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Where Passion & Purpose Collide

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Snot. Tissues. Benadryl. Repeat.

My precious hubby has blessed me with lots of opportunities to sleep a little more today.  He rocks my world. The wee babes are not well, and I’m not feeling spectacular either. So, in honor of all the snotty tissues laying around, and the fact that the Benadryl has once again been dug out of our medicine cabinet, let us… Read More

Health, Keepin' it Real, The Kiddos

It’s A {Frog} Wrap

The lovely {brilliant, creative, beautiful} momma behind Second Nature Baby Wraps {who just happens to be one of my all time favorite people} knocked my socks off when she custom created a wrap for me to “wear” my son after he was born.  {It’s an absolute life-saver when you have a toddler to chase} While still in utero, my sweet… Read More

Cute Stuff, The Kiddos

I Don’t Know About A Cabana Boy…

But it would appear I have a wild-about-the-outdoors, rough-and-tumble Cabela Boy on my hands. When he’s not riding on the tractor or working in the man cave with his daddy, enjoying leaves and dirt for their unique tactile qualities, playing with his cars and making engine noises, or mounting something unstable and destined for disaster…he’s hammering something breakable with something… Read More

Daily Life, The Kiddos

Conquering the Beast

Sunshine: check Giant dinosaur: check Determination: check Cutest dinosaur-conqueror alive: check

Daily Life, The Kiddos

The Story of Us

If you’ve sat in our living room and looked out our bay window, you have most likely spotted them; 3 exquisitely unique sculptures that tell the story of “us”. Meticulously crafted from chucks of black soapstone and serpentine, and gathered from 3 completely different places at different stages of our journey, these sculptures depict the progression of our lives. A… Read More

Love, Marriage, The Kiddos

A Cider Mill Morning

We spent Saturday morning with a few of our favorite people, soaking up the sunshine at Uncle John’s Cider Mill. Where better to spend these final few days of gorgeous late-Summer-early-Autumn weather than here, sipping cider and eating donuts, playing, having a wagon ride and picking up pumpkins {not to mention my new, sweet little niece}? When I told Cricket… Read More

Friendship, The Kiddos, Travels

The Wild, The Wacky, The Wonderful

…we got to experience it all at the Saginaw Zoo. Well, not all.  But you know, we worked through our disappointment {over no lions, or tigers, or bears…oh my}. What we did score out of the deal was a delicious morning of adventure with our new friends, a yummy picnic lunch, and 4 {relatively} well-behaved toddlers enjoying the gloriously warm,… Read More

Friendship, Motherhood, The Kiddos, Travels

Rrring Rrrring…

What might you be able to create from a random, cast-off chunk of wood found laying outside the man cave, you ask? {I know, you didn’t ask.  But work with me here} Why…a high-tech, state-of-the-art woodular phone, of course!     No matter how absorbed you may be in your coloring project, your pretty pink phone will zap you out… Read More

The Kiddos

Whip It

…whip it good!   {random glow-in-the-dark-stick finding meets later-than-normal bedtime}

The Kiddos

Dip It

Why is Bug smiling? Because he has just experienced his very first peanut butter dipping bowl.       And I think he liked it.

Food, The Kiddos

Fall{ing} 4 Friendship

I love watching my daughter’s friendships blossom.  The older they get, the more it seems they appreciate those sweet bonds that have formed with other little people their age.  And the more sweetly and intimately they connect.  And – sweet relief – the less they pout, shriek and hoard. It seems they truly start to love each other, miss each… Read More

Friendship, The Kiddos

Toes & Giggles

    We had friends over yesterday and loved every minute of it! Their delightful daughter confirmed something I’ve suspected for some time now. I think 3 is my favorite age yet! Yes, the sassiness has the ability to drive me absolutely batty, and the drama makes me want stick my fingers in my ears, close my eyes and sing… Read More

Friendship, The Kiddos

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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 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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