Full of Joy

OK friends, this Give Away ended up being so good for my heart. Ah! I was feeling pretty down about blogging over the weekend, and headed to the grocery store. What better way to cheer a person up than to grocery shop, right?! Yuck. Anyway, when I was done I checked my email and saw a bunch of comments for the Give Away. It just got me so excited to read what you all had to share. I loved it! And now I have some renewed direction and fresh ideas for writing in 2017. Thank you- thank you- thank you for reading, commenting, and being apart of the Full of Joy adventure! I am really happy to announce the winner of the Dunkin Donuts gift card. We are in the full swing of the holiday spirit around here (Thank goodness Halloween is finally over. The last thing I need in my life is a holiday wrapped around fear, gore, horror, skulls, and creepiness. My thighs don't need the chocolate either.), so I had a little elf help me with the drawing. Congra...

Today marks 1 year since the official re-launch of the blog. (You can check out that initial post here .) Even though I've been blogging for years, this past year has been the most significant. Writing weekly has helped to grow me as a writer, but something else happened unexpectedly. I grew closer to Jesus. He gave me a vision for this thing, and He has been faithful to pour into me. The more I write, the more I hear from Him, and the closer we become. I'm so thankful for Jesus. I'm thankful for you readers! I'm thankful for my beautiful friends who have stepped up with me this past year as guest bloggers, and poured their hearts out. Sooooo.....in honor of this milestone, I am hosting a GIVE AWAY! Even though Starbucks is my true love, frugality won the battle, and I have chose Dunkin Donuts as the prize! (With a Starbucks gift card, you can get like 1 1/2 drinks. With Dunkin you can get like 10!) ***To enter to win a Dunkin Donuts gift card, please...

March 27, 2006. A young, 24 year old woman sat in excited anticipation at a small, light-colored table in her sunny kitchen. She looked around the apartment she rented with a friend. It was the first home she could call her own. Independence. Adulthood. It suited her. Though a deeply broken heart haunted her, she was ready for a new beginning. A fresh start. Blogging seemed to be the ideal way to chronical this new freedom, so she sat at her very own table, and began to write…. *** Happy TEN YEAR Blog Anniversary! 17 drafts still hiding. 622 posts. 1,641 comments. 72,520 views. Technically the ten year mark was Easter Sunday, but it felt a little too sacrilegious to commemorate a mere blog on the day of our RISEN SAVIOR! I have to say, my generous and creative guy did help me celebrate that day. He surprised me with the delicious book , Bird By Bird written by Anne Lamott. He truly couldn’t have delighted me more! It’s been a beautiful ten years with you all! When...

I LOVE a Give-Away Day! Congratulations to Jess Lockwood! Gretchen's book will be heading your way very soon. And a big THANK YOU to all who commented. Many blessings of Sweet Things to each of you.

It’s not my story; It’s your story, Father, so help me tell it well… Hello blog world. I hope you all are doing well. I am writing to you from Bloomington, Minnesota—the place I have called home now for 11 years. Abigail approached me about 3 months ago to write a post, and I have had several ideas swirling around in my head, but nothing was making its way in coherent form on paper. This weekend, God solidified in me what I hope will be an encouragement to you. My husband, Jamie, and I work with college students at Normandale Community College, and this weekend was the winter retreat. In the first session together my friend Ben shared his testimony. Ben came to follow Jesus as a teenager, and at least from my perspective, he was given a very special gift. Ben shared with us that while he didn’t have full understanding of who or what he was deciding to follow, he did feel a deep conviction that God was good, God was real, and God loved him. These convictions have stayed with h...

Hi All! Thank you SO MUCH for your comments! Every comment I read brings great joy- it's like a little gift each time. It was wonderful reading about the ways God has crafted each and every one of your hearts in such unique ways. Keep those comments coming- there are more give aways to come soon! Also, thank you for the kind birthday greetings! What a fun week it has been. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! CONGRATULATIONS to Rachel Chevalley ! Your box will be on it's way very soon! =)

I've been SO excited for this post ever since the launch of the new direction Jesus has given me for Full or Joy! Jesus is a giver. He loves to give, and give abundantly. If you've ever heard of "The Five Love Languages" , Gifts, hands down, mean the absolute most to me. For example, right before I moved away from MN about eight years ago, a friend gave me a soft, fitted T-shirt. It was such a sweet gift from someone I had just started to get to know. I still wear that T-shirt to this day. At this moment I am drinking out of a coffee mug with a cool silicone lid that a teen gave me when I was her small group leader well over five years ago. The hot coffee doesn't just warm my hands, the mug warms my heart far greater. Recently, a baby-sitter of Jase's watched him for a whole morning. They baked cookies, made crafts, and played together. For Christmas, she gave Chuck and I the best gift in the world. A hand-print of Jase's made into an ornament of b...

Congratulations to JULIA! I will be contacting you via email. Kristi's awesome new book is yours! THANK YOU to all who shared. Your comments were a great encouragement.

The tree keeps falling over. The dinner burns. The baby spits up on your new sweater. Finances are too tight to buy presents. Family can’t make it for the holiday. The neighbor you invited to church didn’t come. You miss the celebration due to sickness. The flight is canceled. That special present didn’t arrive in time. The weather isn’t cooperating. You’re stressed and yell at someone you love. Another car hits yours in the mall parking lot. There’s no bonus this year. That one person’s attitude is ruining Christmas (again). Memories of past holidays are painful. A loved one passes away. You’re spending another New Year’s Eve alone. Yet another year of unanswered prayer goes by. Life is disappointing. Hurt is real. It may be no big deal, but it is at the time, and it is to you. Most of the above list has happened to me. Disappointment is often my reality because my expectations are high. My self-appointments don’t materialize in the timing or way I imagined. I naïve...

I feel like I have big shoes to fill after Abigail’s introduction! I hope I do it justice. I’m Heidi. I am a graphic designer, small business owner and a lover of travel. I am a Type A list maker. I have lived in nine states and 14 cities. I attended 11 different schools. I hate onions. I like black licorice. I love grapefruit. I have no favorite color, but my closet is organized by color. I am a left-handed introvert. I have been wracking my brain for what to write about here for weeks. I am not at the end of some grand journey where I have wisdom or some deep reflections to impart. Instead, I feel like I am in the midst of a painful and ongoing battle in multiple areas of my life. One of the most significant battles being my “woman”hood. I say womanhood with quotes because I am a 36 year old who has yet to claim herself as a “woman”. In my own mind, I am still a girl, trying to find her way into the world of women. I think a lot of this has to do with the environment I wa...