Spread the Love Blog tour... Am I back?

 Okay my friends it has been a long time… 

I mean too long, but there was a purpose and a reason for that season. 

When a blogger friend of mine, Stacey, (Who is aca-mazing and a bigger encouragement in my life than she even knows…) asked for some volunteers to join the tour I felt God give me a nudge and tell me to jump in.  SO…

Here I am.

All of my craziness is still intact and I have things to share, but oh where oh where to start?!?!?!

Hence this blog tour gives me a simple way to share what I have been up to these last few months…errr… “Cough, cough” (YEAR).  

One more side-note for you… This will not be a polished and pretty post. We had our anniversary, a wedding, grad party, birthday party, and allot of home projects that have been going on this last week and sooooo…
Grace my friends. Give me some grace. ;)

1. What are you currently working on?

Can I just give you some pics my friends? A picture is worth a thousand words right?

Getting demo's done for Art classes that my good friend, Brianne, and I get to teach together.

Another Demo. This one is of my daughter;s silhouette. She is full of life and color so that is how I painted her. ;)

Average week at our home. We all have fun painting. Can you tell?

Was privileged to be asked to return and do another experiential service for a Youth Retreat. This one was on The Persecuted Church. It is one of my favorite things to help others understand what people are going through across the world.

We went on our last youth mission trip before resigning. (Yes, I am a dork.) :)

They repaired the inside of a family's home which had some severe damage inside. The husband had aids and was unable to work.  They also completely re-roofed another family's home and did an immaculate job. Love these teens!

Survived Michigan's worst winter ever. With record snow falls and and record low temps it was an experience for sure! ;)

We lost power for 5 days straight over Christmas and of course, while family was staying with us. Entertaining 7 kids while trying to keep the fires going to keep the house warm made for some good memories.

Yes, grown men do play Bakugan. ;)

Good times. We were so excited to be able to visit a bunch of my family. It had been years y'all. Way too long! (Can you guess which one is from Texas?)

Movie time with the Cousins!

Cousins having some fun!

Heading up north and seeing my brother from another mother. (In other words we grew up together and I count him as my brother.) P.S. Don't tell him this pic is in here...He doesn't like it. ;)

Being Silly with my Hubby at a good friend's Grad party for her daughter.

Love. This. Man.

 Trying to get a pic with my kids. It only took 6 tries... Goofballs.

This is why. ;)

Homeschooling Fun! The challenge? To build a Trojan Horse that you can all fit in from Card board and tape. Oh yeah!
 They rocked it!

Learning about the racism and inequality
that still continues to this day.

Loving Nature as usual.

Hiking the largest Dune. Love those Great Lakes. 

Good times at Lake Michigan!

 So much more happened, but I do not want to bore you my friends. Just know it's been a fantastic time full of adventures with family, making new friends, and learning new things. 

Now, back to the blog tour questions.

2. How does your work differ from others of its genre?

Ummm.

What is my work? Well I guess that would be a better question.

Hmmm... A little synopsis perhaps?

I am a homeschooling mama, ministry peep, artist, art teacher, justice and poverty advocate, who is prone to spontaneous dancing and/or singing.

The biggest news over the last year is that after over a decade in youth ministry and 15 years of various ministry positions we resigned.

     

 It was a hard decision to make because we love our teens and we loved working in youth ministry, but it was a necessary choice for us. Since then it’s been a beautiful time of learning new things, healing from the stress of the last few years, and also a rough time of wrestling with God as we ask Him,  "What’s next?". 

Aaaaannnnnd His, “What’s next?” is a different type of adventure. We have always been a bit out of the ordinary (Shocker, I know.) and now we feel like God is asking us to just jump off the reservation with this next adventure, but we are absolutely excited about it and have a peace. (Are we nervous? Heck yes, but with God? Things are risky and exciting and require faith. So here we go!)

3. Why do you write/create what you do?

To put it simply, God gives me a drive to create. Whether it’s art or words, speaking or creating experiential services on global issues, or teaching art classes...

 I just do what He nudges me towards. I love getting to foster that creativity in others. My kids, my friends, youth, anyone?! 

Art is such a therapeutic and freeing process. I gave a creativity workshop at a youth retreat and discovered a quote that basically said. (And I am totally paraphrasing this…)

If as, Christians we are worshiping and following the Master Creator of the universe then shouldn’t we be the most creative beings on the planet?

This is sadly not the impression allot of us are conveying to the world. 

“Sigh” 

There are glimmers though. Along the fringe lines there is a beautiful group of creative cats that both love Jesus and are following in their Creator’s footsteps. 

Getting Bolder and braver in their expressions of creativity. Willing to think out of the box, which last time I checked God doesn’t like to be put in a box. (I could write on that one for a bit, but this is supposed to be short. Lol)

4. How does your writing/creating process work?

I watch life constantly and ask questions just as much. There is so much to learn, see and experience. Life, is a never ending lesson we can learn from. God is constantly drawing analogies before my eyes each day and I find it beautiful and exhilarating. 

To be more specific. There is always music playing and then the juices of creativity start flowing and away we go. 

I just want to thank Stacey for asking me to join this lovely tour. You should check out her blog my friends. She writes, she creates, she advocates for women. She is a rockstar in my book. (Seriously! Click HERE and visit her.)

So how are you?

 I hope and pray you are doing well! I will be returning to this little corner of the blog world more often. My, "Let's Talk Church" section will be finally getting some more posts soon as we share what we have learned and explored the last few years. I hope you will join in the conversation. It is always better to hear from all points of view so we can learn from each other's experiences and knowledge.

God bless you lots!