Latest / The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast / Penny a Week | a conversation with author Eryn Lynum

Transcript

Penny a Week | a conversation with author Eryn Lynum · The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast

0:14
SPEAKER_03: Hi friends, welcome to the Simply Wholehearted Podcast.
0:17
SPEAKER_03: I'm Amy Wicks, your host, as well as our good friend Ashley Pittman.
0:21
SPEAKER_03: Here at Simply Wholehearted, we are sharing our journey as we discover how to better love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
0:30
SPEAKER_03: And even though you might be surrounded by a world of half-heartedness, we hope to inspire you to living wholeheartedly by inviting our different friends to share their simple ideas of how they live unplugged, purposeful, and intentional in their everyday.
0:43
SPEAKER_03: Today's guest will especially connect with our mom friend listeners.
0:47
SPEAKER_03: Paula Hayes, who's one of our collective members, introduced us to Erin because she thought Erin Lennon's message was perfect for our community.
0:56
SPEAKER_03: Her book, 936 Pennies, is a beautiful reminder to cherish the time we've been gifted with our children.
1:04
SPEAKER_03: For Erin, it started out as a gift from her pastor, which prompted her to write a blog post, surprising everyone by going viral, and then it turned into a book to help others walk out their days with intentionality.
1:17
SPEAKER_03: If you follow along with us on the socials, you might remember me sharing how we recorded a conversation with Erin, but a technical glitch erased it forever.
1:27
SPEAKER_03: Ugh, I won't bore you with the details.
1:29
SPEAKER_03: But there was no amount of money or skill which could retrieve the last conversation.
1:34
SPEAKER_03: It really felt like a big blow because both Ashley and I knew it was a rich time with her, a lot of good conversation.
1:42
SPEAKER_03: But I believe the Lord is in the business of redeeming all things, even a podcast.
1:48
SPEAKER_03: So I am guessing there's something that we talked about in the second conversation, which was important for you to hear.
1:56
SPEAKER_03: As usual, we'd love to hear what you think about this episode.
1:59
SPEAKER_03: And now here's our conversation with Erin Lennum.
2:07
SPEAKER_03: So we are, I'll give you a little background because we're like, this is our second date, and so we're just diving in.
2:17
SPEAKER_03: Where does dives trade in?
2:19
SPEAKER_03: The first date went great, and so we're back for more.
2:22
SPEAKER_03: We're back for more.
2:23
SPEAKER_03: And this is here's the real deal, Erin.
2:27
SPEAKER_03: We are so authentic type people.
2:30
SPEAKER_03: We can't we can't pretend all of those questions I did not write, they just were natural conversation.
2:38
SPEAKER_03: And um, so we're just gonna go from that because I can't think of any other way because I've been asking, Lord Jesus, why did it go this way?
2:50
SPEAKER_03: Because I'm a three, and sometimes I like to fly my four-wing and be melancholy.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Do you are you familiar with the Enneagram?
2:58
SPEAKER_00: So if she starts talking about being a three, do you know what she's talking about?
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Or does she say that?
3:02
SPEAKER_03: I don't actually.
3:02
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't even know she doesn't know what you're saying.
3:06
SPEAKER_03: No, so yes, the world, I can pretend.
3:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, no, don't pretend.
3:10
SPEAKER_03: What does it mean that you're not going with a four-wing?
3:12
SPEAKER_03: Are you a bird?
3:13
SPEAKER_03: In all the free time that you have with four kids, you should listen to our Enneagram podcast.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what number it was, though.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Which one?
3:23
SPEAKER_00: 30.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: So we have it enneagram.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: It's a funny sounding word, Enneagram.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: It starts with an E.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: Enneagram.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: It's a personality.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: It's it's not my is you know, like Myers Briggs, except it's not Myers Briggs.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: But it's it's just it's another, it's a really awesome system that Amy could tell you more about because she's actually learning it in depth.
3:40
SPEAKER_03: No, I won't try to tell you about it.
3:42
SPEAKER_03: But I would say if you wanted episodes 37 and 38, I believe, or 36 and 37, Beth McCord um allowed us to have her for two hours.
3:54
SPEAKER_03: And she gave us the rundown of all the nine anneagram types and kind of the history behind it and stuff like that.
4:01
SPEAKER_03: And for me, the the biggest revelation and the what I what I like about it is why we do what we do, not what we do.
4:09
SPEAKER_03: Because we can change behavior.
4:13
SPEAKER_03: But going back to the core of what is motivating us is like, you know, the root, the root to the evil.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like do you have a is there a core fear or is there something else driving you or a message that you're hearing that God needs to redeem and tell you a new, you know, give you a new message to replace what's a new narrative.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: That's a better way to say that.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: So it's good.
4:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
4:32
SPEAKER_03: So anyway, so I was just um, so I've been a little bit bemoaning the whole podcast thing.
4:36
SPEAKER_03: It's not first world problems, totally get it.
4:38
SPEAKER_03: But as I was thinking and as I was preparing, I was just like, well, Lord, there must have been something that we didn't say and we had to figure out what, right?
4:48
SPEAKER_03: And I if I tried to go back because I really thought it was so good in Reggie.
4:51
SPEAKER_03: There were so many ways that like you know, you just never know what's gonna happen in a conversation.
4:56
SPEAKER_03: At least I don't because I don't I purposely, because I am a rehearser, I'm a conversation rehearser, and I purposely don't um for the podcast because I know it's so much better when I don't.
5:08
SPEAKER_03: Um because I want it to be like we're just hanging out, having coffee, being real.
5:15
SPEAKER_03: So um a lot of people appreciate that for sure.
5:19
SPEAKER_03: I hope so.
5:20
SPEAKER_03: I like it.
5:20
SPEAKER_03: It actually takes the pressure off and it's way more fun when I do it that way.
5:23
SPEAKER_03: Right.
5:24
SPEAKER_03: So we're here at our second coffee date, and we're going to try to let people in in the, you know, like when we have our now insider jokes, because now we're gonna have like, well, remember we talked about, or we're gonna try to let them in on it and you know, catch them up to speed because oh, there's so much good.
5:45
SPEAKER_03: So much good.
5:46
SPEAKER_03: And we're gonna try to cram it in in a little less amount of time because that's what we got.
5:52
SPEAKER_03: But you found a babysitter, or did your sister-in-law bag off of work from your, you know?
5:58
SPEAKER_04: No, no, well, actually, it's funny because her employer is my husband.
6:02
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yes.
6:04
SPEAKER_04: But um, no, she's at work with him, and I had a sweet friend come over with her three kids.
6:08
SPEAKER_04: So all seven kids are in the backyard right now.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: So they're having a good time.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: It takes a lot of fun.
6:14
SPEAKER_04: That's great.
6:14
SPEAKER_04: That's it, does it take a village?
6:16
SPEAKER_04: You're so oh my goodness, yes.
6:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thank her for me.
6:20
SPEAKER_03: I just appreciate it.
6:21
SPEAKER_03: I know that's a good friend who's who's willing to do that, so to and to make that happen.
6:25
SPEAKER_03: So it sounds like you're you're traveling.
6:27
SPEAKER_03: I know we had talked about summer before and we'll have to talk about again, but it sounds like you're traveling our direction too this fall.
6:35
SPEAKER_03: So are you doing some speaking or just singled friends?
6:38
SPEAKER_04: No, we're actually we carved out about a week in September.
6:41
SPEAKER_04: We're planning on about September 5th to 11th, and so I've got four or five speaking engagements at mom's groups, churches, um, to a school, to the parents at a school.
6:52
SPEAKER_04: And it's neat because my husband is gonna get to come in and do some speaking with me.
6:57
SPEAKER_04: And that's kind of always been a dream of ours that he would be able to come in and teach some of this content as well.
7:02
SPEAKER_04: So yeah, we're excited to go back to Kansas City and hit up some of our favorite restaurants and see friends.
7:08
SPEAKER_04: And yeah.
7:09
SPEAKER_03: So, what are some of your favorite restaurants here?
7:11
SPEAKER_03: I'm just curious.
7:11
SPEAKER_03: Because you lived in the Northland and we're probably as south as you get in Kansas City.
7:16
SPEAKER_04: Yes, so we love uh local pig.
7:19
SPEAKER_04: It's actually a butcher shop.
7:21
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
7:22
SPEAKER_04: They have fantastic like charcuterie and things like that.
7:25
SPEAKER_04: And then they have outside of the butcher shop a food truck that does sandwiches, and it is so good.
7:31
SPEAKER_04: So we always go there.
7:33
SPEAKER_04: And then um, we also love grinders.
7:36
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's kind of a funky place.
7:38
SPEAKER_04: You probably don't want to go on a Friday night.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: My daughter's been there.
7:42
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, great pizza, but also if you go on the weekend, they do a fantastic brunch, and brunch is totally our thing as a family.
7:49
SPEAKER_04: Okay, yeah.
7:50
SPEAKER_04: So that's another really good one.
7:51
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's so fun.
7:53
SPEAKER_03: Well, I honestly haven't been to either one of those, so we're gonna have to check it out.
7:57
SPEAKER_03: We tend to, we're at this stage because our kids eat so much.
8:01
SPEAKER_03: Chipotle is like the most affordable option.
8:04
SPEAKER_03: And we have food allergies and all that sort of stuff, and so it's always like that's a win.
8:09
SPEAKER_03: Um, but I love to venture out and try new things.
8:12
SPEAKER_03: I love, you know, the local thing is the way to go all the time, usually.
8:17
SPEAKER_03: All the time, usually.
8:18
SPEAKER_03: But um, but anyway, so that's that's really fun.
8:21
SPEAKER_03: Well, when you are out here, we definitely need to meet up for coffee or something, a few of us collective and all of that, that'll be really good.
8:29
SPEAKER_03: And we, you know, we never got to what does your husband do?
8:31
SPEAKER_03: Because he started his business six months ago.
8:33
SPEAKER_03: So was this a huge um, well, it's always a leap of faith, but was this a an actual career change or just doing more of what he loves?
8:42
SPEAKER_04: More of what he loves.
8:43
SPEAKER_04: So he's been in the trades since he was a kid.
8:45
SPEAKER_04: He built houses with his dad.
8:47
SPEAKER_04: Oh, cool.
8:48
SPEAKER_04: And uh he's been doing roofing and contract management for since we got married nine years ago.
8:55
SPEAKER_04: But he wanted to do more creative things, and we really wanted to craft our lifestyle as a family in a way that would be more conducive to our values, and that's time together and traveling.
9:07
SPEAKER_04: And so we kind of decide, okay, then you need to be home, or we need to be on our own schedule.
9:12
SPEAKER_04: So that's when we decided that he could go out on his own.
9:15
SPEAKER_04: And so now he is uh he's doing beam modeling.
9:18
SPEAKER_04: So this week he's remodeling an A-frame cabin, which is really neat.
9:22
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and this is the really neat piece.
9:25
SPEAKER_04: He actually built tiny houses.
9:27
SPEAKER_03: No, wow.
9:28
SPEAKER_03: So cool.
9:29
SPEAKER_03: We it's official.
9:29
SPEAKER_03: We need to do a double date, triple date, quadruple date.
9:32
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
9:33
SPEAKER_04: So he just finished and sold his first one and he's moving on to the second one.
9:38
SPEAKER_04: But the first one he actually built in our driveway.
9:40
SPEAKER_03: So moved it to its location.
9:44
SPEAKER_03: That is so great.
9:45
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so he built it and then we moved it to the new owner's location.
9:48
SPEAKER_04: But it was cool to be involved and see the whole thing, and I could speak out there and pass in alone time.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, did the kids just love it?
9:55
SPEAKER_00: Were they just wanting to play in it?
9:57
SPEAKER_00: I would want my own tiny house.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Could you just make me my own personal tiny house to ride and go be and that'd be so cool?
10:04
SPEAKER_03: It's like a grown-up playhouse, except way awesomer.
10:07
SPEAKER_03: I think Jamie Ivy has one in her backyard, and that's where she does her podcast.
10:11
SPEAKER_03: I would never sew and then like does her writing and stuff.
10:15
SPEAKER_04: So it's kind of like when I get my writing shack for sure.
10:19
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
10:20
SPEAKER_03: You need one.
10:21
SPEAKER_03: Okay, so we need to explain to our friends here why your husband could be remodeling an A-frame cabin because where do you live?
10:29
SPEAKER_03: I mean, we've got to talk about that.
10:32
SPEAKER_04: So we are in northern Colorado.
10:34
SPEAKER_04: So we are right next to the foothills going into the Rocky Mountains, and we just we love being outside.
10:40
SPEAKER_04: We love the mountains, and so this was definitely the place for us to land and set down some routes as a family.
10:47
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's awesome.
10:48
SPEAKER_03: And you were you were here in landlocked, Kansas City, but the Lord allowed you to go back.
10:53
SPEAKER_03: And I have a lot of friends where you are, and it's just a gorgeous, gorgeous area because there's still some water, um, you know, little pockets of water, not quite like here, but there are some things you can actually own some watercraft and use it.
11:07
SPEAKER_03: That's pretty sure.
11:08
SPEAKER_03: Uh small one or two men.
11:11
SPEAKER_04: Well, we've got the canoe and we've got a kayak, and we can go down on the river or the reservoirs around here.
11:18
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
11:18
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's so awesome.
11:20
SPEAKER_03: So you were in Kansas City, and what what made you decide to go back to Colorado?
11:25
SPEAKER_03: How did that work out?
11:26
SPEAKER_04: Well, for me it was actually a first time.
11:28
SPEAKER_04: We're from Wisconsin, so we're used to a lot of water.
11:31
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
11:32
SPEAKER_04: And then Yeah, that's true.
11:33
SPEAKER_03: This doesn't even compare.
11:35
unknown: No.
11:36
SPEAKER_04: So we landed in Kansas City for a couple of years, and um it was great.
11:41
SPEAKER_04: Looking back, we can really see why God had us there.
11:44
SPEAKER_04: Ultimately, my book came out of there because it started the church that uh we were a part of in Kansas City.
11:50
SPEAKER_04: But yeah, we were just thinking through when I was pregnant with our third son, what are our family values?
11:56
SPEAKER_04: And so we made a list of them one day while we were driving around on our baby moon, actually.
12:01
SPEAKER_04: And we started writing down what we wanted to be foundational to our family.
12:06
SPEAKER_04: So things like generosity, hands-on education, wonder, awe, exploration.
12:12
SPEAKER_04: So they seem kind of vague and broad, but once you get them in a list, we looked at it and realized, you know what, we can't really we can't really live our life according to those where we are right now.
12:25
SPEAKER_04: So we started thinking through, okay, so do we need to relocate?
12:28
SPEAKER_04: And around the same time, my husband brought us all out to Colorado for 10 days, and he had spent time out here in college, but I had never spent time here.
12:37
SPEAKER_04: I just fell in love.
12:39
SPEAKER_04: So within six months, we were packing our bags, and we really just felt the Lord saying, It's okay to move on now.
12:46
SPEAKER_04: And it was hard because we did have those connections in Kansas City and a sweet, sweet church.
12:51
SPEAKER_04: But um, yeah, we just felt the Lord saying, you know what?
12:55
SPEAKER_04: That in those mountains is where you're going to thrive.
12:58
SPEAKER_04: It's where you're going to connect with me, it's where you're going to raise your children in this manner that you're desiring for them.
13:04
SPEAKER_03: That's beautiful.
13:05
SPEAKER_03: I love it.
13:06
SPEAKER_03: And it was perfect timing too.
13:07
SPEAKER_03: Your kids are still young, your family's still established establishing itself, and then you can just start anew and get plugged in, which is awesome.
13:18
SPEAKER_03: So beautiful.
13:19
SPEAKER_03: A little bit jealous.
13:21
SPEAKER_03: Not gonna lie.
13:24
SPEAKER_03: But I'm heading out your way in uh just a couple weeks, so get my mountain fix and all of that.
13:29
SPEAKER_04: Oh, it's a perfect time of year, too.
13:31
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
13:32
SPEAKER_03: Um, my youngest wants to hike Pikes Peak, and so so um I know so apparently though the highway's closed.
13:42
SPEAKER_03: So like I don't know why, I don't know what's going on.
13:45
SPEAKER_03: Because one because we were talking, you know, kind of a group text with my sisters, because my youngest was like, Hey, you want to climb Pike's Peak when you come out for a visit?
13:52
SPEAKER_03: I was like, sure, let's do it.
13:53
SPEAKER_03: Let's make the kids do it because they want to, which I don't know if you've hiked Pike's Peak, but anyway, it's I it's doable, it's intense, but it's it's doable.
14:03
SPEAKER_03: But you really need that ride down.
14:05
SPEAKER_03: Um, because I've come down after that one, and it's just long and it's hard on the knees.
14:10
SPEAKER_03: I get it.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: Once you've once you've hit the summit, like you're like, I'm over I I did it, I just want to go home.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: And then you just want to go home.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: Now you gotta walk back down.
14:17
SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
14:18
SPEAKER_03: So, but my other sister was like, I think the highway's closed, you can't get a ride down.
14:23
SPEAKER_03: And then we were like, Nope.
14:24
SPEAKER_03: Nah, taking three kids up a mountain that we have to hike back down.
14:29
SPEAKER_03: And we have a lot of 14ers near there too, um, that you can access and all of that.
14:34
SPEAKER_03: Do do your kids express interest in doing that sort of thing?
14:36
SPEAKER_04: Have you Oh yes, yeah.
14:38
SPEAKER_04: So my boys are almost seven, five, and three, but all of them love climbing anything to do with rocks.
14:45
SPEAKER_04: They always talk about going rock climbing, and and we take them on some pretty extensive hikes.
14:49
SPEAKER_04: The oldest can do six or uh seven miles.
14:52
SPEAKER_04: Wow, that's awesome.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: That's impressive.
14:54
SPEAKER_04: That's amazing.
14:55
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so they do really well, and I know and I knew when we moved here that one day they will be climbing these 14ers by themselves.
15:02
SPEAKER_04: So, but it's what I want for them, yeah, and it's what I want for you because it challenges me to just put them in the Lord's hands and just know, like, okay, Lord, at that point, like they're I mean, even now, they're just yours, like you take care of them, and I want them to chase after that wonder and that adventure.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: Let them have their adventures with God.
15:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
15:24
SPEAKER_03: How did you and your husband come to some of that understanding?
15:27
SPEAKER_03: Was it how you were raised?
15:28
SPEAKER_03: Was it something that I mean, because for to be a young couple and on your baby moon to be dreaming and and being able to even talk about those family values?
15:36
SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's a that not everyone does that.
15:39
SPEAKER_03: And certainly not I just think you, you know, you guys it sounds like it came easily.
15:46
SPEAKER_03: Um, what was some of the background that uh just opened that door of communication and dreaming?
15:51
SPEAKER_04: You know, I think it's a few things.
15:53
SPEAKER_04: Both of us, God bless us with good communication.
15:56
SPEAKER_04: My husband is a great communicator, even better like than I am.
16:00
SPEAKER_04: He's kind of in our relationship, communication-wise, he's probably more like the woman, like he's just open and wants to talk.
16:06
SPEAKER_04: And that's awesome.
16:07
SPEAKER_04: So we've always been able to have these sweet conversations and create a culture around them.
16:12
SPEAKER_04: So a lot of times we'll do like planning dates where after the kids go down, we'll get out some drinks and charcuterie and we'll just start planning and talking and dreaming together.
16:22
SPEAKER_04: And so we've always made those a priority, but then both of us were definitely raised with a lot of outdoor exposure.
16:30
SPEAKER_04: So he grew up, his parents were um working at camps, growing up Christian camps.
16:35
SPEAKER_04: So he basically grew up in the woods all over.
16:38
SPEAKER_04: Nice.
16:38
SPEAKER_04: And then my family always took us camping and hiking, and so it was definitely within us as we got older and then met and just decided that we wanted to really make those a priority as a family.
16:50
SPEAKER_04: And then around the same time was when my book was starting to happen, and so we just had this new perspective on how short childhood is.
16:59
SPEAKER_04: So what can we do with that short time to set up our children to really thrive, you know, when they move away from here?
17:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
17:09
SPEAKER_03: That's so good.
17:10
SPEAKER_03: I love it.
17:10
SPEAKER_03: Well, it's it sounds like you had some good foundational pieces too of what your parents gave to you and a love in there, and that you guys both had those same uh desires to impart to your kids that culture and all of the family experience.
17:24
SPEAKER_03: And that's awesome.
17:25
SPEAKER_03: It's so great.
17:26
SPEAKER_03: Love that you can do that.
17:28
SPEAKER_03: Can you believe we are already halfway through the summer?
17:32
SPEAKER_03: For most of us, there's a mixed feeling that comes along with that statement.
17:35
SPEAKER_03: And recently, a few of you have reached out asking me about that super summer challenge thing I do with my kids.
17:42
SPEAKER_03: And is it possible for you to still try it?
17:45
SPEAKER_03: The good news is there's still plenty of summer left to create a rhythm that works for your family, while also feeding your kids curiosity, helping build sibling unity, and even getting them ready for the next school year.
17:58
SPEAKER_03: This is our family's ninth summer of working on the Super Summer Challenge, and we've gained so many incredible memories, and I personally experience greater sanity during these lazy days of summer.
18:10
SPEAKER_03: I promise it's worth the 45 minutes it'll take you to put something like this together for your kids.
18:16
SPEAKER_03: So I've decided to run another special on our creating a Simply Summer course, which will help you put together a super summer challenge.
18:24
SPEAKER_03: Right now it's only$16.
18:26
SPEAKER_03: I'll also link several free printables, which might be the help you've been looking for.
18:31
SPEAKER_03: All the details are in the show notes.
18:33
SPEAKER_03: Now back to our conversation.
18:36
SPEAKER_03: Well, I wanted to, you kind of alluded to it before.
18:40
SPEAKER_03: Um, we're obviously going to talk about your book, kind of what inspired, not kind of what inspired it and launched it in the process.
18:48
SPEAKER_03: Um, but some of just your background.
18:50
SPEAKER_03: We've talked about your boys, and I know you have a little girl, four months old.
18:56
SPEAKER_04: Four months old.
18:57
SPEAKER_03: Tell us a little bit about your journey behind the scenes.
18:59
SPEAKER_03: Where did you always think you wanted to be a writer?
19:02
SPEAKER_03: And is this what you aspired to do?
19:04
SPEAKER_03: And um some of just that journey and that history.
19:08
SPEAKER_04: Sure.
19:09
SPEAKER_04: Well, you know, I always enjoyed writing.
19:12
SPEAKER_04: I always really um found some fulfillment in that.
19:15
SPEAKER_04: And I was homeschooled growing up, so my mom worked some of that into our homeschooling.
19:19
SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's awesome.
19:20
SPEAKER_04: But I never, I definitely never saw myself as a career writer.
19:24
SPEAKER_04: Definitely not.
19:26
SPEAKER_04: But in 2011, our first son, he was half a year old, and I just started a little blog, and I was actually food blogging at the time.
19:35
SPEAKER_04: Um, I wanted to share recipes, and we were kind of overhauling our diet at the time, so I wanted to share that.
19:41
SPEAKER_04: And so I started writing these little posts and sending them out there into the internet world, but it was more just as a hobby and something I enjoyed.
19:50
SPEAKER_04: But then we started having more children, and I found that my faith and life as a mom and as a wife and as a believer in Christ, it just started finding its way into the stories that I was telling.
20:04
SPEAKER_04: And that's when I saw it start striking a chord.
20:09
SPEAKER_04: And for me, that was wildly fulfilling to see other people being touched by the words that I was putting out there.
20:17
SPEAKER_04: And so that's when I kind of overhauled everything and decided, okay, this is what I want to do.
20:22
SPEAKER_04: This is what puts a fire in me, this is what I feel fulfilled in.
20:26
SPEAKER_04: And uh, it was shortly after that that I wrote this little blog post about the jar of patties we were given, and I sent it out there, and you know, I didn't really have a following or a platform as they call it.
20:38
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
20:39
SPEAKER_04: Again, I was just doing it more for myself to see my life, to see my children in a clear light.
20:45
SPEAKER_04: But the Lord just He took that blog post and ran with it, and uh within a couple of months it had over a million views and it just showed amazing.
20:52
SPEAKER_04: That's amazing.
20:53
SPEAKER_04: Right, like it was so humbling to see that God was working behind the scenes and that this message of intentional parenting was something that parents are hungry for.
21:04
SPEAKER_04: And uh yeah, so that's kind of how it all began.
21:07
SPEAKER_03: Ah, that's beautiful.
21:08
SPEAKER_03: I love it.
21:09
SPEAKER_03: That's you just were faithfully documenting, processing, you know, sharing to the few, um, or even to the one, right?
21:17
SPEAKER_03: You know, because that's kind of what it's all about.
21:18
SPEAKER_04: Usually my mom and her friends for real.
21:21
SPEAKER_04: Right.
21:22
SPEAKER_04: I love it.
21:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I know I know how that is.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
21:24
SPEAKER_03: So when did you go?
21:26
SPEAKER_03: Okay, all right, obviously this resonated.
21:30
SPEAKER_03: I think this should be a book.
21:32
SPEAKER_03: Kind of what ended up transpiring there?
21:35
SPEAKER_04: Uh it was very quickly after the blog post went viral.
21:39
SPEAKER_04: Uh my husband and I, we had always thought it would be neat to put a book out there one day, but we had no idea how.
21:45
SPEAKER_04: And the timing, honestly, oh my goodness, the timing seemed awful because our boys were three and one, and I was newly pregnant with our third boy.
21:54
SPEAKER_04: And so I thought, you know, when am I ever going to find time to write a book about Time.
22:00
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
22:01
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
22:02
SPEAKER_04: But God just kept laying it on our hearts.
22:05
SPEAKER_04: And as I sat there in front of my computer, and I would just have these comments coming in from the blog post and emails from parents about how it was touching them and how it was impacting them as a family.
22:15
SPEAKER_04: And then we started seeing other churches giving out the penny jars and like we saw that God was working.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
22:22
SPEAKER_04: And He just kept laying it on our hearts.
22:24
SPEAKER_04: And so I had no idea where to start or how to get a book out into the world.
22:30
SPEAKER_04: And do we traditionally publish, self-publish?
22:33
SPEAKER_04: What is this going to look like?
22:34
SPEAKER_04: Right.
22:34
SPEAKER_04: But I knew God just wanted me to show up at that writing desk and put words to the screen and say, Well, that's what I did.
22:42
SPEAKER_04: And it's amazing that when we show up and when we're faithful just to do that one next thing in front of us, he just blows us away.
22:50
SPEAKER_04: Like he is so faithful to step in and align all the details that we could never take care of ourselves.
22:57
SPEAKER_03: That's so true.
22:58
SPEAKER_03: Because yeah, we I because there are so many, you know, four steps, five steps, 30 days, 90 days to this or that.
23:06
SPEAKER_03: And if you just follow this formula, X, Y, and Z will happen.
23:11
SPEAKER_03: Maybe it can a little bit, but I think for me, the message that I want to get out again and again is you could do all of those things, but if God's not in it, if He's not directing it, do you really want to force it and make it happen?
23:26
SPEAKER_03: And I think it's so much better when we're just we're, you know, just waiting and listening and doing the you know faithful things.
23:33
SPEAKER_03: Not that those programs are bad, um, but you know, the ultimate outcome is always up to him.
23:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: And everything is kind of the long haul.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: We have to have a long haul view.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: There's not a 30 days to a whatever.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Everything is a lifetime, like long haul perspective, marathon, whatever analogy you want.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: It's those small, small things, small incremental things in little moments every day, done every day repeatedly over a lifetime or a parenting lifetime.
24:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: So true.
24:08
SPEAKER_03: So what doors open that gave, you know, you the idea?
24:12
SPEAKER_03: I think traditional pub publishing is more what we should, you know, do and just um how that unfolded for you.
24:19
SPEAKER_03: So, you know, you're now with Bethany House, right?
24:22
SPEAKER_03: We talked about Bethany House, which is such a great publishing company.
24:26
SPEAKER_03: So tell us a little bit how that all worked out.
24:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, it was quite the journey.
24:30
SPEAKER_04: So from start to finish, it took about three and a half years.
24:34
SPEAKER_04: Oh wow.
24:34
SPEAKER_04: And uh sorry so.
24:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're in it for the long haul.
24:38
SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
24:38
SPEAKER_04: I'm still in it.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of intimidating to hear on the front end.
24:41
SPEAKER_04: You're like it is, but it's it's so sweet because it's its whole journey in itself.
24:48
SPEAKER_04: And God had so much, I wouldn't want it any shorter because he had so much to teach me about uh my own motherhood and as a writer, and he had so much growth for me in that time.
24:58
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
24:59
SPEAKER_04: That it's just a sweet thing to look back on.
25:01
SPEAKER_04: So I started writing the book late 2013.
25:06
SPEAKER_04: And uh again, I had no idea where to go, so I just started writing and I signed up for a big writer's conference out in the Carolinas, and I signed up to meet with some publishers and I got a book proposal ready and kind of just Googled what am I supposed to be doing here.
25:21
SPEAKER_03: Right, how to write a book proposal.
25:23
SPEAKER_04: Like I got a manicure done, and the only other time I had gotten a manicure was my wedding day.
25:28
SPEAKER_04: So it was pretty great.
25:30
SPEAKER_03: You want to hand it over in style.
25:32
SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
25:33
SPEAKER_04: That's great.
25:34
SPEAKER_04: So I go to this conference, and it was so fulfilling to be around people with the same passions and the same desires, and I got really good feedback about the book.
25:44
SPEAKER_04: But after that, there was about six months of silence, and so this was a really dry season, and um I started just feeling a lot of doubt.
25:53
SPEAKER_04: Like, God, did you really call me to this?
25:55
SPEAKER_04: Everything I've poured into this book, will it ever be read?
25:58
SPEAKER_04: And uh, he was just so sweet.
26:00
SPEAKER_04: Again, that little whisper, just keep going, just keep showing up and being faithful.
26:05
SPEAKER_04: And so, a little while after that, during this dry season, I got connected with a little uh writers organization in Kansas City and a sweet group of writers, and they have an annual conference.
26:18
SPEAKER_04: And so, pretty last minute, I decided to attend, and very last minute, I decided to meet with a literary agent and present my book proposal to him.
26:28
SPEAKER_04: And I didn't expect anything from that meeting.
26:30
SPEAKER_04: Really, all I wanted was what am I not doing that I could be?
26:35
SPEAKER_04: What's my next step here?
26:36
SPEAKER_01: Right.
26:37
SPEAKER_04: He sat down with me the first morning of that conference, and he looked me in the eye and he said, if for no other reason than meeting you about this book, it has made it worth it for me to fly out to this conference.
26:49
SPEAKER_04: And he had come from the Cameron's That's awesome.
26:52
SPEAKER_04: And so I was a little like shocked.
26:54
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
26:55
SPEAKER_04: Okay, what does this mean?
26:57
SPEAKER_04: Oh yes.
26:57
SPEAKER_04: And so he asked me to make a few adjustments to the proposal in the first sample chapters, and then he signed a contract with me, and then it was shortly after that that we had several publishers interested, which was just so encouraging, you know.
27:11
SPEAKER_04: After all that work, just a confirmation that this is of the Lord's, he's leading this.
27:16
SPEAKER_04: And then um, after that, we signed with Bethany House, a division of Baker House.
27:20
SPEAKER_04: And that's so great.
27:22
SPEAKER_04: Such a dream come true, and again, just so humbling because there's so many details I look back on and say, That was God, that was God.
27:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was God, you know?
27:32
SPEAKER_03: It's so reassuring because then you're just reminded again and again what like when you think, Can I do this?
27:37
SPEAKER_03: Should I be doing this?
27:38
SPEAKER_03: Or and all the responsibility that comes with it to write a book and raise a young family.
27:44
SPEAKER_03: Um I think whatever we do, I always just want to go back to, okay, well, Lord, you call us to do this, or you opened all the doors.
27:52
SPEAKER_03: I didn't make it happen.
27:54
SPEAKER_03: Um, I just showed up.
27:55
SPEAKER_03: And there's so much reassurance when it gets hard, or it's like, well, this is what you said.
28:01
SPEAKER_03: So I'm gonna trust that it's gonna work out.
28:05
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
28:06
SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
28:07
SPEAKER_03: Well, share with my friends your story of the pennies, the penny jar.
28:12
SPEAKER_03: It's so beautiful.
28:13
SPEAKER_03: I can't believe that I had never heard of this before.
28:16
SPEAKER_03: It's just, it's rich.
28:18
SPEAKER_03: I love it.
28:19
SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
28:21
SPEAKER_04: So we were living in Kansas City at the time, and our first boy was three, our second boy was a year and a half, and we just found out we were pregnant with number three.
28:30
SPEAKER_04: And we were having our second son dedicated to the Lord.
28:33
SPEAKER_04: So a lot of churches do these child dedication services where parents stand up on stage before the Lord and before their church family, and they vow in God's strength to raise this child to know and follow the Lord.
28:48
SPEAKER_03: It's such a beautiful process.
28:49
SPEAKER_03: I think I think every church should do it.
28:52
SPEAKER_03: It's just this like giving back of surrendering, you know, you gave it to you gave this child to me to give back to you, and they're yours.
29:00
SPEAKER_03: And it is, I love it.
29:02
SPEAKER_03: I love that.
29:02
SPEAKER_03: Yes, yeah, that this is part of the story.
29:04
SPEAKER_03: It's so cool.
29:06
SPEAKER_04: No, I totally agree.
29:07
SPEAKER_04: It's this sweet experience for parents and just this weighty experience for kids.
29:14
SPEAKER_04: And so we were standing up on that stage, and there were several families that day dedicating their children.
29:20
SPEAKER_04: And our pastor, after we prayed, uh, he handed each of us a jar of 936 pennies.
29:27
SPEAKER_04: And he told us, in that jar, each penny represents one week that you have with your child between birth and 18.
29:34
SPEAKER_04: So you can imagine like how heavy that jar felt when he said that.
29:38
SPEAKER_04: When you visualize your kid's childhood in a jar.
29:42
SPEAKER_04: And so he challenged us further.
29:45
SPEAKER_04: He said, Every Sunday when you get home from church, remove one penny to remind yourself that time is fleeting, our days are numbered, and to really consider how are we investing in our child's legacy?
29:58
SPEAKER_04: How are we building into their story?
30:01
SPEAKER_04: How are we um building into their eternity really?
30:05
SPEAKER_04: And so that's when we were given our first jar.
30:07
SPEAKER_04: And to be honest, for a couple weeks after that, I really couldn't do it.
30:12
SPEAKER_04: And I hear I hear this from a lot of parents because it's this solemn, heavy task to view time in that manner, yeah, in the in this visualization.
30:24
SPEAKER_04: So for me, I had to set up a second jar because my thing was okay, where do I put these pennies?
30:30
SPEAKER_04: And I don't want to feel like I'm losing this time.
30:32
SPEAKER_04: Our son was already a year and a half old, and so our first task was to remove 72 pennies.
30:40
SPEAKER_04: Right.
30:41
SPEAKER_04: And so for me, the second jar is where we put the pennies every week now, so that as one jar is going down, we don't feel like we're losing the time, but we see the other building up, and so we realize, you know what, we're building into his story, we're we're investing in his eternity, and that that made it doable for me.
30:59
SPEAKER_04: That changed things.
31:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, man.
31:01
SPEAKER_03: When you talk about taking out those 72 pennies, you're suddenly like the brevity hits you, and you're like, Oh, I've already spent those.
31:09
SPEAKER_03: And and at the same time, I mean the other side of the coin, haha, sorry, couldn't help it.
31:14
SPEAKER_03: Is that so bad?
31:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
31:19
SPEAKER_03: Is the like, oh, this is how much I have invested so far.
31:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
31:24
SPEAKER_03: Because not everything, even if we have a bad week or a bad day, it's not a complete waste.
31:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
31:31
SPEAKER_03: We have spent it and we have, you know, put it into their lives and poured into their lives in some form or fashion.
31:38
SPEAKER_03: So I love it.
31:39
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and God redeems it.
31:40
SPEAKER_04: God redeems so much.
31:42
SPEAKER_03: Yes, including this podcast conversation.
31:46
SPEAKER_03: Right.
31:48
SPEAKER_04: So true.
31:49
SPEAKER_04: So true.
31:51
SPEAKER_03: Well, you could have just taken the jar and run with it, so to speak, but I mean, you decided to do something more and sharing about it, and you actually you actually did it.
32:01
SPEAKER_03: You actually took the challenge.
32:03
SPEAKER_03: Talk more about how that shaped, what that shifted um for you as a mom, for you as parents, for your family dynamics.
32:11
SPEAKER_04: It really began to change the decisions that we make every day as a family.
32:17
SPEAKER_04: Because I call it time counting or becoming time aware.
32:21
SPEAKER_04: And it all comes back to Psalm 9012.
32:24
SPEAKER_04: It says, Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
32:27
SPEAKER_04: And what does every parent want but to raise their child in a wise manner, you know, to raise them in a way that really matters and makes the most of the time?
32:37
SPEAKER_04: And so now when we see those penny jars and when we move over a penny every week, it causes us to stop and first reflect on the previous week and consider did we spend time in God's creation?
32:51
SPEAKER_04: Did we invite laughter into our home?
32:53
SPEAKER_04: Did I speak words of life over my child?
32:56
SPEAKER_04: Did I invest in their eternity?
32:58
SPEAKER_04: Did I encourage them?
32:59
SPEAKER_04: Is there anything I need to ask their forgiveness for?
33:03
SPEAKER_04: And so it helps us to reflect, but then to look forward and think of, okay, what can I do this week that really matters?
33:10
SPEAKER_04: Or even introspection on our own heart as a parent.
33:14
SPEAKER_04: How am I doing right now with fear?
33:18
SPEAKER_04: How am I doing right now with peace?
33:20
SPEAKER_04: Like, am I really flourishing as the mother that God has called me to be?
33:25
SPEAKER_04: So I really believe that visualizing time in this manner helps us to look at our hearts, help us to look at our child's hearts and to see how God intended us to invest in these 936 weeks.
33:40
SPEAKER_03: That's good.
33:41
SPEAKER_03: So practically, obviously this is an inspiring thing, but we could just be inspired and not do anything with it.
33:49
SPEAKER_03: But how have you practically put some of these things into practice and kept you, you know, kind of essentially kept you all accountable to making those moments count?
34:00
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
34:00
SPEAKER_04: So a big one for us is time outside.
34:03
SPEAKER_04: And that's what ultimately led to our move to Colorado.
34:06
SPEAKER_04: So for us it was this huge element of it.
34:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:10
SPEAKER_04: And um, I just really believe that our children can connect with God through what He has made.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
34:16
SPEAKER_04: And you know, especially as parents, we know time goes so quickly and it slips through our fingers, and people tell us, don't blink, it'll be over before you know it.
34:25
SPEAKER_04: And I believe that when we spend time outside, we can really amplify it and fit so much more into an hour, into an afternoon, into a week spent outside.
34:38
SPEAKER_04: So that's been a big one for us.
34:39
SPEAKER_04: And another big one that I I dedicate a whole section of the book to is speaking life over our children.
34:47
SPEAKER_04: Because I know, especially parents in the same stage I'm in, when you have small children, a newborn, and you are bone weary, it's exhausting.
34:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and so to think about doing something intentional can be really difficult, especially at the end of the day or in those tired afternoons.
35:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's kind of overwhelming.
35:09
SPEAKER_04: Forwhelming, yeah.
35:11
SPEAKER_04: So overwhelming, yeah.
35:12
SPEAKER_04: But I found that one way when I am extremely exhausted that I can still invest in my child is by speaking a little phrase of life to them.
35:22
SPEAKER_04: So I outline these in the book and I have them on my fridge, and it's things like, I love you because like I love who you are.
35:29
SPEAKER_04: That's my favorite one.
35:30
SPEAKER_04: I love who you are, but then I'm proud of you because, and then you list specific reasons, or you say, I saw you do this today, and I'm so proud of you.
35:41
SPEAKER_04: And so speaking these specific phrases of life or speaking scripture over your child, that even when I'm so tired and I'm tucking the kids in and I'm just you know willing them to go to bed.
35:54
SPEAKER_04: Just done, I want to get to bed.
35:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but it it doesn't take much to say one thing.
36:00
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and when you think about 936 weeks, 18 years, a childhood strung together by those little phrases, yeah, you just think of how much that builds into your child confidence and security and love and identity that they're gonna need when they move away.
36:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
36:18
SPEAKER_03: They'll hang their hat on those affirmations and it's not just puffing up um insincere, you know, with insincere words, but it's it's giving true life of who they were created to be.
36:34
SPEAKER_03: That's beautiful.
36:35
SPEAKER_03: I love it.
36:36
SPEAKER_03: Those are great, great practical ways.
36:38
SPEAKER_03: How about some other um just like specific things?
36:43
SPEAKER_03: Are there have you like when you look ahead, do you look three months, a year, a week when you're looking, especially now?
36:50
SPEAKER_03: I mean, you have you know the three, three boys and a newborn baby.
36:53
SPEAKER_03: How do you look ahead to plan some of those fun things that um do you kind of tie kids' hearts back to home, those memory makers?
37:01
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, for sure.
37:02
SPEAKER_04: So we recently sat down and looked at our three-month calendar.
37:06
SPEAKER_04: So we spread out before us June, July, and August, and we wrote down all the um responsibilities or things that we need to be at or be doing.
37:16
SPEAKER_04: But we want to make sure that we had enough margin in there that there were blank slates on that calendar because I really believe that making the most of this time, a lot of it is spontaneous and unplanned.
37:28
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
37:29
SPEAKER_04: And a lot of it comes when you just provide your family with a blank slate and say, Hey, let's just go for a drive this afternoon, let's just head out to this nature preserve and not really have a plan.
37:40
SPEAKER_04: So one thing we love to do is make sure that there's that blank space.
37:43
SPEAKER_04: But then we also want to make sure that we were obviously having time together as a family in nature.
37:50
SPEAKER_04: So we put a camping trip on the calendar, we have some hiking trips, and then I wanted to be sure that, especially with a new baby in the house, that we're connecting with each individual child.
38:00
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
38:01
SPEAKER_04: And that gets really hard, I'm sure you know, with multiple children.
38:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
38:06
SPEAKER_04: And so we just made sure that we had little activities.
38:09
SPEAKER_04: Like the other day, I took our three-year-old out to a little plane building class and we rode our bikes and we went to the craft store, and it took two hours of my day.
38:17
SPEAKER_04: But when we got back, like both of our hearts were so full with each other.
38:22
SPEAKER_04: We connected, and I made sure to like look him in the eyes and talk with him and tell him, I love you, this is who you are to me, you know, speaking those words of life.
38:31
SPEAKER_04: And so we kind of we like to look three months ahead at a time, and we'll plan out.
38:37
SPEAKER_04: Like I mentioned, the planning dates, my husband and I will look at the upcoming year, and we revisit it often to make sure one that it's not getting too busy, but also to make sure that all of our activities and everything on the calendar goes back to those family values that we wrote down and make sure that the decisions and what we're giving our time to is conducive to those values.
39:00
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's great.
39:01
SPEAKER_03: I love it.
39:03
SPEAKER_03: Um I and I think too, whether your spouse is on board with that or not, I think you as the mom, you get to be the cruise director um of the family.
39:13
SPEAKER_03: And I there's so much value in just um kind of clarifying that mental space because I think we can just go on autopilot for so long we don't have a clear picture of where we're going or what we're doing or how it looks.
39:26
SPEAKER_03: And then once we put it on paper, it goes this is like, oh, I need to cut this out, or oh, actually we're doing, you know, we have nothing here.
39:35
SPEAKER_03: And not to fill it, but to go, oh, let's let's take some time to breathe here because we have nothing.
39:42
SPEAKER_03: And I for my kids, they're certainly at the age is they need to know, I don't like too much structure because there's just something about it that I'm like, oh, I chafe against it, but but they need to also they need to have some of those boundary lines that they know I have this to look forward to, or this is what that looks like, or this is when we're gonna be together as a family.
40:02
SPEAKER_03: And then they find so much creativity and freedom and joy in those empty spots because they now too realize how valuable they are.
40:12
SPEAKER_03: Um and you know, as a kid, as a young kid, they you know, time just goes on forever.
40:18
SPEAKER_03: But um, you know, and that's where as a mom you get to put some of those um structure pieces in place.
40:23
SPEAKER_03: But I just find, you know, I get the less I'm bored, why, or you know, when they do that, I'm like, well, you just have this two or three hour pocket of time, and then you won't, you know, you don't have that for a couple more days.
40:37
SPEAKER_03: You should do all those things that you say you want to do when you have to do stuff you don't want to do.
40:41
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
40:42
SPEAKER_03: So I love it.
40:44
SPEAKER_03: I think that's good.
40:45
SPEAKER_03: That's really good.
40:46
SPEAKER_03: Um, well, last thing that I want to know here before we let you go.
40:50
SPEAKER_03: Um, we talked about it yesterday, and I've been curious because I heard that um your book has taken off in South Africa.
40:58
SPEAKER_03: And so I wanted to know have you, you know, did you go tour, do a book tour in South Africa?
41:03
SPEAKER_03: Do you have friends, connections?
41:04
SPEAKER_03: Now you have friends.
41:05
SPEAKER_03: So tell us a little bit because I think that's just so cool.
41:09
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, I'm so curious too, because honestly, we don't know how it happened.
41:14
SPEAKER_04: It's probably one of those things that was just working behind the scenes, and that I don't need to know.
41:19
SPEAKER_04: Like it's just cool that he's doing it.
41:21
SPEAKER_04: So it started a few months before the book released.
41:25
SPEAKER_04: Um, one of my marketing directors at Bethany House emailed me and said, Hey, do you know anything about this large pre-order that went to South Africa?
41:33
SPEAKER_04: And I replied, I'm like, No, I have no idea.
41:36
SPEAKER_04: That's yeah, so I didn't hear anything about it for a while, but then a couple of months ago I was online just searching and seeing, okay, what's the book up to?
41:46
SPEAKER_04: Where is it to go in?
41:48
SPEAKER_04: And I saw that this large Christian book distributor in South Africa had picked it up and was carrying it in all their stores.
41:56
SPEAKER_04: So I was just flabbergasted, like, what is the Lord doing?
41:59
SPEAKER_04: And uh, and then I got uh invite to do a radio interview with their premier Christian radio station over there and to share about the book and the message behind the book.
42:09
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome in South Africa.
42:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so it's super neat.
42:12
SPEAKER_04: Last night, actually, I saw a blog post put up, and it's a book reviewer in South Africa, and she had shared it with her mom group, and um I've gotten I'd seen a picture on Instagram of all of these sweet mamas with their babies holding up the book in South Africa so these different outlets and um just the Lord working.
42:33
SPEAKER_04: So it's some cool backstory behind that though, is in high school I did a lot of mission work and I traveled to Africa and Thailand.
42:42
SPEAKER_04: And my husband and I, when we were when we got married, it was actually our intent to go overseas and do ministry overseas, and the Lord just had other plans for us, but we always kind of wondered what is this ministry going to look like?
42:55
SPEAKER_04: We really want to be involved in the Lord's work, and uh little could we know what he had in store with the book and speaking and the message of 936 pennies, but to see the book in Africa was huge for me because that was a place so dear to my heart.
43:10
SPEAKER_04: And then recently I was online again and I saw that they're now carrying the audiobook in Thailand.
43:15
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's so good.
43:17
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like God making those heart connections and letting this message go to these two places that were on my heart, and I know they're on his heart, just this sweet little connection that he made with it.
43:28
SPEAKER_03: Ah, that's beautiful.
43:29
SPEAKER_03: I love it.
43:30
SPEAKER_03: That's so good.
43:32
SPEAKER_03: Erin, thank you so much for your time.
43:35
SPEAKER_03: Again, the second coffee date.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being so gracious.
43:38
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you were, because I that just um it's it can be defeating all the way around.
43:43
SPEAKER_03: But um, I'm just believing, I know I'm confident that um my friends and so many others um want a message like this um just to be reminded and encouraged and inspired once again to number their days and impart to their children what they value and what they know they've been called to.
44:02
SPEAKER_03: So um thank you.
44:04
SPEAKER_03: In the midst of your really crazy season of life, um, that you've just been faithful and obedient and it's produced something really beautiful.
44:12
SPEAKER_03: And in you too, just just hearing how you live, it's it's really inspiring.
44:17
SPEAKER_03: So way to go.
44:18
SPEAKER_03: Keep up the day.
44:19
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
44:20
SPEAKER_04: It's been great talking with you, also.
44:21
SPEAKER_03: Definitely.
44:22
SPEAKER_03: Well, I look forward to meeting you in person, either when I'm out there in Colorado sometime or when you come out our way.
44:28
SPEAKER_04: That sounds great.
44:28
SPEAKER_03: All right, have a great rest of the day.
44:30
SPEAKER_03: Thanks.
44:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you too.
44:31
SPEAKER_04: Take care.
44:31
SPEAKER_03: All right, bye-bye.
44:34
SPEAKER_03: Are you inspired to make your weeks count with your kids?
44:37
SPEAKER_03: Both Ashley and I were encouraged by our time with Erin, and we also feel the grace to know the time we have spent with our kids is not wasted.
44:46
SPEAKER_03: I'd love to have you connect more with Erin.
44:48
SPEAKER_03: You can follow her on our Instagram account and read the original 936 pennies blog post that went viral.
44:56
SPEAKER_03: Of course, all of those links will be in the show notes.
44:59
SPEAKER_03: If you enjoyed this conversation, and if you haven't yet listened to some of our other mom-specific episodes, I encourage you to listen to episode number 50.
45:08
SPEAKER_03: And that's the talk I gave to the local mom script as.
45:11
SPEAKER_03: Remember, we still have books of our minute series available for you to join.
45:21
SPEAKER_03: And for you mommas out there, we do have a specific one with ideas before to create more musical memories here.
45:29
SPEAKER_03: And if you haven't yet, we have a principal calendar for July.
45:38
SPEAKER_03: I love how one of our collection members, Jody, sent a picture and a little face report on her box for chat the other day.
45:54
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for asking her to ask one of our questions.
45:57
SPEAKER_03: I didn't say which one, but she decides to do which picture we decide to ask one of the boys.
46:02
SPEAKER_03: I hope that even if you can't do all three one, which I don't think any of us are supposed to do that, but if you try to do a walk away with some really special memories and moments of that.
46:15
SPEAKER_03: Hey, and thanks you guys for not taking this podcast all to yourself.
46:19
SPEAKER_03: Truly, I hope you guys share this with your friends and family, explain our community, and share these amazing messages that I want everyone to hear.
46:28
SPEAKER_03: Your ratings, reviews, and shares are truly important and valuable to us.
46:33
SPEAKER_03: So, until next week, we hope you'll be joining us as we discover more ways to live a simple heart of life.
46:39
SPEAKER_03: Unplugged, purposeful, and intentional.