The Festival of Faith and Writing in April was extra special for us. Most of us were meeting each other for the first time, after a year of building The Mudroom. In that time some of us had experienced deep depression, overwhelming disappointment, loss of loved ones, career setbacks, parenting and marriage stressors. We walked through it […]
I know I’m supposed to write a brilliant, moving post about the amazing people of Guatemala and how God is doing incredible things, and how deeply I was touched and changed by the experience. I don’t know if I can write that post. I have been changed by the experience but I know I will […]
I’ll be flying out to Guatemala City in 5 days! I’m so excited to be representing The Mudroom on this Vision Trip with Children’s HopeChest. I’m also looking forward to discovering how the Lord will use you, my fellow writers and readers, to support and invest in a community and orphanage. We will be visiting […]
More than half of us are going to Calvin this year for their legendary writing conference, The Festival of Faith and Writing. Tammy Perlmutter, Ashley Hales, Heather Caliri, Grace Sandra, Cara Meredith, Caris Adel, Nicole Walters, and Jessica Mesman Griffith will be there. Most of us will be meeting each other in person for the first […]
Recently I sat some friends down, individually, and confessed. I felt embarrassed and ashamed and terrifyingly exposed. These women know my life and my brokenness. They didn’t know how present the sin has become, how intrusive, oppressive, and persistent the temptation. I know what happens when you “give the devil a foothold,” I know about the sin “crouching at […]
I’ve been invited to join a Vision Trip to Guatemala City in April with my friend, Melanie Dale, who partners with Children’s HopeChest, raising awareness and support for communities and orphans in Uganda. On this Vision Trip, our team will visit several locations to evaluate the potential for partnership at that specific community. We will […]
We are excited to announce we have two new contributors! Cara Meredith is a writer, speaker and musician from the greater San Francisco area. She is passionate about theology and books, her family, meals around the table, and finding Beauty in the most unlikely of places. A seven on the Enneagram, she also can’t help […]
It’s interesting to me that The Mudroom’s first anniversary would fall on a month where the theme is Vocation, Career, Mission. When I was younger I adored Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, and the legendary Harriet the Spy. I took out books from the library on the history of the FBI. I pretended I was […]
Every Friday needs a story about hope. Stories of God coming into the mess and finding us there when we had all but given up. Stories of radical redemption. Stories of finding home. Today we invite you to check out the podcast Spark My Muse by Lisa Colon Delay. Join us for Episode 44 […]
For a long time the threat of a new year brought with it an onslaught of more darkness, more enervating melancholy, more long, gray days ahead to suffer through. It was nothing to celebrate. At the end of one of those especially difficult years I met Alece Ronzino online. She too had experienced a year (or more!) like […]
I look at The Mudroom’s search terms every day. I love seeing how people find us, and what they’re looking for. It helps us discern what the need is so we can determine the direction we should take. We wanted to share the top 3 searches that brought visitors to us. It says a lot […]
Last week we gave you the most-viewed posts of 2015, according to the WordPress stats algorithm. This week we are getting a little more personal. These are the posts that we feel represent us individually more than any number of page views ever could. Maybe it’s the one that resonated the most, measured by the […]
We hosted so many amazing posts this year. Here are the top 10. 10. When Good Girls Get Angry by Tanya Marlow I am the good girl, and good girls do not get angry. My mind shuts down with that one phrase. I should be the bigger person. It doesn’t matter that I feel wronged. Why […]
Introducing our newest monthly contributor, Rozella White!! Rozella Haydée is my name. It comes from both my grandmothers, women of faith, who sacrificed greatly for their families. One was the great-granddaughter of slaves, who despite hardships remains steadfast, upbeat and gives LOVE. The other, an immigrant with roots in three countries, was an artist committed […]
Due to increasing writing projects and deadlines, Tanya Marlow has asked to step down as a monthly Mudroom contributor so we have made her a quarterly contributor. She will share the position with two new contributors. It is a privilege to write alongside these extraordinary women. Please welcome them! Grace Sandra is a Jesus follower […]
We have finalized our themes for 2016. We are so excited about the possibilities these words represent, and can’t wait to see how you make them your own. We are including the guidelines here. Please pay special attention to image size, requested tweets, and header photo. It saves us so much time. *We are not […]
We have been busy behind the scenes working on making The Mudroom a more inspiring, engaging, and inviting place for our contributors, guest posters, support staff, and readers. We have a few announcements to share with you, and we will be dividing them up this month. First, we’d like to introduce you to our Support […]
My husband made me cry on our honeymoon. We rented a house that was set back from the road and surrounded by trees. The second night we kept hearing noises on the roof. Since we are people who consider the next block over from the ghetto the country, we were a little spooked. We were […]