Like Broken Pottery

My life is messy, chaotic, and complicated, but it's also beautiful; and like broken pottery, this is how I'm being put together again.

[theambitiouswoman]

[financeprincess]

Get over the shame and the lack of confidence and the fear of failure and the imposter syndrome. Nobody cares. Some people are cruel and mean and love to watch others fail. So what? Do you really want to prove them right? Get the fuck up, we’re chasing our dreams like our lives depend on it because, in case you forgot, they do.

[sleepless-n-cincinnati]

I'd like to think that when we are born we start off as clay. Throughout our lives we are shaped into pieces of pottery, but in time as life presents its challenges we get cracked, chipped, or even broken...and we're left to wonder how we're going to go on...and then God comes in and puts us back together, filling our cracks and chips, making us new. It isn't always easy and we may not be what we used to be, but we are made beautiful and whole for being broken. To those who may be quick to gossip, judge, or condemn...may I gently remind you that no one is perfect. We all have a story. No matter how ones life may appear, there could be so much more going on under the surface. Let's be loving and kind. Especially to those who claim to be followers of Christ. Life can be difficult. Let's not make it even more difficult for others. #kintsukuroi #broken #cracked #chipped

[sleepless-n-cincinnati]

We see the greatness in all of the world's most beloved art. Van Gogh, Klimt, Monet, Cassatt, Mucha, and Kahlo. They painted what they thought and felt and believed and we loved them for it. Their works are hanging in some of the most renowned museums in the world. When I step outside and look around...the grass, the trees, the sky...all the beauty of each passing season...the smoky mountain mist in the early morning, the blazing white sands of the desert, the breath taking sun setting over a clear blue ocean... I find myself mesmerized and in awe and I marvel... He has proven himself over and over again. In small ways and in big ways...over and over again...God has revealed Himself as an artist painting a sky full of daytime color and night time star dust. He is a sculptor who lovingly formed us in our mothers womb fashioning us in His image. We never question the existence of history's greatest artists. Their proof is most definitely on display in the Louvre. Yet, we see the northern lights glide across a frosty sky and we still question the existence of our creator. Its the year 2016 and we still question the existence of God.

[sleepless-n-cincinnati]

I woke up yesterday to a beautifully laid table with all my favorite breakfast foods and over a hundred paper hearts (that Boo spent the entire week cutting out) written with words of who she says I am to her as well as inside jokes we share. It was a perfect day with my little family. #birthdayshenanigans #wifeandmother #junkfoodlover #coffeeaddict #boobs #hilarityensues

[sleepless-n-cincinnati]

No one will ever truly know the sacrifices this man has made for his children, but I do and it blows my mind everyday to know what he gave up and walked away from. Billy Graham says that "A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society." I couldn't have said this better myself. #heisloved

[sleepless-n-cincinnati]

I don't do frenemies. I must have missed the memo that said I had to be friends with my enemies. My faith teaches that I have to love my enemies and I do. I genuinely care about them. I have survived cancer twice now and even at their ugliest, I don't wish pain, sickness, or devastation on any of them. That said, I'm not going to invite them over for tea either.

[sleepless-n-cincinnati]

Beauty is as beauty does. A person can be beautiful on the outside, but if they’re ugly on the inside, their outward appearance is meaningless. It’s better to be truly beautiful on the inside no matter your outward appearance. Inner beauty will do your body good and your face will sparkle with inner peace and joy. You will spread happiness like I spread Nutella all over a cupcake!! Seriously. Who doesn’t love Nutella!?

[sleepless-n-cincinnati]

My beautiful spicy fiesty baby sister and I on ma Birfday!! I never dreamed when I was twenty-one, that I would ever live to see thirty-three, but I made it!! I am thirty-three! I'm even getting a couple of gray hairs!! It's exhilarating and I am beyond thankful!! #birthdayshenanigans #seesters #somanystories #notenoughtime

[sleepless-n-cincinnati]

My dream home. This is what I was working towards when I was diagnosed with cancer the first time around. Life really has a way of sidetracking you. I am very blessed that I married a man who shares in my ideas of simple living. It's not for everyone, but it is for us. #futuregoals

[sleepless-n-cincinnati]

Pinto Bean Bingo, guys. Pinto Bean Bingo. Some of my best memories are of this game and my godmother who influenced my childhood quite a bit. When my godbrother and I were little we knew 2 things...if Julio Iglesias is playing on the stereo, it's cleaning day so stay outside and second, NEVER complain that we're bored or she will make us sort and pick rocks out of the pinto beans. As for my godbrother...my godbrother used to terrorize me that if I didn't do what he wanted me to, he would make sure La Llorona would get me. He's a couple years older than me, so we always had to do what he wanted, but its okay. Once I realized she wasn't coming for me, I wiped my boogers on his pillow and took one of his GI Joes and married him off to one of my barbies. 😄 Seriously, we were ALWAYS in trouble. Always. One time we were playing in this pond that we were definitely NOT supposed to be playing in (because of alligators) and Aunt Sandy saw us, jumped into her car driving into clothes lines and flower beds, yelling the whole way. We were in so much trouble. Especially, when she stepped on the snake barefoot while marching up to us and hauling us back to the car. She was so mad, we got spankings...which made us laugh...so we got even more spankings...which made us laugh even more. We were rotten that day. Poor Aunt Sandy. We laugh about it now, but I don't think I have ever apologized for that. #childhoodantics #randommemories #pintobeanbingo #somanystories #mermaidswiththebigchichis #lasandia

[sleepless-n-cincinnati]

See this plant? This little plant got me in so much trouble when I first married my husband. It had only one leaf. ONE. After I married Sam, I plucked it and everyone...EVERYONE was in an Uproar over it. It's not her plant, who is she to pluck that leaf! Who does she think she is coming in and changing everything?! That's not her place. Every time the leaf grew back, I would pluck it. It was ugly. Seriously folks. Sooo ugly. Sam even tried throwing it out a couple of times. Here we had this little potted thing that was literally a stick in a ceramic pot, but then all of a sudden...after a year and a half...it started sprouting leaves. Not one. Not two, but three or four little leaves. Then it started growing a branch...it was difficult standing my ground. I could have left it as it is. I could have given up and let my husband throw it out, but I kept going. I kept plucking at the leaves. Being a step mother and the third wife of the love of my life isn't easy. It's hard, lonely, intimidating, and sometimes down right painful. People can be rude, arrogant, judgemental, and unkind. I'm not perfect. I have made many mistakes, but I keep going. I refuse to quit. I refuse to give in. I refuse to become complacent. I change what I can and leave the rest to God to take care of because with patience and time, there WILL be fruit in OUR lives and more leaves on this little stick of a plant.