Women to Admire: Joanna Gaines

I watch HGTV ALL the time. When I was on bed rest it was my favorite channel. Heck, when I was 12 years old it was my favorite channel. I have always dreamed of having my own house and making it my home with my husband and our children. I am experiencing that briefly in my life right now until we go back to grad school. Fixer Upper, a show about buying houses that need work but could be beautiful with some tender love and care, aired its first episode May 2013. It was a hit in my home. Marcus even watched it. The gregarious Chip Gaines with the laid back nature of Joanna Gaines just makes the show fun and easy to watch. They are an amazing power couple. So, I wanted to learn more about the people behind the camera, but more specifically the woman. How could she have such a demanding job and also be such an awesome homemaker, wife, and mother? 

Joanna Gaines. Her goal is to create "beautiful spaces where families are thriving."

Joanna with Chip

I read their book The Magnolia Story which tells a story of love, hard work, determination, and supporting each other through everything. 

Joanna Gaines to me is an almost perfect example of what it means to be patient with your spouse. When they were first married he moved her from house to house without her really being able to keep it as her own. That would be so hard for me to be uprooted every time I was starting to feel like the home I was making was coming together. She was always supportive though saying things like "maybe it's not that bad." They take problems and work through them together. Yes, she would yell occasionally, but when things happened they were already in the process of happening and she always quickly realized that there was nothing she could really do but to move forward with optimism and positivity. 

She has a great connection with God. She realizes when He is speaking to her. If you are not religious this connection can be described as listening to your heart, or those thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere. For her it was "that's the man you are going to marry" and "close your shop." These promptings have always led her to a better place and she has learned how to listen to them rather than fight them even when they were really hard to do. 

Jo sees things in their simple beauty. She says in her book:

The thing I found interesting was just how beautiful everything looked. The rust, the age, the weathering...those old abandoned barns...seemed to capture and reflect the beauty of the land and the air and the early summer scents in that beautiful corner of the world. Even the dust in those barns seemed to rise up on purpose, helping to illuminate those old forgotten spaces with streams of sunlight that crept through cracks in the wood. (page 31)

I wish I could see beauty in everything the way she does. It is such a gift. 

Like most people I think, Joanna went through a phase of figuring out who she was. While she was in her early 20's she went to NYC and was able to see a huge different mixture of cultures and it helped open her eyes to herself. She was always insecure that she was different because she was half Korean, but that experience helped her to start "owning who [she was], realizing that [she] was unique and that God had a unique purpose for [her]." Which helps me to feel like that is true for me, too. 

So, how does she do everything with 4 children? That has always been my biggest question. She explains that while she was trying to make things perfect she was missing out:

I looked around and saw a lot of "perfection," and I thought, But where do my kids sit? why don't the kids have a play space of their own anywhere in this house? Suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks. In my nonstop efforts to make the house look good and to raise our baby of a business, I had failed to create a space where my children could thrive and be kids. I had neglected to create a home that my most important babies could love too.

So after that experience she realized that her home was also their home and that they should be happy and be able to play freely the way children do. This has helped me to realize that in my own life am I letting my children be children? Am I encouraging them to be creative, to figure things out?  I can definitely be better. My children are the reason I do so many things...but am I the reason that they can't? I don't want to be. 

As Joanna and Chip were building their business they put all their eggs in one basket and they got through it by faith. She says:

What I do know, looking back on it now, is that all of these big, life-changing things were right around the corner for us at that moment. And if we'd given up, if we'd walked away, if we'd crumbled when we were at our lowest, we never would have made it around the corner to see all of the blessings that were about to come due. 

So, even when things were looking bleak, they came together and worked harder and had faith that all would be well. And they were honest and had integrity the whole time. 

Other Quotes:

"If you can't find the happiness in the ugliness, you're not going to find it in the beauty, either."

"What is my intention behind these things?...Getting our intentions right simplifies our decisions in life and changes our perspective. And in the end, what it's all about is thankfulness and contentment."

"Now I make homemade cakes, I blow up balloons and we pop them. That's all. Kids just want to be kids. They don't obsess about all the details. What they might remember are all the silly faces mom makes when she blows up balloons and the taste of that homemade cake with sprinkles. That's what they'll remember. Not a picture-perfect party."

"Live wholly and intentionally for those closest to [you]." 

"There's something about doing things the way our ancestors used to do them that kind of puts your heart back into the rhythm of this thing called life." (Speaking of gardening and working with their animals).

"Sometimes you've got to try something outside of your comfort zone to figure out what it is you truly love." 

"Go and find what inspires you, go and find what it is that you love, and go do that until it hurts...Don't quit, and don't give up. The reward is just around the corner. And in times of doubt or times of joy, listen for that still, small voice. Know that God has been there from the beginning--and he will be there until...The End."

*side note: Another reason I love Joanna so much is that she feels the same way about her engagement ring that I do. My ring is small and there isn't much to it, but we picked it together and it represents where we were at in our lives when we got it. It is simple, but beautiful.