Joy Leanne

I only have  short window of time while dinner cooks and the kids watch Hercules, but I felt the need to write a bit more after Tuesday's post. Like I said in my last post I am slowly finding a balance between serving in my local church where I see a need, and finding other ways to use my gifts and talents to minister to others. Obviously serving looks different for every one depending on their church, their gifts, their talents and their life phase. But I thought that maybe it would help to see what that looks like for me right now. Aside from serving in our church nursery and, of course, taking care of and ministering to the members of my family these are a few ways I have found to serve God, bless others, and worship Him with my life. I have taken countless spiritual gift tests over the years and the outcome varies. I do believe that, in part, God equips us for a task at hand. But, I also think many just have a God given bent toward certain things. While I have had a number of ...

I am part of an awesome, local mom's group on Facebook. Those ladies are really some of the sweetest more helpful ladies I know. Even when we don't see eye to eye on parenting issues it is, for the most part, a low drama group of women who genuinely seek to lift one another up. The past few weeks there have been a LOT of posts about things to do with kiddos that are free or low cost.  I thought, to make life easier for them, I would compile the ideas here so there are all in one place. If you aren't local a lot of these may not work for you, but this may at least give you an idea of things to look for near you! Low Cost: Morning Movies at Movies Ten. Their movie list can be found here. Morning Movies at Regal Movie Theater. Their movie list can be found here. Free Kids Bowling at AMF bowling ally . (I have this on the cheap list since you still have to rent shoes). Sheetz for slushies. (You can get the small ones for $0.99 with a sheets card)     Free (or close to free dep...

Psalm 37:25 I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.   Thanksgiving ALWAYS preceded the miracle.   Choosing to give thanks, knowing He will provide. Choosing to see life through the eyes of saints and poets.

    So tomorrow is my birthday and I finally finished making my 30 before 30 list. It was harder than I thought. Trying to come up with 30 things I wanted to do in the next year that were PRACTICAL and DOABLE. I mean sure there are a TON of things I would love to do but for various reasons (money, baby coming this summer) it's just not possible. But eventually I did it! The interesting thing is, without meaning to I ended up picking a LOT Of things that fit well with my new years goal. 2013 Goals: To be more intentional... *In relationships *In finances *At home *In memory keeping. Not everything fell into one of these four categories but a lot did. So without further ado.... 30 Before 30 Personal: 1. Memorize 30 verses. 2. Read, finish, or get rid of all MY unread books. 3. Fill up my half-used journals/smashbooks. 4. Sew the Super Tote pattern by Noodlehead. 5. Do one Show. 6. Make 500 things. 7.  Cook a recipe a month off of my pinterest boards. 8. Visit Bush Garden's aga...

I had a couple posts planned but last week but life happened and they just didn’t. Last Sunday I sat down to write about my Birth Story  for another blog I write for. The Motherhood Collective is a great Mothering Blog. I am definitely different from most of their writers, which is one of the things I love about writing for them. I like getting to be a voice from another point of view, and love that they encourage that and seek to minister to and build up moms from all walks of life and parenting philosophies. It was an interesting process to look back and work through what was going on in my mind that day five and a half years ago. All of that was definitely still fresh in my mind when we met with my doctor on Tuesday to discuss C-section number three. We were presented with a LOT of information on repeat c-sections and consecutive pregnancies.  There was a lot of information and suggestions to processes and I think that's what I spent most of last week doing. Most of my brain p...

                It is so easy to look around at our life and think "This isn't what I signed up for" or "How did I get here?" We look at our big plans. We look at our facebook feed. We look at our favorite blogs. We wondered what happened. We wonder why we don't have the life we so desperately want when every one else makes it look so easy. The funny thing is, I think if most of us slowed down and looked around we would realize that we are in fact living the life we wanted. Our lives, for the most part, aren't that different from the blogs we drool over. We bake, we take walks, we go for ice cream, we do special activities with our kids. The difference between our lives and the lives of the people on the other side of the glowing screen and polished blogs is documenting. The ONLY way that "other" woman is different from us is that she taking the time to notice, document, and dwell on the little moments. She takes time to make much the life'...

This post started out as a Facebook status. But it was just too good not to blog about.  I am sitting here at the computer bemoaning the cold weather when my 3 year old looks out the window. Maddie: "The snow melted!!! Now we can have Easter!" She was so excited, so full of hope, so full of life. I wondered if that's how the women felt when they realized Jesus was no longer in the tomb. "The darkness has passed! We still have hope!" I was so ready for spring. For warm weather. For sunshine. For hope. For life. When we walked out of church Palm Sunday and the snow was falling I was crushed. I remember cold Holy Weeks, but never quite THIS cold. Never SNOW! It also seems like there is so much turmoil around us in general right now. Facebook feeds are full of friends on opposite sides of the same issues calling for action, for boycotts, for their right to be heard. And I think back to how confusing, and conflicting, and cold that first "Holy Week" must ha...

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...

October: For the month of October I will be participating in two challenges. Onetober: One Dress, One Month, One Cause and The 31 Day Challenge. You can read more about these here and here. Day 11 Hello friends! Are you tired of seeing the same dress over and over again? I thought you might be. So, no outfit picture today. Honestly, I wonder if you might be a bit tired of hearing from me so much in general. I promise, next time I do 31 days I will make sure I have a much more interesting topic. For today though, I thought I would share some things that have been inspiring me lately. Our local Joann Store is moving and they are clearing out all the stock. I went a little crazy and bought a ton of fabric. Loving these combinations together. We went to Barnes and Noble's today and I fell in love with this issue of Artful Blogging. It was so beautiful and inspiring. I didn't buy it but I really want to go back and get it. Thinking of subscribing with whatever Christmas money I get...