I recently finished reading two of the greatest books I’ve ever read. Tom Davis is an author and CEO of Children’s Hope Chest. In the following books, he has an amazing way of pulling you into the suffering that is currently an ongoing issue in our world. Though these books are fiction novels, they are based on TRUE events. It was very eye opening to read these current events from the perspectives that he presented. Tom definiately has a gift for lighting a fire under people to feel the responsibility that Christ gave us in Isaiah… “heal the broken hearted… set the captives free…”

 Scared was the first novel that Tom wrote. This book speaks to the issues that our sisters and brothers are dealing with in Africa. For me, this issue has always been hard to connect to. I never understood the severity of the poverty, abuse, disease, and generational curses that these people are dealing with on a daily basis until reading this book. This is the story of a young girl and her journey through loss, poverty, neglect, AIDS, abuse, and the strength that she has through it all. This is the story of many children in Africa right now.      

 Priceless is the second novel in the series of novels Tom is currently writing. This takes you to Moscow and gives you a very real understanding of the Sex Trafficking trade. It tells you the story of many young women that are sold into this from young children and are raised knowing that there is no way of escape. Keeping in mind that this story is based off of true events, it paints a very vivid picture of the hell many women and children are walking through every day.

I know these are not “happy, feel good” novels. But these are the true depictions of what is currently going on in our world. I love that at the end of both of these books, Tom gives us a way to make a difference in our world.

These books really helped me realize that I never want to be that Christian that lives inside a christian bubble and never knows the suffering of others. I want to follow the example of Christ and be a light in our dark world.

If you read these, please leave me a comment! I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Just a little reminder that…

AND…

AND….

Okay. I feel better. I can do this.

Happy Wednesday!

Today I am overwhelmed with the understanding that God is in a constant process of restoring what was broken, healing the hurt, giving back what was stolen, and making us whole again. I realized this morning that there are even things I never knew were broken or never asked for Him to restore… but He knows.

Happy 4th of July! Our plan includes laying by the pool, eating watermelon, and exploring Nashville until we find something amazing. LOVE new cities!

Hope you’re weekend is great! xoxo

Seasons are amazing. God created a hot season and a cold season, a growing season and a stagnant season. It’s amazing how my life has mimicked, in so many ways, His beautiful creation. I used to think that we were supposed to live in the growing season all the time. The honest truth is that without that cold, stagnant season, there would be no room for growth… nothing to grow out of, no beauty to look forward to. 

Making the physical move was only the outward obedience to the emotional and spiritual obedience of our heart. We struggled for quite a while with the fear of stepping out, the fear of letting go of someone else’s purpose and pursuing our purpose. Living out the words God directly spoke to our hearts. Out of fear and uncertainty we made some bad calls and had to go back to the start… Kind of like, “Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.” We would have to start all over. Eventually we realized that we could not make the correct decisions or hear God’s voice and “tremble in our boots” at the same time. 

“Change of any sort requires courage.” Mary Anne Radmacher

This has been a season of growth, of growing into a new state of mind and of heart, of being strong and diving in. There is such an amazing difference in diving in head first versus tiptoeing around the waters hoping to not get wet. 

A sweet person helped me to see that I had spiritually built a wall around my family…. brick by brick and called it “mundane.” I had decided that we would live like everyone else… school, work, sleep… repeat. As God began to change my heart (you saw a glimpse here), I began to embrace the beauty of our very non-typical lifestyle. I grabbed hold of the dreams we’ve had as a couple and as a family to “venture out,” to live a life of adventure, to explore. 

“Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” Raymond Lindquist

I have stopped setting lifelong goals to buy a house, or “settle down,” or live mundane. I finally have stepped into the freedom of living the purpose that He has given to us. We are soooo happy with every aspect of where we are right now. But we realize that nothing is certain except that God has given us specific gifts to use as we adventure, explore, and travel. We know that He has the perfect plan. 

So I’m sharing my stash of links:

Bitty Booties from Heather Bailey

Baby Bum Sweaters from Born to Love (these are sooo amazing for clothe diapering mamas!)

Baby Bloomers from Just Tutorials

Denim Bibs from Thimbly Things

Cutest Baby Toy Ever! from Craftstylish (Adelai LOVED his owl!)

KNITTERS: Baby Sophisticate Sweater from Stockinette (easy-peasy to make)

Stack & Nesting Blocks from Sew Mama Sew (these are quilted but you can make them without quilting them)

Fabric Mobile from Sew Mama Sew (we made a different one, but this one is cute and easy!)

Homemade Baby Gym from Seedpod (FABULOUS AND INEXPENSIVE!!!)

DIY Baby Gifts from One Pretty Thing

Added Bonus: Inspiring Nurseries! (A lot of these are montessori inspired)

Wowzers! Had no idea I have hoarded so many links on my toolbar over the past three years! I should post a whole other link for Toddlers and Young Kiddos!

Preggo Mamas and New Baby Mamas Enjoy!

PS: I will update this blog someday soon… cross my heart!

but can I just say, that this really is our lives right now. Almost everyday, we are exploring secret woodsy places or down at the fishing hole, finding frogs and salamanders, or somewhere else where the air is fresh and the world is new.

This is a picture of the kids this past weekend. We found these really cool little holes in a tree and they went up to look at them and I asked them to sit and take a picture. They sat and paid no attention to me snapping pictures for like 15 minutes. They were looking at all the trees around them, picking things up off the ground, collecting acorns, and trying to find the sun through the top of the tree. They chatted a little with each other but mostly they listened to all the sounds.

(At Mr. Isaac’s tackle and bait shop! Our favorite place for worms and snacks before heading to the fishing hole.)

I love being outside with them. I love looking at the world through their eyes. It seems so much cleaner, more beautiful, and a lot less…. heavy. I remember what it was like to have that innocent view of the world… back when it was beautiful. It’s funny, it was just the same as it is now, only my perspective has changed.

Listening to the leaves crunch beneath my feet, jumping from rock to rock, and starring up at the clouds as they roll by…. all this makes it sooo worth while to have children and watch them grow, discover, and change.

I love being a mom.

This All American Rejects song is one I hear often right now. It’s a little more pop than I usually listen to, but they’re great!

This is such a bittersweet song. Sweet because Iron and Wine is one of my favorite bands and the listening is so easy. Bitter because in this song, you really see God from his point of view. That makes me sad. I wish I could hug him.

And lastly, if you ever asked me if I was on an deserted  island and could only have one thing to listen to, (noting of course that Joseph would be there to sing to me ) I would choose Mewithoutyou, hands down.

There is so much controversy out there about him speaking Arabic in this song. People have said that he’s changed religions, etc. It’s amazing how people can have an opinion about a song when they can’t understand what he’s saying! Haha!

Aaron Wiess is a complete genius for the way he presents God here. His family are converts from the muslim religion to christianity. In this song he sings in Arabic, “There is no other god but GOD.” So amazing to hear that in this language. Beautiful. Also, I love that in the comments on the youtube link, you see how many people, with other beliefs or no beliefs, listen to him who are not offended by what he believes, but love him because he is honestly unique.

I could seriously do a “mewithout you song day”, every week. But I’ll spare you.

Happy Listening!

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~ Soulemama

Today was no exception. I was looking at all of her stamps and tutorials and wanted so bad to make cool stamps too.

Since we had no erasers or anything like it, I had an idea to use the foam paper we had. I used a pencil to make all the lines, and this is what we ended up with:

Pretty good, right? Not as detailed as the eraser method, but I was satisfied.

This is the first one I did, just because I love drawing this flower.

On Geninne’s blog, I saw where she had different stems and different flower blossoms that you could mix and match. I knew Scarlet would love this, so above is our version.

And these are the first ones she made.

Yay for fun, easy and creative new stamps! Now we need to get pretty inky colors!!

We made many, many more after these. We also started putting bottle corks on the top of them so that it was easy for their little hands and so we didn’t have quit so much ink on the hands.

Try it! Sooo fun!

Love these kid corners:

By the way, incase you didn’t know this about me….

one of my favorite things are blanket forts:

Love everything about this house tour….

Aren’t these colors amazing!?:

And lastly, I want a loft bed sooooo bad:

These are my dreamy inspirations today.

Hope you enjoy!

xoxo