Guess Cook Baby #2's Birthday - Contest!
Cook Baby #2!
Wrapping up 2014
If someone were to ask me to put all of our 2014 into a giant box and label it... I'd label it... Our Adventure. What an adventure we had! Our "Year of Less" turned out to be a year of SO much more than we could have ever imagined for ourselves last January. Pregnancy, a full year of amazing clients, weddings and births, traveling internationally, dabbling in homeschool, Tommy finishing his master's degree... The year was PACKED... and we survived and thrived. (By taking a lot of deep breaths and being in-the-moment, I think. :))
I am looking forward to dissecting 2014 even more in the coming days... what did and didn't work for myself, my family, and my business? I am looking ahead to 2015 with hopes and dreams of continuing my journey towards more simplicity, intentionality, and contentment. I have been brainstorming and thinking of possible word ideas for 2015 and I am pretty sure I've got THE one narrowed down. But I want to finish my Goal Setting process first before I make that commitment. :)
This year I'll be following along again with Lara Casey's Goal Setting Process over on her blog (and using my PowerSheets again!). I plan to start in the next few days and hopefully finish up before Cook Baby #2 makes his or her arrival in a few weeks! JOIN ME! And if you decide to share publicly, will you leave a link to your blog post in the comments?? I'd LOVE to follow along!
Speaking of THE BABY. I've been working on a blog post all about this pregnancy, our birth plans, and my deep thoughts about bringing another baby into our family. It'll go live tomorrow... I hope you will come back and read it. :)
In the meantime... Happy New Year, sweet friends! Thank you for following along with us in 2014 and for sticking around through my blog silence and attempts to just-keep-swimming through the crazy. I appreciate you all more than you know!
2014 Giving Tuesday
I'd be remiss to have a big Cyber Monday sale yesterday and NOT follow it up with a recognition of the Third Annual Giving Tuesday! I just wanted to take a minute today to highlight two of my favorite local non-profits. Hopefully neither of these will be a surprise to you, as they are both such a big part of my heart that I've mentioned them numerous times around here.
The Motherhood Collective
This group saved me... they offered me a safe place to go during one of the most vulnerable seasons of my life. They embraced me and my loud mouth and quirky ways, despite my new-mama-lack-of-knowledge. They taught me that every mother is different, that we are all simply doing the best we can, and that we need to be easy on ourselves (AND one-another). They gave me permission to make mistakes and to explore different options for myself and my family as we journeyed through our new chapter of parenting.
The work The Motherhood Collective is doing is great... recognizing (and respecting) the time-sensitive season of early motherhood and providing a kind, gentle, supportive AND educational environment for mamas all over our area... it is truly invaluable.
If you are currently an expecting mama and/or in the early stages of motherhood, or if that season of life is a passion of yours, PLEASE get connected with this group!
Allow The Children
Confession... I was never interested in overseas missionary work. Like, ever. Until I married into a family passionate about it. I was invited on my first ever international mission trip in 2009 and the experience absolutely changed my life... it changed my heart and overall perspective on life.
Allow The Children is a local non-profit organization that cultivates partnerships with other Bible-believing non-profit organizations around the world to help provide financial and biblical resources to those in need. They do this through many avenues, including running a child sponsorship program, running free medical clinics in faraway villages, offering Pastor training Programs, the list seems endless, really.
Allow The Children has been used by God to alter the course of the lives of many, many people around the world... including my own. The work God is doing through this organization is so good and so needed. I hope you'll take a minute to learn more about them and consider sponsoring a child or supporting another project they currently have going on.