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30 Things {You Might Not Know} About Me…

…and quite possibly, I should note, might not want to.

Joy w- Dragonfly (1 of 1)

Happy Birthday to me,

I’ve officially hit thirty!

And I‘m not sure how I managed

to maintain sanity.

 

In honor of 30 years under my belt, I thought I might entertain you with these 30 little morsels…

  1. I’m a picker and a plucker.  If my husband sees me with tweezers or needle in hand, he runs and hides.
  2. The week before I became pregnant with my first, I jumped off South Africa’s highest bridge.
  3. I went to 4 different high schools {Namibia, USA, Namibia and then back to the USA}.  Making new friends and then having to say farewell got a little old, but I love that through facebook I’ve been able to connect with old friends from all 4 schools.
  4. I can tell exactly how many days it’s been since my last shower with one glance at my armpit hair length.  Mad skillz, baby.
  5. My sisters and I all kiss each other goodbye.  Yes, on the lips.  Not sure whether it’s cultural or just our family.
  6. I have always wanted to learn how to ice-skate (and intend to learn one of these Winters).
  7. Time-management is not one of my strengths…I get completely wrapped up in frivolous things and before I know it…it’s 2:00 am.  I desperately need to work on this!
  8. I had breakfast with TobyMac, just chillin’ on the kitchen counters of a hotel in New York.
  9. After Bug was born, I had my placenta dehydrated and encapsulated {read: I consumed it in capsule form}.  It made a world of difference, despite being madly revolting to think about.
  10. I tried to pierce my own belly button when I was a teen.  With a safety pin.  I took it out the next day, it hurt so much.  I successfully added the 2nd and 3rd holes in my ears all on my own.
  11. I’ve always wanted to dance.  And be a trapeze artist.  I desperately want to own a tall, far-flying swing…it’s the closest I’ll get to flying on earth.  Jumping from an airplane is not an option.
  12. I was engaged at 18, and praise God, did not marry the guy.  I met my husband when I was 21, after recommitting my life to Christ and after 3 years of celibacy.
  13. I would love to be on The Amazing Race one day, with my hubby.
  14. I struggle with being a raging perfectionist.  Motherhood is slowly beating it out of me.
  15. I accidentally took a sip of my husbands….um…urine.  And survived.  He almost didn’t.  There’s a pitiful story to this.
  16. I have a storage fetish.  I have things organized into totes and baskets in every single room and closet of my house.  Love!
  17. I love weddings!  And I always watch the groom as he catches his first glimpse of his bride.  And then I get to dance with my husband…what’s not to love?
  18. I went to school for massage therapy, and got certified as a fitness instructor.  I’ve never had a design, photography or post-high-school writing class in my life.  Isn’t God hilarious how He delights in using the unlikely!
  19. My 3 sisters and I all got our noses pierced together 3 years ago.  I wanted to cry it hurt so badly.
  20. I broke my jaw right before I turned 16, and just before we flew across the ocean from South Africa to the States.  I had my jaw wired shut {ouch!} for 6 weeks and dropped 30 pounds.  I was thrilled to discover I actually had a waistline, albeit in a very uncomfortable way.
  21. I miss my “girls”.  Nursing did a number on them {but I’d do it all over again!}
  22. I must confess…I adore cleaning my house.  There’s nothing like cleaning, purging and organizing…without children around…with Michael Bublé blaring!  But…while my house is usually clean, my car is most often trashed.
  23. I didn’t know I had a short temper and the ability to yell loudly until I became a mom.  This breaks my heart.
  24. For the first 6 years of marriage, I was a horribly insecure cook and was terribly uncomfortable in the kitchen.  Since moving into this house and blogging my way through recipes, snapping photos along the way, I’ve fallen in love with it!
  25. I desperately want to get a tattoo.  But I’m just too chicken {despite being able to push out a 10 pound 6 ounce baby.  Naturally, thankyouverymuch).
  26. On my first day of school in the States (as an insecure freshman), I asked the guy sitting next to me for a rubber.  Apparently you call them erasers over here.  He’s never let me live it down.
  27. I cried live on the air {when I worked in Christian radio} telling Jeremy Camp’s story {because my sneaky co-host broke out some Titanic soundtrack in the background}.  Jeremy caught wind of it and left a sweet note on my desk when he stopped by the studio.  I’m pathetic and still have it.
  28. I simply love magic erasers.  They clean everything!  And rock my world.  I also have an addiction to baskets.  Lots of world rocking going on here.
  29. I used to be able to speak three languages, relatively fluently.  English, Afrikaans and German.  I grew up in a German colony {where it was a compulsory subject}, and went to an Afrikaans high school.  15 years later…my German stinks, my Afrikaans is suffering, and my English is, well, working for me.
  30. I soak up face-to-face time, and adore one-on-one connections over copious cups of tea and coffee…but I also adore the adrenaline rush of lots of friends mingling in a room with music pumping.  I’m an introverted social-butterfly, I suppose.

You still awake? {nudge, nudge}

So there you have it, my friend!  I’m a piece of work, eh?

{and officially thirty, flirty and thriving!}

Related posts:

  1. First Day Photos!
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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 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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