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Where Passion & Purpose Collide

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Zucchini: The Sassy Edition

Yes, I’m back.  With more zucchini talk. But you’re going to love this dish.  It’s absobloominlutely delicious!  And healthy.  And sexy. Besides.  I’m breaking out the summer squash this time too, so it’ll rock your palate in green and gold. Penne, Veggies & Sausage in Garlic Cream Sauce          Ingredients: 1 box of whole grain penne pasta 5 chicken sausages… Read More

Food, Garden

Zucchini Pizza on the Grill

My squash plants are going strong yet again this summer, achieving their unstoppable mission of complete garden domination. And once again, only quadrupled in quantity this time around, are my happy little zucchini plants…surprising us with magic green missiles overnight. I pluck them.  And low and behold the next day, they’re back! I love it! And yes, there’s a slight… Read More

Food, Garden

Fish: From Lake to Plate in 12 Hours Flat

My hubby and I spent the day at Michigan’s Adventure with fabulous friends yesterday, while our kiddos stayed home with nana and papa.  I got entirely too much sun, ate entirely too much food, and had entirely too much fun on the rides.  Going down water slides, over and over and over again – just us adults – was just… Read More

Food, Photography, Travels

{Triple}Berry Shortcake

As berry season forges on, full throttle, I couldn’t help but give this quick {and anti-oxidant packed} dessert a whirl!  As easy as it is to make, eager little hands actually make great helpers on this one, and the catching and devouring of runaway berries is welcomed too! We’ve become big fans of pulling the last-minute strawberry shortcake card when… Read More

Food, Home

Luscious Lemon Pie {oh my!}

Knowing my sweet sister is on the mend and no longer stranded on a mountainside in Botswana with a broken ankle (you know, the important stuff), I can share this frivolous fabulous recipe without feeling like a poopy big sister {thanks for all your prayers and kind words, our family has been blown away by the outpouring of love for… Read More

Food

{Incredible} Beer Bread

{Disclaimer: this bread is wildly delicious and may cause a spirit of gluttony to overtake you.  Double the batch} My hubby stumbled upon this scrumptious recipe last week while trying to find excuses to use my birthday present: a sexy, black Kitchenaid Mixer. He purchased it for me with purely unselfish motives, of course {cough, cough}.  It only took me… Read More

Food

Cake Pops for Africa

I heart Africa, it’s no surprise. It’s been almost 5 years since I was ‘home’. So until we can return, as a family {with children old enough to endure appreciate the journey over the ocean}, to touch her soil and kiss her people, we will live vicariously through my baby sister who has just landed in Kenya, will be working… Read More

Faith, Food, Travels

{Homemade} Bubble Tea

If you know me at all well, you’ll know I love tea.  No, let me rephrase that.  I adore tea. Make that: hot, black {British blend}, milky tea.  An entire pot of it! I also happen to be quite partial to chai and earl gray. Yes, indeed…tea + me = one happy girl! I’m {only mildly} embarrassed to admit that… Read More

Cute Stuff, Food

Baked Tilapia with Dill Sauce

There is no question: I loved being pregnant, and so enjoyed nursing my little ones.  The downside, however, is that they officially sucked my brains out. And I’m only sort of kidding. I combat this miserable truth by eating as much yummy fish as I can!  While salmon remains my fav, tilapia is considerably cheaper and when done well, is… Read More

Food

Cute. Fruit.

I love fresh fruit.  And I love pretty things. So it would stand to reason, that I love it when my fruit is pretty. Yes, I realize, it is pretty…all by its delectable lonesome…but there’s something delightful about lining up vibrant hues of juiciness on a pointy little stick and displaying them in a vase. {oooh aaaah!} And, as evidenced… Read More

Complete nonsense, Food

Mini Stromboli {an Italian Trial Size}

We like pizza around here, and eat it every other week or so. The catch: it’s almost always homemade! I tried making pretzels with the dough…I want to try cinnamon rolls…and we love to turn it outside-in and make Stromboli. {We buy our dough at SAMS – just 16 smackaroos for 20 perfect balls of frozen dough.  It’s awesome!} I… Read More

Food

{Slater’s} Turkey & Black Bean Burritos

{Slater’s} Turkey & Black Bean Burritos

If you’re a child of the 80’s, you’ll no doubt recall the drool-worthy A.C. Slater from Saved by the Bell. Well, I sort of had a crush on him when I was an awkward, pubescent adolescent.  So, naturally, when I see a little blurb in my Good Housekeeping magazine entitled, “Mario Lopez’s Turkey & Black Bean Burritos”, I just had… Read More

Food

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 photo Joy.jpg

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 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 t “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 A 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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