Joy Leanne

Tacy is napping, the dishes are done, the girls are playing quietly so this is where I am right now. In the corner of the dining room, in the chair Josh bought me for Valentine's Day, enjoying the view that I bought the house for. This little corner has become quite my sanctuary already this summer. I am trying to make time to read both my Bible and the stack of books I have going as well as finding time to write and enjoy other creative things. As of right now this is my favorite place to do that. We have moved Tacy into the guestroom/office so my normal space is occupied by a pack and play. It's actually nice to have such a small place. With the office it was easy to let it get run over with junk and stuff and piles of papers to sort and organize. This little corner is so mall it's pretty impossible for it to get too out of hand. In fact, I have to keep it some one what tidy if I want to be able to sit down. God has been working on me a lot this summer when it comes to co

A few weeks ago Josh and I went through the girls room and got rid of most of their toys. We took four black trash bags to the dump and another three to Good Will. So far we have been pretty good about not bringing a whole bunch of  new ones in and we hope to keep that trend up till at least Christmas. This does present a challenge since all three of our girls have birthday's between now and Christmas, so I have been trying to keep treats and gifts things that can be consumed or inspire creativity. This week we went shopping for a birthday party and since we are in a no toy mode the girls and I opted to get something creative for their friend. This is what we came up with. We hit up the dollar store and Michael's and filled a cigar box with scrapbook supplies. Rather than an actual scrap book we bought a mini composition book and added colored pens, stickers, decorative tape, and glue sticks from the store. We also cut down a bunch of patterned papers from our home stash. I wen

You would think a generation raised watching Wizard of Oz would be more familiar with the concept of being content with where you are. And yet, as I look around at my peers I find over and over again in them, and in myself, a desire for the extreme.  Browse through Amazon and you will see book after book with extreme titles. The Radical Question Crazy Love The Explicit Gospel Risk is Right Reckless Faith The Insanity of Obedience Even the books about “contentment” and “intentional living” and “simplicity” seem like they are trying to tell us how to be content with where we are. And yet they all spend a whole lot of time talking about the writer’s accomplishments, her speaking engagements, and her blog readership.  I understand. I do. We were raised in the suburbs in evangelical churches where mediocrity and apathy were rampant. In an attempt to challenge us and motivate us were fed a steady diet of youth camps and conferences that called us to the mission field and exhorted us

I was sitting down just now to write a blog post, when something happened that took all the air out of me. All of the sudden I didn't want to write, I didn't want to blog, I didn't want to do anything creative. I  started shutting down. Then it hit me, square between the eyes. The reason I had a million WIPS going at once, the reason I am not going to the Influence conference this year, the reason most of my bucket lists go untouched. The simple fact is, it is far easier to make plans than to follow through. For all my talk of wanting to be a writer, for all me claiming to have big dreams, it is far to easy for me to walk away the minute things get uncomfortable. It is far to easy to voice a passion with out actually acting on it. It is far to easy to speak the language of intentionality with out practicing it. In a Facebook-Pinterest-Instagram world it is far to easy to "like" something and then move on. I am far to content with slacktivism and planning imaginary