A little less than a year ago, I had a big health scare. One that triggered a change in me. Something was missing in my equation. The blog was going great, I was on a roll and having fun creating and writing. I met up with Shanna right as Illustrated Faith was getting started and I knew that this was where God was leading our friendship. I still continued to work hard on my blog and promote the teams I was on and the affiliates I loved. I was in the Word and painting in my Bible. I've never felt closer to God... and then that dreaded ear infection happened that spun me around and made me realize that I was headed down a slippery slope that was keeping me from doing God's good work that He created me for. 

Truth is, I'm scared to post this post! I've been waiting for the right time, and waiting for everything to be perfect and all set up already. God gave me this vision a couple months ago and out of fear I've been putting it off. Today, He told me to stop stalling and just be there for my community and tell them how much I love them and want for them.

You've seen the creative side of me, but it's time to show you all of me... I'm not perfect, but I'm healthier than I've ever been in my life. I'm not just talking physically either, but mentally and spiritually. I've lost 30lbs, I have more energy than I've ever had. I'm a better mom, a better wife, a better team member for Shanna and team leader for Illustrated Faith. I'm a better homeschooling mom, a better motivator to my friends. Most important I'm closer to God than I've ever been. Through all of this, I've found that God has given me a gift to encourage and motivate, to be a cheerleader. I inspire friends to be brave and do these good works they were created to do.

GOD'S WHISPERS AND WHAT IT MEANS

What has God been whispering to me, and what does that mean for this blog and my Etsy shop? It means that I will no longer be hiding parts of who I am and what you'll see is the whole package. He's been whispering to me to start a community called 2:10 FIT - Healthy & Creative Living. A place to inspire and motivate my friends to daily practice combining - faith, healthy living, and creativity.





Through this health scare and my transformation story, I believe we need all three of these things to live an Ephesians 2:10 life. A life we were created for to do His good works. I have created a Facebook group and would love for you to join me there as a central place for community, ecouragement and inspiration. There are three parts to 2:10 FIT - faith, healthy living, and creativity.

FAITH: I will encourage and motivate you to spend time in the Word daily, and talk to our Savior. The Bible is our daily bread, we cannot survive without it guiding our lives. Talking to God grows our relationship closer to our Savior.



HEALTHY LIVING: I will encourage and motivate you to spend time daily to physically take care of our temples (1 Corinthians 6:19). When I started thinking of my body as a temple for the Holy Spirit, I started feeling convicted about what I was feeding it, not just with daily time in the Word, but food to fuel my body to do God's good works that he created me to do. How can I do God's good works if I have no energy, and always sick and tired. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I will encourage you to fuel your body with healthy foods and doing some kind of exercise whether it's a workout program or just walking around the block daily. 



CREATIVITY: I will encourage and motivate you to spend at least 5 minutes a day doing something creative, whether it's drawing, painting, doodling, scrapbooking, etc. It doesn't matter to me what you do but that you do it.




In this Facebook group, I'm not going to tell you what to do, and I'm not going to develop anything to follow because I truly believe that it's something only God can show you, your unique self, and what he needs you to do. I will share with you my resources and what I do. I'll share with you the Bible studies that I use. I'll share with you the fitness programs and eating programs that worked for me. Mostly, I want a community who shares and encourages each other and motivates each other to live a 2:10 FIT life.


I will disclose that I am a Beachbody coach because I love their programs, but I do it for the discount and I will not be pushing sales. I'm not in it for the money, I'm truly a coach for the discount and if I motivate anyone and you are interested I'd be happy to chat privately about any of the programs or coaching. I got great results from the programs and the Beachbody community and other coaches who inspired and motivated me. I promise though, I will be sharing what worked for me but I won't be pushing sales. That's not where I see God leading me on that part of my journey this past year. 

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What does that mean for the blog? Not much will change here, I will still post my mixed media art, crafting tutorials, and creative planners and scrapbooking. I will still design printables in my free time and will still create freebies. Some will be exclusive to the Facebook group, and some exclusive to newsletter subscribers, tho. The only thing that's going to change is that I will be transparent, and I will no longer hide the healthy living part of me. The blog will be the whole of me, rather than just a part of me. My art will reflect how amazing I feel and the energy I feel from no longer being sick and tired. I have finished up a few big projects that have made it difficult to be consistent, but now that they are complete, I will be posting more again.



What does it mean for the Etsy shop? With homeschooling three kiddos, leading the creative team for Illustrated Faith, being on the design team for DecoArt, working out daily, spending more time in the Word, trying to be a better wife and mom to my family, being involved in my local church, and wanting to teach workshops... it doesn't leave a lot of time for designing. God made it clear to me while helping with an Illustrated Faith workshop in March that He's taking care of the Etsy store despite my busy schedule. He made it clear to me that He wants me out doing His good works and encouraging and motivating my community to do that too. My goal is to work through my list of new planner printables that have been requested and then work on planner printables specifically for 2:10 FIT. I also want to get back into creating faith-based wall art. I won't stop designing, and that will definitely be a part of my daily creativity time, it just might not be as much or as quick turnaround and production time. I'm so very thankful for my loyal fans and customers who motivate me to keep designing and have fun being creative. You make my busy schedule not so busy and so much fun.