Day 31: Extraordinary Ordinary

There is more extraordinary in our lives than ordinary if we have eyes to see.

I suppose that really is the point of this whole exercise. It is a way to peel back to scales on our eyes to see the beauty in all the nooks and crannies of life.

I need new eyes to see my daily routine. I need a new paintbrush and perspective from which to see the art in the everyday, both the art God is making and the art that we are making.

I hope that you have glimpsed your life in a new way. Don't see the mess, see the life lived real and full. If you feel like you are living under a weight of ordinary then shake it off. It is really just a lie.

Go outside. Look up at the night sky. Breathe in the autumn air. Recapture wonder then come back inside and flip the idea of laundry piles and dust bunnies on their head by seeing them as a gift.

Real life lived well and full is messy and beautiful and brimming with extraordinary, more extraordinary than ordinary on any given day.

Day 30: Extraordinary Ordinary

I keep going back to this video. The one with Lisa-Jo's words. That video and those words that anyone who has been a mama for 5 seconds can relate too.

Whether it is the screaming newborn or the angry teen, we get the ordinary moments in motherhood that can make us feel about 5 inches tall. All those lump in our throat, choking back tears moments of our mama-ing lives are blazingly beautiful and unique to us, the one's that mama full on into the storm and wonder of it all.

There is nothing ordinary about us.
There is not one of us that is a plain, ole' mama.
We are mamas hand picked by God to wage war for the hearts of our children.

That is all kinds of extraordinary.

Day 29: Extraordinary Ordinary

The scary reality is that most marriages sour in less time then we've been married. Eight years today. Eight years of growing and changing and leaping on faith from adventure to adventure.

It hasn't been easy. It has been hard and there have been times when neither of us wanted to do the hard work. But here we are and we've stayed and we've believed that God can take two sinners and bind them together with more than the butterflies in the stomach kind of love. He can bind us with cords unbreakable, His very own yoke of faith, hope and love.

You are my biggest cheerleader. You have never been a fair weather fan. You have believed in me far more than I have believed in myself and have always led me toward a God who is big enough to handle it all. When I have been fearful, you have been brave. When I have run scared, you have stayed strong. I couldn't be more grateful to God for you. 

I wish this wasn't extraordinary, but in a world gone mad and divorce rates rocketed sky high we are the exception even among those with faith in Christ. Our ordinary according to statistics has turned in eight short years into something extraordinary. Our extraordinary is a gift to my heart that keeps giving and giving as the years go on.


Happy Anniversary to my favorite bearded geologist. The man who I count as both my husband and my dearest friend. I am blessed beyond measure.

Day 24: Extraordinary Ordinary {Allume and Phase 5 of (in)mercy!}

I wrote last week about women who I adore and think are infusing extraordinary into their ordinary in a million little ways.

An amazing thing happened these past couple of weeks. Phases 1-4 of the (in)mercy project for Mercy House Kenya were fully funded! Yes, you read that right!

I was supposed to be tweeting LIVE from Allume tonight to raise funds for Phase 3 of (in)mercy, but God is so BIG that we blew right past Phase 3.

With that said, we've still got a long way to go! Phase 5: Live Mercy is meant to raise $53,000 to build a second house for Mercy House Kenya.

I'm going to Kenya without leaving home. You can too! {Click to tweet}



So tonight, instead of tweeting LIVE from the Allume conference to raise money for a generator, I'm going to be tweeting to kick-off Phase 5.

Please consider being a part of this final phase of (in)mercy. Le't  live mercy. It will literally change lives, which is the best kind of extraordinary.

Day 23: Extraordinary Ordinary

Life is messy.

Messier than that garbage that needs to be taken out. Messier than a toddler after a spaghetti dinner.

If you're like me you feel the need to sweep all the messiness away.

It can make you feel like you are on an endless pursuit for something unattainable.

When life feels messy lean into Jesus. Lean into the truth that our messy ordinary is a gloriously un-ordinary part of a bigger story.

Day 22: Extraordinary Ordinary

My husband is colorblind which creates lots of laughs and a color mishap here and there. I have a bit of a color obsession which makes us a bit of an odd couple.

The world we live in isn't black and white. It is a rainbow and the way that our lives are colored infuses beauty into our lives even in the mundane.

The glowing brown of my toddler's eyes. The colors of the season; rich red, deep orange and golden.  Dusty blue vintage suitcases piled in a corner. Deep cherry wood hues on an old trunk full of life. 

Color is a gift that makes the ordinary a bit more extraordinary.

Day 21: Extraordinary Ordinary

If you're shooting for perfection then you might never find the extraordinary in the ordinary.

The stove will never be clean enough. There will never be enough money in the bank. People will never behave just right.

What is assured is that in the midst of the less than perfect there is always a choice. A choice to take joy in the midst of all the ordinary.

Day 20: Extraordinary Ordinary

The everyday is part of our story. Maybe it is the tiniest part of your story, but no puzzle was ever made without pieces and everyday life makes up the pieces.

Our stories aren't always the way that we'd would write them. I know there are parts of my own that I would erase and re-write without the messiness and the hurt.

The extraordinary in the ordinary is that we can write another part of our story with the everyday as we choose how we write it that day, to write with grace or to scribble ugly all over the page of life.

The choice is ours.

Day 19: Extraordinary Ordinary

Because there is nothing ordinary about a conversation with the God of heaven and earth. I've found in the still quiet morning while I'm nursing my first and second cups of coffee that I have been utterly amazed that the God of the universe invites us to enter the throne room just to have a chat.

When you're there barefoot, pregnant and flustered, or none or all of the above, find a soft place to land and hit your knees.

He invites and that is perhaps the most extraordinary in our ordinary.

The God who fingerpaints the sky and hand carves the hills calls us by name and calls us to pour out our hearts full of thanks and angst to Him.

Day 18: Extraordinary Ordinary

There are days when world can turn down right ugly.

The rain comes. The world spins and it dizzies even the closest Christ follower.

There are days when we just need to catch our breath and catch a break.

The God of all blessings never ceases to give grace in the rain. Grace to walk through it when the days feel like a long slog. Grace to dance in it when it all gets to be too much.

When peace is elusive cling to just this one piece of truth.

God has always been faithful and He will always be.

 An added bonus to this 31 Days post; a playlist of peace.

 Peace Like a River: For the Restless Days
 

Day 17: Extraordinary Ordinary

Because sometimes we forget to look up and look around at all the ways God is showing up big.

Sometimes we look up but all we do is compare our this to their that and joy just leaks out of life like a sieve.

What is extraordinary is that there are so many women, mamas, Christ followers doing things that are anything but ordinary.

There was a laundry day in Africa this week that turned into a way for us to be more the "just" moms.

There is a friend who still mourns her wee boy's life and let's others know that it is okay for them to mourn and celebrate the life that was, no matter how brief.

Then there is an amazing lady who writes so bold and is getting ready to load up a van and take a crew of more than mamas to east Africa.

I'm amazed by these women. Amazed that they look beyond the everyday and see the potential of every day.

Day 16: Extraordinary Ordinary

Maybe you don't recognize the lady jiggin' next to Roy Acuff? Heck, most folks probably don't know the fiddlin' fella in the picture. Minnie Pearl never saw a hat she wanted to cut the price tag off of and she never heard a tune that didn't send her feet to tapping.


I found this print a decade ago on a Saturday rummage through a flea market with a dear friend. For $2 I found a friend who has accompanied me on the wall of every kitchen that I've had since getting married.


I keep her there in eyesight to remind me that every tune is an opportunity to listen and sway around the room a bit. Her face lights up joy and reminds me that joy is a choice. You can hear the music of life and choose not to dance or you can hear it and choose to kick up your feet and grin big.

Day 15: Extraordinary Ordinary

Applesauce, apple muffins, apple jelly by the jar. I'm preserving the season and finding that I am curating a life.


No amount of being Susie Homemaker makes a well-preserved life. You can't find the secret to making a life last in the pages of the Ball Blue Book or behind the glossy ads of Good Housekeeping.


 The secret is in the everyday. It is your two hands powered by faith and a full heart of thanks that fills the empty, empties the full and counts every bit as a gift.

Day 14: Extraordinary Ordinary

Can you believe that Lisa-Jo had the nerve to make last Friday's prompt "Ordinary"? Since I did two "ordinary" yet rather extraordinary posts that day I'm opting to phone it in today.

It's Monday. What can I say? A Monday that includes a trip to the dentist.

Yeah, that kind of Monday. Extraordinary nonetheless.

Go back and read my 5 minutes or hit up some of my favorites from this 31 Days of Extraordinary Ordinary. Oh and did I mention that sweet Ann shared my words and my dear friend Amy's gorgeous art this past weekend?

Surprise blessings are the best. They add a bit more extraordinary to the ordinary.

Day 13: Extraordinary Ordinary

Our power went out last week for a bit. A cold night forced on our gas fireplace and the dust that was on the grate caused a bit of smoke, enough to set our smoke alarms a buzz at 7:00am. My idea of mopping is well...not mopping. Our blessing of a home is a trailer that is anything but level. I've grown to hate berber carpet with the fire of a thousand suns.

Everything I just named has an inverse. The inverse of discontent is gratitude and I'm determined to flip the less than glamorous parts of my life on their head.

The electricity going out was a blessing in disguise. I got a bunch of work I would have otherwise avoided done.

The smoke alarms worked! Yes, if we had a real fire they would have alerted us. Not to mention that we have heat.

The mopping? It doesn't matter. I mean in terms of cleanliness it does, but my daughter plays and we do life and the floors are dirty, but it doesn't steal our joy.

This trailer that sits a bit askew. It is the fulfillment of a need for now and so I choose to take joy when I would rather choose a solid foundation with a wraparound porch.

There is no more solid foundation then Jesus and building a life on Him with thanks on our lips.

And everyday is an opportunity for thanks.

Day 12: Extraordinary Ordinary

Claim the moments. Those few moments, sometimes fewer than we would like, in the early morning when the stillness is palpable and the house is blanketed under the final moments of quiet before it is off to the races. 

 Steal away in those moments.

Center yourself on Christ. 

Center yourself on Christ and nothing, nothing at all, can get your day off balance. 

Day 11: Extraordinary Ordinary

The Gospel doesn't get worked out in seminary classrooms.

It gets worked out in real time during the witching hour. When you're stressed and stretched and the baby is crying, the husband is running late, the rice is sticking to the pot burned and your nerves are standing on end.

That is when you lean on Jesus and He holds you up and all the words of the apostles jump off the page and into your life. We are all arm-chair theologians preaching the Gospel to ourselves from our very own living rooms.

Day 10: Extraordinary Ordinary

You don't wake up one day and write the story of your life like it just happened. You live it everyday and then one day it works itself out of your soul and onto paper and if you're blessed enough it lives past your lifetime and touches others.

I've been thinking a lot about stories and changing the world and how maybe those things are the same thing. Maybe the only way to change the world is to let our lives be changed by Jesus.

Maybe you are smack dab in the middle of your story which if you draw the magnifying glass back you will see that it isn't your story at all.

It is the story of a God mighty to save.

Even you. Even me.

Stop trying to write your story from the middle and let Him write your story from beginning to end.

Your story is everything He is has done, will do, is doing every second of every minute of this extraordinary ordinary life.

Day 9: Extraordinary Ordinary

Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches. 

~Alice Roosevelt Longworth 

It's the simple things. A hot cup of tea. Half finished books piled deep. Words typed on a screen. A sloppy toddler kiss on your cheek. The crisp pages of a new journal ripe with possibilities. Clean sheets on a cool night. The daily routine and tasks that strung together make a life. The little things matter. 

The everyday matters. You are making a life.

Day 8: Extraordinary Ordinary

These are the days of pure wonder. 

The first real smells of fall in her tiny button nose. She's learning bits of life with every bite. She's teaching me to grin big and toothy and dance all out. I follow behind careful not to hover and to let her explore and wander with wonder. Soon enough she'll be accustomed to the beauty and it won't shock her anymore, but if I have anything to do with it that will be a long time from now.