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I was Weeding the Vegetable Garden…

{and other lame excuses for why I’ve been such a delinquent blogger lately}

  • I was busy growing sprouts…

Sprouts

  • I was locking myself, my children and our pup out of our house while my husband slept soundly in our room.  Good thing one of our screens doesn’t lock properly into it’s window and Bean was willing to slither in through the living room window.  Awesome way to start a morning indeed!
  • I was listening to a beautiful CD a precious friend of mine recorded and mailed to me.  On repeat.
  • I was busy watching helping my husband make all sorts of fun things with my birthday present…{recipes to come}

Fan bread (2 of 1) Cinnamon swirl (1 of 1)Cinnamon swirl (2 of 1) Fan bread (1 of 1)

  • I was busy swooning over the few day old baby bunnies Marley found burrowed in our front yard this morning.  Yay, my proverbial nest is full again!  We can’t wait to watch these babies grow {assuming said pup isn’t able to move my high-tech security system of upside-down crate with cannonball on top from covering their nest}
  • I was busy shaving both legs.  During one shower.  A miraculous summer necessity that has only been occurring more frequently since my children have been increasing in age.
  • I was designing my eyeballs out into the wee hours of the morning…{you know, the ‘professional’ thing I do on the side in my pajamas while my children are sleeping and my husband is out protecting the fine citizens of Michigan}

PIA BlogUnveil-Your-Style-eBlastClub Book Marks singleBook Club Poster 

 NWCC Postcard Final Southwest Showcase Basketball

And a personal favorite design project {due to the deliciously sweet subjects within}…

Mykah Lillian NEW B

I got to snap shots of the proud big sisters holding their sweet wee babe…

Reed Girls (1 of 1)

and even got to hold her the day after she emerged!!  {swoon}

Joy w Mykah (1 of 1)

  • So I was holding a baby.  Need I say more?
  • I was painting my fingernails a non-transparent color for the first time in my life.  And then removing it two days later.
  • I was busy doing loads of laundry.
  • I was out running in the early hours of the morning with Marley.  Okay fine, I did that once.  And barely made it out alive.
  • I was busy making garlicky hummus deliciousness and pita chips {out of tortillas, but of course}…

Hummus and chips

  • I was drinking entirely too many cups of tea.  But that is nothing new, now is it?
  • I was busy watching my sexy man flex his muscles and get his blue jeans dirty while cutting down a tree at my parent’s house {va va voom, baby!}.  And then we went on a date.  The rest is history.  Amen.

Cutting tree (2 of 1)

  • I was busy lying to you about doing loads of laundry.  Those are piled high in baskets still waiting to be tended.  Like this lonely blog.  Forgive me.
  • I was drooling over my new Jo Totes camera bag I convinced a sweet client to buy for me in exchange for design work because I’m too cheap to pay more than $15 for a bag.
  • I was making scrumptious veggie pizza with way too much bacon for my own good…

uncooked pizza (1 of 1)cooked pizza (1 of 1)

  • I was meeting spiffy new people I could talk for hours with.
  • I was getting burnt to a crisp at the beach with precious friends while my poor husband wonders where the heck his wife and kids are and whether his wife was sober when she decided to leave the house for 5 hours and not leave a note or answer her phone {gulp, sorry babe!}
  • I really was weeding and watering the vegetable garden {yay me!}, and actually knew to cut the pretty curly scapes off my garlic plants this year {that I simply admired and left intact last year}.  I was even thoughtful enough to put them in an old peanut butter jar and give them to my mom as an unorthodox floral arrangement  Because she loves garlic.  And because I’m a rockin’ daughter like that.

Garlic scapes (1 of 1)

  • I have been catching fireflies with my lovely loin fruit {and marveling at Bug’s ability to catch and squish in 2 seconds flat}
  • I have been making frequent stops at our local Whippy Dip.  I have a problem.  Especially when the sign outside reads “Toasted Coconut”.
  • I have been reading A Woman After God’s Own Heart.  Because I want to.  But mostly because I’m a part of a book club, and now I “have” to.  It’s challenging.  And so very good.
  • And the other reason I’ve been a blogging slacker is because I’ve been quite busy watching my sweet girl fall in love with her very first real pet…and melting at the very sight.

Marley girl (1 of 1)

But I’ll stop making excuses and get back on the blogging ball. 

{until, of course, something else, life-inspired occurs and I have to slip away to intentionally live it to the hilt!}

Related posts:

  1. Baby Smooches
  2. Meet Marley {Mae}
  3. Camping Prep & the Baby Face
  4. Weeding & Seeding: The Promise of ‘Instead’
«
»

Complete nonsense, Daily Life, Photography

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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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I am regularly overwhelmed by the kindness of God I am regularly overwhelmed by the 
kindness of God in the small + simple.

Things like twinkle lights + Christmas jazz,
scraping out the peanut butter fudge pot
all by myself while sitting on the counter,
and walking around the corner to find my
loin fruit snuggled up together over tea.

They may fight like cats + dogs at times,
but their bond is deep and true and sweet.
Happy release day, @dralisoncook 💛 Written at the Happy release day, @dralisoncook 💛

Written at the intersection 
of faith and psychology, 
this book is yet another 
soul-nourishing,
heart-healing, 
boundary-fortifying 
gift from Alison Cook
(if you’ve had a heart-to-heart
with me in the past two years,
you know how much I loved 
‘Boundaries for the Soul’). 

As an enneagram 2 who was raised 
in the church, this book was a timely
and liberating read. Pure balm for the 
weary, recovering-people-pleaser soul. 

I am beyond grateful for the wisdom, 
compassion + experience that Alison 
brings to all she shares (and it was
such an honor to be on her launch 
team for this beautiful new book).

Need a survival guide for your growth
and healing journey? Here you go! ✌🏼

#thebestofyou #thebestofyoubook #womenoffaith #healthyboundaries #healthyyou #healingjourney
Find yourself a tribe of people who will, togethe Find yourself a tribe of people who will, 
together, spend a beautiful Saturday
morning pulling this workout off:

• 20 mile run
• 340 tire flips
• 2,000 air squats
• 1,000 pull ups
• 1,500 box jumps
• 2,200 pull ups
• 600 devil press
• 3,300 sit ups

Brutal. Amazing. 
Exhausted.
So grateful for these two - their friendship, enco So grateful for these two - their friendship,
encouragement and wise counsel over the
past decade of being our pastoral couple
has been such a gift to our family 💛

Congrats on your retirement, dear friends!!
“Over the years, I have come to realize that the “Over the years, 
I have come to realize that 
the greatest trap in our life is not 
success, popularity, or power, 
but self-rejection.”
 :: Henri Nouwen

Somewhere along the journey of 
life, we start to believe the lie that - 
despite being made in the very image 
of a good and beautiful God - who we 
are is inherently bad and broken, and 
we learn to cover that deep sense 
of inadequacy (and the shame that 
accompanies it) with performance.

Because our visceral 
human response to 
‘bad + broken’ is 
‘reject + conceal’.

We think it’s the rejection of others
that cuts us to the core, but the truth
is…most of us walk around wounded 
by a constant and unrelenting sense 
of self-rejection and self-loathing.

Want to know why we feverishly seek 
out the approval and validation of others?
Why we desperately want others to like us?

Because we’re out of touch with our
inherent value and worth, and we’re
not sure that we even like ourselves.

We resent our weakness,
and abandon ourselves.

/ / /

But this good + beautiful God of ours…
He is drawn to our weakness like a
moth to a flame, swooping in to
bring strength and grace.

Paul writes in Corinthians 12:9 that 
he learned to delight in his weakness 
because it was when he was week that
“His strength is perfected in me”. 

Or, as the Passion Translation so 
stunningly puts it, “my weakness 
becomes a portal to God’s power”.

Precious ones, we can shun our tender
still-in-process places, pretend to have 
it all together, and hustle for our worth…
OR we can drop the masks, offer kindness 
and curiosity to our hurting, broken parts,
and learn to live fully seen and known.

But we can’t have both.

And yes, it’s scary.

Today may we choose
…grace over perfectionism
…curiosity over shame
…acceptance over rejection
…gentleness over judgement
…wholeness over pretense

You are loved.
And they’re off! Alathea is in 10th grade and Aid And they’re off!

Alathea is in 10th grade and
Aiden is heading into 8th grade.

Here’s to a year full of grace,
discovery, friendship + growth 🙌🏼
"Faith isn't the ability to believe long + far i "Faith isn't the ability 
to believe long + far 
into the misty future. 
It's simply taking God 
at His Word + taking 
the next step."

:: Joni Eareckson Tada
Day 15 | Beach Day + Travel Prep We fly out late Day 15 | Beach Day + Travel Prep

We fly out late tomorrow evening so today
has been a lazy day of laundry, laying in the
sun, a petshop visit (where Aiden fell in love 
with a cute rat + I discovered zebra finches), 
an impromptu stop for bubble tea + stuffed crepes [oh my word, were these delicious!!],
shopping [I found the best, comfiest - Joe
would argue ‘ugliest’ - romper at the thrift
store that I can’t wait to wear on our long
journey home], and Aiden is currently off
doing his thing: fishing right from the pier.
Our view from the lodge last night ✨ Our view from the lodge last night ✨
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