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At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

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April 10, 2011

Simply Sundays Guest Post..What’s In A Name?

We couldn’t think of a better way to round off our week with our
Featured Blogger, Ange, from 


than to share with you this beautiful post she recently wrote explaining why she choose her Blog Name and the significance of it in her own life.
So without further ado, we welcome Ange to Simply Sundays!

“Naming a blog can be a tricky thing. My blog Love From My Kitchen started out as a place to post my recipes for friends and family. After I discovered how much I loved blogging, I realized I could blog about more than just recipes, so I did. Then I started to feel like Love From My Kitchen just wasn’t working for me anymore, like I was trying to run a race with a pair of skinny jeans on and maybe some cute boots with heels too. You can do it but maybe it’s not the best outfit for running in. After a while it might get uncomfortable, restrictive and just not what you need to accomplish your goal!

So, after driving them crazy racking the brains of friends and my husband for several days, I finally came up with the name, The Blooming Hydrangea. 
When I finally decided that was the name and I went to purchase the domain name, hubby pointed out while I was typing in the new blog name that Ange,my own name was in the word hydrangea. That’s when I knew without a doubt that this was the name for my blog! It was a great confirmation for me because I was still so unsure about the name, I hate things that can’t be changed easily.  

 I decided on the word Blooming for part of my blog name because I love the thought of blooming, being at your best, just all out there for the world to see you.

Blooming is an adjective and the root word Bloom is a verb, it means we are doing something, I love action! 

 Here is the definition of bloom from the
wiktionary: 
Thriving in health, beauty, and vigor, vigour; indicating the freshness and beauties of youth or health.

Doesn’t that sound wonderful?  To be thriving in health, beauty and vigor?  I want that!  I want to be healthy for my family, on the inside and the outside.  By beautiful I mean I don’t want to be a supermodel on the runways of Paris but I want to be a supermodel on the runway of my home for my children.  (I’m sure my husband wouldn’t complain if I was a supermodel for him on a runway either if you know what I mean! wink, wink.)    I want to have vigor throughout all my seasons of life, no matter where I am or what’s going on. I want to bloom with love, life, joy and hope! How do we do that?

Well when thinking about flowers I chose the hydrangea for the name because I love that you can change the color of the flower petals by subtracting or adding things to their soil. It reminds me of our hearts, we can change our hearts by adding or subtracting to our own soil. We choose what to put into our soil, what to take out of our soil, how we are nourishing our hearts, with things that last and will sustain or with junk and things that will rust out and die. We need to take care of our soil and add the best fertilizer if we want to bloom with love, life, joy and hope!  For me, that fertilizer is God.

I have a special little clump of dried hydrangeas that I keep because it reminds me that God loves me and cares about  me.  One cold night in January hubby and I went to Wallyworld for a date, hot I know. We decided to look in the magazine section just because we could and I immediately found a Country Living Magazine to drool on browse through. On one of the pages was a beautiful arrangement of blooming hydrangeas in a bowl. I told my hubs how much I love hydrangeas, they are my favorite flower and I wish I had some right now but it’s snowing out and it’s January.   Later that night when we arrived home, there on the front step was a clump of dried hydrangeas, just sitting there.   I knew it was a gift from God!  He was saying to me, “Here my daughter, I can’t give you blooming hydrangeas in January when snow is everywhere but I can give you a little dried bunch just to let you know that I care about you and love you.”  So I hope that when you visit my blog, you will know that God loves you too, even if it’s not in the form of dried hydrangeas on your front step in January.  


I hope you will find at The Blooming Hydrangea something that will inspire you to Bloom, a place where life and love create something beautiful…YOU!

Thanks for letting me join you today At the Picket Fence,

We loved having you with us today Ange!

5 Comments Filed Under: Simply Sundays

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Comments

  1. Yvonne@StyleBurb says

    April 10, 2011 at 1:56 PM

    What a great choice. Ange is so creative and generous! The Blooming Hydrangea is a fantastic blog and Ange always has inspiring room transformations and delicious recipes.

    Reply
  2. NanaDiana says

    April 10, 2011 at 2:22 PM

    Great name..it fits you perfectly and I love that you found some dried hydrangeas on your porch! God is good! xxoo Diana

    Reply
  3. Inspire Me Heather says

    April 10, 2011 at 9:41 PM

    Very nice and interesting – I’m going to check her blog out now!

    Reply
  4. Cindy says

    April 10, 2011 at 5:45 PM

    Beautiful feature. So nice to know the inspiration for a blog name and the person behind it!

    Reply
  5. Andrea@ourbluefrontdoor says

    April 11, 2011 at 4:09 AM

    Right on Yvonne!! Such a great story of her blog and a beautiful lady too!

    Reply

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I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 y I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 years now and every year I ohhhh and ahhhh over the blossoms like it's the first time I've ever seen them. I gush and I take photos (that look exactly like the ones I took the year before and the year before that) and I make my family come outside and look at them with me which you know they just LOVE to do. 😉 I think that is one of the main reasons why I love spring so much. On the one hand, it's predictable and yet, on the other hand, it still feels like such a surprise after the long months of barren branches.

And yesterday, as I was staring at the gorgeous blossoms for the umpteenth time, I couldn't help but think that I hope this is how I feel when our lives return to some semblance of normalcy.

I hope that the predictable feels special and that the typical feels anything but. I hope that I ohhh and ahhh over the simple things I've realized I've taken for granted. And, most of all, I hope that feeling doesn't go away for a very, very long time! 💗
Are you living with great expectation friends? Bec Are you living with great expectation friends? Because He is risen!

Happy Easter from my home to yours!
Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to be a different kind of Easter for sure but some things don’t change. Have you been baking and getting ready for tomorrow? What’s one thing on your menu that you have to have every year?
If this is Good Friday, why doesn’t it feel so “good”? It all seems backward doesn’t it?

What could be good about the unspeakable pain he suffered? What could be good about the shame and betrayal?

Easter Sunday is so joyful, bright and cheery. Shouldn’t that be the day we call “good”? It just feels so much better!

But, I don’t know how to rejoice over His resurrection, unless I have felt the pain of His death. I have realized that in life the sweetest victories are the ones which were realized after a pain-filled journey.

And, so it is with Good Friday. I know there will be victory over death, but I can’t skip ahead in the story.

Jesus knew what was coming. He knew what he would experience. And he knew why he would go through it. He did it for me. He did it for you.

Do you know that? Have you felt it down in the very core of your soul? 
Sometimes it makes me squirm a bit. Why would anyone do that for me?

Well, because, I can’t do it for myself!

There is nothing I can do to earn that kind of love and mercy.

That is why it is called GRACE.

His grace is freely given. We don’t have to pay for it. He paid the price for us already.

Do you remember that movie from years ago called “Ransom”? A couple’s young son was kidnapped and the parents went to hell and back trying to find him and pay the “ransom” demanded by the kidnappers.

Well, Jesus is our “ransom”. (1 Timothy 2:6) His life was the payment.

Why is it called “Good Friday”? Because that wasn’t the end of the story….
.
…It was just the beginning!
Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house that’s become the landing zone for ALL THE THINGS! 🙋🏻‍♀️🤪 I’ve never been more thankful for our rarely used dining room table as it’s become command central for school books and laptops and games.

Where are things collecting in your house right now?
“Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every si “Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every single one of these emotions has made their way through our home in recent days and, my guess is, they have in your home too.

I SO needed this reminder today from the new book ‘Adore’ by @sarahagertywrites.

Adoration isn’t just sitting at His feet gazing longingly with stars in my eyes. It’s bringing my fears and my sorrows and gray roots in my hair that desperately needs to be colored and my messy house and all of the things that threaten to send me over the edge right now and laying them down before Him, soaking up His word and His presence so that when I stand back up, I am changed for having spent the time adoring the ONE who is... Healer, comforter, peace-giver, deliverer, redeemer.

What do you need to bring to Him today? I’ll share mine in the comments and I’d love to hear from you too!
I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole lockdown thing began, I’ve come to appreciate this time of day even more.

It feels the most...normal. Daytime is strange and foreign right now. My husband has taken over our home office, I’m suddenly taking over the responsibility of managing my kids’ distance learning and let me just say that teaching 7th grade algebra to my daughter is hugely ironic since I struggled with math all the way through school. I’m trying to do my own work but it feels utterly futile with the constant interruptions which take precedence right now. In the daytime, I’m constantly reminded of how upside down life feels.

But, in the evening, I cook dinner like I’ve always done and we gather around the table like we’ve always done and we laugh and tell stories and then clean up and play games or go on a walk or watch a show. And that feels SO gloriously normal.

So now I love evenings even more than I ever did before and I’m so grateful for this little chunk of time where the rhythms we established years ago are helping to sustain us now when so much of life feels outside of our control.

What feels ‘normal’ to you right now? Whatever it is, keep doing it. 🌿
When I was in college I would frequently call home When I was in college I would frequently call home and pour my heart out to my mom, sharing with her all that was happening in my life in that completely unfiltered way that you can talk with the person who potty trained you. These phone calls usually took place at night and my mom would patiently listen as I vented frustrations about professors, roommates, boyfriends and the food in the cafeteria. And, inevitably, they would end with my mom saying, “Everything seems worse when you’re tired. Try not to overthink things or make any major decisions tonight, especially when you are feeling emotional.” Dear friends, may I pass along this advice to you today?

If you don’t absolutely HAVE to make a decision right now, I want to encourage you to wait until life gets back to normal. If you are finding yourself over-analyzing relationships and family dynamics, I want to encourage you to remember that everything seems more dramatic when looked at under a microscope. And, let’s face it, being homebound with our loved ones non-stop makes us all feel like lab rats in an experiment.

If you are tempted to quit a job, start a business, start homeschooling permanently, stop homeschooling permanently, move to a new city, buy a farm, quit pursuing your dream, join a commune or make any other major life decision just…wait. Because, if it is in fact the right decision, it will be made even clearer once our lives return to their ‘regularly scheduled programming’. Instead, in this strange season, let’s all just take a deep, collective breath and let it out slowly, releasing the anxiety that threatens to overtake us. Let’s help each other maintain some perspective and not slip into a posture of over-thinking every little thing in our lives. Let’s remember that the enemy of our souls would love nothing more than to use this time when things feel dark to manipulate us into thinking that aspects of our lives are worse than they actually are.

My prayer for you in these days is that you will have the clarity to know what is true and that you will be filled with peace even while we live in this season of so many unknowns.
Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking thes Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking these days! 🙋🏻‍♀️ I’m trying to avoid gaining the #corona15 but my daughter and I LOVE baking together and it does help to pass the time plus it counts as a science lesson right?

If you’re able to find flour in the stores (for the love people please stop overbuying!) and you’re doing more baking at your house too you need to add this apricot bread to your list of new recipes to try!

Normally I’d point you to my blog for the directions but I’m going to do you a solid and leave the full recipe in the comments.

What have you baked so far during this time of social distancing? I’d love some new ideas!
There are a LOT of people out walking in our neigh There are a LOT of people out walking in our neighborhood right now (but still social distancing!) and she decided that she wanted to bring them some joy and put a smile on their face when they pass by our house. Also, the square with ‘say no to coronavirus’ is priceless. 😂 I just love her so much!
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