Love in Family

The only tiny bit that matters

There’s something about summertime that brings out an extra dose of wild sibling shenanigans around our house. It’s the combination of all the extra quality time together, the lack of a structured schedule, and a diet that consists of “whatever we can find around here”. It’s midday nerf wars and late night movies. I remember the days like the ones in this picture when they were smaller and they thought it would be fun to try to learn to braid mom’s hair. I tried to sit back and enjoy it, even though I think I lost half my head of hair. These days, it’s trying to teach mom to shoot her nerf gun correctly and how, at a minimum, to stand up and run away while trying to learn to play Fortnite.

Summertime around our house has been completely different this year.

I used to keep their summer schedules completely full. They’d …

Until I broke the silence yesterday, I was in the longest “blogless” stretch since I started blogging consistently in 2015. That January, I joined a 7-day, daily blogging challenge with Seth Godin’s team and I liked it so much, that sort of like Forest Gump, I simply decided to keep going. Since then, I’ve written more than 1000 posts. It hasn’t been easy, of course. It’s been a huge commitment, one that I’ve held myself to pretty intensely. I would blog 5 days a week, no matter what. until this year when I decided to intentionally choose to allow rest into my life as needed.

The last 10 days of silence were glaring evidence of that effort to allow myself to rest.

After our last GNO, we left early Friday morning to head out of town for my niece’s beautiful wedding in Florida. As preparing for travel often is, by the time …

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

When I was a little girl, this beautiful woman took care of me so well and so often that it’s hard to believe she even speaks to me at all. Seriously. She is the oldest of 4 girls in our family, which made her the built-in babysitter. We all already know that I was more than a handful growing up, so she put in many of her hours towards sainthood in those years.

And as well as I remember it, she did it all with a knowing, loving smile, just like this one.

Well, maybe except that one time, when Mom and Dad told her as they were leaving to make me eat my entire bowl of cantaloupe. She did what they asked because she was always good like that, but it didn’t work out very well for either one of us. Let’s just say I haven’t eaten a bite of cantaloupe …

by Crystal Gornto Community Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love in Family Love in Friendship The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

Today is a special day for this Princess Smiling Sun! (Or maybe it was Princess Laughs A Lot) I’m not exactly sure, but whichever it was, it was a great representation of who she is. My sister Heather brings a bright light of joy wherever she goes. It doesn’t matter if we’re scrubbing toilets, loading a U-haul or throwing a bridal shower, Heather shows up and brings her laughter and optimism along with her.

She’s always lived up to her name: Heather Joy.

Of course, when we were younger, she was my “little sister” and a was a bossy mean big sister. I hate it to this day. I literally feel so much shame about all the missed opportunities I had to love on her and lead her as a big sister should. How I wish I could go back and be kind to her as a kid. But instead, as much …

by Crystal Gornto Inspirational Women Love In Action Love in Family Love in Friendship Loving Others Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

Yesterday, the women of our family (including Becca on Facetime!) celebrated my niece Ashlyn, the bride-to-soon-be, with a fancy, Texas bridal shower. We gathered to share a meal, laughter, and stories with this beautiful young woman, who will be committing her life to The ONE next Friday. As part of our time together, we went around the table, taking turns sharing our hard-won wisdom, encouragement, or advice about marriage.

It was so special to hear the unique messages each woman at the table shared.

There were thoughts about sharing hobbies together, learning to manage finances together, carving out date nights after kids, being quick to forgive, and holding boundaries. Even the youngest, had beautiful words to share. It got real pretty fast and was maybe a little more “honest” than any of us expected. While there was laughter, there were also tears, both tears of joy and of understanding as we …

by Crystal Gornto Community Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love in Friendship Loving Yourself Motherhood The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

While dropping the “boys” (a.k.a. teenagers!) off for summer camp, our usually family photo ops didn’t turn out quite the way I would have liked. Everyone was hot and sweaty. One of the boys, who shall remain nameless (hint: it’s not the one pictured), was not very happy with Mama. Of course, I really wanted to get some good family pics, but I could tell it just wasn’t gonna happen. So rather than trying to force it and make everyone pose with fake smiles and side rib jabs behind the camera, I just took a few “candid” shots. Like this one, I took on the covered wagon, on the way to their cabins.

Lovely, right?

While we were making beds and getting them settled in, they were cranky and really didn’t want my help. At first, I persisted and just kept trying to hang and organize all the things the way I …

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

The only tiny bit that matters

Time away

Her love is sweet

Show up with Joy

You get what you get