Joy Leanne

  A few favorite instgram photos from Christmas. An unexpected White Christmas and sleepy girls on the drive up. Some how all seem to fit with this theme of silence, and waiting, and listening. Normally I am ready for the last week of the year to be over. Ready to move on with routine and schedule and life. But something in my heart aches to cling to this in between time. This time of low expectations. The thought of moving forward hurts just a touch to much. My aunt passed away today. She was my mother's sister and, because of a large age gap between her and my mother, was more like a grandmother to me. The past few months have been about reconnecting for me. Reconnecting with my past, with my families stories, with the women in my family. I have had the beautiful opportunity of "meeting" a cousin on my mother's side through facebook this winter. I was doing research for a story for The Clutch Guide. It has been an unexpected and wonderful experience. Over Christmas

It's gotten pretty cold this week. Combinations of ice and rain and snow. The girls and I are staying warm with sweatshirts and fuzzy socks and wishing we had stocked up on fire wood earlier. Poor Hubby is working all week trying to catch up his numbers the last week of the year. Sick with a horrible cold and standing out side all day. He is my hero. It is always a funny time to me. This week between Christmas and New Years. It always feels so.... silent.... like C.S. Lewis' wood between the worlds in Magicians Nephew. My goal was to use this time to clean and organize and prepare for the coming year. However, with all four of us being sick with a nasty bug it has become more of a time to flop on the sofa under lots of covers and watch a crazy amount of Law and Order. The kids are: Enjoying Christmas gifts. Pushing boundaries after all Holiday hubbub. Sick as dogs. Going to bed late. Napping where ever they fall. Next week we will get back into a rhythm. But this week is more a

After my last post I just can't seem to get the concept of silence out of my head. These are the words that have been rolling around. Stuck somewhere in my brain just brewing. I have a feeling they will be important in the year to come, though I am not entirely sure what exactly they will mean or look like. So for now I am simply living with them. In this in between time between the old and the new. Between last year and next. Between the path we are on and the one we will take. Be Silent. Be Still. Listen.

Things were insanely busy the last few weeks. Despite my best effort we had a repeat of last year. Packages going out at the very last minute and sick as a dog the last days before Christmas. Next year will be different. I swear. In the mean time we are at my parents. Playing with aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents. However I think these sweet moments when my sick babies crawl into my lap and sleep have hands down been the sweetest. There is something about my parents home that speaks rest to me (and many other I believe.) And so we are resting. And I am taking lots of time to hold my babies and drink tea and chat with my mom and sit by the fire with my sister and enjoy with quiet anticipation this advent season.

I’m not entirely sure why, but it is has been far too easy this advent season to focus on the haven’ts. The things I haven’t done. The movies we haven’t watched. The projects I haven’t finished. The cookies I haven’t baked. The memories we haven’t made. The gifts we haven’t shipped. So much so, that the haven’t seem to have taken over the past week or so for me leaving me feeling drained, weary, and defeated. Last night due to poor planning on my part I spent 2 hours at our church building with nothing to do. No book to read, no project to work on, no laptop/tablet to fiddle with. Just me, a comfy chair, and a cell phone with an almost dead battery. I was kicking myself for letting this happen and thinking of all the “haven’ts” I could have turned into “haves”. I was driving myself nuts so I decided to use the last bit of my cell battery to catch up on some blogs. I follow some awesome blogs, but for whatever reason last night it just wasn’t doing it for me. Looking at every one's

To some it might be  the most wonderful time of the year. To many it often feels like the busiest time of year. To many people doing "Advent" is just piling more onto the never-ending seasonal to do list. So, why do Advent? For starters we celebrate Advent in two ways. An Advent Calendar (which I will discuss today and probably a few more times this season) and an Advent wreath which I hope to write about tomorrow. Growing up my parents started doing the advent calendar as a way to organize and schedule all the various Christmas activities that came with being a senior pastor. As my dad's church grew and his job changed it wasn't needed for that as much. By the time my younger brother and I came around the Advent Calendar was about celebrating the small ordinary moments of life and making them "special". My parents never went looking for an activity to do to fill a square. Rather they made a big deal out of things we would have done any ways like wrapping Ch

I love baking. I especially love baking bread. There is something about being up past my wrists in dough that just brings me peace and contentment. The Holidays in particular bring out in me the need to fill my home with the aroma of rising bread. They say that scent is one of the strongest memory triggers. I know this to be true. The simple scent of certain bread products that flood my mind with images and moments from my childhood. Any time I cook my little one's want to be part of the processes. Maddie especially wants to be part of whatever is going on. If I am baking their desire to participate is even more intense. Either because they want to eat the cookie or play with the bread dough. So often my first instinct is to brush them off. Our kitchen is small and there isn't a lot of extra space for little ones. But something about this time made me pause. And so I took a deep breath, scooted over, and taught them how to brush butter onto the paper-thin dough before I rolled

So I have been participating in 30 Days of Thank You this month. If you read yesterday's post you know it has been an emotional time for me realize just how blessed I am when it comes to friends.After planning that post I was so excited to get an e-mail from shutterfly about a new card brand they just launched They are so excited about this new brand that they sent a coupon code I get to share with you all. So what does that mean? You can now create and send a totally personalized greeting card from Treat for FREE . Whether saying thanks for Thanksgiving, wishing a best friend a holiday birthday, or simply sharing the holiday cheer with a just because card, Treat lets you create a one-of-a-kind card that is sure to impress. So grab a cup of coffee, check out Treat Cards , and use coupon code TREATBLOGR today or tomorrow to send one free card. Hope you enjoy! (This is a sponsored blog post however, I only share my honest and genuine opinions.)

As some of you may remember that I participated in Onetober last month. Well this month Jennifer the lady behind The Clutch Guide came up with another great idea (that thankfully didn't involve clothing this time). 30 Days of Thank You has over 400 participants each attempting to write and mail 30 thank you notes in the month of November. That's over 12,000 thank you cards! That's a whole lot of mail and a whole lot of people being thanked. I have loved the processes. Admittedly I am a little behind. I had a horrible cold and serious cut on my hand so I've been a little slow. BUT it has been so special. Back in high school I was blessed with a number of friends. While we had our share of high school drama it was still a fun group that loved each other and loved God. In college I struggled a bit more making friends. Out of my comfort zone it took me a while to open myself up. But when I did I was once again blessed with amazing women who came along side of me and did

I realize that the timing on this post may seem odd to some. And perhaps it is. All I know is that for whatever reason, while doing dishes today, I felt that it was time. When our due date first came and went I wasn’t ready to share. My mother came down that weekend and was a blessing in so many ways. I don’t think it was until we sat down the morning she left and talked about my lost one that I truly felt free to grieve. As time passed and my dear nephew was born I hesitated to share. I didn’t want to mar such a beautiful time for them by bringing attention to myself. This is their first child and they deserved to bask in his beauty and perfectness. (And he is oh so perfect!) And so here we are, six weeks past the day my little “George” was due, and I am finally ready to share with you all some of what this experiences has been to me. Perhaps some of you wonder why I share at all. I myself have even wondered that. And all I can say is that I share these thoughts in the hopes that some

I'm not sure what it is, but every time I sit down to write I just can't quite bring myself to actually do it. Nothing seems to flow quit as easily as I would like. Maybe it's this nasty cold settling in my chest, maybe it's my weird sleeping schedule lately, or maybe I'm just to lazy to put in the real work of writing. It's easy to say "I write" or "I blog" but just saying those things doesn't make it so. Real writing happens when you are willing to put in the time, day in and day out. When you sit down and take pen to paper (or fingers to key board) even when your mind feels blank. And so today that's what I am doing. Simple writing, because not writing doesn't feel right. As you might remember I did a post sponsored by Tinyprints a while back. I finally ordered my products and got them in the mail this week! I wasn't sure I was going to keep the calendar notebook for myself so I put a favorite family saying on it rather th

In the first part of Creative Gift Giving I shared how I go about getting ideas for meaningful gifts. Today I want to share with you how I organize all these ideas! This is my Holiday Notebook (I say holiday not Christmas because I use it for Thanksgiving as well). It's just a simple note book with dividers that I glued a pretty gift picture onto. You can be as fancy or as simple as you want. (If you buy a notebook with out dividers I suggest adding simple tabs yourself). As you can see mine is pretty beat up. That's because this is the four year I have used it so it's been through quite a lot. I have mine divided into four Sections. Menu: Each year I keep a list of the dishes I am assigned to bring to any Holiday meals and parties. A lot of times I also keep my holiday meal/party grocery shopping list in there. Each divider in my book has a pocket which I LOVE. In the Menu section I keep index cards with go to recipes I use at the Holidays. (Corn casserole, Green Bean Cass

Four years ago my daughter Abi Bear was turning one and I went in search of the perfect "first" dolly for her. During the process my good friend Marliessa introduced me to Waldorf Dolls. (You can read a rough description of them here ). At the time I couldn't afford the beautiful dolls I found on Etsy so I let it go.  A year later when Abi was turning two I just couldn't get this sweet style of doll out of my mind so I attempt to make my own. Here is Miss Abi Bear and Annie Doll. Since that first doll I have truly fallen in love with this art and have grown a business around it.I have tried my best to make dolls that I believe in. I think every one should be able to afford an heirloom quality doll for their child that protects the beauty and purity of childhood. When so many dolls are made of plastic and are holding up unrealistic ideals I wanted a dolly for my girl that was as sweet and innocent as she is. My dolls have changed and evolved over time but I feel like t

Last month I signed up for the Love Club . If you are looking for a monthly subscription this is an amazing one! I've gotten two so far and just love everything in them as do my little girls. They have a bit of a waiting list but if you check out the Love Club Blog they are giving away a three month subscription PLUS you get to jump off of the waiting list. I love the fact that they work with handmade businesses. It's a fun way to get exposed to a bunch of new places and try out products from ones I admire. This month there was an "awesome" sticker from Yellow Heart Art. I had seen them before and loved their stuff and was thrilled to get this little gem! At first I was unsure where I would use it. I loved it but just couldn't figure out what to do with it. Then it hit me! I was inspired by this  picture of Pen & Paints sketch book decorated with September Love Club goodies. The front of my new journal is pretty busy already so I decided to decorate the insi

Not much going on here. This storm Sandy seems to be headed to hit the East Coast pretty badly, but where we are is looking safe. Definitely cold and wet but nothing serious. We are staying warm and dry by the wood stove and making good use of our new crock pot! I got permission to share some pictures of my new nephew!! I can't believe how precious he is! I can't wait to snuggle him. :) My brother has written a beautiful post on this little one's first moments in the world. If you are interested you can read it over here . Be for-warded, you will probably cry. Hope every one in Sandy's path is staying safe and dry and warm. Happy Monday!

I've been silent here for a while I know. I'm not even sure I can give one reason as to why. *Once you skip a day or two it's easy to just forget. *I've been crazy busy prepping for shows. *I've just needed some down time to processes and think and rest. So, in case you've been wondering, here's a bit of what we have been up to. My good friend Amber of Wildflower Photography Took some amazing photos of my girls in their Halloween costumes. Lots of Halloween parties, Fall Parties, and Fall Festivals going on around here as well. We are in the throws of Craft Show season right now which means a ton of sewing and playing with new patterns. I love this dolly and think she would make a great "Elf on a Shelf" Here is me! Sorta. :) I've also been making a lot of non kid items for the shows this year. Loving my bags and teething necklaces. I may not be writing much but I've been thinking about this space and all you readers quite a bit. Been doing