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Simply Bloom Co.

Where Passion & Purpose Collide

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Simply Soup {Pumpkin, Split Pea & Lentil}

While we haven’t experienced anything like our usual winter here in Michigan {and I am not complaining…the sunshine makes this gal one happy mama!}, if it’s not flip-flop weather…it’s soup season!  Regardless of what the temperature gauge says. Soup is cheap, easy and oh so tasty! So I have three of our favorites thick, creamy […]

Food, Frugal Living, Photography

Bugging Out!

We’re celebrating a little lad who’s been {heart} medicine free for over a year! {smile!} And the fact that he’s so stinkin’ cute it makes my cheeks hurt.

Complete nonsense, The Kiddos, Videos

Pinterest: The New Crack

There once was a young mum of two Who knew she had too much to do No time to show interest In the drug known as Pinterest {that gloriously sweet visual stew}   But when it started to woo She got sucked right into the glue Now there’s passionate interest in that blissful crack: Pinterest […]

Complete nonsense

Here’s to 2011

We cannot believe we have come to the end of yet another year…and what a fun, full year it has been! We’ve enjoyed our first full year in our new home, along with all the fun ‘firsts’ that come with it… like taking in the beauty of the ice-covered lake from our kitchen window {a […]

Daily Life, Family, Home, Motherhood

Crumbling the Silence {with Cookies}

We’re having a grand ol’ time here in the McMilli-vanilli home.  I have no idea where that came from.  You’ll have to pardon me, I’m heavily sleep deprived {sick kids, design deadlines, cookies to decorate, you know…the usual} and mildly medicated {it’s that time…and my uterus hates me}.  And apparently my TMI filter is broken. […]

Cute Stuff, Family, Food, Home, Photography

Letting Myself Off the Hook

I am so enjoying life right now.  Soaking in my little ones.  Chillin’ with my man.  Connecting with family and friends.  Digging into some really interesting books {3 paragraphs at a time}.  Purging my cupboards and the forgotten corners of my house and shipping boxes off to Goodwill.  Occasionally trying new recipes – just because […]

Daily Life, Guest Post, Keepin' it Real, Marriage, Motherhood, Quotes and Scriptures

Letting Go of Super-Mom

It occurred to me last summer, while slathering my child from head to toe with diaper rash cream, summoning every ounce of determination I could muster to rub the white paste into her sweetly resistant skin, that motherhood didn’t look much like I envisioned it would. Come to think of it, it doesn’t smell much […]

Family, Home, Keepin' it Real, Motherhood, The Kiddos

Butternut Squash Cake {with Cream Cheese Frosting}

As if we needed more reasons to love squash…I present you with…CAKE!           Butternut Squash Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting                    Ingredients: 3/4 cup butter, softened {not melted} 1 1/2 cups of white sugar 3 eggs 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda 1/2 teaspoon of salt 1/2 teaspoon of ground […]

Food, Garden, Photography

At The Well, Guest Post {Filled With His Glory}

Happy Sunday, friends!  And what a gorgeous day it is up in our neck of the woods. You’ll find this week’s guest post right here, At The Well

Designs, Guest Post, Photography, Quotes and Scriptures

Ramblings & Us {Through the Ledford Lens}

I’ve had a deliciously full week; opportunities to connect with girlfriends I don’t get to see even remotely often enough, dinner with a wonderful friend I haven’t seen in over 7 years, an out-of-town conference with my hubby {which boasted paradigm-shift-inducing teaching by Carl Medearis…he rocked our world}, and was sprinkled with precious family time […]

Complete nonsense, Daily Life, Family, Home

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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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The stories we tell about ourselves often begin be The stories we tell about ourselves often begin
before we know we’re telling them...
in childhood, where identity is still forming
and belonging can feel uncertain.

This week, I sit down with my friend Tiana Hawver as she shares her story of adoption, trauma, and the ache of rejection that shaped how she saw herself for years.

This one is tender. Honest.
And deeply needed.

🎧 Episode 020 is live | Reconnecting the Dots
  Identity, Trauma, and the Ache of Belonging
Joy isn’t the opposite of sorrow. It’s the opposit Joy isn’t the opposite of sorrow.
It’s the opposite of fear.

We live between Friday and Sunday,
and most of life feels like Saturday.
Tension is not failure.
It’s formation.

If you’ve been chasing happiness
and feeling weary...
this episode might steady you.

🎧 019 | Cultivating Joy on the Journey
 [in the Middle of the Mess]

Listen wherever you stream podcasts.
One year ago today, I drove 90 mph to an emergency One year ago today,
I drove 90 mph to an emergency room,
wondering if I would walk into that room
as a worried wife…
or a widow.

Another valley of despair.
Another encounter with a good, faithful God.

My update from that week still holds:

"I never imagined my shaky thumbs would be typing words like stroke, NeuroTrauma ICU, or brain surgery in reference to my healthy, 44-year-old husband.
And yet…this is where we find ourselves.
We’ve been brought to our knees—again.
But, as we’ve come to understand…
our knees are a good place to be.
Nestled in the palm of God’s hand..."

///

And today, we continue to stand amazed,
at God’s kindness to us,
and at the gift of our people:
our community, our family, our friends,
who have carried us in ways we will never be able to repay.

Looking at my handsome guy today,
strong, fully recovered, and back to work since October,
apart from the six-inch scar up the back of his head,
you’d never know a massive stroke almost took his life.

So we mark today with gratitude.
I hereby dub April 23rd:
Joe’s Stroke of Grace Day ✌

///

“When you’re in over your head,
I’ll be there with you.
When you’re in rough waters,
you will not go down.
When you’re between a rock and a hard place,
it won’t be a dead end…”
:: Isaiah 43:2
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Happiness is a moving target. Joy is not. In toda Happiness is a moving target.
Joy is not.

In today’s episode, I share a story about a farmer
who trusted the wrong reference point,
and plowed his entire field crooked.
Maybe the reason we’re exhausted isn’t because we’re failing.
Maybe we’ve been fixing our eyes on something that keeps moving.

This conversation isn’t about faking joy.
It’s about cultivating it, in grief, in tension,
in the hidden places where roots grow.

🎧 Episode 019 | Cultivating Joy on the Journey
 [in the Middle of the Mess] is now live.

#OhGoodGriefPodcast #RootedJoy #FaithInTheHard #JoyOnTheJourney
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What if addiction isn’t the root, but the symptom? What if addiction isn’t the root,
but the symptom?

What if beneath the behavior
there’s pain that’s never been named?

This week’s conversation is about
truth, trauma, and the slow work of healing.

And the kind of redemption
only God can write.

🎧 Listen to 018 | Beauty Beyond the Breaking with Carol Boothroyd
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Follow @SimplyBloomJoy

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