It’s been a week you guys. Heck, it’s been a month.
And a long 18 months before that and really the whole past 4 years.
What a ride.
Doing it with you all? That’s been the best part. By far and Amen.
So today’s prompt is GRATEFUL because we are. The whole rowdy lot of us. Our five minutes is a video blog this week – first and maybe last time – because we wanted to tell you in person how much you mean – you readers and writers and mothers and sisters and about the best people a girl could have in her corner.
This one’s for you.
If you’re reading in an email click here to see the video and meet my wild, crazy VERY LOUD crew. And you’ll understand why most of my writing gets done very, very late at night.
With much love
Lisa-Jo
I thank my God every time I remember you.
~Philippians 1:3.
After watching that video, I’ve got a big, cheesy grin on my face! Your kids are precious!! How blessed I am to be a part of this amazing community.
-Jen
You and me both – love doing life with folks you’re totally comfortable inviting into the crazy :)
We love you too!!! This is so much fun! About that book, I think I owe you a lunch and your kids don’t scare me! If it has to be a Panera at a playground that is A-OK with me! Bring it on! Loud and Brave!
You are all beautiful! Magnificent! I am full of joy for you. What an outstanding group you are! My prayers are with you, and I couldn’t be any more happy to be a small (very new) part of this wonderful FMF family. I am also so glad for your book. When I heard about it, I had to share with one of my coworkers who produces a Saturday show at my station. So glad to know that you will be sharing your story and your book with our listeners soon at Arizona Shine! You are such a blessing to this mommy and so many others. :) God bless you and THANK YOU!
Kelly!! Thank YOU for that wonderful contact. Love those guys – what fun it was to chat with them. And so grateful for all the brave women who gather here every Friday – it never fails to amaze!
No no no. Thank YOU seriously. You are such a blessing.
Jackson kisses Zoe and then squishes her cheeks and Micah yells “what the heck are you doing people” and in between studying for finals I am just grinning all the way from Birmingham. I really like your people. I like them a lot.
They are nothing if not genuine :) And half my battle has been learning to just accept them as they are. Thanks Kaitlyn – I bet they’d get a kick out of you too :)
Oh my word, that was the absolute best. Cutest thing ever. And I have a new and deeper appreciation for your mad level of superpowers. ;-)
They ratchet it up for the camera, but yea – I’m well acquainted with crazy. It lives at my house :)
Totally get that. Skype is my greatest friend and greatest nemesis, only because it induces such hooligan behavior in my children as soon as the camera turns on! Thanks for opening up your crazy .. totally, totally loved it.
So MUCH FUN! It sounds much like my house which is why often times I’m a month on and then a month off with FMF. I love it and so grateful for the community!! Hugs to your precious bunch!
Oh I LOVE this! So much Happy! I just filmed a video to put on my blog on Sunday… my first ever… but scared is the new brave, right? I heard that somewhere once and it sort of stuck! ;)
Love you so!
“Moms are great. Kids are crazy.” Loved this line and loved this video. Thanks for sharing with us, Lisa-Jo!
That right there was worth me staying up with tired eyelids. I love writing and this writing space and have been so, so, so grateful to be part of it now for three (?) years, but I think I might love videos more. Not more than writing, but sometimes you need to switch it up and I like people in real time possibly a bit more some days. I don’t think the crazy comes out enough until you see it :).
And by that I mean…I love the crazy, and we all are living it.
I loved this line–“Moms are great, kids are crazy”. I’m not a mother yet, But I have 2 crazy kid brothers. So I live with crazy and I love it. I love the video, its so real. Though ‘m new here, I’ll be so grateful to be part of this community, I hope I’m welcomed.
Blessings to you
Thanks for sharing this video, Lisa-Jo…you and your kids are adorable :)
LOVE LOVE LOVE the realness of your home and your kids! Love your smile and the bunny ears and the noise and how normal it makes me feel! Thank you for sharing.
I so LOVE the video.
Grateful for you and your family and the lives you live that make much of Jesus.
(And you call that rowdy? :) We got your rowdy over here!)
Oh my gosh – best video! This had me laughing so much, I wasn’t paying attention to what was being said. Seriously! I was watching the kids & their faces & wondering where they were when one disappeared from sight. You all are precious! So much joy on each & every one of your faces. So glad you are loud & brave! It has been such a joy to be part of this community!
Grateful
This is the thing: Loss makes you grateful. At least that’s what happened to me. What I mean to say is, I’ve lost a lot: a brother, a father, a marriage, friendships, my house. All of it. Some of it.
When you can’t go big with your grateful heart, go small.
Luci said to me one night, seven years ago, on my visit to Austin: It doesn’t take much to make you happy.
It’s true. That night, I was enraptured by the colony of bats dipping over the Colorado River. I couldn’t believe that Luci and I were crossing the river under a blue moon just as Nanci Griffith’s “A Very Blue Moon” was blaring on the radio. It was all too much. I was full-out, full-heartedly (feels like a word) grateful.
Sometimes I must pull grateful from the floorboards. I’ve gotta dig deep. When things are bad, I commit bits of gratefulness to paper. Writing is how I figure things out, how I make sense of the world; it’s how I touch the ground. So it gets very basic: me, a pen, and a piece of paper titled “THANK YOU FOR…”
I figure if I can’t come up with at least 10 items, that’s lame.
So here they are, today: the breath of the cars passing my window; this exercise, forcing my fingers to move on the keyboard, to DO; the movement behind Bring Back Our Girls.” People actually care and are attempting to do; time tonight to see my sweet boys; Dylan’s kisses and hugs; the Fridayness of it all.
It’s Friday, y’all.
Love the video!!! I am reading your book right now and am loving every second of it. You have such a way of making yourself so relatable. Love your warmth. You make me feel normal. Ha!
Loved the video. It makes you seem human instead of a person on another computer writing somewhere. Loved it.
so, so fun! you guys are adorable :)
That video. Oh my precious!! It’s so great. I’ve only participated in a couple FMF, but I love reading them. Thank you for encouraging people participating in a link up to truly visit and comment on others’ work. You’re a blessing!
Wow! You have so many beautiful reasons to be grateful. Thanks for the video.
WOW…talk about a rambunctious crew you have there. You are very blessed and you look to me like you have the patience of a saint. I am happy to write with you on Friday’s.
LOVED watching this! I love how “normal” your kids are (at least, they act just like my kids used to) & you make me laugh out loud with love!
That video is fabulous. :-)
Oh my Lisa Jo, I absolutely adored that video. Such refreshing reality of mothering small ones and the crazy antics they love to enhance when they are in front of a camera. :) Great idea for a video post. I hope to put one up before next FMF. :) Blessings, Jolene
Thank You for having giving us a place to write, with your encouraging realness and advice.
That video was just the BEST! :)
Oh wow! What a precious family you have! :) So much energy – I love it! :)
Just had to say, this gave me a great laugh today…looks exactly the way it would go if I recorded a video with my kids! :) Loud and Brave….Angela
This video is exactly what your book tells us, the crazy, insane and even mundane can be fun, it can be worthwhile if we become focused on God and we use His teachings in our daily life. So many mothers, including myself, likely would have got snippy with the kids for being like that “in public” even though that’s EXACTLY who they are! Thank you for the precious reminder that these moments can be filled with laughter and fun and that the “work” can come later. Happy Mothers day!!
Lisa Jo, I loved this prompt. I am seriously working on being grateful even in the hard times (like two babies seriously ill in hospitals 100 miles apart)
or the happiness I felt on Mother’s day (which that is easy) but genuine gratefulness, not just “thank you God for everything”
Thanks so much for all you do and your willingness to be so real!
Your children are so beautiful and energetic! How blesse you are to have them, and how blessed I am that you open your heart and your life up to others to be a friend and an inspiration. Thank you Lisa-Jo, and the rest of the Baker family, because I know the work of a mother touches her family even when it’s not supposed to.