Welcome to episode 004 of Mud Stories! Mud Stories is a podcast dedicated to bringing you inspiration in your muddiest moments, hope to make it through your mud, and encouragement for you to know, you are not alone. In today’s episode I’m talking to Holley Gerth, co-founder of the beautiful online community (in)courage.me, the best-selling author of […]
A Letter to You, For When You’re Weary
Dear weary mom, I see you. And I’ve been you. Weary, drooping, and exasperated, like week-old tulip petals trying to hang on. Fading and withering, more and more … until weak, and all used-up, and falling right down. I am you. And I know. I see the messes you face over and over again. The Cheerios appearing on the floor […]
For When You Wonder Why You Long To Connect
To connect is food for the soul. And I watch it happen before my eyes … this feeding of a soul. A father and daughter right before me. And what I see is undeniable. How she looks at him. And how he looks at her. How she holds her arms up. And how his strong arms lift […]
For When Your Heart Aches…
Do I really dare to write the ways my heart aches—the ways I feel bare and exposed? How do I give words to the dull underlying feeling that seems to be inevitable in this life? I drive to work as the sun begins to rise, and the song plays. And its refrain undoes me. I ache at the […]
Because We All Have Hard and Rough Days
I had a hard day. Just feeling down and overwhelmed with all the hats I wear and the pressure of it all. Kids who don’t obey, communication challenges in my marriage, organizational changes at work, and more acquaintance-only friends than I can count. And to be honest, it’s been a rough day. Do you have […]
A Broken Hallelujah
In Real Life… …I’m a mess at times, and much more broken than I seem. In real life I long to belong. I long to relate. I long to connect. I long to know and be known by another. In real life, with each life change and circumstance shift, I’m being stretched and challenged. And I am growing and […]
I Can Still Remember, and I Give Thanks
I can still remember as I sat on the couch that day, tears streaming in an unrelenting flow and I will never forget that day in May…the very day that would have been my 9th wedding anniversary of my previous marriage. Me having been divorced…and now remarried. Me experiencing, that day, the first of my […]
The Grace Giver
I still feel it like it was yesterday. Memories sear hearts. She had been my friend. My familiar friend. My close friend. The pain. Memories still ringing, resonating in the deepest rooms of my heart…in rooms I don’t visit often and where cobwebs reside and where time has run past… But still, aching resides there, echoes of the […]