It is early morning. I stole away from the nursing baby and am sitting in my little quiet corner of the world, on my back-deck, surrounded by potted plants and birdsong. I am writing and contemplating my messy life. I am a homeschooling mother of seven children. My husband and I have a home business…
Author: mackenziechester
My name is Mackenzie Chester. I am a wife and mother of seven. Welcome to my blog, The Sacred Everyday, where I write about waking up to the miracle of ordinary life through prayer, reflection, and creative practice.
Motherhood and Creative Fire, Keeping the Flame Alive
I am the mother of seven children. This weekend, I hit publish on a dream come true. I’ve spent the last 11 weeks in a state of creative flow that I have not experienced since I became a Mama twelve and a half years ago. Looking back, I remember the shock my body went through…
Innermost Journaling Course: Mining the Depths of Your Sacred Everyday Life
Have you ever had a dream where you wonder if you are dreaming? In those kinds of dreams, I have often told myself I must be dreaming, because in real life you never question if you are awake. Or in real life, have you ever suddenly been jolted into a heightened sense of reality–through intense…
Faith and Miracles (How Do You Feed Them, Answered)
One of the first questions people ask me when I tell them we have seven children is, “How do you feed them?” It’s posed as a joke, and even though I’ve been asked this dozens of times, I still scramble for a good response. I know people don’t only mean how do we pay for…
A Room of My Own (And a little bit of big news for The Sacred Everyday)
I don’t know how many times I have had a dream where I was walking through the house and I suddenly found a door I had never noticed before. I opened it up, and there was an empty room. And my heart just welled up knowing I could do anything I wanted with that space….
First Birthday (love song for a baby)
You came to me from a distant landThe secret place of my innermost beingYou traveled miles and milesTo find me You came in the space between my two greatest sorrows. When the lamp of my womb went out, suddenlyLeaving me with a cold-wind feelingLike the door to every chamber of my heartHad been left blowing…
Creative Family Quarantine: 15 Inspired Projects that will help your family slow down, show up, and create lasting memories from this season together at home.
Let’s all admit we need a break from what’s going on in our own minds right now. We need a little time where we can turn off the phones, shut the laptops, look into the eyes of the people we love and find some joy in this season where our worlds are turned upside down….
Broken Open-Hearted Love
Yesterday I learned that a dear friend is dying. There is no time to visit. No time to wrap up loose ends. This news just rips it all back open–that wound that I thought was nearly healed. The blow from my fall where I realized that death is actually a part of the human story….
Embracing This Breath
The perfect beauty of this morning actually hurts me. As I steal a quiet hour in my little garden with a cup of coffee, the world saturated in green, trees in bloom, birdsong, the first signs of new life coming up in my raised beds… My heart aches. The unabashed brilliance of life. It stings….
Hope and Miracles
What in the world is even happening? I find myself sifting through the media, shaking my head in wonder at all the different perspectives that claim to be true. I read statistics from experts in every field, see photographs that prove the arguments without a doubt, absorb the shocking headlines. I hear yelling from every…
Words About You, Creative Family Idea Box #14
This is a sweet and simple way to encourage your children and help them to know they are special and loved. Get an envelope for each child and print his/her name on it. Have everyone write words about each person on slips of paper and “deliver” the words to the proper envelopes. At the end…
Treasure Hunt, Creative Family Idea Box Day #13
Kids are natural treasure hunters! Get outside, take a walk, find some woods or look in your own backyard for natural treasures. Anything can be a treasure! Be inspired by your children’s natural curiosity and wonder. Find something to photograph or bring home. Draw your treasures or write about them in a journal, or tell…