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Simply Bloom Co.

Where Passion & Purpose Collide

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No Place Like Home {8 x 10 Printable}

No Place Like Home {8 x 10 Printable}

We love to travel. Everything from our 2 week road-trip extravaganza with our kidlets this summer, to the 5 weeks my hubby and I spent gallivanting across Southern Africa several years back. But coming home, sleeping in our bed and relaxing in our own space, is always the cherry on top. Because no matter how much glamour we experience during… Read More

Designs, Printables, Uncategorized

Change {is in the Air}

I love the change of seasons here in Michigan, and I happen to adore Autumn the most.  The crispness in the air, the unearthing of blue jeans and sweaters, and the thought of delicious soups and chilis simmering away in the crock pot just add to the joy. I love it! The smell of change is hanging thickly in the… Read More

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First Day Photos!

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Bug Goes to School! {Recipe & School Printable}

And, clearly, he’s ready for it. Our Bean starts Kindergarten today, and little Bug will be going to preschool twice a week.  To say he is excited would be an outrageous understatement.  Since getting his “poop in a group” – if you follow my drift – he’s been asking frequently when the beloved transition would begin. The day has arrived,… Read More

Uncategorized

Happy Birthday, Bug!

Our beloved little Bug, you delight your mama’s heart every single day. We adore you more than we ever realized possible…we wub you, to the moon and back!

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Ek-spek-tey-shuhn {take 2}

Ek-spek-tey-shuhn {take 2}

Real friendships bring out the best in you.  And, if they’re truly authentic connections with quality human beings, they will undoubtedly bring out the worst. I’ll never forget the time my best friend and I sat, puffy-eyed and frustrated, on opposite ends of my loveseat, allowing our disappointment in each other to bubble to the surface and our emotions to… Read More

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Happy Birthday, sweet Bean!

Today you turned four. Even though you told your auntie ‘Poo’, who called all the way from South Africa this afternoon, that you were “something like 15 now”…you’re actually four.  You’re starting preschool this Fall!  And using words like ‘condensation’ and ‘moisture’ in everyday sentences. I haven’t quite figured out how you got here so fast.  ‘Tis true what ‘they’… Read More

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Prayer Request for my {baby} Sister

I interrupt your regularly scheduled lame blog post – about lemon pie – to bring you this rather important prayer request for my sweet sister who, to put it mildly, has had an eventful day in Botswana… My delightful {ambitious, intelligent, hard-working, compassionate} baby sister has been teaching, preaching and volunteering in Kigali, Kenya and Gaborone, Botswana for the past… Read More

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Erma & Martha, the Exchange

{I heard these letters between Martha Stewart and Erma Bombeck read at the Ladies Day I spoke at in April…and loved them!  I haven’t the foggiest notion who to credit, so if you know…drop me a line so I can give credit to this most brilliant lass} Hi Erma, This perfectly delightful note is being sent on paper I made… Read More

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Independence Was Declared

…from all semblance of self-control, whatsoever. I mean, just look at this cake!  Who, in the presence of this scrumptious hunk of fruity, cream-cheesy goodness, would be able to maintain any sense of composure and dietary dignity?  Not I, my friend, not I. Especially when it has your name written in blueberries on it.  It’s like a blue invitation to… Read More

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Meet Marley {Mae}

Meet the newest addition to our family…Marley Mae!   She was a precious gift from a precious family…and we’re smitten.  Even one day into our adventure with her. She’s delightfully affectionate, ridiculously well behaved, and deliciously sweet! {swoon} Welcome, Marley Mae, we’re absolutely thrilled to have you!   {who knew an admittedly non-dog-person could so fast become a pup-lover?}

Uncategorized

My Hacker Man and The Historical Village

In case you missed it {or thought maybe I had vanity issues and liked to talk about myself in the third person}…my husband hacked my blog yesterday.  He actually hacked it.  Compliments of Live Writer. As a birthday surprise, none the less. He informed me, only minutes after I woke up…and minutes before he passed out {he works nights}, with… Read More

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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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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
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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
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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.
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