Finding Hope in Weary Seasons

January 13, 2022 by Leave a Comment

Do you feel weary or worn down right now?

After the holidays are over, it’s temptingly easy for me to slide into a post-celebration slump. The skies where we live are perpetually gray, the ground is frozen solid, and the buzz and glimmer of celebrating the holidays with family and friends have come to a grinding halt. The thrill of the new year has trickled into a predictable routine, and compared to just a month ago, there is so little to look forward to. My soul is tired and worn down. Everything just feels dreary.

Finding-Hope-in-Dreary-Seasons-an-Article-from-Well-Watered-Women-1

But I’ve circled the sun enough times now to know myself and to know this particular battle that I face—a battle to find joy and contentment in Christ in every season. I think this is the same struggle that many of us face as the calendar flips over. And while I’ve invested in a good sunshine therapy lamp to help ward off the winter darkness, the deeper and more important work is what I must do, practically, to tend to my soul this time of year.

Read the rest of the article here, at Well Watered Women!

 

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Filed Under: God, Guest Post, Life, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Never Enough: Living in Tension

February 11, 2021 by Leave a Comment

This is the start of my newest article for Joyful Life Magazine.
You can read the entire article here!

I didn’t plan on working. And I didn’t plan on staying at home. To be honest, I didn’t have much of a plan at all when I went into marriage. We were still in school and young when we got married, and children seemed a long way off into the future.

I had worked in various jobs since graduating from college, but when our daughter was born on our seventh wedding anniversary, I suddenly felt the weight of work in a new way: working meant being away from her, and being with her meant being away from work.

Hope for When You Never Feel Like Enough

As a teacher at the time, her birth in May was convenient; I had the whole summer to get used to being a new mom. But the months sped by with unnerving speed, and before I knew it, I found myself in orientation meetings that August, combing the schedule for an opportunity to relieve my engorged breasts. I slipped away to pump during a break and tried desperately to keep milk from dripping onto my work slacks.

It was my first taste of the tension of being a working mom.

Read the rest of the article here, at Joyful Life Magazine!

Still Waiting by Ann Swindell

Filed Under: About, Baby, God, Life, Marriage, Parenting

Finding Peace at Christmas

December 23, 2020 by Leave a Comment

This is the start of my newest piece for Risen Motherhood. You can read the entire article here!

Christmas Peace for Moms

Too often, the Christmas season starts to feel like an overwhelming amount of work for moms. For many of us, there are decorations to put up, presents to purchase or make, school activities to help with, meals to prepare, travel arrangements to plan, and—in the midst of it all—Advent to (hopefully) attend to.

But what if instead of working to make Christmas “happen” for ourselves and our families this year—what if we played? What if we took our own kind of break and set down the culture-induced pressure to strive for a perfect Christmas? Then, we could focus on the true play of Christmastime: delighting in and celebrating the gift that has already been given to us in the form of the Christ child who came as a baby.

As mothers, we have the choice this season to take a break from the world’s expectations and focus on playing during Advent, rather than working. That’s not to say that there won’t be work involved this year—no matter the season, motherhood is full of good and holy work. But there are ways that we can attend to the season of Advent with an attitude of playfulness and rest that has the opportunity to encourage our souls.

This Christmas, let’s seek to enable our souls to benefit from play in the truest sense: the intentional enjoyment of God and his good gifts. Why? Here are three reasons…

Read the rest of the article here, at Risen Motherhood!

Still Waiting by Ann Swindell

Filed Under: God, Life, Marriage, Motherhood Tagged With: , , , , ,

God is Faithful, Even When Nothing Changes

October 27, 2020 by 1 Comment

In the week after my husband lost his job, I remember the feeling of desperation that crept in at night. I would lie awake in bed, wondering how we were going to make it, financially and practically.

My husband was sending out his resume and applying for positions; he was making calls and networking. But as the weeks piled up, he still had no job offers. I felt overwhelmed every time I thought about our future and how we wanted — and needed — to provide for our children. Emotions in our home ran high.

Nothing changed.

After three months of the same, I felt helpless. I tried to insist that Michael apply more places and send out more copies of his resume. But as the options for job opportunities narrowed down to almost nothing, my husband became clear in his conviction that it was time for us to wait on the Lord rather than pushing ahead with anything we could manufacture on our own.

Read the entire article here, at (in)courage!

 

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The Lens of Love: Writing and Rewriting Our Stories

July 17, 2020 by Leave a Comment

This is the start of my newest piece for Grit & Virtue. You can read the full article here–it’s one of my favorites that I’ve written!

The Lens of Love at www.annswindell.com

My husband was at home with the baby and I was at the library when I experienced my first – and only – panic attack. It was Fall; the air outside was just beginning to thin and tumble, threading its way through newly-bare branches and alleyways. I remember that it was dark, painfully dark at 6 pm. I was tired.

I sat at one of the large tables in the reference section, my notes and books spread around me in a cluttered half-circle. I work best with large amounts of space and quiet, something nearly impossible to come by with a new baby. It was a gift to slip away to the quiet of the stacks and write the book I was working on; it was something I had missed, acutely, for months.

I don’t remember feeling particularly stressed or anxious, but I do remember the pattering in my chest that started like a whisper and progressed to cymbals. I couldn’t focus and had to turn off the computer. My breathing became narrow and superficial; I felt like I was falling down even as I straightened in my chair. The room started hovering like hummingbird wings, and I had to close my eyes and lay my cheek on the cool of the table. I wondered if I was having a heart attack or a stroke and if maybe this was how I would die, here in the quiet of the library.

[Spoiler alert–I’m still here! 🙂 You can read the rest of this piece at Grit & Virtue!]

 

Still Waiting by Ann Swindell

Filed Under: About, God, Guest Post, Life, Motherhood, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

This is the Year to Write Your Book

January 22, 2019 by 1 Comment

Make this the year to write your book! www.writingwithgrace.com

Do you have a book inside of you? 
Do you have a plan to make that book a reality?
To move from ideas and drafts to chapters and cover design?

If you’re writing a book, or if you want to write a book, I know what it takes to make that happen, and I also know that the road ahead is going to be both thrilling and overwhelming. 

But how do you get from here to there? From idea to reality?

Personally and professionally, I know that crafting a powerful book proposal is the BEST tool for clarifying your book’s core message, solidifying your book’s structure, and moving forward to make your book a reality.

So how do you start?

You learn from others who know what you need to do.

Book proposals are huge undertakings. After having written four proposals, I know how intensive–and confusing–the process can feel. I remember trying to shuffle through multiple resources, and I kept hoping that I was doing things the right way. It became frustrating at times, but I knew that if I didn’t have a strong book proposal, my book idea would never actually become a reality. The proposal is necessary–and central to the process of writing a book.

If you know you're meant to write a book, this is for you. #amwriting Share on X

That’s why I’m teaching a Writing with Grace Book Proposal Workshop in just a few weeks! This will be a one-day, three-hour workshop in which we’ll cover the nonnegotiable elements of a powerful proposal AND how to execute those elements. Plus, we will hear from a Senior Editor in the Christian publishing industry.

If you’re aiming to write a book, you must write a book proposal, and this workshop is going to give you the tools that you need to make your proposal shine!

Registration is open now (for only a short time), and you can use the code WRITEMYBOOK10 to save 10% on the cost of the course!

We’re going to have a wonderful time together in February, and if you can’t come live, don’t worry–the recording will be available immediately afterwards for you to watch on your own time.

So, do you have a book inside of you? If you do, this is your next step.

Come join me over at Writing with Grace for all the details–I can’t wait to see you there!

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