I have loved seeing the entries come in for the Forest Home Mother & Daughter retreat and the girls and I are so excited to draw a winner tomorrow.  I think we might just do it as a video on Instagram to make it more fun.  (Follow @joyshope to see if it's you!)  If you haven't entered yet, it's super easy.  Just click over to this post, and leave your comment at the bottom of the post.  I have temporarily allowed anonymous comments, so there are no obstacles to entry.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if there are any problems.

Since I have the mountains on my mind, and am in complete denial that school starts Monday, I designed some free forest and mountain themed printables for you.
Click below each image to be directed to the downloads page.

Now if only I could click something to make summer last forever.
The end of summer means school, which means packing lunches, washing uniforms, doing homework, and all four kids in soccer.
Four.  Because clearly we have lost our summer loving minds.
Plus, the end of summer means the beginning of my least favorite season.
Deep, sad, sigh. In my heart it will always be summer forever.
To hear me lament the end of last year's summer, and to download a pineapple printable click here.
Pineapples > dead leaves.

Take me to the mountains.  The mountains where there are no soccer games.  Or homework.
Take me to Forest Home, where all my meals are made for me, super delicious, they wash the dishes, my kids have the time of their lives, and so do the grownups.  And Jesus.
It's pretty much paradise.
Oh, and chocolate chip shakes.  There will be Forest Home chocolate chip shakes in heaven.  I'm sure of it.

So, our official church launch was Sunday (so much more on that later)...

This week/ month/ year so far has been bananas, I can hardly catch my breath, much less catch up on laundry.
Yet through it all, God has been so real and present, and I can get out of bed each day because of that truth.

My friend Leslie, who ditched me for the glory that is Montana, started a beautiful project on Instagram this month.  First off, you should follow her, (@leslie_padgett ) to hear it from her heart, but to summarize, she set out a challenge to make a simple stack of 3x5 cards and fill them with scripture for those moments that you feel like you are drowning.  31 days of truth.

God's word will keep you afloat. 

So today is my day to share what has been keeping me afloat in this overwhelming sea.

Steadfast.  Immovable.  Abounding.

Print it out.
Tape it to your mirror, fridge, fake brick wall...

Stay afloat.

I love March, I love St. Patrick's Day, I dream of visiting Ireland one day, and I love the truth and simplicity in Irish blessings.  So even though my St. Patrick's Day meal plans will probably involve more green enchiladas and guacamole, and less corned beef and cabbage, we will clink our glasses with a resounding slainte, and cheer Erin Go Bragh.

Here's to a home filled with friends and life and community and food and most of all love.

I spoke this morning at my little MOPS-esque group, and as usual I stressed, wanted to barf, and prayed for rapture to get me out of it.  Speaking is the most opposite of what I love to do, but God in his hilarity continues to give me these small opportunities to share His big story.

As with any time I speak, I always make up some printables, a little backup plan for the strong possibilty that totally bomb, or those listening cannot believe how awkward/ shaky/ crazy/ I am, at least they can get free treats to help them forget. (I still have PTSD from the hotttttt mess that was Blog Sugar 2011.)

While these are universal to me in my weird world and vernacular, they may or may not make sense outside of the little chat I gave.  But they sum up phrases that keep on surfacing as I try to navigate this messy and difficult world. 
These are me in a nutshell.
Trying to love God, while loving others (even though I sometimes hate everyone).
Showing up for people when they need someone, even when it is hard or they don't deserve it.
Trying to chill on the drama.  And I might say this to my son more than anyone else.  Because so much toddler drama.
Lastly, resting in the truth that we live in a broken world, yet God is still on the throne.  That one I will be wrestling with until He calls me home and it all makes sense.  Until then I stand on that truth.

So print away.  Stick one on your mirror, your dashboard, jot a little note on the back and send it off old school style in the mail. 

It's February, we are still recovering from the heart breaking Super Bowl loss, thankfully that day involved so many nachos.  So many.  We have had two preview services for Encounter, which still seems so surreal.  The girls basketball season is almost over (praise hands emoji).  It's a long weekend and we aren't ditching town.  Even though I want to ditch town.  Our days have been filled with threenager drama, a full house, and a full table, homework and hair brushing, laundry and laughter, and I am trying not to miss the moments as they fly by.

So when I get a quiet moment, I often tuck myself away at the computer, press play on the Mumford & Sons live at Lollapalloza, and make something.
Chances are that something involves a hymn or C.S. Lewis.

Just in time for Valentine's day here's a quote that I am chewing on lately.  I love that Clive.

Tomorrow we will bake a cake.  Buy thirteen balloons.  Take Sharpies and write birthday wishes and scribbles on them.  Then together we will climb up the quiet grassy hill and send them up to heaven.

Celebrating Joy.  The hope of heaven.  Thirteen.  The truth in the Thomas Moore hymn, that Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.

This David Crowder song is similar to Moore's hymn, and is so beautiful and true.

So, I like crack.  The treat kind.  Not the life ruining, jail bound, illegal kind.
Although maybe the treat kind should be illegal.  It's easy to make, cheap, addictive, and it just takes one try to get hooked.

So consider yourself warned.  If you would like to become the friendly neighborhood crack dealer, make up a few batches, print out some tags, wrap them up, hand them to  anyone and everyone that could use a new addiction in their lives.  Remember, the first try is always free.  Sharing is caring.

You can find my recipe here, in it's old school, absolutely unpinnable glory, back from the olden days when you just blogged to blog, without the thought or the hopes of going viral on Pinterest.  Sigh... I miss those days.  Don't be alarmed at the bag of Ralph's brand chocolate chips either.  I only use Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips now, because I am not an animal.  Like Oprah says, when you know better, you do better.

I'm shirking responsibility.  Heading to the final Queen Bee Market tonight.  So bittersweet.  I was honored to have a little booth at the very first one, and the second one, which seems like a lifetime ago.  Yet I am so proud of Mique for dreaming big, taking risks, and knowing when to let go.

Dave Matthews knows a thing or two about that.

Life is short but sweet for certain.
So celebrate.

Make things.   Bake things.  Send a card.  Live life with open hands.  Celebrate.

Taking a moment to remember all the ones mourning the babies that they will never know.
The broken hearts on the way to healing.
The empty arms longing to be filled.

Are you the darkness that feels like it will never recede?
Read Shauna's true, transparent, and wise words.

Have a grieving friend?
Here is a list of things to say and do.

Wondering what you could send to let them know that their tears are not wasted?
Bottle of Tears is a beautiful, meaningful gift.

Read the story of our Joy here.

Know that there is hope.  There is redemption.  That you  are not alone.  That there will be joy again.

I am leaving for the weekend.  I am attending and speaking at what will be my final retreat with the church that we have been with for fourteen years.  The topic I was asked to speak on?  Being full of joy.  In this season, by my own power or preference, I would have said no.  I do not love speaking.  I am struggling with joy right now.  I do however serve a great God who uses our fears, our struggles, our willingness, and can make beautiful things out of dust.  I am giving Him my dust and asking him to make it beautiful.

This in between life, the looking back while moving forward is hard.  It hurts.  I know that God is in it.  That doesn't negate the fact that change is difficult for me.

That might be part of my fall ennui.  The sudden change from summer freedom to school responsibilities brings with it a sense of shock and exhaustion.  My kids are tired and overwhelmed.  I am tired and overwhelmed.  Their behavior is not their finest.  Neither is mine.

On a particularly hard day, my dear friend Jessica sent me a little note.  In the note were the exact words I needed to hear, with a quote that was meaningful to her.  I had seen it on her fridge many  times.  It was something that she pondered over the years and something that brought her needed encouragement.  Encouragement she knew that I needed.

It now has a home on our fridge.  A gentle reminder to see the light of God in the mundane.  In the hard days.  In the days that I do not feel seen.  He sees me.  He sees me through the thoughtful action of a friend sending me a simple card in the mail.  A card that was a lifeline in that moment.

It is my hope that you can send a lifeline to a friend who needs the light of God upon their day.  A simple card.  A reminder that their work, their life, their days matter.  Even when they don't see it themselves.  So easy, yet so meaningful.

Thank you Jessica for your friendship.
Thank you Oswald Chambers for your wisdom.
Thank you God for shining light on my days.

Happy first day of fall.  Or whatever.  I am wearing black and smearing ashes over my face in mourning.  (Not really.  I am in my favorite jorts and spent the day at the beach, but that sounds much less dramatic.)

Bring back summer.  Forever.  Fall is the fourth best season.  I'll keep my iced black coffee and flip flops and you can keep your PSL and boots.

Summer is freedom and no schedules.
Fall is school and papers and lunches and homework.
Summer is Saturdays everyday.
Fall is soccer the destroyer of every Saturday and lots of Sundays.
Summer is swimsuits and beach towels.
Fall is socks and uniforms and so much laundry.
Summer is sleeping in and salty messy hair.
Fall is waking up early and attempting three specific and complicated hairstyle requests.
Summer is late night swims and bbq's.
Fall is early bedtimes and crockpot meals that make my children cry and my house stink.

All you people going all CRAZY for fall with quotes and turtlenecks and mantle decor, I still love you and your autumn obsessed ways.  Even if they make me want to take a sabbatical from Pinterest because I cannot with another pumpkin pin.  I CANNOT.  As for me, I side with my homie Olaf and will spend every day dreaming about summer.

How do I even begin to find the words that I have been holding on to for so long?

A dozen or so years ago, when I was leading a small group of high school girls, we all decided to give something up for Lent.  It wasn't a practice taught at church, but we saw benefit in the sacrifice, in the effort to create space for God in the lack.  We chose desserts, and supported each other through the strawberry shake, chocolate chip cookie, and Lucky Charms cravings.  When it was all over, we celebrated over way too much Easter candy.  Triumph that we survived the forty or so days, although not really changed.  Sugar was my go to Lent project each year since then, mainly because I am insanely addicted to it, and in general my body hates it.  A little reset usually was accompanied by a few less lbs. as well.  Sadly, still no real change in my heart or mind.

While mulling over what this year's Lent choice would be, I was eating through so many feelings, mainly with birthday cake golden Oreos and Mini Eggs.  My finger joints hurt and swell when fed too much sugar, and giving it up would be the obvious choice.  My hands would feel better, my jeans would fit better, dot dot dot.  But when I truly thought about it, I didn't need to sacrifice the treats.  I needed to make space for God to deal with the feelings that the treats were feeding.

For me I find such beauty in so many aspects of social media. Strange to think that back when I was a high school leader social media didn't really exist.  A few kids had MySpace accounts, but that was the extent.  We called each other on the phone instead of texting.   Now I catch up on their lives through Facebook and Instagram, many are married, have careers, even children.  It is so crazy to see them live their lives, and I sometimes wish we were all still crammed on the couch of my first house, eating cookies, laughing, asking tough questions, crying, growing...

I needed space for the tough questions, the crying, the growing, the stillness.  I make little time for stillness these days.  Counters to clean, emails to reply, laundry to fold, kids to pick up, tantrums to calm, friends to text.  The few moments in between seemed to be filled with the underlying feeling that I needed to check up on what was happening in my Instagram feed.  Or click over to another silly Buzzfeed link.  Without the stillness small things that I had never previously struggled with started scratching at my heart.  Silly things would irritate me, in the way Comic Sans irritates me.  Irrational things (too many hashtags for instance) would make me irrational.  I was feeling left out. I was losing focus on the beautiful parts of social media that I once loved.

I made a scary decision at the end of January.  Social media would have to go.  It both terrified and thrilled me.  Some days I wish that Ash Wednesday would come early.  Other days I wondered if I could even survive.  The fact that I was questioning the survival was confirmation alone that I needed to give it up.

I've alluded to the fact that this past year has been hard, and it has been very hard.  Time and time again I have sat down to write why and I just could not.  There will be a time to share, but for now our story is still being written.  Walking away from the distractions of other lives has let me spend time living the one that God has set forth for me.

I want to love this life.  To dig in to the change, the mess, the work.  I don't want to feel the need to retreat from it while distracting myself with the constant stream of others.  I don't want to stuff it full of perfectly staged pictures and golden Oreos.

This study on contentment by Shauna Niequist was instrumental in coming to where I am trying to be now.  Please carve out some time to listen.  I promise it will be worth it.
I won't mention how I secretly want to be her best friend.  Or how financial aid ruined that dream for me.  Nor will I mention how I met her the other week and petted her arm.  Yes.  Petted.  Like a cat. I did that. And I'm not really even a hugger. There is photographic proof.  That is a story for another day.

For today I want to be be who I am and be where I am.

As Lent concluded this weekend, I don't have any grand lessons to share.  I am still struggling with so many things.  If anything, I needed to know that I didn't need social media.  That being Amish for a small time is freeing.  That quiet is beautiful.  That I am truly not missing out on anything.  I will continue to post pictures, because there are always beautiful and wonderful and memorable things in the midst of the hard things.  Instagram has helped me document them.  My favorite thing about it has been scrolling through my feed and remembering the moments that I might have been too tired/ worried/ busy to recollect.  While this year has been difficult, it also has been phenomenal.

I want to leave behind the feeling the underlying compulsion to check my feed.  I also want to have grace when there are things like too much hashtaggery.  Mostly I want to find a joyful, honest, and encouraging place as we all face this hard thing called life together.

Be who you are.
Be where you are.

I'm right there with you.

So school got out.
YAY.  Because I have been totally this mom.
Then again, I'm also this mom who is freaking out at the sheer number of children that I need to entertain for days and days and days.
I ate a lot of feelings worth of Cheetos today.  A lot a lot.

I have wanted summer more than anything, and now that it is here I sort of can't breathe.  We have little on the calendar that we had last summer (adios to most of the camps/vbs/vacations) just blank square after blank square.
Blank squares are a little scary to this accustomed to being very busy family.

Last summer we had a loose daily schedule for the days that we were home, and it worked very well for my needs-to-know-everything-in-advance child, as well as my needs-to-ask-me-all-day-long-what-is-next child.  This summer a schedule is mandatory.  For their security and for my sanity.  We also needed a weekly activity schedule to better navigate the blank squares.

I had them printed at Costco (which somehow I braved with all four of the little ones, fed them in the food court, which has Pepsi not Coke HAPPY DAY, found Puddle Jumpers for cheap, got gas, and brought everyone home alive) and have a feeling that ten thousand times a day I will be pointing them to the schedule.  Somehow though, sending them to the schedule is much better than having to say no to their requests.  Less saying no means less drama.  Less drama means less Cheeto eating.

Lets see how it goes.  Lets see if I can breathe tomorrow.

In case you are going a little crazy and this sort of schedule might help your family's sanity, I made blank versions that you can download here.

They are sized as 11x14 and the text can easily be added in PicMonkey, or throw it in a frame or laminate it and use a dry erase marker to make it changeable, or heck, just go with a sharpie.
Whatever is less stressful for you.

Every time I sing this song, I come undone at these lyrics.
It is a scary prayer.  It is a scary thing to ask.
Sometimes scary is good.  Scary takes us out of our little world and causes us to act.  To care.  To serve.  To give.
When we are broken hearted, we give God so much room to heal, and grow, and use us for his glory.

I dare you to pursue a broken heart.

Free 8x10 printable (without watermark) available here.

Jeannett has taken the reigns of this year's Happy Day Project, and today is my favorite task of them all.
Blessing bags.
Originally shared by my dear friend Leslie from Top of the Page, as a way to tangibly help those in need with the small necessities that we each take for granted.
If the idea of Blessing Bags is new to you, please check out the original post here, how we assembled them together at Thanksgiving, or last year's Happy Day post.
Now this is where I get all honest and weird....
I love cute printables.  I have ridiculous, crippling opinions about fonts.

I also know the last thing in the world someone with a cardboard sign on the street corner needs is a cute printable.
It's gross right?
They need to be known.  They need to be seen.  They need to be acknowledged.
The need help.  They need hope.
They do not operate in a world of rainbows and unicorns.

What does a minivan driving mom on her way to soccer/ Target/ school drop off/ playdates/ know what it is like to stand in their worn shoes?

Honestly?  Nothing. 
I know different pain, I know different brokenness.  I know that each one of us has an ache in our hearts to matter.  To be known.

A cute printable cannot fix their hurts.  A ziploc bag filled with snacks, socks, and cough drops, cannot change their situation.

What words could I even jot down that would make any difference?
I have no idea.
That doesn't mean I won't try.

Regardless of how they got to that corner, they matter to the creator of the universe.  He knows the number of hairs on their head.

What He loves, I love.
It is not my place to judge their current situation.
It is my place to see them.  To offer a small bag of comfort.
To encourage them that they matter.
Even if thousands of cars pass by them, pretending not to notice.
God notices.
How can we not?

In this season of abundance and thankfulness, take some time with your family and friends to assemble Blessing Bags.
Notice those that the world pretends not to.

Include a printable with a few handwritten heartfelt words jotted down.  Your words, your care, your notice, might be the only love that they see that day/ week/ month/ year.
It matters.


(Printable available here.)

Sadly, I also know that the enemy, armed with the lies of this world, wants to destroy who God has created them to be.
Matt (vocals) added a verse for little girls and one for mothers.
With the help of my rad friend Angi, (who used to man the merchandise table with me back in the good old days) we put together a little printable to encourage the girls and women in your life.
You can find it by clicking here.

You're beautiful.

P.S. They have shows in Phoenix, Pomona, San Clemente, and Bakersfield this weekend.  I'd love to see you there. Click here for deets.

There are some little pieces of parenting advice that stick with you and can change the course the lives of your children.
When our oldest two were quite small, a dear couple imparted to us perhaps my favorite parenting advice to date.
They have five children, the youngest being a teenager, and all five love each other deeply, protect each other, support each other.  They are the kind of kids you dream of one day having.
When we asked their parents why everyone gets along so well, they simply answered this:
"We have been speaking over them since before they even knew what it meant, that they are all best friends."

That's it.  It is all they have ever known.  The four sisters, and their brother have been raised as best friends.  Best friends that they still are to this day.  It is such a beautiful and inspiring thing to witness, and so very simple.

From that day on we began speaking it over our girls.  When they fought, refused to share, or left one another out, we gently reminded them.  Carsons are best friends.  Best friends no matter what. 

Halley and Lucy get it.  They love each other fiercely.  They share a room, they share toys.  They are rarely apart.  Are they perfect?  Of course not.  But they are pretty awesome. 
Janey is beginning to get it.  She can repeat back to us when asked:
What are Carsons?  Carsons are best friends.
 

I know we are only eight years into this parenting gig.  I know the most challenging years are coming up.  In fact I am reminded of that by fifty billion strangers every single time we are out in public.  (My feelings on that subject for another day.)  But I believe that the hard work that we are putting in now, is laying a foundation that will carry them into the teenage years and beyond. 
Best friends forever.
Download a BFF print in your choice of three colors here.
Speak it over your children.
There is no better friend in the world than the one that shares your home.