Welcome to My Beautiful Mess!

I’m Heidi and this is my mess.  I am so glad you’ve stopped by.

Here’s a bit about me, not that it’s all about me.

I am a…

…wife, to a wonderful man who supports my crazy ideas, let’s me drive on road trips, cleans the shower drain and takes the garbage to the curb {most of the time}.

…mom, to three hilarious little ones who constantly keep me praying for strength, laughing till my sides ache and vacuuming the minivan.

…friend, sister, daughter, photographer, middle child, crafter, writer, DIYer, thinker, reader, chauffeur, chef, artist, maid, gardener, and so much more.

…child of the living God because he gave me life and then saved it.

…not-so-perfect follower of Christ who is trying to figure out how to love people as He did. I’m not very good at this, but by His grace I’ll learn and grow in it.

…creative being {we all are in some form or another}.  It is my passion and what brings me alive.  I want to create just to create.  And that, to my great surprise, is a piece of the heart of God.  Creating to enjoy the creation.  It’s great to know that I can be me and in doing so reflect a piece of who God is.  I suppose I was indeed made in his image after all.

I began blogging as a way to keep in touch with friends and family far away.  It has served as a place for me to work through my thoughts, share the adventures of our crazy family and constantly explore new avenues of creativity.  Writing is like therapy for me.  It helps me be me.

What I have found through this crazy mix of writing, crafting, parenting, reading, philosophizing, theologizing, making up words and connecting to this amazing new technological form of community is that this life we all live is messy.  We try to be perfect and to show our prettiest version of ourselves, but in reality we are all just different forms of the same mess.  But if you look closely it is in that very mess that the beauty is found.  Like the sculptor who makes amazing creations out of discarded and weather beaten pieces of junky metal, God takes our failures and weaknesses and mistakes and shows us that what’s really there in the ugliness of it all is beauty.  Grace, blessing, understanding, gratitude, hope, strength, dependence, surrender, brokenness…beauty.  Those deep and meaningful things we want to hold on to are all found in the midst of the mess of our lives.  And in those beautiful messes, those lovely trash heaps, we find the art of our Creator.

You’ll find that my blog does not fit into a specific niche or category, and I like it that way.  I talk about my family.  I talk about my thoughts and failures and issues.  I talk about decorating my house and traveling and painting furniture and running and things I like and things I don’t like and things I kind of like on Tuesdays.  I quote Friends a lot.  Basically it’s just me, as real as I can be.

It is messy.  It is imperfect.  It is just like life.  I hope you feel welcome here, in these random expressions of the beautiful mess of life.