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During one of the last nights of summer, I had a group of boys at Chick-Fil-A late one night. They were checking out the play area while I was standing near the counter, waiting for the food when I got a text from Laura Roach (our fab attorney sponsor!). It was this picture, with the caption:

“Do you know who this is?”

I knew that face, but couldn’t place her with Laura at a restaurant at night. Obviously, whatever I said would be shared between the two of them. Buying some time to think, I responded with “Is this a trick?” Laura replied, “Wine Glass Writer“. AHHHH – instantly it clicked. “That’s Renée!” Laura knows all about Wine Glass Writers because Renée and her mother Jeannine (who founded the company together) have been sponsoring our GNO, and giving away their writers for more than two years now (I wrote about them in 2017 …

As I walked through the living room this morning collecting trash from last night’s apparent frat party, this whiteboard suddenly caught my eye.

I stopped to read the top and it took my breath away.

As I wrote about on the blog yesterday, I’ve been trying to create intentional moments of connection with the boys. Realizing that I cannot stop life to be with them 24/7, I’m simply taking pauses where I can, to connect. Yesterday during lunch I asked the boys if they wanted to play a game or something together. Noah and I decided to play a game of cards. While I was cleaning up the final dishes, I looked over and saw that he’d erased my family “to-do” list on the whiteboard and written something at the top.

My heart sank.

My brain is too full to remember anything so I’d been scribbling notes there for the last few days, of …

by Crystal Gornto Inspirational Words Love In Action Love in Family Love in Friendship Motherhood Priorities The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

Last week, the boys and I took an impromptu trip up to Urban Air Trampoline Park in Frisco. We thought we were heading there so they could jump around for an hour or so, while I sat with my laptop, getting a few things done. But the moment we walked in, we quickly realized things were very different around there. Their giant room full of trampolines has been converted to a two-story amusement park, complete with a “sky rider” zipline, rock climbing wall, and ropes course. Needless to say, we stayed a little longer than an hour.

And I rode the sky rider.

As I’ve written about often lately, the constant shifting of priorities is so tough in the summer. The kids are home and I so desperately want to play with them, but like most adults, I don’t get a three-month break in summer. Even if I wasn’t working to grow my …

by Crystal Gornto Inspirational Words Loving Others Motherhood Priorities The Journey Through Life 1 comment chat

Beth DiCarlo, our event designer, snagged this photo while Lauren and I were huddling behind the stage at our last girls night out and it’s one of my favorite event photos EVER. It’s my favorite because when I look at it, it tells a vivid story that not many people get a chance to hear.

So I thought today, I’d share it with you.

The concept of the HeartStories GNO began with some intense soul-searching on my part. I was three years into my journey of entrepreneurship seeking to serve women who’ve lost themselves in little pieces along the way, staying so busy taking care of everyone else that they rarely make time for themselves. I so desperately wanted to encourage women to do the things they felt called to do and inspire the joy they crave, but my level of business savvy didn’t match up with my level of passion for …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love In Action Love in Friendship Our Story The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

Over the weekend, we’d set aside some time to simply “be” together as a family. Life has been super full for Scott and I lately, so we put some boundaries around time for just the four of us. It was tempting to veg out around the house, rest, and not do much. But we decided instead to pile in the car to go get lunch. It was cold and loud in the restaurant so we sat outside at some little picnic tables. While we were eating, we were discussing what else we could do that would be fun for everyone.

There were many ideas, but not a lot of agreement.

Hiking, fossil hunting, wakeboarding, (videogaming!), nerf wars, and card games were among some of the ideas. For one reason or another, they were all ruled out one by one. The consensus was that no matter what we were going to do, we’d …

by Crystal Gornto Inspiration Inspirational Words Love In Action Loving Yourself Motherhood Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have two basic speeds: On or Off. I either need to be moving and shaking, getting stuff done. OR completely chilling and disconnected from the rest of the world. It’s actually one of the reasons I’m pretty terrible at the social media game. The always-on, always posting, always sharing, never-ending buzz of the online world is hard for me to just dip a toe in. I’m either all in or completely out, so I avoid social media often so that I don’t allow myself to get sucked in. (The word “boundaries” comes to mind here.)

I like to batch my work for efficiency so I can sit down to focus and then get up and be finished.

Obviously, this is not how the life of a wife, mother, and entrepreneur naturally flows. At some level, all of those roles demand a constant buzz for attention. …

by Crystal Gornto Inspirational Words Loving Others Loving Yourself Motherhood Priorities The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

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