Rachel L McManus

  https://www.amazon.com/Southern-Magnolia-Rachel-L-McManus/dp/B0BSKN36VJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1M9JI84AFQ38Z&keywords=rachel+l+mcmanus&qid=1689367018&sprefix=%2Caps%2C258&sr=8-1

  I thought my darkest days ended when my husband came out of his coma. I was wrong. God has had us on this journey for a reason although I am not quite sure why, other than His Name be glorified. When our life suddenly changed in November of 2019, I expected it to eventually get back to 'normal'. It hasn't and it never will. Our lives keep changing every few months. Sometimes weekly it seems, just when I get used to things being one way, something else changes with him or something in our lives and it turns us topsy- turvy again.  The first few weeks and months after his stroke and coma, he was having to relearn things. His speech was affected not only by how he pronounced things, but his descriptions of things, his command of the language itself was teetered on the edge of almost non existent. He switched words around and got frustrated when I couldn't understand him and he couldn't understand me. He couldn't tell you what the name of a clock was, could mainly...

 E very time I get to know God a little bit more, I fall in love with Him just a little deeper. His love for me seems to penetrate the shell that I built around my heart a long time ago. He knows that I know when I do something wrong and if I don't immediately repent, He lays it heavy on my heart until I do. See it is not about what I have done, who I am or what I have accomplished in this life or finished. It is about what HE has done, Who HE is and what HE has accomplished and finished.      It is something that He has to deal with on a daily basis and get my heart right before He can maneuver blessings into my life, or even people and situations out of my life .   Sometimes my pride and selfishness get in the way of the plans that God has for me and my family.      God has blessed me greatly within my life and am so greatly appreciative of His love and guidance. Why does He even love me? Care about me? Or desire to even see me accomplish anythi...

 There are two types of loving yourself. There is being conceited, prideful, and arrogant thinking you’re better than everyone, which is a sin and there is naturally loving yourself. Naturally loving yourself is being thankful of what God made. Scripture never says to love yourself because it is normal to love yourself. No one has to tell you because it just comes naturally. Naturally we love ourselves so Scriptures teaches us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  On the other hand, Scripture does warn us about self-love. Our focus should not be on ourselves. We must trade self-centered love for agape love. Loving yourself too much shows selfishness and arrogance which God hates. It leads to self-criticism and the sin of boasting. Take your eyes off of yourself and look at the interests of other people. Love others as yourself. If you can't love yourself, how is it then that you can love others? Don’t focus on yourself, instead focus on the awesome love that God has for...

  As I started on my thyroid journey, I honestly didn't believe I would feel any better. There I said it! I was a complete skeptic, that I would ever feel any better. I didn't think the brain fog would leave me. I didn't think that my symptoms would stop or diminish. While they haven't gone completely away, I am still in the newness phases of this journey and its been enough of a difference to want to tell everyone about it. That nurse I told you about in the first blog, had a lot of holistic knowledge. He didn't have to think about what he was saying, he just knew the research he had done. He had tried it for his mom and it made a huge difference in her life he said. She was hypothyroid and had tried it and it worked for her. He suggested ordering Nascent Iodine and Selenium. The Iodine comes in a dropper bottle and you literally add one drop to a small cup of water. I took the Selenium at the same time, and chased it all with orange juice and my NP thyroid pill...

   I got diagnosed 4 years ago with Hypothyroidism and Iron Deficiency Anemia. The past 4 years has been a huge struggle for me to deal with all the symptoms associated with these 2 things. People think that if you take a pill all those symptoms go away. I thought this. I thought I would take the pill, let it get into my system and then the weight that I gained because of it would just melt away as fast as it came and my memory would be immediately restored. What a joke! It just didn't happen like that at all. It still is something I deal with, but thankfully after taking my own health into my own hands I am finally getting results. Let me start at the beginning of this journey and tell you the background.    Hypothyroidism runs in my family. That doesn't mean everyone will get it though. I spent my whole life being thin. Had myself a nice curvy but thin figure. Until about 38 years of age. Suddenly I had memory problems and thinking problems. I gained 20 pounds in...

While I was away in Nebraska and South Dakota I wrote down things that I saw as God led me out of my slump of not writing. I feel as though I have been uninspired for over a year. I have been in an intense brain-fog for several years as I have been plagued with iron and thyroid issues. I am now trying to get back to the place I was before and listen when He speaks to me.    In South Dakota the hills start off gently rolling, but you can see for miles on the high peaks of these hills. The 2 states of Nebraska and South Dakota blend together in their beauty. These hills are not for decoration, it is farmland. This land has a purpose to it. Some hills and fields were dark and rich with over turned earth. It had already been worked over and over again and was ready for planting. Some were brown with old crops that had been cut last season and left to lay fallow until the season is right to begin the work that would take months. The life of a farmer is not easy. They have to wait ...

   We sometimes have preconceived notions about specific things in our heads and when we see things that blow that expectation out of the water, sometimes we are left blessed. This past week I took a week long vacation with my husband out of state, to visit one of the best friends I have ever had in my life. We went to Nebraska where she lived but stayed in South Dakota which bordered one another. Everyone I had talked to, said how flat Nebraska was- just so flat that you could see for miles. I think those people failed to see this area though. There were parts that were flat, but there were those parts when you traveled straight up a hill and crested the top that you could see other rolling hills and although you could see for miles, it was breathtakingly beautiful. We had made plans to see my friend's 'cow farm' and being from Texas I thought I knew what constituted as a cow farm. I did see some that fit my perception, but hers blew me out of the water. Their cow farm was...

        Group last night was so awesome. I love those ladies as if they were my own family. We watched a video on thinking about what you are thinking about. It said that we are all in control of our thoughts.         Have you ever woken up or even during the day had an argument with someone in your head? Got mad at them for something they actually had never said or done? I have! I have had whole arguments, discussions, and laid into someone all inside of my head with just one thought...anyone wonder where that comes from? The Enemy...Satan, the devil, whatever you want to call him. The bible says that he is sneaky and deceptive, look what he did to Eve in the Garden.        The bible also teaches that we are to take every thought captive. What that means is when we have these thoughts that just bubble up out of nowhere, that we are to take a hold of them, examine them and if they are not thoughts that we should be having (so...

Sometimes nothing turns out the way we want them to. My sister and brother-in-law came down this week to get their son's driving test done so he can get his license. Before they came my B.I.L. wanted a list of things that I needed done, because my own husband isn't plumbing/mechanically inclined. So first on the list was the ballast in my kitchen florescent light, next ceiling fan in the kitchen (its Texas and hot), brakes on my car and the plumbing in my front bathroom that has never worked right. We got the kitchen light and fan done within 2 hours, but then we hit that cursed plumbing. Seriously that bathroom has got a curse on it. We have used the shower in there, maybe 15 times in the 11 years that we have lived here. We have replaced everything else in that bathroom, except the tub itself. So we had to go to the store at least 3 times, and are not done yet.     Last night he decided that he was just going to redo then entire part of that pipe with a roll of copper. He g...

   Every time I get to know God a little bit more, I fall in love with Him just a little deeper. His love for me seems to penetrate the shell that I built around my heart a long time ago. He knows that I know when I do something wrong and if I don't immediately repent, He lays it heavy on my heart until I do. See it is not about what I have done, who I am or what I have accomplished in this life or finished. It is about what HE has done, Who HE is and what HE has accomplished and finished.      Sometimes my pride and selfishness get in the way of the plans that God has for me and my family. It is something that He has to deal with on a daily basis and get my heart right before He can maneuver blessings into my life, or even people and situations out of my life.     God has blessed me greatly within my life and am so greatly appreciative of His love and guidance. Why does He even love me? Care about me? Or desire to even see me accomplish anything? I ...

    It is not very often that I get to have a day alone. Being a home-school mom requires me to be constantly with my kids. Don't get me wrong I love to be with them, they are like close friends that I get to hang out with daily, but sometimes we start rubbing each other the wrong way. They need that break from me as much as I need it from them. There are not a lot of people that can really say they know their kids as well as I do, after all I have been spending most of my time with them the past 6 years and counting. I know each personality as though it were my own. God truly did bless me when He gave me these kids for His safe keeping. I can only hope as a parent that I am doing the job He expects out of me.     These kids are great kids, they have funny and kinda weird senses of humor, each different and unique in their own special way. They are caring and kind when they want to be, even to each other. I mean they have to get along if they are going to be with on...

     So today is Valentine's Day and the world suddenly has love for everyone. They all want to celebrate and do something special for their loved one. The question I ask is, why do you need a specific day for this? My writing yesterday had to do with the words that we speak and how they can make or break a person, this falls in line with love also. If you really love someone your mouth will reflect your heart. My husband and I have been together for almost 18 years, and it is a very rare occasion that we actually fight, say harsh words or just argue in general. We respect each other and we always have. We truly are best friends and it has made our marriage and relationship stronger and healthier. He doesn't expect things from me that he himself would not do or say, and I return that favor in kind. Our life and marriage together, while not perfect, reflects our hearts and our values. We love each other and do not want to ever hurt one another.       He lik...

Tonight I go to my Life-Group. I look forward to it on a weekly basis, it gets me out of the house, I get to be with women of a like mind, and my 2 older kids get to go to youth group. It is a definite win win situation all around, because my husband and son get their time together. Tonight we are really getting started on a series that God has lead us to....The power of your words. The bible says that there is life and death in the power of your words, that you can bring curses and/or blessings from your words. We all know that we say things that we shouldn't say, but it makes you rethink everything when you realize that before God  (no matter if you believe it or not) we will have to give an accounting of every word we have ever spoken (idle or not-angered-jealous-hurt-and so on). Wow! The thought of that almost makes me sick to my stomach sometimes for all the cruel and nasty things I have said over the years. I have been trying to think about what comes out of my mouth before i...

      Sometimes being a home-school mom is frustratingly hard work, other times it is the blessing God intended it to be. Regardless of how I feel about it on a day to day basis, I know that I am doing what God has called me to do. When my kids went to public school I never thought in a million years that I would be the one to home-school. I was never one of those moms who allowed my kids to call me mommy, I didn't love on and hug on them all the time, never baby talked them and saw their faults for what they were. I was never much of an emotional person except anger and frustration. I am still like that to a point, but I have changed a lot since I let Jesus Christ be the Lord of my life. When the school that my children went to started treating my kids as if they were mediocre and didn't matter, that is when God started talking to me. I know that sounds freaky to some, but I know it was Him. He told me that in order for me to make the changes necessary in my life, I need...

   When you get to the end of yourself what is it that you always find? Personally I find an exhausted person that has put on way too many hats and tried to do it all myself. When I get to the end of me I just find that I am human after-all not this perfect being who tries to do everything.     Let me explain I am a Christian, wife, mother, teacher, principal, maid, laundress, prayer warrior and friend. I home school my 3 kids and have for the last 6 years. They are becoming teenagers one by one no matter how I try to stop them. I teach them a bible study daily, read a different book aloud to them every few weeks, and pray with them, about them and for them. I don't do a bought curriculum so that boils down to me writing out their curriculum and so on and so forth. I also am involved in 2 bible study groups at the moment, one within the church and one at another location not under the hat at the church. I am a avid Facebooker who gets the Word out there on a daily b...