About Me
Last Updated on Thursday, 12 November 2009 12:00 Written by Kimberly Monday, 14 September 2009 15:37
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So, who am I?
I am Kimberly, and I've been married for 17 years to my dear husband and I enjoy the adventure of mothering five amazing children, ages 16 down to 10. We home school our children, which has been a blessing for the entire family as we walk out this lifestyle of learning.
This summer will mark my 19th spiritual birthday. I became a Christian 19 years ago while traveling through Eastern Europe following the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Lord has been so faithful to me all of these years, and I am grateful to Him.
I have many passions, including writing, art and design, cooking, and gardening, all of which I also enjoy sharing with my children. I have written many articles, and a few books, which you can find at my bookstore/resource center on this site.
The Origins of Joyful Momma Publishing
The origins of this site started back when I struggled with spiritual matters while an art and design student at Northern Michigan University in the late 1980s. I had many questions in my mind about eternal and spiritual matters but I bucked against all things Christian because of what I wrongly thought Christianity was all about. I became a Christian in 1990. After years of searching spiritually and trying to fill a "God-shaped vacuum" in my life with just about everything this world has to offer, I took off on a journey backpacking through Eastern Europe. I traveled by hiking, and by train mostly, and on August 3rd, 1990, while in Prague, Czechoslovakia, I had an encounter that changed my life. I met a girl who did not speak much English, who began to tell me about my need for a Savior. What she said so burned in my heart and piqued my curiosity, I wanted to know more, but a language barrier prevented her from fully communicating the Gospel to me. God however is very faithful, and sent along two workers from Campus Crusade for Christ, who then explained to me how to be saved. I bowed my head in a cafe on John Huss Square in Prague that afternoon with Betty Morgan and Chris Mizuhara and asked Jesus into my life.
I lived just north of Vienna, Austria as an Au Pair, learning much but not really appreciating it at the time :-). I moved to Salzburg for several months and then returned home to the United States, where I met my husband. We got married in 1992 and became a mother in 1993. I gave birth to my first born daughter that year, and my life changed even more dramatically. Through the challenges of motherhood (especially being unprepared), God began to really work in my life as never before, and I grew in Him as He patiently taught me and led me along.
When I first discovered the internet in 1996 while pregnant with my third child, a whole new world opened to me (there were days my husband surely loathed the day he showed me how to use a modem). Being an information junkie who can never seem to have enough money for books (having exhausted the local libraries), I was tickled at such a large resource of free information where I found many resources which aided me in my growth as a wife and mother, as my family continued to grow, and challenged me to search the Scriptures all the more diligently to see whether these things I was reading really were so.
The more I read from other authors, the more hungry I became for the Bible as I searched out what the Bible said on different topics. I actually wore out two Bibles during this time and filled 3 notebooks with personal Bible study notes. I read through the Bible completely once every month or two! As God taught me, I began to put much of what the Lord was teaching me into writing and eventually a few articles and books were born. In 2004, I finally put together this website, and it has gone through several upgrades since then as I have learned XHTML and CSS, and grown in my web design skills.
The newer design on this website was done with the help of my oldest daughter, who created many of the graphics with me. Most of the photographs you see on this site were taken by her, my son, or me, unless otherwise noted.
Writing
I have written many articles over the years, both on this site and on other sites and for other magazines, including:
- Ladies Against Feminism
- At the Well
- Above Rubies
- Boundless Webzine
- Joyful Noise (sadly out of print)
- Associated Content
I have also written several Books and eBooks, including:
- Momma's Guide to Thriving on One Income
- Momma's Guide to Quiet Times in Loud Households
- Momma's Guide to Growing Your Groceries
- Momma's Guide to the Basics of Frugal Cooking
- The Bread by Hand Ebook
- Advent: Preparing for the Coming of the Lord
- Joyful Momma's Guide to Christmas Gingerbread and Other Holiday Treats
- Joyful Momma's Guide to Cartoon Creations
- Joyful Momma's Grocery Price Guidebook
- Momma's Guide to Growth Through Recession
Art and Design
Since 1989, I have done freelance design work and desktop publishing for small businesses, and later, ministries. You can find out more about the services I offer here.
Some of the recent websites I have designed include:
- Marie Madeline Studio (designed logo, pattern covers, frequently updated new products, and configured their new shopping cart)
- Fostoria Baptist Church (manage sermon podcast weekly, configured sermons archive area)
- Val Halloran (designed site, logo, and ecommerce area)
- The Oil Shoppe (designed logo, configured shopping cart)
- The Christian Homeschool Connection (configured php/mySQL database categories section, update resources quarterly, improved and updated previous layout to be more search engine and user friendly)
- The Pastor and Church Leader Product Connection (configured php/mySQL database categories section, update resources quarterly, improved and updated previous layout to be more search engine and user friendly)
- ...and many more
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Hey Shannon! Thanks so much. You're too sweet. I look forward to maybe helping you out on your website?!? That would be awesome. This Joomla! platform which I use for mine makes it super easy to manage and update, so you'd be able to edit things yourself without having to wait for someone else too...just the design/set up thing you'd need help with. :-)
I'll see ya on Friday...oh, that's tomorrow isn't it? LOL I've been working on my Picturing America lesson plan for the day.
...All I can say is that I am completely BAMBOOZLED by the beauty and creativness of your website! WoW! --You are so humble!! I mean, TRULY! Others, like you, that would have something like this, would be strutting around like a peacock, thinking that they are "all that"...! --That is the beauty of Christ in you. It is even more evident to me, now.
I've forwarded your website to my husband, who is a computer programer but doesn't have the artistic sense to "design". He can program like crazy, knows all kinds of programs, etc. but design is not his area.
It's been way past time for us to get a website designed for we've been handing out my business cards with my "in progress" website on it (all summer) --that he's only barely touched, like, 2 months ago. Our delay? Time and resources. Both are very difficult to come by. So, we're going to have to bite the bullet, somewhere(...else, too).
Looking forward to talking with ...