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Girl’s Night Out

It’s worth celebrating

I ran into Market Street to simply grab a few items for charcuterie spread I was throwing together.  It was supposed to be an in-and-out, quick run.  But the golden amber vases, burnt orange florals, and them smell of simmering apples drew me over to the floral department like a moth to straight to a flame.  I took a quick gander, promising myself to simply “get a few ideas” to come back for later.

You can guess how that turned out.  

A gold and glass amber vase full of fall floral later, I was about the head over to the imported cheese section when this display caught my eye.  Since the moment we decided to host our next Girls Night Out in celebration of Día de Los Muertos (The Day of The Dead) I see sugar skull art everywhere I go.  I don’t know if I merely never noticed it before, or if it’s suddenly …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love In Action Loving Others Purpose The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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Keep believing

I can’t even begin to describe how much I’ve learned since starting HeartStories in 2012 (officially 2013).  I was in it for what I could do to help others, but sitting here, looking back, it’s been almost seven years of the most intense season of growth of my life.  And I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon.  I live in a constant state of walking in the unknown.

Nothing is sure to work. 

Every risky choice I make is made from layers of experience, seeking wise counsel, praying earnestly, and then simply deciding it’s worth it to jump.  Merely choosing to do the next right thing. Sometimes that process turns out beautifully, even better than I could have hoped.  But it also often leads to painful lessons, challenges, and struggles I didn’t see coming.   IT’s the essence of the John Ortberg quote that you’ve surely heard me say a million times.  I still …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love In Action Our Story Purpose Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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Choose who you will become

Once upon a time, in a time when life was very different, these three women went to the lake

From what we remember now, we had the time of our lives.  We still laugh and reminisce about all the fun we had. All the wonderful conversations.  We talk about how easy it was just to be ourselves in a quick weekend escape from our lives that were so full of crazy demands.

In fact, we did that just recently. 

We were talking about making plans to get together and went off laughing about all the memories we made on this short weekend trip.  We talked about how our friendship took a deep dive that weekend and we’ve never been the same.  So it came as a pleasant surprise this morning when I opened Seth’s blog to read about “Memories of memories”. It’s a SUPER quick read in which he surmises:

“Choosing what we …

by Crystal Gornto Community Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love In Action Love in Friendship Loving Others Loving Yourself The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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What courage looks like

Sometimes, at the end of a Girls Night Out (like the one we’re heading into TONIGHT) full of laughter, fun, connection . . . and a lot of hard work behind the scenes, I get to sneak into a photograph with the one who is always behind the camera photographing the rest of us.  And apparently, this is the face I decide to make?  I’m not sure if it was an “Oh my gosh, we got Vanessa in a photo!” type of face or a “Hey look Ma, I made it!” face.  Either way, after it was all over, I was feeling something strong about being in a photo with Vanessa Corral.  It could just be that Vanessa makes me feel strong.

She makes me feel brave and courageous.  

We had a chat yesterday about our “shot list” plan for tonight’s photography during the Football 101 GNO.  I’m always a little nervous to …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love In Action Love in Friendship Priorities The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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Looking for love

I used to love Coca-Cola.  I mean, it was one of my very favorite tastes.  I’ve intentionally swapped it for sparkling water as a small step toward healthier living, but I’ll still take one down on special occasions, or with certain foods like pizza or Mexican food, as a way of celebrating.

So it was unusual yesterday, that I busted out a can of Coke in the middle of the day. 

I was warming up leftover pizza from the weekend for lunch when I opened the drawer to grab sparkling water and saw a can of Coke.  We don’t typically don’t keep them at the house, but apparently it was leftover from a recent party.  I also don’t typically eat leftover pizza for lunch, but apparently it was a perfect storm.  I decided to just go for it!  Why not?!

But then I saw it.  

The Coke I was about to open had a …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspirational Words Love In Action Loving Others Loving Yourself Priorities The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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Stop looking for happiness in the same place you lost it

It’s officially football season in Texas and for the first time in a long time, this mama won’t be sitting on the football field every Saturday watching my boy play.  Not because I’ve simply decided not to go watch the games.  But because my boy, who was so incredibly passionate about the sport has decided he’s no longer interested.

He’s always been a super active kid. 

He’s loved playing sports like basketball, soccer, tennis, and golf.  I always felt lucky that we had somehow avoided football because I’d heard the horror stories of broken legs and concussions from high school football in Texas.  But one day after playing football at recess, he came home looking for a football.  After finding one in the garage, he never put it down.  It turned out, he had a great little arm for passing it.

We watched him come alive throwing that ball.  

It was like he …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Love In Action Loving Others Loving Yourself Motherhood Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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