Announcement: A New Look and Summer Schedule [and Graduation!]

Although you can’t tell it by the weather in Iowa, summer looms ever closer. My high school graduate is already done with school and his two younger siblings are finished in a week. 

Change of Posting Schedule

In light of all that the summer months bring, my family priorities, and the feedback some of you provided in my December 2013 reader survey, I’ve decided to begin publishing new posts only twice a week instead of the current three. For now Monday and Thursday will be my posting days. However, there may be an occasional Five-Minute Friday post when a prompt moves me. 

New Look

I’m also excited to unveil a change to the look of my site. [←Tweet this.] Hopefully, you’ve already noticed. 🙂

This has been a long time in the making. I have weak tech know-how, so this has been a huge undertaking for little old me. But welcome to my new look. After reviewing suggestions and preferences submitted by my readers and spending time in prayer and soul-searching, I’ve decided to go with a tag line of “Embracing grace in the mess of life.” This fits my ministry goal of  empowering women to embrace His grace for their own lives and discover the glory in each messy day. 

My site makeover will be a work in progress for awhile. Thank you for grace. 

Reader Survey 2013 Results

Finally, although long overdue, I thought you might be interested in seeing the results of the readers survey. So here they are: 

• Not surprisingly, my audience is primary middle-to-older age females.
• They are split pretty evenly between full-time homemakers and those that are employed or run their own business at least part time. 
• At the time of this survey, my readers consumed my content primarily on Facebook or by email. However, I think those finding me through Google Plus has increased significantly in the past couple months. 
• The majority of my readers preferred new posts once or twice a week, stating the lack of time to keep up with more frequent posts. 
• Preference was fairly evenly split over the form of content desired, with free printables, ebooks, and newsletters most requested and videos, podcasts, and low-priced ebooks following closely.
• It appears I’m already writing the types of posts you want, with a variety of informational, inspirational, and encouraging posts. Devotionals, daily-living encouragement, and hope for times of struggle were the most desired. 
• The tag line “Discovering grace in the journey” took the most votes, so I piggy-backed off that for this updated site. 

Again, thank you to all of you who took the time to respond to the survey. I welcome any suggestions and questions about the kind of content I produce, the format of it, or this site in general. My desire is to uplift and encourage you in the grace of the Lord. Any help to do just that is appreciated. 

Now, for the rest of this weekend I will be celebrating with graduates and cheering on my own son Zachary as he walks across the stage one last time.

Congratulations, Zachary! We’re very proud of the young man you have become and are excited for the future God has in store for you. 

Praying you, my dear reader, finds joy, peace, and love in your weekend as well. 

“Indeed, we have all received grace after grace from His fullness, for although the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Chris.” John 1:17

Reflection: What, if anything, changes for you during the summer season?