Joy Leanne

  I love reading. I always have. Or at least as long as I can remember. One of my favorite things about the girls getting older is that they are finally old enough to read chapter books too. Over the past 6 years I have been slowly collecting favorite books from my childhood to read to my kids once they were old enough. We are currently in the processes of redecorating our basement and that included moving all of our books off of the bookshelves. I spent my afternoon sorting through books and got to look over some old favorites. Now that school is back in session and the girls are doing Book-It we will definitely be reading some of these books. For a long time a lot of these books were out of print but I found out today that many of them have come back into print. (Cue my happy dance!) So, I thought I would take a few minutes to share some of my favorites with you all. I started working on a list and realized I would probably need to break it down. So consider this part one. Classi...

My news feed has been full of links to articles this summer. Links to articles telling me how I should feel or think about things. Things like yoga pants and modesty. Things like depression and suicide. Things like silly/fun fundraisers and stem cell research and hashtag activism. And I want to shake my head and throw up my hands and say "YOU PEOPLE!" Because there seems to be no room for a middle ground. Because my position as a Godly woman seems to come down to what kind of pants I wear and either I agree with you or I am an attention-seeking harlot. Because there seems to be no grace for a tired mom whose weight fluctuations are equaled only by her one-year-old’s mood swings and who can't seem to find time to do laundry. Because there seems to be no respect for the grieving. Or the dead. Or those struggling with unspeakable pain. Or those who misspeak and say something with truth but maybe not love. Because one man couldn’t see past his pain and one man couldn’t see p...

I have been pretty quiet on here for a while. I have been quiet intentionally. We have been in a season of intense transition and I have wanted to take time to think, reflect, pray through, live with these transitions for a bit before sharing about them. This baby girl just turned one! I am not sure how that happened. It honestly feels like just a few weeks ago we brought her home. She is such a funny talkative little person. She get's into everything, still loves to cuddle, is talking/babbling constantly, and loves "ring-around-the-rosie". These two girls started school this week. They are so excited to be at the same school and Miss Goose was bouncing off the walls this morning because her sister and the neighbor girl were going to walk her to her classroom today. Goose is in Kindergarten this year and Bear is starting 1st grade. She is so excited to be in the grade her aunt teaches and has said many times she wishes she could go to the school her aunt teaches in. (So d...

It rained today. Finally. We have needed a nice summer storm for a while. The sky got dark and the air filled with rolls of thunder. I couldn't bring myself to clean and all I wanted to do was curl up watch Top Chef and listen to the rain. So today I pulled out some long forgotten projects and worked on them for a while. I worked on my granny square blanket some today and even got a few squares pieced together. I think it's going to be so lovely when it's done. I'm excited for cool weather and the chance to curl up with it in my glider. I am also finally working on my NoodleHead Super Tote ! I think it is going to turn out really well. I'm a little worried it's going to turn out a little brighter than I would like for a back to school bag. But it should still be pretty and serviceable. What are you all working on this week?

  There are lots of things we could be doing. Organizing that could or even should be happening. School supplies to buy. Clothes to sort and organize. Projects to be started, to be finished, to be worked on. Skills to improve. And yet, we are doing non of that these days. We are fully embracing summer and eating tons of ice cream and listening to the front screen door slam a hundred times a day. Switching from open windows, to air conditioning and back. Grapes are being eaten by the pound. Stickers are being collected. Trips are being taken to the farmers market. Pictures are being colored. All in all it's been pretty quite. I am trying to embrace that rather than constantly rush onto the next thing. I am desperately trying to simply rest and abide in this place and this season. I'm doing some daydreaming about the basement. We are painting all the wood paneling white. Setting up a long table with two computers. I have a beautiful roll top desk that I am picking up this week so...

Life is full of changes. Over the past few years I feel like our life has been such a whirlwind of changes one after another. And now, we are faced with yet another one. For the past 15 months my "baby" brother, his wife, and their baby boy have been living in our basement. This weekend they move into their own place. As Abi said when she found out "I'll miss them, but it will be nice to get our basement back. We have learned a lot the past few months. We have learned about hospitality and living in community. We have lived in an environment that daily pushes us consider other outside our immediate family and accommodate other. We have embraced the challenge of living an open life while still respecting healthy boundaries.  I will desperately miss having some one around on those days when I am so overwhelmed I feel like crying. I remember one day when Tacy was about 3 weeks old Emily came up stairs to find me and all three girls in tears. Even though some one ha...

So, I mentioned in my last post that we are already buying school supplies. Honestly I have a soft spot for school/office supplies and there for tend to shop for it year round. The past few weeks though I have truly indulged my obsession and splurged on some fun new notebooks I found on clearance as well as some new highlighters. For a while I put myself on notebook restriction and was trying to fill all my books before a bought more, but eventually I just gave up on that. I have gone to just buying them when I find them for a great price and then when I need one I already have one on hand just waiting.  All these pretty notebooks were either purchased from a clearance shelf or a $1.00 bin. I have no idea what each of these will hold. Maybe prayers, maybe grocery lists, maybe sketches little girls draw in the back seat of the car. Whatever they are going to hold it's nice to know that they were there, waiting on my bookshelf. The other new office supply purchase this summer has bee...