{Fresh Start} Where I've been...Where I'm going.

{Where to find the chalkboard vase, yellow bowl, journal, and mug all of which were sweet gifts from those I love.}

I blogged for a year and took a break... for a year.  

I hadn't lost my passion for blogging~ I just decided to put first things first. 
Our youngest was finishing his senior year and heading off to college and I wanted to finish well as a mom.  Being totally honest, I also feared that what I wrote might not be worth the effort; who was I to write about love?  When the nest was empty, I was going to reevaluate.

Would I miss writing about the movement of love in the world?  

I discovered that writing was not only an exercise in learning to see love, but a lesson in learning how to love.  You can't write about love without recognizing the words and actions that display love to the world.   Observing life through the lens of a potential story made it come alive, opened my eyes to the details, urged me to capture it in pictures, and compelled me to ask, 

"What is it about this story that shows love?" 

As I began to think about writing again, I began to notice things...

~The man pulling trash cans from the street up the driveway for his neighbor.
~The lingering touch and gentle smile of the nurse after after she drew my blood.
~A text from my daughter thanking me for the care package.
~The lady at the dry cleaner who knew my name when I walked in the door.
~Precious friends cheering on my newly engaged son and his fiance.

Without the discipline of writing these beautiful displays of love down, I now began to fear that they would go unnoticed and unremembered.  These simple actions were lessons in love and needed to be told~ and I realized that I'm still compelled to tell them!

As fuel to restart my engine, I shared a cup of coffee with graphic designer, Jenn Sprinkle, and web designer, Mackenzie Turner, and asked them to redesign my blog. {Side-note: these precious, loving women could be the subject of Bless Your Neighbor post themselves!}  So, as they create and design my new page, I am scanning the world for blessings and love~ it's time to start writing again!

I hope you'll re-engage and partner with me on our quest to "see" love and live it out in a profound way.  It's a perfect time of year to Bless Your Neighbor ... After all, it's the season of love!  

Happy February!

Question:   Have you side-lined a dream that needs a fresh start?  

Join me as I push the reset button and begin again. 

{Would love to hear about your dreams in the comments below~ let's start fresh together!}

Welcome Neighbor! {Free Printable}

"Love your neighbor as yourself"

Although Bless Your Neighbor is a blog that goes beyond ideas about blessing your actually next door neighbor, my very first post was about just that. 

When I saw this printable from 30 Handmade Days, I just had to pass it along, because it would perfect to add to my Bless Your Neighbor Bundt Cake when you knock on the neighbor's door and say 

"Welcome to the Neighborhood!"

30 Handmade Days creates some of the best printables for loving on people.  

Like this Welcome to the Neighborhood card for your new friends!

Potted Flower Prankster Brings JOY! {Free Printable}

"When you see flowers, 

your day is brightened, it's like sunshine!"

~Marinus Koole

My font porch is screaming for color and my flower beds are dry and barren.  
Oh, how I would love to see some color spring up around here!  

A friend of mine shared a little spring tradition that she has in her neighborhood~
 It's a sneaky little project as explained in her own words below.  
{ I am withholding her name so I don't blow her cover!}

Photo Credit: Sense and Simplicity

 "For the past several years, I have anonymously given friends, neighbors, people I know who are particularly harried or down or expecting company, the gift of beautiful pots of flowers.  Sometimes I buy the pot, plant the flowers and then put it on their front porch (always anonymously).  Sometimes, however (and this is the really fun part) I drive by someone's house and notice an empty flowerpot by their entry... so I grab my gardening gloves and digger, some potting soil, a bottle of water and I dash to the nursery and buy the flowers.  Then, when I think they're not home, I pull up to their curb, hop out, plant the pot, give the flowers a bit of water, and drive off.  So far I have never been caught!" 


I had the privilege of receiving two gestures like this when I was going through cancer treatment.  Once when a neighbor planted flats of begonias in my flower beds, only to be discovered when I walked out to get the mail!   Another time, I answered the door to find, not a person, but a pot of beautiful yellow mums sitting cheerfully on my porch.  At the time, I had no energy for planting, so the gift was an extra special blessing!


Here is a card you might like to download to use in your next flower prank~  
you could sign it "Just Because... from a neighbor who cares!"
From Living Locurto HERE

 Or a cute message on a stick from Tip Junkie HERE

Or a sweet card with a spring message HERE

Have fun planting happiness!