COMMUNITY

Simply Home, Simply Sincere

Simply Home takes “one stop shop” to a higher level. The charming yellow house is so much more than a boutique filled with treasures, it’s a place of divine inspiration, as owner Tami Spearman says, “Built on the foundation of God; a platform to share His love, grace and mercy. Many go on the mission field to spread the love of Jesus, but I wanted to do that right here.”

Tami became a prayer warrior many years ago when her family needed miracles; her son, Caleb, would be born with a congenital heart defect that would require three open-heart surgeries. She was impacted by her prayer chain as it spread across the nation and around the world. “Knowing someone is praying is comforting; knowing how big the prayer circle can get is incredibly powerful. I still get emotional recalling how prayer and God got us through those stressful times.” Proof positive—today, Caleb is a thriving 22-year-old man.

A SPIRITUAL ARMY

Tami says, “Everyone on the Simply Home team loves Christ and we truly are a team of prayer warriors. We have been blessed to pray with many people since opening our doors nine years ago.” Some of her favorite stories are about relationships that began with prayer. “A new customer was checking out during a very busy time and shared with me that she was waiting on results to see if she had breast cancer. I had a long line waiting to check out, but I leaned over and prayed with her. We developed a friendship, and we continue to pray for her as she battles cancer.”

Knowing there may be no opportunity for conversation or, perhaps, a customer may not feel comfortable asking, the team came up with an idea to share and make prayer needs known. Tami’s husband Jeff manifested that idea in 2020—a prayer wall in the hall of the yellow house. Customers can leave their burdens and concerns on the wall knowing there is an amazing group of ladies standing in faith, praying over the requests daily.

While some choose to send in their prayer request, others add them to the wall while passing through the store. She adds, if led to do so, anyone can stop and say a prayer for someone else.

The team (pictured) updates the prayer wall every month, and posts on social media to ask for new requests, updates or praises. “For instance,” Tami says, “My best friend from kindergarten recently had surgery to remove tumors in her throat that were possibly cancerous. Praise God that all results came back benign and that is now on our wall!”

The Simply Home team hopes readers with prayer requests or anyone with a need might ‘simply’ come add it to the wall or message them so they can add it. No prayer is too big or too small for the prayer wall in the hall of the yellow house. Visit them at 15280 Highway 29 in Liberty Hill.

Father Love — Earthly and Heavenly

In December 2018, when most of us were making Christmas preparations, Liberty Hill’s Darin Coulter and his wife Kristin were rushing to the hospital. Darin is a fire fighter with Austin FD and, this Father’s Day, he wished to share how tragedy opens the door for our Heavenly Father to work in ways only He can. Darin’s story is about how the Coulter family became an avenue for others to see all the glory and power of God.

HEROIC MEASURES

Their five-year-old son Owen suffered multiple cardiac arrest episodes after a virus attacked his heart. At Dell Children’s Hospital, staff performed CPR for over an hour and Darin recalls, “As a first responder, I am the one that takes over to mitigate the emergency. In this situation, I wasn’t able to do anything to help my son. I had to step back and let the doctors and nurses do what they were trained to do and I had to fall back on all I had; my faith. Knowing God was in control gave me peace and courage to spend 90 minutes watching Him work through the team of doctors and nurses saving his life. In most emergency situations, it is chaotic, loud and stressful. However, I witnessed a perfectly orchestrated calm, quiet, and focused medical team that moved in such a way you knew God was in the room.”

Owen spent 56 days in the hospital and today, 2-1/2 years later, he is a healthy and happy 7-year-old miracle child. He enjoys playing with his big sister Madelyn and his twin brother Hudson. He takes no medication, is meeting all age appropriate milestones, and has showed great progress with his heart, kidney, and stroke recovery. Where once, every system in his body was failing, he is now running and playing like every other kid in the neighborhood. Darin says, “If I had to give it a number, I’d say he’s 95 percent recovered. The other 5 percent I call a hitch in his get up.”

During the 90 minutes of CPR Owen suffered at least two strokes, one of which affected his spinal cord and caused him to walk with a slight limp. “I thank the Lord every day for the 95 percent he’s given back to us.”

LIVING IN FAITH

This tragic event strengthened the Coulter family’s faith by experiencing, first hand, God’s love and mercy. “We call it our beautiful tragedy,” his dad explains. They use Owen’s story as a platform to share God’s perfect timing and how graciously He works. “Owen has shown me that life can change in an instant but, if you have

the right mindset, there is always a rainbow overhead with a message of love and purpose.” Together they enjoy giving back to the community that surrounded them with love and support when they needed it most. Being forever grateful, they feel indebted to Dell Children’s Medical Center, Ronald McDonald House, and Children’s Miracle Network (CMN).

Darin explains, “Children’s Miracle Network raises funds and awareness to support local pediatric hospitals. All CMN fundraising in the Austin area campaign goes directly to Dell Children’s Medical Center.”

The Coulters volunteer their time as ambassadors for events at the hospital and RMHC that bring awareness to programs that are saving children’s lives in Central Texas, and providing a home-away-from-home while in the hospital.

Darin and Owen hope readers might spread awareness of the campaign. “There are opportunities to make a difference with your time, resources, and gifts to support the only Level I Trauma Pediatric Hospital in Austin. You just never know if your child, a family member, or friend will need pediatric medical care.”

Summer Snack Strategy

contributed by Hillary Kennon

As we embark upon two months of summer, as a former Kindergarten teacher, I’m sharing an idea that may help maintain a bit of health and harmony for busy kids at home.

My oldest son is generally ravenous and will eat all the snacks in one day if we let him. So, we have embarked upon the snack basket system.

HOW IT WORKS

It took about an hour to make— including laminating, cutting, and printing, so my response to “Mom, I’m starving!” is a not-frustrated “Check your snack basket.” Boom, it’s out of my hands.

I allow four snacks per day—ideally a fruit and a grain, then a protein and a grain—but he will have to figure this out. Options rotate based on groceries purchased and I don’t tell him what he can choose; if it is in the basket, it’s free reign.

What I hope he learns is that eating all the granola bars in one day means waiting until the bucket is refilled on Sunday to get another.

I hope this will also help him think ahead—something we work on in all his life skill areas.

If he chooses something not physically in the basket, he transfers the appropriate clothespin into a plastic bag attached to the bucket. Over time, he will realize if the bucket is empty in the first half of the week, he may have trouble making it from meal to meal in the second half of the week.

Have genius ideas you want to share? Send us your summer strategies.