Letting Go of Lent, and Leaning in to this Brand New Life - aka Easter, and Carrying the Cross...

So I was going to sit down and get all real and honest with y'all and tell you how I sort of let go of Lent this year... --how I blew it and gave up without even noticing, and how the real challenge came once I DID notice because the thing I was 'giving up' for Lent was Negativity, so... you know: Hard.

But then my friend Kim went and already wrote that post so I thought - whew... off the hook, right? 

Yeah, not so much, because lately He has been shelling out grace while calling me to lean in, stretching me thin, and He has been reminding me, once again (again), just what Easter and Lent and this whole Holy week is all really about! 

And it's all about this:

Say Hello to Shopping with a Purpose... my Work of Worth Curated Collection!

If you have been hanging out with me in these parts for very long, chances are good that you know that one of my passions is setting the captives free... as in - for real.  

My girlie and I have been involved with ministries and organizations for several years now, both locally as well as internationally, who help support women and children caught up in human trafficking.  We are passionate about companies who are willing to rescue, retrain, and redeem.  Well, more accurately, companies who are willing to do the hands-on work to bring about freedom which in turn opens the door for the Lord to rescue, retrain, and redeem! It's a partnership and it's amazing!

Work of Worth is such an organization!

That Thing I Do Now - Vol 89

Happy Weekend, y'all!  We made it! The weekend is here!

Even in this desert town, green is starting to come to life!

It was a full week, with LOTS of great reads around the Interwebs!  Featured today are posts by Jen Hatmaker, Ann Voskamp, Ashley Hales, Colleen Mitchell, Kim Adam, Lisa Jo Baker, Jen Hatmaker (yes - again!), a post from right here... and - of course - a video to wrap it all up! 

Happy Reading! 
(Ya'll know to click on the authors' names below to read the entire post, yes?)

The Wisdom of Self Care... or Knowing When To Take A Break! (A Five Minute Friday post)

I had a full day planned yesterday...that ended with an afternoon of crafting downstairs in my lovely basement! Now that our Family Room is all cozy and creative, I rarely want to leave it so I opened my laptop and tried to multi-task with papercrafting, netflixing, and #fmfparty-ing... all because I have learned the wisdom and value of Self-Care and knowing when to take a little Breaky!

{I can't say it enough, really - I love my tribe! The Gathering that happens on Twitter on Thursday nights and then flashmob writes out their hearts and hits publish all over the interwebs on Thursday and Friday (and sometimes on Tuesdays!) But, I know... I'm like a broken record here, stuck on repeat! However today I am thinking of a different community. Let's just get started.}

This is Five Minute Friday and our Word Prompt for the day is: BREAK

{GO}

Yesterday my calendar was full with all kinds of Bossy - but it's the kind of bossy that I have learned to pencil in, to plan for, and to protect! It still counts! (Things like in addition to a couple of errands: a walk with a friend, a stroll around the Arboretum with a camera in hand, some crafting time, Voxing friends, etc.  --and by 'etc.' clearly I mean indulge in a little chocolate!)

Earlier this week, I wrote about the three things that God whispered to me that will help us all to better learn our true identity.  You can read that HERE, but today I want to focus on the second thing, because I think it is so crucial and yet so neglected.  

It is the importance of Self Care.

When it turns out that He makes a better Boss after all...

You know how it goes...

It can be with anything... you can fill in the blank, but God opens a door and you begin to make a plan.  You start to decide how things will go after you walk through and you start to flesh it out and make it happen.  

It doesn't matter if it is something new or something you have done a thousand times... in your mind you see the open door and immediately begin to create an outline; a safety net; you know --a comfort zone of how it's gonna play out.


Sometimes He lets us play like that. But sometimes He likes to stretch us and grow us and remind us that He moves inside and outside of time and that He makes a better Boss.  

Just One Thing... well, Three... Just THREE Things... (a Guest Post.)

My sweet friend Ginger Harrington invited me over to her corner of the Interwebs to hang out and talk about Just One Thing.  I am honored to be sharing with her and her readers, but y'all know me... and how I have issues problems difficulties in picking just one of anything! 

So really, it's Just Three Things... and I am pretty sure you can guess what those are!

That Thing I Do Now - Vol 88

Hey Sweet Friends, Happy Spring!

How are you? I hope your weekend is unfolding to be both all you want and all you need it to be! May you enter in to a bit of Sabbath Rest and enjoy some breathing room, along with a bit of productivity (if that is what you crave!)

Featured today are posts by Lori Harris, Kristen Strong, Glennon Doyle, Cadence Turpin, Tony Kriz, Amber Haines, a post from right here... and - of course - a video to wrap it all up! 

Happy Reading! 
(Ya'll know to click on the authors' names below to read the entire post, yes?)

Keepin' it REAL - A Five Minute Friday Post

So.. I had a meeting tonight which is extremely rare because - well, the twitter party! Still - I popped in for a few and the prompt was given and everyone got busy writing about REAL and so I ate my Carrot cake in peace-- (The benefits of being an Empty Nester with an empty house, and it turns out, sometimes - no one is the boss of me!)  and then decided to jump on and write my post tonight... you know, like in the olden days!

I can't say it enough, really - I love my tribe! The Gathering that happens on Twitter on Thursday nights and then flashmob writes out their hearts and hits publish all over the interwebs on Thursday and Friday (and sometimes on Tuesdays!) But, I know... I'm like a broken record here, stuck on repeat! However today I am thinking of a different community. Let's just get started.  

This is Five Minute Friday and our Word Prompt for the day is:REAL

{GO}

So, REAL, eh?  

Yeah... I'm all about Real. 

I mean - I am mostly about it, anyway... you know - most of the time!

We are Living in a Pinterest World... and I am a Pinterest Girl...

or, "Awaiting Small Wonders, celebrating new life, and loving on my people!"

Yeah... either one of those titles work!

I wrote the week before last about how I was in over my head with all things Baby Shower, both attending one and then planning to host another with my girlie for her BFF (Truly... they have been side by side since they were buckled in to carseats in the midst of home group meetings, road trips, restaurants, and such!)

But now, they are all grown up and one of them is expecting her first Little Man within the next month(ish)!

I mentioned last month about how I had placed self-imposed boundaries when it comes to party planning and Pinterest because, you know, sanity... (and budget!)

But still - I love me some Pinterest time... just scrolling and scrolling through menu ideas, decorating themes, ...Crafts and Gifts and Chalkboard signs, oh my! (You get the Pin picture!)

That Thing You Do Now - Vol 87

Happy Weekend, sweet friends! I hope you are enjoying a slow unfolding of Sabbath.  If not, I hope you are enjoying a productive, fun, adventurous unfolding! You know - whatever it is that you are needing, I pray you are receiving! 

This weekend for us is Round Two of all things Baby Shower! I am sure somehow, I will end up writing about it because - well, pictures! Until then... I am hear to hook you up with some of the best reads gathered from the Interwebs!

Featured today are posts by Lisa Jo Baker, John Ortberg, Sarah Bessey, Emily Freeman, Jennifer Dukes Lee, a post from right here... and - of course - a video to wrap it all up! 

Happy Reading! 
(Ya'll know to click on the authors' names below to read the entire post, yes?)

PLAN - A Five Minute Friday post

Oh man, last night was fun! Given, I was a little loopy from lack of sleep... spending a night in the ER will do that to you, I suppose! (All is fine... now!)  But I can't imagine a Thursday night without connecting with my people over on Twitter! From prayer requests to Gilmore Girls quotes, I love it all! However I was too exhausted to write coherently so this is a TRUE Five Minute FRIDAY! (You're welcome!)

I can't say it enough, really - I love my tribe! The Gathering that happens on Twitter on Thursday nights and then flashmob writes out their hearts and hits publish all over the interwebs on Thursday and Friday (and sometimes on Tuesdays!) But, I know... I'm like a broken record here, stuck on repeat! However today I am thinking of a different community. Let's just get started.  

This is Five Minute Friday and our Word Prompt for the day is: PLAN

{GO}

Oh, Plans... how I love them!

I love to make them... and follow along with them (most of the time) and I love to have them to fall back on.

You know what I mean.

I am a planner... I love me some bossy lists and day planners on every desk. I love my calendar filled-in and mapped out and flexible --sure... but still - color coded is nice too, am I right?

Now - this is all true, and yet...

You're Loved No Matter What - A Book Review

So, it's Wednesday and apparently the kids these days have this little thing they call 'Woman Crush Wednesday' and while I don't love the title, there is this:

(And these are just the ones that I haven't loaned out right now!  There are others, too!)

I sort of do have a 'crush' on Holley Gerth!  She is an encourager, a believer in fully investing, a life coach and counselor, a friend and mentor and sister to all who cozy up for a cup of coffee or tea (whether it be face to face, or virtually over in her little corner of the interwebs, or at the site she co-founded that we all love, Incourage.me)  She is a stirrer-upper and igniter and releaser of God-Sized Dream(er)s and, really, who doesn't love (and need a bit of) that?

It's true... pretty much whatever she says/writes/posts, I think y'all should read because reading her words is reading her heart, and reading her heart is letting His heart beat stronger and louder and clearer -in you, for you, and through you. 

That Thing I Do Now - Vol 86

Hey sweet friends, Happy Weekend!

I pray the weekend unfolds slowly for you, full of Sabbath Rest and Great Reads! (Wait... that's why I'm here! I'm here to hook you up!)

Featured today are posts by Jennifer Dukes Lee, Addie Zierman, Tiffany from Simply for One, Wendy Speake, Deidra Riggs, a post from right here... and - of course - a video to wrap it all up! 

Happy Reading! 
(Ya'll know to click on the authors' names below to read the entire post, yes?)

GATHER - A Five Minute Friday Post

I can't say it enough, really - I love my tribe! The Gathering that happens on Twitter on Thursday nights and then flashmob writes out their hearts and hits publish all over the interwebs on Thursday and Friday (and sometimes on Tuesdays!) But, I know... I'm like a broken record here, stuck on repeat! However today I am thinking of a different community. Let's just get started.  

This is Five Minute Friday and our Word Prompt for the day is: GATHER

{GO}

We have been talking about Gathering for weeks now. Well - really, for our whole lives! I wrote last week about how my Honey and I - we are just wired for Gathering and it is so deeply a part of our DNA that it just naturally happens all around us.

I have been talking If:Gatherings (livestreaming, on Voxer, and Local - in real life!) I have been talking about gatherings of groups in our home, at church, in coffee shops, at retreats, and even right here on the Internet... all intentionally building each other up and pushing each other on.

Today, however... these girlies are on my heart:

Thin Ice over a Deep Well... or, We Don't Have Time to Maintain These Regrets.

"Thin Ice over a Deep Well..."

I wrote this phrase in a post last week. As I went back and reread it, it caught my breath because rivers of living water should be free to overflow - as in, out of our bellies... out of the deep deep wells.

I prayed and asked God what the 'thin ice' represented and immediately He reminded me of a comment on that post by my friend Natalie Busch:

That's where I'm at too. I have never observed lent, but I like how that and advent are becoming more "christian mainstream?" if that's what you want to call it. Loved hearing your heart in all of this, it makes me think of the song "He Loves" where it says "I don't have time to maintain these regrets, when I think about the way He Loves us"...

Yes. That.

That is what the Thin Ice is... it is our regrets.

The "Thin Ice" is our regrets that stop up the flow of the Spirit.

What We Learned... the February Edition

I am still in a bit of a phase because... how can it even be March already, right?  But it is... and you guys know how much I love linking up for What We Learned... even though every single time I am all like, "Did I learn anything? What even happened last month? Why don't I keep a running list of all the things?"

Thank God for Social Media, right? (It helps remind me of the things I learned! Grace, ya'll... I'm 40something now!)

Let's Go!

What We Learned in February...

12 Random Things That I Have Learned.