Month: January 2026

Uncategorized

What’s New in 2026? Anchor Notes!

The Kedge Anchor

In a post last week I posted some changes coming to the Kedge Anchor in 2026. When I first started this blog, I used to create coloring pages and digital wallpapers to help with scripture memorization. I wasn’t getting much feedback from them so I moved on since they were a little time consuming to create every week. And since The Kedge Anchor is about encouraging others I wanted to go more in that direction. Which lead me to create The Anchor Angel Project, with the help of some inspiration from a friend 🥰. Sooooo I started creating and sending Anchor Notes which are just small images that can be sent via email, text, messenger. Kinda like a meme but these are intentional to anchor truth and encourage others. Some may be humorous or for a special occasion, such as a birthday or holiday. And after starting my YouTube channel making videos and shorts I discovered that that is something I enjoy. You’ll see more to come from that.

Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:11

So here’s the first Anchor Note of 2026 from the You Have Been Prayed For series, free to download and share with whom ever you like, just click on the image and save to your device. (If you are on a desktop right click and save)

So every month I will post an Anchor Note for you to download and share.

However, this is not instead of making and sending actual greeting cards but to supplement them. Not everyone we know is connected digitally and those who are might need some old fashioned reaching out. I will still continue to create greeting cards and send them out and make tutorials.

There is more to come. I have some more ideas to share but I’m rolling them out one by one. The older i get the more I don’t like changes. But, I am learning that change is how we grow and sometimes it takes failure after failure to make those changes. I think y’all might like what’s new for 2026.😊

Christmas

Beat Christmas Stress Before December

The Kedge Anchor

Peace at Christmas can be hard to find in December. The cleaning, baking, wrapping presents, hosting parties, can make the season bright but not so merry after a while. It’s built, week by week, long before the tree goes up.

My last post I covered how to save for Christmas. Weekly, consistently, slow and steady wins the race. When I put $25.00 aside each week after 52 weeks that’s $1300. And while that may not seem like a lot in 2026, it will be $1300 more than you had. You might be thinking I need that money before the end of 52 weeks. I gotcha. This really pays off the second year and well, you have to start somewhere, right? Start saving now so you can get a jump start on Christmas shopping. I like to start in October, thinking, planning, asking my family to start thinking about what they want for Christmas (Side note: Amazon Prime has lists that can be shared, just sayin’).

Now that you have decided how much you are putting aside, where are you putting it? At the time I started doing this, I had a AmEx Bluebird card. AmEx has since discontinued that. It was very convenient, I was able to schedule the transaction every week and didn’t have to think about it. There are other ways to sock away money. You could do good old fashioned cash, that takes a lot of discipline and it still works. Opening up a dedicated checking/savings account at your bank or another bank is option. Having an account from another bank might help keep them separate. Having a separate bank account will allow you to schedule transactions so you won’t have to think about it.

There are other options such as prepaid debit card like the discontinued AmEx Bluebird card such as CashApp, PayPal, and Venmo. PayPal and Venmo have auto transfer features. Check them out see which one fits your needs.

All righty then. It’s now the first week in October and you see something for Christmas for someone. At this point you should about $975, still more than you had to begin with and you got to start somewhere. However, if you have automatic transfers, the money will still be going in and adding to the total.

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” Proverbs 21:5

The first year I did this I was working full time in a hospital. I realized I was visiting the vending machines waaaay too much. I didn’t stop completely feeding the vending machines, but I did become more conscious of where the money was going. After budgeting the money I would take $8 or $10 and allow myself to visit the vending machines once in a while or if the cafeteria was closed. Any money at the end of the week I would put in a piggy bank. I started this at the beginning of the second year. By October, I had over $300!!!! And yes, we still pay with cash when we can so any stray dollars or coins we have laying around it’s gets stashed away.

It was nice to have the money to pay for shipping packages, buy baking goods, decorations, Christmas cards or last minute gifts for someone. And whatever was left over in the Christmas account was rolled over to next year.

There was more peace at Christmas not having to worry about spending money. We even had money to donate to the Salvation Army if we happened to walk by one of their kettles, we had money to buy a gift for the Angel Tree and fill shoeboxes for Samaritan’s Purse. It is far better to give than to receive. Peace is built up week by week, way before the tree and the decorations are put up.

Sometimes peace can look like abundance in December.

encouragement, Uncategorized

What’s New in 2026?

The Kedge Anchor

With a new year and fresh start I have decided to do a few things differently. A while back someone had reached out to my asking why I had stopped making the coloring pages to help memorize scripture. Anyone remember Memorize Mondays? Well, to be honest, I didn’t think there was much interest. They are a little time consuming and I decided to focus on other projects.

There is something I would like to try but you’re just gonna need to stay tuned until next month. It still involves being creative and scripture. I had also been posting wallpapers for desktops and phones with scripture to help memorize verses and well there didn’t seem to be much interest in those either. So, I moved on.

I moved on to YouTube where there seemed to be more interest and that’s where I started to give more focus. I plan on staying there and focusing on that platform. I have discovered I like to make shorts and videos which brings me to my next new thing I want to try and well, I have some ideas that I am excited to share so you’ll need to stay tuned.

The Anchor Angel Project is something that has piqued interest in others and I will continue to promote that and encourage y’all to participate, but you will need to stay tuned and follow me on social media. Hmm maybe I can tie all these ideas together.

My art and greeting cards are things that I like to do and encourage others with. For as long as I can remember I was always cresting and making greeting cards. I remember I thought I wanted to work at Hallmark designing greeting cards, LOL. And I may not be working for Hallmark however I do still create them by hand and digitally, the hand made ones I sell locally, I sell the digital cards online, so I guess I have fulfilled that dream in a way. It’s not how I imagined it but how I imagined isn’t as important as I am actually doing it.

All that to say, please subscribe to the blog, follow me on social media to stay tuned of the new things coming in 2026. Thank you for your support.

Christmas, encouragement, Stress

How I Stopped Stressing About Christmas by Saving a Little Each Week

The Kedge Anchor

Christmas can be stressful. Searching for the perfect gifts, the baking, the decorating can weigh on us after awhile. Let’s not forget our bank account. It’s not like everyone gets a Christmas bonus every year. And if you’re like me, you have to ship a few packages. It all adds up and it stresses me out.

I decided that I could plan better for Christmas if I did it slowly over time. It occurred to me one year long after Christmas, like the summer, I found a gift for my sister and decided to buy it and put it away. I felt like I had a win. When I was out shopping, I’d be on the look out for potential Christmas gifts, especially if someone had mentioned something they wanted. If I found something, I bought it and put it away. It was a great feeling to be ahead of the game. There was one year, I was done by Thanksgiving. Then it was just baking, decorating and Christmas parties.🪅🎄

Having a cash 💰 stash or a Christmas savings account was the biggest rush. When I was a kid, our bank Old Stone Bank, had a Christmas savings pass book. Yes I am mid century modern old, not Stone Age. Anyway you could put away $5 or $10 a week and by the end of the year you’d have $520 or $260 back then that was a.lot.of.money (and you actually had to walk into the back with the cash and teller made an entry in your pass book). That gave me an idea. How much could I set aside every week so that I would have Christmas money to spend? I tried putting aside $1 on week one, $2 week two… that came to $10 the first month. By the third month, 19 weeks that is $70. I was on a budget and each month that was like a bill going up. That wasn’t working. I decided that $25 a week would be a start. (OK that was ten years ago). Even $25 a week is $1300. Ten years ago, that went a long way and I just rolled it over for next year. Now if you are just starting, it’s ok. You need to start somewhere and it will be more than you have if you didn’t start. This will pay off in 2027, trust me it’s a rush. I usually had extra money in the account for birthday gifts during the year. I could by decorations, baking goods, whatever I needed for Christmas. It’s a Christmas rush of a different kind 😉I felt great to not have to pay back the credit card company and still have some cash to roll over. It was a huge stress reliever.

Please subscribe and follow me on social media and stay tuned in the next post I will tell you how I stashed the money and was able to add to it during the year.

The Kedge Anchor – Facebook

@thekedgeanchor – Instagram

@thekedgeanchor -YouTube

hope, salvation

Steady, Present, Anchored: Your 2026 Reminder

The Kedge Anchor
Photo by Peggy Anke on Pexels.com

Happy New Year! Time really flies as we become more seasoned in life and when we are having fun. I am thankful for another day, another week another month and another year. And just like I am not one for bucket lists I am not one for resolutions. I would rather be focused, present and intentional about my goals and projects. LOL I guess that is a resolution of sorts. 

Challenges

My family has had a few challenges over the past three years. It’s been a struggle making the season merry and bright. But God, has been through it all with us. It didn’t always feel like He was there. However, I know He has been. Focusing on God and His Word have been key. There were days I didn’t feel like it or wanted to. So, those days may have been reflective and creative. So if your holidays have been challenging and short of merry and bright, I wish you New Year Blessings. 

The challenges our world has faced in 2025 have made me become more aware of the “labor pains” in Matthew 24:8 – “But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains.” I began to think; this could have been said 50 or 60 years ago. What’s the difference? Like a mother in labor, they become stronger and closer together. The events that are unfolding have been happening for centuries, the only difference is, these events, wars, rumors of wars, immorality, etc., it’s just happening more frequently and in some cases more intensely. 

New Hope

But there is hope. Hope came in the form of a baby over 2000 years ago. We just celebrated His birth. Jesus came to be born as a baby, grow up and start His ministry, die on the cross, be buried, rise again and ascend to Heaven. He did all that for us while we were still sinners – Romans 5:8. Jesus’s death and resurrection, His blood that was shed is for us. But it’s only for those who acknowledge their need for a savior, who confess they are sinners and receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  One day Jesus gather us up and we will meet Him in the clouds –

“Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:17

There’s our Hope. Then one day all this, the earth, all that we know here on planet earth will pass away –

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” – Matthew 24:35

Then God will create an new Heaven and new earth –

“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.“ Isaiah 65:17

When I look back at the challenges and the state of our world, I am reminded of God’s sovereignty, His omniscience and His redemptive plan for us and all of His creation. It’s all in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation and all in between. It even tells us how it ends. (Read the book of Daniel if you want to read about what has been prophesied and what has already passed and what’s to come). Today we all have a choice. We can choose God, His plan of salvation and His Hope or not. It’s that

Anchored in Hope

Here we are, stepping into 2026. I’m not chasing perfect days or forcing resolutions—just staying anchored. Anchored in truth. Anchored in Hope. Anchored in Christ. Life will throw highs, lows, and everything in between, but He’s faithful, He’s present, and He is sovereign.

Stay focused. Stay present. Stay intentional. And above all, stay anchored—because that’s where real hope lives.