joy

Miserable? Or happy and strong?

My incredible niece Sophia turned 16 last week. Per family tradition, all the local family gathered to celebrate over the weekend, including Great Grandma, whom we’re thrilled is now “local”. Instead of a fancy birthday cake, Sophia wanted to celebrate with French macarons. They were an absolutely beautiful display of color and perfection. Exactly the right touch for a girl who is entering her adult years of life. But when we’d all gathered in the living room to sing the traditional “Happy Birthday”song while Sophia blew out the candles, those macarons presented a little challenge.

They were almost too delicate to hold even the toothpick style “16” candles.

What I noticed in that moment, was that instead of frustration, or angst of any kind, the room was filled with laughter. There were giggles from all the kids and oohs and ahhs from all the grown ups. Even when the passoff didn’t work, leaving …

When Vanessa shared her first look, “sneak peek” images from last week’s girls night out, this one made my heart smile so big. That joyful soul looking up at you is Lauren, the coordinator of all the things. I’m telling you, she keeps HeartStories running smoothly like an Olympic figure skater gliding in for the gold. It’s fast and furious, hard work. Obviously, it’s a lot just working directly with me, but she’s also coordinating all of our staff, sponsors, vendors, members and attendees. She shores up the platform that makes ALL the magic happen for our community, month after month.

And she could do it in her sleep, with one arm tied behind her back.

There’s so much happening behind the scenes to create our monthly GNO and Lauren makes it all seem so effortless. You’d think this is her full time job, plus some. But in reality, it’s her side …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love In Action Love in Friendship Loving Others Priorities Leave a comment chat

When I arrived at our venue to set up Thursday night for Girls Night Out, I was pleasantly surprised to find the room decked out with festive holiday decor. A fully dressed Christmas tree reached up to the ceiling, and two life-size nutcracker soldiers stood guard at the front of the room.

We always bring our own design theme, but this was a welcome addition.

As is tradition during our Holiday Ready GNO, we needed to screencast a little closed circuit tv presentation of our hair & makeup artist’s tips and tricks, so that everyone in the room could see the techniques they were using on models, up close and personal. It’s also been a tradition that my camera skills, combined with a our not-so-professional equipment have sometimes made this part of the evening a comedy of errors. So this year, I was determined to get it all set up and do …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspiration Inspirational Words Love In Action Love in Family Loving Others Purpose The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

Thursday night was a bit of a riot. I don’t know if it was a sugar rush from the cookies and icing or what, but I literally had to steal a whistle (that resembled a tiny red recorder) from Ginger in order to rally the troops. Laughter filled the air at GNO from every corner of the room.

But this table was one of my favorites.

They win the prize for being the rowdiest table of the bunch. They were laughing loud and enacting all sorts of shenanigans. But that’s not why they were one of my favorites. It because only two of these ladies knew each other before they walked in and that’s typically not the case. Most women who attend our girls nights come with at least one friend.

It takes guts to walk into that room full of laughing women all by yourself.

But these ladies did it. Some were …

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

It’s event day. Around here, that means my self-induced level of activity (and stress) is elevated. No matter how much I plan to have everything done in advance, in order to spend this day in a peaceful, relaxing state, if I’m honest, that’s not usually how it goes. I’m very aware of this as the day approaches. So I work harder, and pedal faster, during “event week”, with the hope of cruising into that room, without my hair on fire, or the smell of singed rubber emitting from my tires.

Knowing that I’ll be out on Thursday night, makes me want more time with my family that week.

As a result, a couple of nights this week, I’ve let the boys stay up a little later, just so we could get a little more time together. On Tuesday, we even played an 8pm ping-pong tournament. I did not win. Afterward, when it was …

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

Rachel came to my house yesterday to demonstrate teaching me how to decorate cookies for a live stream audience. As you can see, her demonstration cookies are darling. That one on the bottom? Hmmmm, I think that one was mine. I just wish you could see the sparkly golden sprinkles on it. In real life, they really are a distraction from my sadly shaped heart and arrow. Because, according to Rachel, “Sprinkles cover a multitude of sins”. Thank God for that.

Because I clearly have so many.

Between Rachel, Sunny and I, we had a great time trying to juggle entertaining her 20 month old, wrangle the lighting situation, pacify the dogs, and figure out the technology of running a live stream simultaneously on our Facebook and Instagram feeds, all while putting on a calm face for the camera, long enough to produce a fifteen minute cookie demonstration video. It was seriously hilarious, …

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

Miserable? Or happy and strong?

Seek joy and you will find it

Thank them for their service

The symphony of ordinary

Awakening joy through simplicity (& cookies)