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Susan Alexander Yates

Susan Alexander Yates

Wisdom for Every Season

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It’s Time to Celebrate Family! Advice for Planning Your Time Together

It’s Time to Celebrate Family! Advice for Planning Your Time Together

by Susan Alexander Yates

Spring is in the air, the pandemic is lessening, we are longing to be with family again!  Finally, it’s time…
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How NOT to Raise Entitled Kids: 27 Practical Ideas

How NOT to Raise Entitled Kids: 27 Practical Ideas

by Susan Alexander Yates

We have a big problem in our culture and none of us can avoid its reach. It impacts every one…
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Wild and Crazy Family Camp: Worship, Food, and Fun

Wild and Crazy Family Camp: Worship, Food, and Fun

by Susan Alexander Yates

We are getting ready! They are about to arrive!!! Yes, the wild and crazy “Yates Family Camp” is just a…
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Freebie: 100 Fun, Creative Ideas for You to Do With Your Kids!

Freebie: 100 Fun, Creative Ideas for You to Do With Your Kids!

by Susan Alexander Yates

Looking for fun, creative ideas to do with your family this summer? Maybe you feel like . . .  It’s…
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Don’t Miss This Rare Opportunity to Reorient Your Life

Don’t Miss This Rare Opportunity to Reorient Your Life

by Susan Alexander Yates

COVID protocols are easing, summer’s here, hope is finally in the air!  It’s been a long season of isolation, teleworking,…
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Want to Plan a Fun Family Get-Together? Here’s Help!

Want to Plan a Fun Family Get-Together? Here’s Help!

by Susan Alexander Yates

Have you ever wondered at God’s timing? I have. Last March, just when the world was about to go into…
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What I Most Admire About My Husband

What I Most Admire About My Husband

by Susan Alexander Yates

John and I will celebrate 52 years of marriage this August! I know, that seems crazy to us because we…
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How to Do Secret Valentines: A Fun ‘Family Builder’ Idea

How to Do Secret Valentines: A Fun ‘Family Builder’ Idea

by Susan Alexander Yates

Many of us have not been able to be with our family members during this pandemic season. Adult children haven’t seen each other, cousins often can’t be together. Saddened by being apart, we wonder, “What can we do to build the closeness that we long for?”

Here’s one easy idea!

Use Valentine’s Day to re-connect with one another.

Many of us have been a part of “Secret Valentines” (or “Secret Santa”), maybe at the office.

It’s always fun and creates a sense of camaraderie. Let’s use this idea in our families this year.

We have 21 grandchildren ranging in age from 9-23. Their families live in different cities. It’s a challenge to help them grow close to one another, particularly this year.

As parents more than anything we want our kids to love the Lord and each other. And this is true for our grandkids as well. But how can they love each other when they rarely see each other? As parents and grandparents, we can create opportunities for them to bond. 

To foster this, here’s one thing we are doing this year:  assigning each cousin a “Secret Valentine.”

Three Crucial Things to Pray for Your Kids (and Grandkids) in This New Year

Three Crucial Things to Pray for Your Kids (and Grandkids) in This New Year

by Susan Alexander Yates

Hope, fear, anticipation, disappointment. A roller coaster year. It’s easy to enter 2021 with mixed emotions. We are exhausted from…
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How to Engage in Meaningful Conversations in a Superficial World

How to Engage in Meaningful Conversations in a Superficial World

by Susan Alexander Yates

Recently a friend asked me,  Susan, I often feel like our conversations with our adult kids and extended family members…
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Hello, I’m Susan.

Susan Alexander Yates

I’m a wife (of 50 years), mom to five children (including a set of twins), and grandmother to 21 (including a set of quadruplets!). My favorite time of the year is when all my kids and grandkids are together for a week of “cousins and family camp” in the foothills of the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia.

Read more…

Recent Posts

  • Is Your Nest “Emptying”? 4 Ideas for Dropping Off Your Freshman
  • From Discouragement to Blessing: 3 Ideas to Transform Your Day
  • 9 Books I Loved: To Inspire, Entertain, and Encourage You
  • How I Heard Nature Sing — and What It Taught Me About God
  • Help, I Can’t Do it All: 4 Faith Principles for Overwhelmed Moms

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Cousin Camp

Cousin Camp
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Barbara & Susan’s Guide to the Empty Nest: Discovering New Purpose, Passion & Your Next Great Adventure

Barbara & Susan’s Guide to the Empty Nest: Discovering New Purpose, Passion & Your Next Great Adventure
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Are you getting ready for an empty nest? Taking ki Are you getting ready for an empty nest? Taking kids to college this fall? I'm blogging about that this week, with 4 ideas for dropping off your freshman. (And Barbara Rainey @everthinehome and I wrote a book about this!) 

Links to both the book and blog in my bio. Or go to susanalexanderyates.com/blog
Melody and I leaving for our 4 day hike in the Ol Melody and I leaving for our 4 day hike in the Olympic National Park in Washington state! 🏞🏕
This acronym serves as a guide for prayer. I have This acronym serves as a guide for prayer. I have found this so helpful to use in my own prayer life and in small groups! ⁣
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It's just a small bit of what I'm sharing in my devotional over at Club31Women -- 3 Things to Make This Very Day a Blessing. If you're waking up discouraged, this is for you. ⁣
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Read the whole thing -- link in bio!
We’re never too old for new adventures! 🌤⛰🚗☀️
This week I’m sharing a devotional over @club31w This week I’m sharing a devotional over @club31women about how to transform your day when you wake up discouraged.⁣
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This little prayer is part of my morning routine. We taught it to our kids when they were small and recited it each morning at breakfast. Now my grandchildren use it! ⁣
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Read the whole blog: 3 Things That Will Make This Very Day a Blessing. Link in bio!
Immeasurable Riches ONE WORD: “...so that in Immeasurable Riches 
 
ONE WORD:
“...so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:7
 
ONE THOUGHT:
Father, today I long to dwell on your riches rather than my own wants and needs. Call to mind your riches and help these thoughts of you to be in the forefront of my thinking today.
It’s mid-summer! Have you run out of things to d It’s mid-summer! Have you run out of things to do with your kids?? ☀️

I have FREE downloadable ebook for you - Camp At Home 100 ideas for you to do with your kids or grandkids!

Link in bio!

#cousincamp #cousincampbook
I love this quote from John Stott, from his very l I love this quote from John Stott, from his very last book, The Radical Disciple. I highly recommend it. Brief chapters include: “Nonconformity,” “Simplicity,” “Dependence,” and others.⁣
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Over on the blog, I'm sharing this book along with 8 others I've loved recently. If you're looking for a summer read, I hope you find a good one here!⁣
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Read the whole list: link in bio or go to susanalexanderyates.com/blog
I’ve been thinking a lot about books - check out I’ve been thinking a lot about books - check out my latest blog! 📚😊

Here are two more that I have enjoyed by two of my friends Christy Fitzwater and Penelope Swithinbank. 

Keeping House is an honest, humorous, easy-to-read book about the joy you can get from cleaning by a friend of mine who cleans VRBOs. You will laugh and learn some real practical tips. 

The book, Scent of Water, is a comfort in times of grief. Her daily devotions are honest and she leaves us with specific scriptures of comfort. You will feel closer to God and thankful for his understanding.

Copyright © 2022 · Susan Alexander Yates · All Rights Reserved
Calligraphy by Jessica Blanchard · Paintings by Christen Yates
Blog and Ask Susan Photo by Natalie Puls Photography · Books Photo by Cambria Elizabeth

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