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My Hacker Man and The Historical Village

In case you missed it {or thought maybe I had vanity issues and liked to talk about myself in the third person}…my husband hacked my blog yesterday.  He actually hacked it.  Compliments of Live Writer.

As a birthday surprise, none the less.

He informed me, only minutes after I woke up…and minutes before he passed out {he works nights}, with a smile and a mug of tea…that he wrote me a birthday letter…but that I would have to find it.  So I looked and looked and looked.  All morning.  In the fridge.  In the pile of papers and mail.  I even went as far as to look on the computer…in Word and Publisher.  To no avail.

When he woke 6 hours later to discover I had yet to stumble upon it…he confessed his blog hack.

{{woah baby}}

And there you have it, world.  I’m married to a rock star.  Who adores me.  Madly.

And no, you can’t have him.  He’s all mine.  But, he does like to have coffee with other men and challenge them to love their wive’s socks off.  And their pants.  But that’s another post for another day.

I digress.

Oh wait…while we’re on the topic of my wildly wonderful man…

My hubby took me to this fun, historical village the Christmas after we started dating.  It’s called Crossroads Village & Huckleberry Railroad.  I remember the Christmas-light encrusted trees and stolen kisses between sips of steaming hot chocolate.  We were 21 and smitten.

It was beautiful, romantic and heaps of fun.

On Thursday, 8 years after my initial visit, while my hubby went fishing with his grandpa on a neighboring river, I reentered the gates, loin fruit in tow, accompanied by my hubby’s sweet grandma {who our little ones affectionately refer to as Gigi – or GG – for Great Grandma}. 

It was loud, exhausting and heaps of fun.

Crossroads Collage

Same red barns.  Same $1 carousel.  Same big white paddle boat with red trim.  Same steam locomotive.  Same ol’ general store.  And delightful little classroom.  Same sense of stepping back in time for a day.

Not much had changed in the village, really.

It is amazing how little the world around us changes in 8 years…

and yet, how drastically – magically, miraculously – our own little worlds can change?

As magical as that initial visit was – starry eyed and brimming with what may be {and, if I’m honest, the clever concealment of the immaturity and selfishness that bubbled beneath the surface} – the memories that have been made, the wounds that have healed, the passions that have been discovered, the character that has been strengthened and refined, the comfort and security that have been cultivated, the love-bond reinforced, and the two precious lives that have been created between then and now, leave me marveling at the sweetness of our short history together.

God has been ridiculously kind to us as we’ve journeyed together. 

It wrecks me, in the most beautiful of ways.

 

Nothing like a little visit to a historical village to renew one’s awareness of time-treasured-togetherness.

Here’s to celebrating old memories…and to the making of the new {chink!}

 

*P.S.  It was on my birthday last year that I officially started this little blog…here’s to one year of intentionally blooming…out loud!  Thanks for taking the journey with me…it delights my heart!

Related posts:

  1. O Hacker… er um… Happy Birthday!
  2. The Man {before My Man}
  3. He Loves Me
  4. The Tale of Three Trees
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Simply Bloom exists to empower women to embrace their stories, live out their passion with purpose, and leave a legacy of love.
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Hello there! I'm Joy. Speaker, designer, author & coach, and creator of the #weROARproject. Welcome to Simply Bloom Co., where passion & purpose collide.

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May you remember that God is not only the God of d May you remember that God is not only
the God of destinations, but of detours.

When life takes you somewhere you never intended to go,
may you recognize that you have not been forgotten.

May you have eyes to see the people in front of you,
hands willing to gather the sticks,
courage to shake off the snakes,
a heart willing to welcome and be welcomed,
and faith to believe that even here,
especially here, God is at work.
What if the place you keep calling a detour is act What if the place you keep calling a detour is actually part of the story?

Paul was headed to Rome. Instead, he ended up shipwrecked on Malta.
It wasn't the destination. But it mattered.

A reminder for all of us: don't waste the waiting,
the detour, or the place you didn't choose.

🎙️ 042 | Make Malta Matter | Finding Purpose in Divine Detours
  The latest Oh, Good Grief Podcast episode is out now.

#OhGoodGriefPodcast #MakeMaltaMatter #SimplyBloomCo
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What if the years you thought were wasted… weren't What if the years you thought were wasted…
weren't wasted at all?

In Part 2 of my conversation with Leah Harvey,
we go deeper into what it means to trust
God when the outcome is still unknown.

Leah has spent years carrying the ache of infertility,
and she doesn't offer a tidy answer or a spiritual shortcut.

Instead, she talks about restoration.
About eternity.
About choosing Jesus over her preference.
About looking for treasure in the middle of the story.

And about the surprising realization that there
may not have been wasted years after all,
because God was present in every one of them.

He is.
Even here.
Even now.

🎧 Part Two with Leah Harvey is live now.

#OhGoodGriefPodcast #StruggleWell #StayRooted #SojournTogether
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What if trusting that God is good doesn't mean bel What if trusting that God is good doesn't mean
believing He will give us everything we ask for?

That's one of the questions my friend Leah Harvey
and I wrestle with in this week's episode.

Leah and her hubby, Jake, have walked through years
of infertility and the kind of unanswered prayer that
doesn't just hurt once—it asks you to keep
trusting God over and over again.

We talk about grief, surrender, the questions we sometimes feel afraid to ask, and what happens when we stop trying to put tidy answers over messy pain.

This is a tender conversation about choosing Jesus over our preferences, embracing the mystery of God, and learning to believe that His goodness doesn't depend on whether He gives us the thing we're asking for.

Part One of my conversation with Leah Harvey is live now
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#OhGoodGriefPodcast #StruggleWell #StayRooted #SojournTogether
Before the world told you who you needed to become Before the world told you who you needed to become...
Before fear taught you how to survive...
Before shame convinced you to hide...
God looked at you and called you His own.

Not because you had healed.
Not because you had figured yourself out.
Not because you had become your best self.
Simply because you were His.

You are still becoming.
And you are already loved.

Keep coming home.

#OhGoodGriefPodcast #SimplyBloomCo
What if the goal isn't to become a different type, What if the goal isn't to become a different type,
but to become more fully yourself?

We've spent the last several weeks exploring the Enneagram:
our gifts, wounds, coping strategies, and the stories we
learned to believe in order to survive.

Now it's time to come home.

Episode 039 closes this Summer Series by asking
what happens when self-awareness becomes surrender.

The Enneagram can help us understand our patterns.
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You are not your number.
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You are not your coping strategy.

You are a beloved child of God.

🎧 Oh, Good Grief — Episode 039 is available now.
Sitting on the front porch with a cup of coffee, m Sitting on the front porch with a cup of coffee, my Bible and a book of maps in my lap, and the sun on my face, has me thinking about how strange and beautiful life can be.

It’s no small honor to be given the opportunity to preach at our church from time to time. Had you told the broken, shoplifting, lying, giving-her-body-away-for-free teenage girl I once was that one day she’d stand in a pulpit and talk to people about God’s goodness and grace, I would have laughed at you.

But maybe that’s exactly why God delights in using the messy, the unlikely, the misfits. Because these are the stories that make His redemption impossible to miss.

One of my favorite lines from The Chosen, spoken by Mary Magdalene, sums it up perfectly: “I was one way, and now I am completely different. And the thing that happened in between was Him.”

That’s my story, too.
And if I were to hazard a guess, it's yours as well.

It’s one of my greatest joys to dig into God’s Word, share what He’s laid on my heart, offer some encouragement and conviction, confess the uncomfortable things, and ultimately point people back to Jesus.

Because there’s no denying the extraordinary power of redemption when you’ve lived it yourself.
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