Key Conversation Points: Lisa-Jo's son passionately said, "Now listen, it's not as bad as you think." Mothers everywhere clutch their pearls at these words. The invisible work that no one sees matters.  Find solidarity in this episode for the work you do, whether you have kids or not.  Bearing witness to a human's life is a heavy gift. We can pause with intentional reflection but not give into the quicksand of hopelessness.  The richest, best blessings cost us.  There's no promise from God if you do X,Y, Z and 1, 2, 3 then everything will be okay.  "The Weight of Memory" by Shawn Smucker is mentioned in this podcast.   Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. Click here for 30% off your order with Betabrand, for a limited time. Find out why women are ditching typical work pants for Betabrand’s Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month.  Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! _______ Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

Out of the Ordinary

151. When Life Feels Nothing Like the Movies

Key Conversation Points: Lisa-Jo learned new things about Christie, right along with the listeners today. Decades of friendship and there's still things to learn! Grab your tissues!  Sometimes Christie plants things and loses track of them...but God doesn't forget to finish our stories. How has a seed that was planted finally grown in Christie's life?  God is too creative and amazing to leave meaningless, dangling loose ends.  Have you tried to snip things out of your story? God doesn't discount dreams, no matter how old. Lisa-Jo reminds us, "Courage is a part of the word encouraged."  Why DOES your grocery run matters? Link to last week's episode that was discussed is here.  Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. Click here for 30% off your order with Betabrand, for a limited time. Find out why women are ditching typical work pants for Betabrand’s Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month.  Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! _______ Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

150. You're Never Too Old for a Plot Twist

Key Conversation Points: What's your guess for Christie's new, life-giving rhythm that she didn't ask for but is receiving well?   Christie's grocery list befuddles Lisa-Jo and we can learn from this! Clue: There is such a thing as imposter olive oil and it may or may not be sitting in Lisa-Jo's pantry right now.  When do you have space in your week to free your brain?  Ideas are in this episode!   Let's remind ourselves WHY the meaning in the middle of our weeks really matters! It can be a sacred liturgy.  What new thing is Lisa-Jo doing that she hasn't done in 4 years?   When you travel overseas, gift shopping looks so different.  We have the tips!  Lisa-Jo states, "What you take for granted in your life is special to someone else."  Find us on Instagram Lisa-Jo and Christie. Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month.  Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! _______ Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

149. Why Your Grocery Run Matters

Key Conversation Points: Who remembers the tag line for our new and improved podcast? Lisa-Jo is working on it. We've all been there.  Join Lisa-Jo and Christie as they discuss the lowbar of hygiene, losing tempers at stupid socks and men who don't use their phones for incoming calls.  Christie, "The ordinary can feel like the quicksand that's got a hold of us." Our work can feel wasted in the routine but there is a renewal of all things.  Does our refrigerator really give us a look into our mental state? Heaven help us!  How is it possible to commune with God in the daily, ordinary tasks?  Nicole M. Roccas writes in her book, Time and Despondency: Regaining the Present in Faith and Life, "Time...becomes not a fatal loop of mortality but an upward spiral, a never ending dance of love drawing us farther up and farther into the eternally loving God."  How is there beauty in dying flowers and how can it parallel our life? Lisa-Jo learned a lot from Floret Flowers on IG.  Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here for 30% off your order with Betabrand, for a limited time. Find out why women are ditching typical work pants for Betabrand’s Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month.  Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here for 20% off your first order with Onyx+Rose and use promo code ORDINARY!  Click here and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. _______ Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

148. A Rescue from Your Daily Rut

Key Conversation Points: Season 4 is here!! We're switching things up! Thanks for your survey responses because they've been so eye-opening and life-giving.  Listeners say they feel less alone when listening, love the authenticity and honesty.  Please share your lovely thoughts on the podcast reviews.  We're returning to our roots with the title "Out of the Ordinary" and growing deeper in our roots with a show that helps you grow a daily life that matters. In a world that loves bigger, better, fast, and famous, Christie and Lisa-Jo are here to remind you that the very best stories actually grow out of the soil of everyday life. We want to see our daily lives with ordinary eyes. Unpacking stories where we find meaning in the daily tasks of emptying the dishwasher, taking kids to the doctor, cooking for friends, bus adventures (more in today's podcast of the never ending bus ride)...and even going to therapy is a part of our stories that matter.  What's your guess on how many listen from overseas? Let us know where you're listening from right now in the reviews!  Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here for 30% off your order with Betabrand, for a limited time. Find out why women are ditching typical work pants for Betabrand’s Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month.  Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here for 20% off your first order with Onyx+Rose and use promo code ORDINARY!  Click here and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. _______ Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

147. Back to our Roots and into our Ordinary Days

Key Conversation Points: Why doesn't Lisa-Jo need a fake backdrop on her Zoom calls anymore?  We all have a room we'd like to switch up. We have ideas on how to choose some color!  How do you sidestep pain in your life? The joy we found in our weekend projects may help you too!  Listening to advice has its place and we need your input! Please take 60 seconds to give us your opinions here.  Living in the ordinary days helps fulfill our dreams, even in the doubts and second guessing we have permission to change things up. Podcast links: CLICK HERE TO SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS IN OUR SURVEY See Lisa-Jo's bookshelf painting story here Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here for 30% off your order with Betabrand, for a limited time. Find out why women are ditching typical work pants for Betabrand’s Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month.  Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here for 20% off your first order with Onyx+Rose and use promo code ORDINARY!  Click here and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. _______ Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

146. Help Us Pick a Paint Color for the Podcast

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book: The Ministry of Ordinary Places: Waking Up to God's Goodness All Around Youwritten and read by Shannan Martin. Visiting Author, Shannan Martin, shares a reading from her latest book! Feel free to visit Shannan online here for more on her books.  You can find her on IG as well here. Key Conversation Points: Shannan's book is a gracious and frank read that opens our eyes to our callings in the ordinary places between laundry and leftovers, as she shows us how to stick with people for the long haul even through risks and brokenness. Lisa-Jo explains, "I was terrified of being ordinary', and with that one sentence Shannan Martin sums up every single one of us. Certainly me. And then she deconstructs the cliche of ordinary and puts it back together with pictures and stories and sidewalks full of people who will make you want to cry or sing or despair or dance or rail or just quietly whisper, amen. This book is a new pair of eyes. Go ahead, open them!' Through this book we're guided towards seeing that we're right where we're supposed to be and she shows us through her gifted storytelling how to see past our judgements and find authentic community with the neighbors at our ordinary tables.  Don't we all know a child who needs us to step up for them? Shannan shares that "sometimes it takes a child to raise up a village shining light on its shared purpose for the sake of each other."  You don't need a passport to change the world, you just need to open your front door.  Listen as Shannan opens her eyes and heart to the boy standing on her front porch.  Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here for 30% off your order with Betabrand, for a limited time. Find out why women are ditching typical work pants for Betabrand’s Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month.  Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here for 20% off your first order with Onyx+Rose and use promo code ORDINARY!  Click here and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. _______ Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

145. You Don't Need a Passport to Change the World

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book: Back Roads to Belonging: Unexpected Paths to Finding Your Place and Your People,written and read by Kristen Strong. Visiting Author, Kristen Strong, shares a reading from her latest book!Feel free to visit Kristen online here for more on her books and her new devotional book coming out in October. Key Conversation Points: Have you struggled to fit in? Wondering if you belong anywhere? Lots of changes have come to you this year and you need to find a new community?  Kristen, the military wife with homes in ever changing zip codes, gives the experience and grace to lead us down the back road of finding belonging.  It's not the popular busy path and it's not the unimportant and unworthy path either.  Lisa-Jo explains, "Kristen has been the voice inside every woman’s head at some time or another when we have doubted where we belong in the world, sometimes paralyzed by the fear of fitting in, and need a new map for figuring out our place in the world." Kristen shares legit hope that's not sugar coated with 3 easy steps to friendship.  Her book is a breaktaking dose of her real and honest journey. Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here for 30% off your order with Betabrand, for a limited time. Find out why women are ditching typical work pants for Betabrand’s Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month.  Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here for 20% off your first order with Onyx+Rose and use promo code ORDINARY!  Click here and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor. _______ Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

144. Have you Felt Lonely or Left Out?

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book: God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God's Unexpected Coming is written and read by Drew Jackson.  Visiting Author, Drew Jackson shares a reading from his new book!You can find everything about Drew here. Preorder his book wherever books are sold! Coming September 14th 2021!  Key Conversation Points: Jackson is a pastor in NYC and he uses his gifts to weave together the Gospels while painting words with lament and hope in the worlds of social justice, pop culture, theology and much more.  Jackson explores the first 8 chapters of Luke's Gospel with poetry in a unique and liberating way. He writes, "Enough of this unbelieving religion that masquerades as faith. Divine favor is placed on what we have disgraced." Christie explains how poetry explores "feelings, ideas and experiences that are the most difficult to express in words."  There's deliverance in the Gospels. Jackson, with incredible brillance and depth, gives his gift of poetry to make a more whole, just and peaceful world for us all. Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here for 30% off your order with Betabrand, for a limited time. Find out why women are ditching typical work pants for Betabrand’s Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Click here for 25% off when you keep everything in your Stitch Fix order.  Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here to visit Nutrafol.com and use promo code ORDINARY to save $15 off your first month's subscription to Nutrafol, and grow thicker, healthier hair. This is their best offer anywhere and it is only available to US customers for a limited time. Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

143. A Voice for the Marginalized through the Eyes of Luke

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book: Can You See Anything Now? written and read by Katherine James Visiting Author, Katherine James shares a reading from her latest book!Katherine James has also written about her son's herion addiction and this article articulates the book well. Key Conversation Points: There are trigger warnings of failed suicide attempt, self harm and drug abuse but you can trust this author to lead us gently with empathy and hope. Christie explains that Katherine James, "explores the painful depths of human hearts but this author is someone we can trust." Katherine's debut novel is placed in a small town with raw, deep and intriguing characters from the first page on.  Margie is the painter who is suicidal and her husband is the therapist who doesn't think he's making a difference.  It's the evangelical neighbor that doesn't give up on her people that will become so endearing.  You'll find parts of your people peppered through these pages and it'll make an impact.   Although we see the brokenness and pain of real life, we also see the grace and miracles of real life too.  You won't be able to put this Winner of the Christianity Today 2018 Fiction Book Award page turner down as your curiousity and adrenline make you stay up late to finish it.   Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here for 30% off your order with Betabrand, for a limited time. Find out why women are ditching typical work pants for Betabrand’s Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Click here for 25% off when you keep everything in your Stitch Fix order.  Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here to visit Nutrafol.com and use promo code ORDINARY to save $15 off your first month's subscription to Nutrafol, and grow thicker, healthier hair. This is their best offer anywhere and it is only available to US customers for a limited time. Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

142. What will wake us up?

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book: Growing Slow: Lessons on Un-Hurrying Your Heart from an Accidental Farm Girl, written and read by Jennifer Dukes Lee Visiting Author, Jennifer Dukes Lee shares a reading from her latest book!Feel free to visit Growing Slow for more on the book! Jennifer also has lots of freebies and exclusive content here.  Key Conversation Points: Have you gotten mixed up and turned around and need a reset to a bruised heart from the hurry and hustle? Take a deep breath in and exhale slowly as we learn from a gracious and kind accidental farm girl about how to take our foot off the gas to our crazy life and grow slow. Lisa-Jo explains that Jennifer "charts a path for us out of the pressures of bigger, harder, faster, and into a more rooted way of living where the growth of good things is deep and lasting." The first chapter is entitled: "Permission to be Unspectacular." Full stop. Jennifer gives us hope to live a simpler life by harnessing what's not working anymore with spiritual insight. She gives possible, manageable, bite-sized morsels of truths to chew slowly in order to learn a new path that gives more life, more peace and more deep soul rest. Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here for 30% off your order with Betabrand, for a limited time. Find out why women are ditching typical work pants for Betabrand’s Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Click here for 25% off when you keep everything in your Stitch Fix order.  Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

141. For the Tired and Burned Out

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book: The Weight of Memory written and read by Shawn Smucker  Visiting Author, Shawn Smucker shares a reading from his latest novel! Key Conversation Points: If you've loved anyone that's received the worst news of their life, this book will help you navigate the depths of their feelings.   Here is a story that makes us ask questions about what is real and what is true in our own lives.  Here is a grandpa and a granddaughter who straddle two timelines, two realities and discover where they intersect in beautiful and unexpected ways  Is the lady with the silver hair really who we think she might be? This sticky ending will leave you thinking about it, stuck on Shawn's small town life and four friends whose lives intertwine with a lake and a little girl in deeply mysterious ways.  Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here for 30% off your order with Betabrand, for a limited time. Find out why women are ditching typical work pants for Betabrand’s Dress Pant Yoga Pants. Click here for 25% off when you keep everything in your Stitch Fix order.  Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

140. What's Real?!

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book: Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996 by Seamus Heaney Key Conversation Points: When's the last time you've let yourself escape with a book for a long period of time? We have a plan for you as summer ends! Sources of inspiration are coming your way! We're talking all things awkward and awesome about meeting authors, from screaming in the airport to giving the wrong book for the author to autograph.  Christie so graciously explains, "Writer finds reader and reader finds writer. No one is high and the other is low. We need one another."  What's a book that's really impacted you? Please tag us on social media!  Lisa-Jo observes, "The great thing about writing...your words can go out and really resonate with one person and then somehow that person is linked to your story...We are in this together."  "I could do a weird thing right now." If you've ever thought this, Christie may have you beat.  Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here to visit HookedOnPhonics.com/ORDINARY, and receive your first month for just one dollar. Click here to visit Nutrafol.com and use promo code ORDINARY to save $15 off your first month's subscription to Nutrafol, and grow thicker, healthier hair. This is their best offer anywhere and it is only available to US customers for a limited time. Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

139. Author Encounters (Awkward & Awesome)

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book: The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home by George Howe Colt Key Conversation Points: How does dripping sweat get us to dripping beauty?  When is it right to say goodbye and to let something go?  If you're envious about people having summer homes, this book will help you.  Referring to our book choice Christie says, "I just want to gobble it up all summer long."   Lisa-Jo reminds us that houses are a lot like people and they ground us.  What makes a house magical is that it becomes a vessel for family history.  Now we all want chocolate truffle parties! Podcast links: Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here to visit HookedOnPhonics.com/ORDINARY, and receive your first month for just one dollar. Click here to visit Nutrafol.com and use promo code ORDINARY to save $15 off your first month's subscription to Nutrafol, and grow thicker, healthier hair. This is their best offer anywhere and it is only available to US customers for a limited time. Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

138. The Big House

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book: Too Small to Ignore, Wes Stafford Key Conversation Points: How did Lisa-Jo and Christie's recent trip to Lancaster, PA remind Christie of Narnia? A Virtual Event is coming! Listen for details about this incredible unique celebration to see into Christie and Lisa-Jo's friendship and life. We must believe children in what they tell us about abuse. "I BELIEVE YOU!"  Wes Stafford writes that there's an invisible war raging over our children but Satan and God don't forget they exist. What's a way to open up your home to children without having them in your home?  Christie says, "If I have three children, then at the very least I should sponsor a child [with Compassion] for each one. If our family grows, then our Compassion family will grow."   Find out how you can have access to French food with raspberries, lemon and chocolate. Podcast links: YOU'RE INVITED! On July 22 at 8pm EST TO A LIVE VIRTUAL EVENT with Christie and Lisa-Jo talking books and cooking from Louise Penny's cozy mystery series. Click here for all the details. Click here to sponsor a child with Compassion International Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast. _______ Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible. Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary100 and use code ordinary100 to get $100 off including free shipping! Click here to visit HookedOnPhonics.com/ORDINARY, and receive your first month for just one dollar. Click here to visit Nutrafol.com and use promo code ORDINARY to save $15 off your first month's subscription to Nutrafol, and grow thicker, healthier hair. This is their best offer anywhere and it is only available to US customers for a limited time. Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

137. Too Small to Ignore

Welcome to Out of the Ordinary, the podcast for anyone who’s ever felt the nagging frustration of wondering if her life is too small, too boring or too ordinary to make a difference. Join longtime friends and bestselling authors, Lisa-Jo Baker and Christie Purifoy as they explore the surprising ways that cultivating ordinary life leads to extraordinary stories.

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Out of the Ordinary

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