Love in Family

The problem with tomorrow

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 …

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

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

You may have noticed in my social stories during our little vacay, that I spent A LOT of time watching my boys hone their skimboarding skills. They first picked up this fun new sport last summer with their “beach” friend Vincent, who is from Hungary. They bought new boards since last year, though. They cleared the living room rug at home, fired up the YouTube videos, and taught themselves everything they needed to know about skimboarding before we even left town.

You can imagine their anticipation of finally arriving at the beach.

They basically dropped their bags at the door, in a full sprint to the beach! I couldn’t have peeled them off that beach if I had the entire cast of Dude Perfect, the most famous Fortnite streamers, and a year’s supply of Haagen-Daz ice cream awaiting their attention. And you know what? I was totally fine with that. This season …

by Crystal Gornto Inspiration Love in Family Loving Others Loving Yourself Motherhood The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

We just returned from a family vacation that was a much-needed break from the pressure and pace of our everyday lives. I know, I know, you’re supposed to create a life you don’t need a vacation from, but we haven’t mastered that craft just yet. We needed a vacation.

We needed to unplug.

You may have noticed that I unplugged completely. I didn’t even blog, and for once, I didn’t feel guilty about it. I slept in until 8, or 9 o’clock almost every morning. I read an encouraging and inspiring book, just for fun. I truly allowed myself to rest.

Why am I telling you this?

I know that kind of unplugging to rest is pure luxury. It may not be something you’re able to do in this season of your life. I’ve been there. I remember hearing others talk about unplugging and wishing there was some way, somehow I could do that …

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

The problem with tomorrow

Save the snapshots

Before you’re ready

Pick one

Be where you are

Sometimes leaving can help you appreciate coming home