JoaS

With only about two weeks left before Maggie arrives, I thought I'd share some photos of the completely finished nursery! It took quite some time to launder and organize all the clothes and blankets. We were simply blown away by the generosity of our community, friends, and family. We are more than set with baby gear and little Margaret Elizabeth should not want for attention or love, that's for sure. Leftover shower decor makes for pretty cute nursery decor, if you ask me. The OG Margaret Elizabeth (my 93 year old great aunt) gifted Maggie this beautiful silver rattle with her name engraved on each end. I know it will be a cherished keepsake. Every child also needs a globe, in my opinion, to dream about and discover faraway places. This one happened to be Michael's as a child. My brother painstakingly hand cut each of the letters to make this beautiful pennant banner for our baby shower, and I promised we would keep it forever! It looks fantastic and...

It's the very last day of September. I have literally procrastinated this month's blog post as long as I possibly could. I can't believe it's already the end of September and Fall has arrived. It's still 90 degrees in Charleston, but the calendar says it's officially Fall. With T-minus 6 weeks until Maggie's arrival, Michael suggested we take one last hoorah to a friend's mountain house with family and enjoy a few cool days and falling leaves. It turned out to be just perfect and we all enjoyed unplugging and unwinding away from internet, cell service, and any stores or activity. It was absolutely beautiful. Temperatures were in the 70s during the day and got down to the 50s at night. Michael and I enjoyed a few quiet days alone before everyone else got there and neither of us could remember the last time we'd enjoyed such quality time. It's the longest vacation we've taken together, and we would love to take Maggie in a few years ...

There are so many celebrations going on right now: back to school, off to college, birthdays, anniversaries. We are heading into Fall and the holiday season will be upon us before we know it. Not to mention, it's Labor Day weekend and there are so many sales going on and many great deals to be enjoyed. I am someone who loves to get an early start on holiday gifts, and thought I would go ahead and share my thoughts on gift giving. Gifts is my second love language and I love thinking about the perfect gift for a certain person and the best way to stretch my limited resources or funds the furthest. One way I love to "give far" is to support small businesses . As a small business owner myself , I know just how much every single purchase means to the person behind the shop. It's one more drop in the bucket that fuels the dream, and it is particularly encouraging to those who sell their handmade wares. It's another vote of confidence for their craft and talent. Not...

Gratitude is a pretty powerful tool. Lately, the heat has made being pregnant increasingly more uncomfortable and, to be honest, the medical bills and little extra costs add up and eclipse most of our disposable income. It's been a pretty rough and hot July. A little pregnancy update: I'm well into the second trimester and was feeling so much better and so happy to have escaped the nausea of the first trimester, until a few weeks ago. The heat (or something) seemed to come out of nowhere and now I find it very difficult to catch my breath, often getting lightheaded and/or having dizzy spells. I've also been getting sick for the first time. First trimester nausea stuck with me pretty much all day and kept me on my toes, wondering and half expecting an episode. This nausea comes out of nowhere like a ton of bricks and strikes without warning. Hard. I was not prepared for this and it has made life a little more unpredictable. (That being said, it has in no way diminish...

Feelings are so finicky. Have you ever felt yourself wearing down and you begin to neglect your quiet time or your evening walk or your morning prayer time because there's just so much to do and you've run out of energy? Next thing you know you're losing your cool in traffic or exploding on a friend or loved one because they can't read minds and didn't know to watch their step in the mine field that has become you? Have you ever let that happen? Because I have. And it stinks. I can recall with perfect clarity the first time I let it happen and was consciously aware I was doing it. I was treating someone I loved with contempt and gruffness that they certainly did not deserve. I could feel myself doing it, I watched myself do it, and I thought the whole time "Emily, what are you doing?" I knew immediately that it was misdirected and I felt terrible. Emotions can be so strong. Mine often overwhelm me. This is something we diligently attempt to guide in th...

I have been receiving lessons in humility lately. I guess to be a "sanctuary"--pure and holy, tried and true--it stands to reason you'd have to be humble, too. When we first found out we were having a baby girl, my reaction was soft, gushy, heart melting--followed immediately by the realization that I am so flawed and so young and so unwise and inexperienced--how in the world can I do this well?? A girl is going to have to overcome so many of the trials and hardships with which I was faced, and I didn't handle them all well! I had to fight the fear. I started praying. I had to immerse myself in truth to shut out the (horribly loud) lies. I reached out to a mom I follow on social media (the one millennial activity I do well) and I asked for any tips she could give a first time mom. Her response, delivered with such tenderness and sincerity, was that God has hand chosen me to mother this little one here on earth. He seems to think I'm the best suited for this pa...

One of my favorite songs on the radio today is God Only Knows by For King and Country. God only knows what you've been through God only knows what they say about you God only knows how it's killing you But there's a kind of love that God only knows God only knows what you've been through God only knows what they say about you God only knows the real you There's a kind of love that God only knows They have a way of writing that just speaks straight to my soul. Their word choice could not more accurately represent those feelings I can't quite put into words if they had interviewed me, personally, before sitting down to compose. Now that the cat's out of the bag, I can be a little more authentic about my experience these past 12 weeks. First, a little background on Michael and I: we're both recovering people pleasers. We're both pretty laid back and don't like to let things bother us. We don't like to confront others, we don...

I try to post once a month, consistently, more if I have something worth sharing. This is the first post for April because IT'S A BIG ONE! And I couldn't share before. But now I can, so here you go: On top of learning the meaning of "sanctuary" this year--untainted and reliable--I've also been made a literal sanctuary--a place of refuge or safety. 2019 is officially the year we become a family of four! Margaret Elizabeth Hardee is scheduled to arrive in November 2019, and for obvious reasons this has eclipsed the vast majority of my thoughts, energy, and time. I literally could not think of anything else to blog about because our little gummy bear has pretty much eclipsed our lives already but it was all pretty hush hush until now. The beginning was the most difficult, but things are sort of settling now. My food aversions are STRONG. And ever changing. It's very difficult on a tight grocery budget, but will be very worth it in the long run. I...

Originally published February 25, 2013: I was having a conversation with someone the other day and it taught me something important about love. It's something God has been trying to teach me for a long time. My husband and I chatted about it more on a car trip back from spending some time with my family, and that conversation and opportunity to talk through it with someone who knows the love of Christ and demonstrates it with me daily really drove the point home. (We also talked about this in my bible study, it was the sermon on Sunday, and my brother just sent me a link to some profound thoughts from another woman on the subject. Coincidence? I think not. God's serious about this one, guys.) So here's what I'm learning: have you ever been in a disagreement with someone and they try to win you to their side by putting yours down?  It may be that it's the other way around. Does it work? Truly? Or is it more likely that the most promising end we can expect ...

Some of you may know that back in the day I had a blog called Emily Posting. It's still there, you can still peruse it, if you dare. I thought I might share some of those early musings here, in case there is any tidbit worth revisiting. Turns out, there might be just a few. This post was originally published March 20, 2013: I would argue that the best tip Michael and I got to start our marriage off on the right track (besides reading tons of Dave Ramsey's work and chatting about our future goals) was to listen to Senior Pastor Tommy Nelson of Denton Bible Church in Texas speak on Song of Solomon.  Michael and I downloaded and listened to the series on our honeymoon, actually, and I can say with all confidence that it made our honeymoon a success.  Anyone looking to get married, already married, or who happens to know and interact with other people should definitely hear this guy speak. Obviously we two honeymooners were intently focused on nuggets of wisdom Nelson ...

Not to be a downer or anything, but bad things happen. If you're reading this, I assume you're an adult with a computer who reads blogs and articles about real life, so chances are good you already know this tidbit. You may even understand it better than I do, myself. I grew up in a very loving home, with a nice family, a great dog, I got along with my brother, and I saw all the Disney movies. I have wonderful memories of fun family vacations. I had plenty of friends and I always did well in school. I didn't have to try hard and I thought I was very fortunate. Un fortunately, you don't get a lot of opportunity to develop a mature character when you don't have to try hard, right? Smooth seas and whatnot. I feel like I was catapulted straight from adolescence into adulthood. I had a great college experience and my parents were terribly supportive and I was comfortable. Then I got engaged. I talked about moving to a different state, to a big city. I had to find...

So, my last post was about my thoughts on the upcoming new year, 2019. Actually, my last post contained several recipe ideas for pork. But seeing as we are now two months into that new year, I thought it appropriate to follow up on the effects of the word "sanctuary" as my focus for 2019. I always go through a slump after the holidays. I'll be honest, I hate and dread that time of the year. January seems so hard and daunting and I just want to shut my eyes and get it over with. While I entered this year more hopeful than last, January did not disappoint. And by that, I mean it was quite the same as in years past. I entered my routine funk and slowly crawled out of it as February approached and then something quite miraculous happened. Prayers were answered and the sunshine returned and I began to realize a sort of peace I haven't had in a long time. God often uses hardship, not just physical or emotional, but also mental hardship to strengthen our community wi...

So, one of the ways we work our grocery budget is by buying proteins in bulk at Costco. Their Kirkland's Smoked Pulled Pork is a little strong in the smoke flavoring, but we've found several recipes that could not be easier and provide a variety of flavors and dishes to get us through a week or so. Without further ado, here they are. The first, and easiest, dish is to just heat up a helping of pork, roast some veggies, and serve the whole thing with BBQ sauce. The pork comes fully cooked, so all you have to do is heat it. The photo above is the pork simply heated. We actually do prefer to cook it further in the other dishes, but this is easy and good, too. I also love a good BBQ pork stuffed sweet potato, or baked potato. One of my favorites is this Slow Cooker Pork and Apples dish I discovered on Pinterest years ago. The original recipe from katheats.com calls for pork chops, which I don't particularly love, but I used this shredded pork as a...

I am not a traditional resolution maker or goal setter. For the past few years I have felt an overwhelming tug on my heart and mind to really be intentional in one area of my life and make it my goal to pursue that one concept throughout the year, or as long as it takes.  Last year, God really laid on my heart that I needed to “simplify.” Just that one word. I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant at the outset, but we ended up purging our house of furniture we didn’t need, clothing, old belongings we’d been dragging around each move without real purpose. I ended up leaving a job that had me sick and drained of energy all the time and took a huge leap of faith opening my own shop—a long time dream that had failed once before when I wasn’t ready yet. I ended up really simplifying my diet and routines, just ridding my life of excess. We eliminated some debt, lots of bad spending habits, and released ourselves from many unrealistic expectations. It was truly a year of simpli...