#mommyblogger

Yep...Mommy Blogging at its finest right there. :)

(thanks P for this pic!)

Wow I am so honored at some of the responses and emails from my previous post about why I share and why I blog. It makes me happy, y'all. So, thank you.

Man, it's hard to find the time to finish all the laundry piles or make all the snacks, much less sit down and blog or be online. But here I am, making it a priority. Sounds funny maybe, but I just feel like I am suppose to. I feel God telling me it is a season to sit down (literally) and pursue some of my heart's desires, one of which includes pouring into and growing this blog.

Blogging and Instagram has brought so much community to my life, and has opened doors to friendships I only dreamt of having. God is just good like that, though! It has also brought me to resources I never would have found that add wisdom and guidance to my life. Anything from parenting to studying the Bible to scrubbing soap scum off a shower door. :) So thankful for others who take the time to share online.

For me, moving forward, I am hoping to sit down and start writing if not every day, then every other day. How am I going to find the time? Well, I think I just am going to spend the quiet time after the girls go to bed working on this. I keep hearing people say that when you are passionate about something, you are willing to stay up until the wee hours to work on it. And while I am not planning to do that every night or even every week, I am coming to realize that this IS that important to me.

Other priorities are too though. Obviously.

I am a wife, mom and homemaker before I am a blogger. So, learning to schedule and prioritize and say no or say yes... are things I am seeking guidance on from the Lord, from my very-business-efficient hubby, and from other wise counsel in my life. So thankful for those voices.

God has spoken lots of words this year and in this season about us pursuing what He has put in our hearts. And so, I must be obedient.

Have yall ever thought of it that way? It actually just hit me as I typed it out just now...pursuing the things in my heart that God made me to have is actually being obedient to Him! wow.

That just opened up a whole new perspective for me!
I want to be obedient to His heart in mine. That is so confirming that He really does meet us where we are and gives us the desires of our hearts. He MADE us that way. Or has formed our desires over time to match His destiny for us.

Now, I am not saying that the season always allows for us to be obedient to pursuing our dreams (there is NO way I could've sat down and blogged a bunch at the end of my pregnancy with Isaac or in the early weeks...hello, sleep deprivation!).

BUT, when we do feel released and feel the grace to do it...why not!?

This blog has evolved so much through the last 4 years...it was once called Racing Towards Joy, then Our Hope Reclaimed.
Now...Brave and Simple.
And I have loved every season of it. It has allowed the chance to share anything and everything I want to or feel led to. From recipes, to stories of loss.

In this new space, I have some new (and old) things to share (you can see those at the topic menu up there!)..including our journey through miscarriages and grief, a topic page about my Nest, which will include homemaking stuff and recipes and things of that nature, and even a page about the new Homeschooling journey we are about to embark on this Fall!
I cannot wait to put it all out there and build even more community.
And one of my favorite new pages of this blog? Hubby Writes.
This is going to be a space where my man Parker can write his heart too.
Yall will be so blessed by it, his heart and mind and writing ability is incredible!! He is currently working on some posts to put up!

I have tried to make things a little simpler (pun intended :) ) by organizing all those topics.
I will write the main blog posts in "the blog" part, but will link up the related posts to each topic page, just making it easier to find and read.

So much to share and say and do, and I am excited!

All this to say...here I am.

Looking so forward to this journey here!! Thanks for listening to my little blurp today. :)