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Simply Bloom Co.

Where Passion & Purpose Collide

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{My} Snow Babies

           {they’re my favorite frozen treats!}

The Kiddos

Garam Masala & Indian Apricot Chicken

I may have become disenchanted with eating meat, but I have fallen in love with spice{s}.  And spices with quality meat equals one happy girl! First it was cumin.  Then coriander.  And I’ve always loved curry {but hey, I’m South African…it comes with the territory}.  Now…it’s Garam Masala. We purchased a little bag of this […]

Food

How to Catch the Moon

To say I’m still figuring out how to use my new camera would be an understatement of lunar proportions. But, playing with shutter speed is proving to be quite fun!    What exactly am I trying to photograph here…{while making hearts in the sky}? Why, the gorgeous full moon, of course!

Photography

Revisit: Discombobulated

You’ll find a previous post of mine over at Inner Fulfillment today…

Faith, Guest Post

A Soapbox Moment from a Meat-Lovin’ Girl

If I wasn’t a South African, meat-lovin’ girl, I would seriously consider becoming a vegetarian {gasp!}. I pulled off our first official Meatless Monday yesterday with a rave review from my hubby and kids {they ate it…does that count?}.  Who knew northern beans could put on such a sassy show outside of a pot of […]

Frugal Living, Health, Keepin' it Real

Loin-Fruit Love {it’s Black and White}

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body” ~  Elizabeth Stone Cricket: “Mama…you are best!  You are my favorite!  I have fallen in love with you…and we will be married in the morning!”

The Kiddos

{Homemade} Granola

I’m addicted to granola.  Absolutely. and completely.  hooked. But I’m not a fan of the price. The solution?  I make my own.  And then eat ungodly healthy amounts of it with our homemade yogurt.  Bliss! {Divine} Granola                 Ingredients: 12 cups of old fashioned oats 1 1/2 cups of wheat bran 1/2 cup of flax […]

Food

Messy.

The vacation bag sits.  Unpacked. Totes still sit, in this corner and that, filled with papers, cords and frames without a home.  Sitting, since our move last May. Dust collects.  Colonies of bunnies abound. Handprints multiply on unwashed windows, giving an almost 3D appearance to the greasy forms. Dirty laundry piles grow outside of laundry […]

Faith

Hot Diggity Dog, He’s 30!

This is him, folks {the one not wearing sporty-monkey pants, although I’m pretty crazy about him too) Oh, how I adore this guy! My sweet babe.  My funny boy.  My strong man. The one whom my soul loves, my heart adores, my flesh delights in. The one who is able to see past my unshowered, […]

Marriage

Happy Day

Just checkin’ in to say… “Happy Valentine’s Day” {hope it’s sweet}

Complete nonsense, Photography

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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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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.
If you are a One, my prayer is that you would neve If you are a One, my prayer is that you would never lose your love for truth, goodness, justice, and integrity.

Those are beautiful reflections of the heart of God.

But may you also discover the freedom of laying down the impossible burden of perfection. May grace become louder than your inner critic, and may rest become something you receive instead of something you earn.

And may you know, beyond all doubt, that God's love for you has never depended on your performance. It has always flowed from His heart.
There’s something about nature that turns me into There’s something about nature that turns me
into an awe-struck, five-year-old wildling.

I am endlessly fascinated by the details. And increasingly convinced that you cannot look closely at creation without bumping into the extravagant creativity of its Creator.

Over 350,000 known species of flowering plants.
An absurd variety of colors, shapes, textures, sizes and fragrances.

God could have made one flower.
One color. One shape. One scent. Done.

Instead, He keeps showing off.

And then there’s this common little zinnia.
Look closely. Closer. Closer still.

Those aren’t just little petals in the center. They’re loads of tiny little florets packed together, each one its own tiny work of art.

For what?

It grows. It blooms for a few days.
And eventually, it dies.

What on earth?
How lavish is this God of ours?

So much of creation isn’t necessary for survival. Beauty doesn’t keep us alive. Fragrance isn’t essential. Neither are color or texture or the tiny, ridiculous details hiding inside a zinnia.

They are gifts.

Little reminders that our Creator is not merely practical.
He is wildly, extravagantly generous.

And I, for one, am delighted to keep being a five-year-old wildling about it. 🌸
What if grace has been waiting for you where perfe What if grace has been waiting for you
where perfection never could take you?

This week on Oh, Good Grief, we wrap up our exploration of the 9 Enneagram types, and how each one engages grief, with Type One: The Reformer.

We'll explore the gift of integrity, the burden of the inner critic, and the freedom that comes when we stop striving to earn what God has already given.

The Enneagram may reveal the stories we've believed to survive.
But only grace tells us who we've been all along.

🎧 Episode 038 is available wherever you listen to podcasts.
From the front, our little apple tree is living he From the front, our little apple tree is living her best life: laden with fruit and bursting with life.

But that’s only half the story.

Take a walk around the backside and you’ll see something entirely different: a large branch, nearly a third of the tree, black and barren. Clearly diseased. Clearly dead. Clearly in need of pruning.

And yet, every time I walk past it on our evening loop around the campground behind our house, it catches me off guard. I forget it’s even there.

Maybe because I prefer to look at the fruitful side.

And isn’t that a little like us?

We’re pretty comfortable displaying the beautiful parts: the wins, the answered prayers, the accomplishments, the parts of life that look healthy and fruitful.

The broken parts? The grief. The struggling relationships. The things we’ve neglected. The places where we’re tired or hurting or simply not okay?

Those we tend to tuck around the backside, hoping no one notices.

But here’s the thing: what we hide still needs tending.

We don’t have to be ashamed of the barren branches. We don’t have to pretend they aren’t there. And we certainly don’t have to wait until everything looks beautiful before we allow ourselves to be honest.

Maybe growth does look like good fruit.

And maybe sometimes it looks like finally walking around back, taking an honest look, and saying, That needs to go.

Pruning isn’t failure.
It’s making room for what’s still alive.

And if you’ve got a few dead branches of your own right now, take heart. You are not the barren branch. You are the whole tree. 🌿

#SimplyBloomCo
If you are a Nine, my prayer is that you would nev If you are a Nine, my prayer is that you would never lose your gift of bringing calm, compassion, and steadiness into a fractured world.

Those are beautiful reflections of the heart of Christ.

But may you also discover that your voice is not an interruption, your needs are not an inconvenience, and your presence is not optional. May you become the kind of peacemaker who tells the truth with love, receives love without shrinking, and lives fully awake to the life God has entrusted to you.

May you know, deep in your soul, that you don't have to disappear to belong.
What if the peace you've been protecting has come What if the peace you've been protecting
has come at the cost of your own presence?

This week on Oh, Good Grief, we're exploring Enneagram Nine: The Peacemaker.

Nines have an incredible gift for helping others feel safe, seen, and understood.
But somewhere along the way, many learned that staying connected meant staying quiet.

What if healing isn't about becoming louder?
What if it's about believing your voice already belongs in the room?

🎧 Episode 037 is available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Follow @SimplyBloomJoy

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