knew all of it. Some knew parts, but some were too personal to share.

And while I’ve learned these last seven years to take my need to God, the sheer weight taxed every bit of my emotional reserves and maxed out my mental space.

I began to get scatterbrained. It wasn’t so bad when I left a roast and vegetables on the counter overnight.

But two days later, I lost some very important papers. This type-B girl had been so organized! I sorted them, used them for online forms and then – poof. I couldn’t for the life of me remember what I did with them next.

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