Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Hope”
I woke up crying this morning. Yup. I’m a hot mess over here. I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Matt, and tip-toed my way to the library. Two hours later when Matt padded in to see if I was okay, I was in a total state. For those of you that didn’t wake up to a weeping spouse this morning, Matt would probably like to come stay at your house tonight. I’m joking, of course. He handled it with incredible grace, as he usually does. We had coffee, and then he took me on a drive. I …
“When I thought I lost me, you knew where I left me. You reintroduced me to your love. You picked up all the pieces and put me back together. You are the defender of my heart.” There was a time when “Defender” by Jesus Culture played on constant repeat in my headphones. Something about the idea of losing myself, and God knowing where I left me felt so achingly poignant and true. I was battling health issues and riding the up and down seesaw of hormones that didn’t want to find a level place to be. I thought I was …
When I started writing my first book six years ago, I had one of those “Aha” moments Oprah used to talk about. Every single thing in my experience, life, education, faith, personality seemed to come together in one overwhelming passion. I’d been blogging for years, but writing a novel was something else entirely. I wrote my first full-length novel in five weeks, and it was the happiest five weeks I’d ever spent. I love to re-read books, but I’d never lived in a story for that long. I fell in love with the characters and the adventure of it and …
I came across a great quote the other day from @TheBatman on twitter. His quote made its way into one of my books, so watch for that. The quote is: When life gives you lemons, be thankful it’s just lemons. Life could have shot both your parents in a dirty alley when you were 8. Love him or hate him, you can’t beat Batman for angst. For a moment, I want you to pretend that Batman is real and that you don’t cringe when you watch Ben Affleck as Batman and that your eyes weren’t scorched by Lego Batman in …
I have baby grass. It’s tiny little green fuzz that you can only see when the light catches it just right. It’s a lawn of promise right now… but such a beautiful promise. Every summer in our new home, the entire backyard dies. The trees, which we love so dearly, completely block out the sun and when the temperature hits over 100 degrees, the lack of sun and the heat chokes the life out of our lawn. We have come to accept that for three months out of the year we are doomed to live with dirt. I repeatedly encourage …
A couple of months ago, Matt and I decided that we needed an exit strategy for our business. One day, we will want to retire and what will we do with all of our dear clients and business when we do? It’s not something you tend to think about when you start your own business, but I’m sure it’s something we’ll think a lot about in 25 years time. Anyway, we decided to go and speak with some financial advisors whom we had met at a meeting where they spoke on the subject. We didn’t know them well, they hadn’t …