Out of the Ordinary

Lisa-Jo and Christie are helping us get unstuck and have courage to do the thing we really want to try this summer! They are giving us 8 Cliff Notes for being a human. Simple Summer Short Cut Hacks! 1. How to Hack A GARDEN (Ep. 190)  2. How to hack DRIVE TIME (Ep. 191)  3. How to hack READING (Ep. 192) 4. How to hack FEEDING YOUR FAMILY 5. How to hack a CREATIVE PROJECT 6. How to hack a PERSONALIT...

Lisa-Jo and Christie are helping us get unstuck and have courage to do the thing we really want to try this summer! They are giving us 8 Cliff Notes for being a human. Simple Summer Short Cut Hacks! 1. How to Hack A GARDEN (Ep. 190)  2. How to hack DRIVE TIME (Ep. 191)  3. How to hack READING 4. How to hack FEEDING YOUR FAMILY 5. How to hack a CREATIVE PROJECT 6. How to hack a PERSONALITY  7. How...

Lisa-Jo and Christie are helping us get unstuck and have courage to do the thing we really want to try this summer! They are giving us 8 simple, summer short cut hacks!   How to Hack... 1. A Garden (Ep. 190) 2. Drive Time 3. Reading 4. Feeding Your Family 5. A Creative Project 6. A Personality 7. A Free Degree 8. Back to School   We're saving your life this summer with 8 easy hacks to simplify...

What is YOUR Party Personality? ☺️🎉🍾 1. The Artist (Ep. 183) 2. The Extrovert (Ep. 184) 3. The Romantic (Ep. 185) 4. The Introvert (Ep. 186) 5. The Wishful Thinker (Ep. 187) 6. The Epicurean (Ep. 188) 7. Connector (Ep. 189) This summer on the podcast we’re deep ping 7 different party personalities and Type 7: The Connector is up today!   ****Big celebration for the podcast- We've hit over ON...

What is YOUR Party Personality? ☺️🎉🍾 1. The Artist (Ep. 183) 2. The Extrovert (Ep. 184) 3. The Romantic (Ep. 185) 4. The Introvert (Ep. 186) 5. The Wishful Thinker (Ep. 187) 6. The Epicurean (Ep. 188) 7. Connector This summer on the podcast we’re deep diving 7 different party personalities and Type 6: The Epicurean is up today! Can you believe after all this time there's a story that Lisa-Jo...

What is YOUR Party Personality? ☺️🎉🍾 1. The Artist (Ep. 183) 2. The Extrovert (Ep. 184) 3. The Romantic (Ep. 185) 4. The Introvert (Ep. 186) 5. The Wishful Thinker 6. The Epicurean 7. Connector This summer on the podcast we’re deep diving 7 different party personalities and Type 5: The Wishful Thinker is up today! What birthday is Lisa-Jo nervous about? We all need a friend like Christie that ta...

What is YOUR Party Personality? ☺️🎉🍾 1. The Artist (Ep. 183) 2. The Extrovert (Ep. 184) 3. The Romantic (Ep. 185) 4. The Introvert 5. The Wishful Thinker 6. The Epicurean 7. Connector This summer on the podcast we’re deep diving 7 different party personalities and Type 4: The Introvert is up today! Real conversations around a table are perfect for the introvert and good for all of us who need so...

What is YOUR Party Personality? ☺️🎉🍾 1. The Artist (Ep. 183) 2. The Extrovert (Ep. 184) 3. The Romantic (Ep. 185) 4. The Introvert 5. The Wishful Thinker 6. The Epicurean 7. Connector This summer on the podcast we’re deep diving 7 different party personalities and Type 3: The Romantic is up today! It transcends all the personalities! We all have a romantic in us.  Why did Lisa-Jo have a party at...

What is YOUR Party Personality? ☺️🎉🍾 1. The Artist (Ep. 183) 2. The Extrovert (Ep. 184) 3. The Romantic 4. The Introvert 5. The Wishful Thinker 6. The Epicurean 7. Connector This summer on the podcast we’re deep diving 7 different party personalities and Type 2: The Extrovert is up today! Christie threw a party for her extrovert daughter’s graduation and it was a huge hit!  Learn how an  outdoor...

Key Conversation Points: Summer is a time to gather with your people.  It's time for parties! The seven party personalities for seven episodes are as follows: The Artist, The Extrovert, The Romantic, The Introvert, The Wishful Thinker, The Epicurean and the Connector!!  The summer podcast is something perfect like a beach read which is not heavy but lighter and delightful. How can pizza and cr...

Key Conversation Points: Do you have a nighttime person that comes out to play and forgets all responsibility that awaits in the morning?  The ordinary unpicturesque views inside our four walls in the evening are the moments that bind us.  Be intentional with your people where you can and all the rest of life you do the best you can, because much of life we can't control anyway. Reflecting on...

Key Conversation Points: Do you agree with medieval monks and think the middle of the day has a noon day demon waiting for us?  Kathleen Norris writes in her book, Acedia & me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life, "Might we consider boredom as not only necessary for our life but also as one of its greatest blessings....a precious chance to be alone with our thoughts and alone with G...

Key Conversation Points: Growing a daily life that matters isn't one size fits all.  It just means to pay attention to what it means for you!  Unpack your day with Lisa-Jo and Christie. Join them as the sun rises as two regular moms process their regular mornings. Solidarity!  Please raise your hand if your kids drink coffee with you in the morning?  It's interesting to decode the parts of...

Key Conversation Points: We can bring any pain from our mothers to God.  God is father and mother to us.  Knowing our mothers outside of their relationships with us is something that's important for our growth. We are the protagonist of our own stories but remember our moms are the protagonists in their own stories too.  Christie graciously encourages us to try not to focus on the little fragm...

Key Conversation Points: When you're not walking on water but drowning underneath it.  Christie wants to still enjoy life and have quiet moments in the middle of a very busy season without being a zombie or robot.  She explains how the goal isn't to paddle to the top of the wave.  Do you have stupid voices that lie to you like Lisa-Jo? Do they have a British accent?  Christie and Lisa-Jo h...

Key Conversation Points: There are over 15% of children in the United States with special needs. These precious children are in our schools, neighborhoods, families and churches.  We can grow in our mindfulness about their unique needs and learn how to love them and their warrior families.  Feeling alone in a crowd with the unique needs of your children can be the loneliest feeling in the world. ...

Key Conversation Points: Is Easter the weirdest time to invite people to church? Lisa-Jo and Christie chat about creating low barrier entry points in our circles whether it's an Easter Egg Hunt or an easy potluck.   Church service can be in your kitchen over soup as you share the heavy parts of your story.  Gathering and church can be simple, sad and beautiful in your own house, in your own wa...

Key Conversation Points: Last week's episode is here if you’d like to listen to that first as Lisa-Jo and Christie continue to delve through the meaning of hope.  What conversation did Lisa-Jo and Christie have that started 14 years ago about a small God?  Is the Storyteller feeling sketchy to you too sometimes?  You’re allowed to wail and ask questions to God through suffering.  Jesus was  &#...

Key Conversation Points: The Bible says humans plan their course but God directs their paths. We as a people believe in needing to be rescued, even though it's utterly vulnerable and uncomfortable.  C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity , "Hope is one of the theological virtues...hope is not a form of wishful thinking or escapism." Does hope mean for you as it does in the Hebrew trans...

Key Conversation Points: This is a golden nugget from our podcast vault of precious and timeless truths from Lisa Jo's daughter, Zoe, when she was nine. Listen as they delve through winter, waiting and hope.   Straight up ugly is Zoe's favorite. Do you see the beauty in the dead of winter too? Even with everything gone, there's still the roots underground. How did Lisa-Jo and Peter eat...

Key Conversation Points: The ordinary moments anchor us and connect us across neighborhoods, states, countries and oceans....even for Lisa-Jo's friend in Ukraine. Lisa-Jo graciously reminds us that acts of extraordinary courage are getting up and advocating for our kids, sick spouse or family abroad or taking time to serve at church or sharing our platforms with someone.  It all is courageous...

Key Conversation Points: When we are confronted with real world darkness, what do we do?  We don't have to create art that will hang in a museum.  Lisa-Jo states that, "Art can be a crossing guard, doctor, chef, writer, mom raising humans or a grandpa tending to his friends at the nursing home. It is art because we have the nature of God in us." Curt Thompson explains, "We are peop...

Key Conversation Points: How can we enlarge ourselves for someone else's story?  What does it mean to embrace the ordinary smallness because therein lies the glory, the DNA, of Christ.  Lisa-Jo's intimate perspective on Ukraine is so vital to understand right now. Learn from her memories and experience.  Where Lisa-Jo used to work in Ukraine is the area that flashes across the news all the...

Key Conversation Points: Lisa-Jo and Christie are taking some assessments of their lives and wondering if they've made mistakes or are currently making them.  Where do we want to be by our next birthday? Hear about how Lisa-Jo and Christie are making plans!  Lisa-Jo's husband, Peter, said, "We think our job as a Christian is to produce something FOR Christ instead of receiving somethin...

Key Conversation Points: Did you know about the sweet spot online where Lisa-Jo and Christie combine faith and art that's cultivated into a community? Join us online at the Black Barn Online .  Sometimes God calls us to do things that don't make sense to the world.  Christie states, "I didn't know I needed it in my life but now I know." If you know you know!  Doing the right th...