The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey

This week's podcast is with my friends Kimberly and Laura who both live on my street and all of our husbands work together. This was just like a normal conversation that we would have over coffee, except there were no kids running around everywhere. Today we chatted about letting our kids walk to neighbors houses, how we do birthday parties, chores for our kids, and how I hate wearing jackets in the winter. Although I've been a parent for longer than these two, these women both are moms that I highly look up to as parents and value their thoughts on motherhood, life and living on mission. Love them, and you will too! Laura is one of my oldest friends and her and her husband, Jimmie who is a worship leader at the Stone, moved here to Austin with us six years ago. They have two two girls, Veda who is three, and Mercy who is one. They live down the street from us and we absolutely love doing life with them. Kimberly also lives down the street from us, and her husband Stew is also on staff at the Stone. They have four kids, Wesley Grant who is 9, Sally who is 8, Kelly who is 7, and Karis who is six. Their son, Kelly, has been home one year from Haiti. For a full summary and links for this show, click here!

Today’s guest on the Happy Hour Podcast is Kate Conner, who is the author of two books: Enough & 10 Things For Teen Girls. I first was introduced to Kate when I was given her book Enough to review. While reading her book I knew that I wanted to meet her and have her on the podcast, and I’m so happy that I did! She is just pure joy and someone that I would love to have lunch with often if we lived close enough to each other. She writes at her site KATE CONNER where she encourages women, writes biblical truths, and simply shares her life with us. For a full summary and links for this show, click here!

Happy Hour #19 is with my friend Gloria Furman. Gloria and her husband have four kid and live in Dubai, where they started a church. I met Gloria a few months ago at the Gospel Coalition Conference, although we had been internet friends for a while. She's just as lovely in person as she is online and that is what makes me love her. Gloria has written two books, GLIMPSES OF GRACE: TREASURING THE GOSPEL IN YOUR HOME and TREASURING CHRIST WHEN YOUR HANDS ARE FULL: GOSPEL MEDITATIONS FOR BUSY MOMS. Gloria has a real heart for women to know Jesus and be fully captivated by him. She says, "I want to be obsessed with what I’m going to be obsessed with three zillion years from now—seeing and savoring Jesus." For a full summary and links from the show, click here!

Happy Hour #18 is with my friend Jessi Connolly. Jessi and I are online friends and so it's always super fun when I get to talk in person with friends that I only know from the internet. I will actually meet Jessi next week when I fly to Indiana for The Influence Conference. I'm super excited about this conference because I get to meet tons of great people that I know online and I'll be speaking to the ladies there, so that's even more exciting! Jessi and I talk about how it all gets done in her world (surprise - it doesn't!), her work out plan , how she handles social media, what the Influence Network is, and how the prints go from idea to finished product. This podcast is shorter than the normal ones, but I will for sure be asking Jessi to join me again because I literally have 100 things I can chat with her about! Hope you enjoy it! For the full summary and links to the show, click here!

Today's Happy Hour Guest is with my friend Courtney Lankford. Courtney and I met through our mutual friend Amy about 14 years ago. Courtney and her husband, Joey, moved to South Africa four years ago. They currently serve there with Living Hope, where Joey helps them with creating jobs for men and women. They also run an agricultural business which helps create income and businesses for others. She is honest about the hardest part about being in South Africa is them being away from their family and friends, although the blessing in this all is that God has honored their sacrifice and they really feel closer to their family. Courtney and Joey have five kids, and one of their kids joined their family via adoption from Ethiopia. For the full summary and links from this show, click here!

This happy hour podcast is with my friend Laura Kelley. Laura and I have never met in person, but we've been friends on the internet for a while. Laura is so stinking sweet and one of those people that I love to see her family. She blogs about her family, her craftiness, and all in between. I have used her for many gift ideas. I love all the name pillows that she's making these days! Hello baby shower gift! Her family does an amazing thing during the Advent season. They call it KINDNESS ADVENT and they spend the entire month blessing others. Laura said someone encouraged her after he mom died through a grief devotional that said, "Sometimes you have no idea what to do for yourself, but you can always do for others." That statement led her and her husband, Josh, to begin their kindness advent time each December. Laura's mom passed away a few years ago and she shares what that has meant for her kids as she parented them through this trial. For a full summary and links to the show, click here!

This week is our first time to have a return guest on the Happy Hour. My BFF, Amy, was my very first guest when I had no clue what I was doing. Who am I kidding, I still have no clue what I'm doing! I have been wanting to chat with Amy again for a podcast because she's hilarious and I just love chatting with her. On this podcast Amy and I discuss sending our kids back to school, the VMA awards (and I realize I'm old because I don't know hardly any of the winners),the Emmy's, and my new workout BARRE. Oh and you won't believe the credit card scam story that Amy shared with us! Better check your ipads! For a full summary and links to the show, click here!

Today’s guest on the Happy Hour is Jen Wilkin. Jen is a speaker, writer and teacher of women’s Bible studies in Dallas, Texas. She and her family have been members of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas for seven years, where she currently serves on staff. She writes and teaches the Flower Mound Women’s Bible Study and co-teaches a parenting class with her husband Jeff at the Village. Jen and Jeff have four children between the ages of eighteen and fourteen, and have been married for twenty-one years. One of my favorite take away's from this podcast was Jen talking about creating a climate of conversation in their home. Teaching your kids to know that whatever they are feeling or thinking they can come to you and you will drop it all and listen. This is something that I want so desperately for my home. That my kids would be comfortable with telling me everything and anything. For a full summary and links from this show, click here!

Today's guest on the Happy Hour is Annie Downs. Annie and I met this past Spring at the If Gathering and I knew when I met her that I would love her and she would be such a fun person! It was such a blast chatting with her on this podcast! We talked a lot about being BRAVE, especially since her newest book is called LET'S ALL BE BRAVE, we discussed college & fantasy football, she told me about when she was on the red carpet for the movie premier of The Fault In Our Stars, the Bachelorette, "hook-up culture" , the Civil Wars, and finally what we are watching and reading. This podcast cracked me up because so many times we just would talk over each other and laugh so loud. She was a super fun guest! I'm giving away TWO signed copies of LET'S ALL BE BRAVE to one of you guys. Here's what I need you to do .... tell someone about the podcast. You can do that via your social media, or an email, or a phone call, or whatever you want. Also subscribe via iTunes or Stitcher if you haven't, and then leave me a comment telling me what you did and on Friday I'll pick a winner! So easy people! For a full summary and links to this show, click here!

Today's guest on the Happy Hour is my friend Jennie Allen. If you aren't familiar with Jennie, you'll love getting to know her more in this podcast, and if you do know her, you'll really love our conversations. Jennie is an author, bible study teacher, dreamer, founder of the If Gathering, wife, and mom. Jennie and her husband Zac have four kids and live in Austin. One of my favorite things about Jennie is how she's always dreaming up something. In this podcast she even spills the beans on a new project she has going on here in Austin {Collaborate} and if you are interested you can email her: admin@jennieallen.com We talk about small cities in America to visit and whether we have been there or not. What it looks like to get away as a couple and how we try to make that a priority. Jennie shares her thoughts from her trip to Rwanda with Noonday, and what it was like to visit the place her son spent the first four years of his life. If you have journeyed through IF with Jennie, you'll enjoy hearing her tell the story of how IF was born. For a full summary and links to this show, click here!