Beholden

SO much to be grateful for… before I move on to sharing more about the Holiday class (which was amazing and I plan to share sources), and various shop/buy local opportunities, discount codes etc,  I just want to post first about gratefulness.

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This has been a hard year for many in the Houston area and frankly the entire country and around the world.  It seems like the world is just going crazy.  My babies called me last night from their grandparents’ home to tell me a criminal was on the loose and an officer had been shot. (He was captured but not before he fatally shoot a Texas DPS officer, please pray for that family, so awful) The way my boys talked, being “brave” almost like it was just normal stuff made me so sad.  My heart broke not just for the downed officer and his family but also for my boys who are growing up in this new “normalcy” of violence and daily tragedy in this country.  I know this isn’t a political blog and you don’t come here for social commentary.  But its been rough.  Home, family and safety feel more precious to us than ever. I could go on and on about Hurricane victims and dusty empty homes where there was no turkey and no football this thanksgiving…just shells of former homes.  But rebuilding is going on and people are huddled together.  And I am BEHOLDEN to those stories, our Maker, our HOMES and good friends.  

Erin and Ben Napier say gratefulness and being Beholden is their secret sauce.  And I think they are on to something…it can be everyone’s secret sauce.  No matter the circumstance just like 1 These says! It’s not always easy or fun but it is good and right and God sees it.  Our little people see it.  And others feel it.

I am grateful to be a part of Ben & Erin’s BEHOLDEN issue of Good Grit Magazine….Good Grit has an awesome mission to celebrate all of the good and positive things of the New South..the makers and people and places that make up this special region. Thank you FrenchBlue Photography for taking images of my new home and Buff Strickland for sharing images from the homes of the O’Donnells and Bethel families.  

Photos in article, above: portion of photo of Bethel home in Houston, me shown in our new living room with same old toile pillows! 

FrenchBlue photography shots of our new kitchen and front door!

I will blog again soon about which specific images are which home and what one particular living room looked like during and after the flood…  If I can get to the place where I can stomach to post those images.  The homeowner has given me permission and FrenchBlue took some eerily beautiful photos. For now, know this. I am grateful for you my readers and clients.  For colleagues and work opportunities and patience and kindness from each of you as I have navigated my new normal.  In some ways the 3rd year of divorce has been the worse..still trying to get sea legs for sure.  

God is faithful.  and I am BEHOLDEN.

Now let’s prepare our hearts for advent and the birth of King!

Note: There is still so much need in Houston as the holidays approach, click here to be a part of Becki Griffin‘s Gift Card movement to get immediate help in the hands of families with needs!  There are so many ways to give but this is one way she has found that truly works.