Category: Faith and Spirituality

Discover personal stories of faith and peace from God

I Love Us

Happy Valentine’s Day to my Family

I Love Us

Happy Valentine’s Day friends! So typical right a Valentine’s Day post, well, I will have you know I have a very serious post in my drafts about my children and how they are growing up on me and asking where has the time gone. That was scheduled to go out last week, but such is life, and I just couldn’t miss the opportunity to be cliche and write a Vday post. What are your plans for Valentine’s Day? Or if you are reading this post-Vday, what did you do?

I will say this, my husband and I always celebrate big in one way or another, sometimes on the day and sometimes on the weekend. Sometimes, with just a glass of wine sitting outside, sometimes the best dinner you could think of spending lot’s of $$ and sometimes, we just have pizza and chocolate, after about 18 years of Valentine’s days, yes we’ve done a little bit of here and there. We’ve traveled a little, nothing crazy yet, we went to New Orleans, Fredericksburg, and Galveston, stuff like that. You see our anniversary is next week too, so it’s always kinda been a big deal to us. Earlier this week, I told my hubby, it’s no biggie and we didn’t have to do anything special, the truth is I meant it. There are just some times where you are content with chilling at home. His response was ~ “Crystal, I can’t accept that, it’s important that we take the time to honor each other and we are celebrating .” Imagine that.., I didn’t fuss, or argue, let it go and decided we would do what we do when the day came.

We looked into a few spots for reservations, but currently, my husband is on a fast, and his diet is very limited and with most restaurants having a selective menu tonight, that was a bit of a challenge. So, we have opted to go to a restaurant that we know will have plenty of choices for him. I mentioned how I have a post on draft about my kids, and how they are growing up on us. I love my children so much, and it’s such a fun adventure watching them grow into little adults and into adults. I reflect and love the memories that we have of when they were little, but I also appreciate the stage they are in now. We have a lifetime of Love to look forward too.

Earlier today, I contemplated between, getting my kiddos a heart-shaped pizza and hitting the town with my man, and what I really desired which was to take them out with us. There is a fun spot that I have wanted to take them to for a family night out. ( Spoiler alert, that will be a blog post soon depending on how quickly i can get them there.) My oldest works tonight and i really wanted to take all three with us. So It seems that it will be just the two of us. I was talking to my friend earlier telling her, I love my alone time with my man, but realize these moments with my kids are passing us by so quickly. She agreed with me. I pray they have a lifetime of great memories we have shared together and I look forward to creating many more.

I mean seriously, How cute is this?

That year pictured above was 8 years ago, we were working parents, I’m sure Valentines Day was on a school night, and I wanted to make it special for them too, I always have, they love it too. I got me and the hubs some wine, a little red stripe, I picked up a cherry or strawberry cheesecake? Chocolate covered strawberries, sparkling grape juice for the kids, and of course KFC as you can see. I even served it all on the fancy platter. I remember it feeling so incredibly special to me, mainly because it was us. I love us.

We have dinner plans but otherwise, it is still a little in the air what we actually do tonight, I’m sure whatever it is will be fantastic.

Matt

We’ve seen a small shift at home, Matt is growing up on us, he’s a great kid, but a kid that is yearning to spread his wings. He will be a Senior next year and is turning 17 soon. He at times is overwhelmed with all the growing up too. I don’t blame him. Matt, we love you and are so proud of you son. Life is filled with ups and downs, and for the most part, the ups are worth is all, love is worth it all, and you are worth it all to us too. The sweetest thing occurred with this kid; I had him download the Bible app a while back so he said to us yesterday, I get a sprinkle of Jesus every day. We didn’t know what he was talking about. So he went on to explain that every morning he gets the Bible verse of the day, and we said ohhhh, yes that sprinkle. <3 SO this morning, he shared his sprinkle with me on the way to school. (Thank you God that they miss the bus sometimes because we have moments like this. ) He shared.” And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three but the greatest is charity.” 1 Corinthians 13: 13, apparently he reads the KJV just like his daddy. I asked him to translate for me into the NJKV and here’s what it said. And now abide faith, hope and Love, these three, but the greatest of these is Love. (NKJV) Amen. Thank you, son, and yes the sprinkle was right. Love is the greatest of all these, yet how great are the others. I have so much hope and faith in you son. Imagine how Great Love is.

Isacc and Amanda

If God wills it, Isacc will be moving out this year, again. I’m very grateful that he lived on his own a while back while attending college, and that he was able to come home for more growth opportunity. I can see a shift in him too. I see he’s growing into a man, learning to be more responsible, and I can see a deep love for his longtime girlfriend is his eyes. He’s always cared and loved for her, but you know a deeper love, the kind that makes a momma proud, the kind of love like he wants to take care of her, and I can see his desire to do so. Son, we are proud of you too. I pray that the good Lord blesses you with all the desires of your beautiful kind heart. Amanda, his girlfriend, we love her too. I am looking forward to a lifetime of joy and memories with you God willing. He spent his Valentine’s yesterday with her and I’m thankful for that. Happy Valentine’s Day you two.

Lina

And Lina, my Little Love. She is strong as ever. We went through so much last year, One thing I can share with you about God’s love is this; Genesis 50:20 NKJV “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” God is good y’all, and I see so much good in my little girl’s eyes and in her spirit. She’s been busy singing, playing her instruments, and recording social media. Her confidence is amazing, and she is growing into a FIERCE young lady with a heart of gold, honesty, and Love. Lina We love you so much and not only are you beautiful outside but down to your core momma. Don’t ever change. You are my best friend, and I am honored to be your mother.

Harvey and I

Happy Valentine’s Day my love, here’s to looking at you kid.

To My husband, whom I love very much. Thank you for always celebrating us. You help me to realize our time is precious, and you make me want to be the best version of me, for me. Thank you for always making me feel important, and for honoring me as your wife and mother of your children. I love growing older with you. It’s a pleasure and pure joy.

Well, it is getting late, and I have a date to prepare for. I hope that you have a wonderful evening regardless of what you do tonight. Please remember that God is Love and we can know true love because he loved us first. You are never alone, and you are more precious than you know. Have a blessed evening, Until next time.

Here we go 2019!

Welcome back to the blog! I’m super excited to be back on the grind and writing again. So yes, here we are a new year, and if you’re like me, things are just now settling into their own. The Goals are not only in place but now actually in motion.

The holidays were totally great but can feel like a cluster of events with one event onto the next.

Many new opportunities and happenings have arrived for me, so as always I’m taking you along with me.

My goal for this page is to create fun new content in different areas of interests. Starting afresh with the new year, and all the new adventures that are coming with it.

I am back in school, taking a few classes and this is my second semester back in college. College is different for this 40-year-old mother of 3. Last semester was pretty good, I only took 2 classes to get back into the swing of things. This semester I am taking 3 classes and hope to take extras over summer and winter breaks to speed up a bit. As a more mature student, things are a little different, and my memory is not as photographic as it used to be, making it a little different for me, and I do find I have to work a little harder at remembering info for tests, and classwork. I think at this point in life, once I apply it more it seems to soak in best. Last semester I squeaked out with 2 A’s and I am working on that same 4.0 GPA this semester. It’s fun for the most part, and most days keeps me thinking and keeps me sharp. I am addicted to learning so school has overall been very good for me and has kept me on my toes.

And she loves it!

GOALS GOALS GOALS!

So, I did set some goals for the year, but they were mostly a continuation of the direction I wanted to take my life. Obviously, I have goals that I want to achieve and wrote them down, but I think I focused more on what I wanted from myself mentally, spiritually, financially, physically and am hoisting myself into that direction. I decided to nurture myself to just be BETTER than I had been. Better is my word for the year and Better than I was is what I am aiming for.

With that being said, here’s what I am currently focused on. I am still leading a weekly calendar planning group. We are called Coffee, Calendars, and Conversation. So in our group and my philosophy currently is embedding the habits or activities i am focused on right now, and nothing else. So I write these things down weekly and everything else that comes my way is on the back burner or getting turned down. It is all about focus right now. For example my focuses are :

Spirituality, Work, My weekly Planning Group ( which is my organizational time), Health and Fitness, Family ( includes date night, kiddo time and activities), I am focused on 1 personal social activity a week to keep me from reclusiveness, school which i already mentioned, My Blog ( my goal is to blog weekly) and this deserves my time and attention because I love it!, and my side hustle for extra money which is my One Hope Wine Tasting Business.

I figure this is plenty for me to focus on, build some great time-based habits, a schedule, and then we can add more or take away as needed. I will also revisit this structure quarterly for tweaking.

I just started a new job as well, which I’m very happy with and looking to stay put right now through school God willing. Like i mentioned new things, i had been praying for are now in motion.

So that’s it in a nutshell for the New Year in motion. It may seem like a lot or not a lot, but for me it works right now, and at the end of the day, you have to find and do what works best for you. In my group we had a vision board creating session and if you peek below here is mine. It motivates, makes me want to do better in all things, and just all around makes me happy. I highly suggest you creating one to keep in your dreams and vision in sight. Well, that’s all for now and i will be writing more and of course dive into lot’s of life weekly with you. I appreciate any feedback insight or comments below! Thank you and God Bless your day!

Continually Crystal

How You Gonna Write When You Ain’t Right Within

Happy Fall Yall! Yes, I’m from Texas and that’s how we do it! Unfortunately, because I am from Texas, fall is here but at the same time, it’s not. A typical day in October boasts temperatures of 85 -90 degrees? Bring on the Breeze!

So, here’s the thing, this article is simply a means to get out of not writing mode. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to write. Like always, had so much going on. I’ve revamped this page a few times to the best I could, for now, eventually, I’d like to get some help making it just the way I want it to be, and you better believe I have a very very big vision for this page and myself as a writer.

When I last wrote I had just become a Stay at Home Mom when I say a lot has happened. Yes, A lot has happened. In a nutshell, here are some things that have occurred, and I’d like to dig deeper into these topics, but like I said I just had to start somewhere again. Does anyone else have that problem? Big vision thinking and no small actions occurring to get you there. Here is your cue, just push play! Start! Please! For the Love. ( You know I’m talking to myself, right? ) Ok, so as promised here is the list of occurrences.

  • I stopped working to stay at home, keep the house immaculate, and be the perfect mommy.
  • I did not do the above^^
  • I was, however, in the right place at the right time. We had some issues with one of my children in which the fact that I was home, I was there to heal with my child and grow forward together. We as a family healed together, and I was home to see it all happen. God is Good you guys.
  • During all that ^^^ I became depressed, had major anxiety issues, and retreated into one of the worst isolation phases I had ever experienced. Isolation is, in my opinion, one of the biggest tools of the enemy, and I recently discovered that. (Please look out for my next blog post, let’s talk about this some more, and if you are currently in isolation mode, meet a friend for coffee or go volunteer somewhere.)

What started out as self-care and taking time out from the world quickly became just that ISOLATION. I was in one of the biggest depressions I had ever experienced. I felt alone and like no one understood what I was going through since I couldn’t talk to many about what I was going through. I’m grateful to this day I knew to react to what I was going through. Crying daily and feeling alone is not normal and you are not alone. I kept hearing a bible verse in my head. “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.” Proverbs 11:25 NIV

  • Daily I read God’s word and decided to act. I made a few lunch appointments with good friends that I knew would lift me up and scheduled a few volunteer opportunities.
  • Did I mention at the beginning of all of this I pretty much shaved all of my hair off? Haha – In my defense, it was damaged, I wasn’t working and figured it was a good time for a clean start. Plus my daughter had just gone bald, so I wanted to join her. Viva la Pixie cuts!
  • The day that changed everything for me, was at a volunteer event. I volunteered with Houston’s Christian Radio Station KSBJ 89.3 at a Third Day Concert. This was revolutionary for me, the fact that I went alone, and oh my goodness was God with me. Check out my next post on isolation and let’s dig deeper on this event as well.
  • I also registered and followed through with going back to school! That’s right, I am currently a college student to receive an A.A. and God willing will continue on to get a B.A. (My current path is in writing.)
  • School began for both me and my kiddos, I went back to work part-time for financial purposes. Being a stay at home mom is not free and as I discovered for the moment wasn’t for me.

What I thought would be a picture-perfect moment of staying at home, quickly became a bout of inactivity creating more inactivity. Toss in family hardships, traumatic events, and not enough income coming in and you quickly slide down a downward spiral. However, everything changed with wanting to serve others, getting my mind off of me and my own problems, and activity! Just like gratitude, activity reciprocates, and I hope to God never to be that stuck again. It happens, and I forgive myself. I reflect on that time as such a learning curve, and thankful for where it spit me out. I was never alone, God walked with me the entire time, and I with him. To all of my friends, family, and to my husband who never gave up on me, and didn’t allow me to give up on myself, I love you! Dearly, I love you. Please post your thoughts or comments below and let me know what you are thinking.

I want to positively remind you if you are experiencing a feeling of being lost or not in your element, hang in there, and don’t give up, and as always. Trust your Journey Beauty. Yes, you. You are Beautiful! Until next time.

with Love and much Encouragement for you,
Crystal Ybarra

My name is Crystal Ybarra ~

I am a wife, mother of 3 and a God fearing woman who is embracing life one step at a time. I began blogging as a means of coping with depression, and anxiety. What I found was a need for God and to share with others every step of my personal journey. You never know who’s listening to your story and who’s life you are impacting. Welcome to my blog and thank you for being a part of our community.

Continually, Crystal