The Blog...
Before I tell you a bit of our story, I want to answer the question 'why do you blog so much?' There are many answers. This blog started three years ago as a way to keep family (who we were living far from) aware of Jonah's growth and general happenings in our life. While I was writing out our story certain themes became evident and have helped me to understand how we want to live and how I want to mother. As well as discovering these things about myself and our life I've also been excited to be making new friends who share the priorities of faith, family, art, home, eco-sustainability, and education through the blog. In the past year the blog has also become a spiritual discipline of sorts as I seek to find the sacramental in the everyday. So, there is no one reason why I blog, but many reasons that keep me committed to creating this space.
Our story...
Jim and I met our freshman year at Wheaton College in Illinois where we ended up with an Art and International Relations degree. We were on brother/sister floors and were in the same group of friends. By the end of our sophmore year of college we were playing a lot of ping-pong and guitar, sharing meals, and on the college ministry team together. By our Junior year we were dating and were engaged the following summer.
We were married soon after graduating from Wheaton and moved to Vancouver where we both worked on seminary degrees. While Jim focused on Theology and the Arts, my course was in Applied Theology with a focus on counseling and christian education. I also worked as a children's pastor at our church. It was half way through my studies at Regent, that we were a bit surprised to find that we were expecting our first child. We were very excited and somehow managed to both finish our degrees and work part-time while caring for baby Jonah (though it was a crazy couple years!)
From there we moved to Seattle where I worked at another church in Children's ministry and really fell in love with studying Christian Education as a whole. While we were in Seattle Jim had to decide between going on for an MFA in painting or a PhD in Theology with a focus in the arts. It was a hard decision as he has imagined for some time that he would be a painting professor, but in the end it was clear that we would move to St. Andrews, Scotland where he would study in the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts. He is writing on the relationship between divine and human creativity.
Since being in St. Andrews I've been home with one, then two, and now three wee boys. I love the smell of fresh bread, snatching moments at the sewing machine, resourcing the boys' new interests and learning along side them, helping to create community, reading as much children's literature as we can and generally finding the extra in the ordinary of our days.
I am honored that you are joining us in this journey via blogdom. Welcome and please let me know you've been here - I love hearing from readers.
