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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.
 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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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
Instagram post 17924817765424628 Instagram post 17924817765424628
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
Instagram post 18091972097640684 Instagram post 18091972097640684
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
🎧  040 | The Goodness of God in the Waiting

#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.
But it was never meant to become our identity.

You are not your number.
You are not your trauma.
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.
Follow @SimplyBloomJoy

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