 Have you missed us? We know it's been a couple of days since we've posted here on the blog, but we want you to know, we're not going away! The last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy in the Higham house. On a number of days and nights, Amy and I have found ourselves going in multiple directions, juggling the kids schedules, and our ministry commitments. That busyness has not given us a whole lot of time to sit down and write for the blog. But what we did make time for was to sit down and have a real "business" meeting to talk about the blog and what we hope to accomplish with it. As you know, I (Jay) have been blogging for a number of years. Most of the content I create is student ministry related; articles, tips, training helps, and other various resources. But in more recent years, I have really been wanting to write more content for families. Last year, Amy and I talked a lot about the possibility of creating a family blog that we would write for together. The big question we asked ourselves was, "Did we really have anything to say?" I mean, if your going to write, what do you write about? Well, you write about what you know, what you're learning, and what you're experiencing As Christians, we also want to write about our faith, and what God is teaching us a husband and wife, and a dad and mom. So we decided we would take a step of faith and start blog when we felt the urge, and see where it goes. Well, we have been a little surprised by of the response from readers over these first 6 months of writing the blog. We have watched the number of visitors and page views. We've looked for things like, comments, likes, shares, and pins. And we have tried to drum up some grassroots support. I share all of this to say, we definitely feel like God is opening the door to something new and exciting, and we want to continue to tell the story that God is writing for our family! "Did we really have anything to say?" I mean, if your going to write, what do you write about? So earlier this week Amy and I sat down for an official business meeting to talk about what we want to do with the blog going forward. We decided that if we're going to really do this, then we needed a plan. Our passion of for the family, and encouraging other families to seek God and grow together in His love and grace. We care about our relationship as husband and wife, and try really hard to honor each in our roles. We love our kids and do our best to parent them from a biblical perspective. As a family, we fight to keep a heathy balance church, school, sports, careers, ministry, and issues with culture. And we do all of this in the hopes of bringing glory to our Father in heaven! At our meeting we began to brainstorm for ideas of how we can share all the things that God is teaching us with other families. We want to write about things build up families and encourage the to chase after God. We want to share our stories, the good stuff and the bad stuff. We want to share our successes and our failures, our joys and our fears. So we are committing to pray for each other, the blog and those who will read the blog; asking that God will lead our hearts to topics that are helpful, encouraging, and worthy of someone taking the time to read, comment, and share. We want to share our stories, the good stuff and the bad stuff. We want to share our successes and our failures, our joys and our fears. We picked up a great resource towards the end of last summer. A book written by a friend of ours who shared her blogging story to encourage other to do the same. She started her blog as a personal hobby, but God has taken her hobby and turned it into her career. Her book is helping us to realize this new dream of ours. So in the coming weeks, you should start to see some significant changes to the blog. 1. New Content & Regular Posts... - Starting later this month, Amy and I will be sharing new content; posts for husbands and wives, moms and dads. We will be sharing some of the things we have learned over the years (and even some of the things were still learning) as being a wive and a husband. We hope to share some of the lessons, experiences, and goals we have for our family. And we plan on doing this on a daily basis. That's right, a new blog post every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and on some Saturdays. Sunday's we plan on keeping as our Sabbath Day of Rest. 2. A Ministry & A Business... - One of our major goals for the blog is that it become a true blessing to families. So we see this opportunity as a ministry. But, like many other ministries, there are expenses that come with maintaining a blog. And so, other goal we have is to grow the blog as a source of income for our family. While the content that we create and post will be free to all readers, we do plan on using more affiliate links, product sales (family t-shirts, future book sales, and other items), various advertisements, and sponsored blog posts. What we don't want to do is turn the blog into one constant commercial, however, we do want to use it as a platform for future projects and possibilities. So you should know that when you click on a link or purchase a product that we recommend using a link we provide, we may receive a small percentage of your order as income. Don't worry though, this doesn't come at any additional cost to you. You should also know that when you order one of Jay's books or a family t-shirt, those items go directly to support us and the blog. 3. Speaking Engagements... - A third goal that we are praying about is the opportunity of speaking engagements, particularly for Jay, but also for Amy. As much as we love writing about what God is doing in our family, we love talking about it as well. So we have started to seriously pray about launching a speaking ministry; visiting various groups to talk about marriage, family, and culture, all from a biblical platform. So if you are a leader of a small group, M.O.P.S. group, men's ministry, family ministry, church, or faith-based organization, be on the look out for more information coming later this year. So, while we may not have posted anything in the last couple of day, we have spent a lot of time thinking and planning for the blog! In just a couple of days, we will be posting a number of great topics that we think you might find helpful, including a special series that we're calling, 8 Days to Intimacy, that will post over the Valentine's week. Lastly, we want to say thank you, again, to everyone who has encouraged us to continue with the blog! Your prayers, support, and loving words have really helped us to see the possibilities that are out there. We really do appreciate that you read what we share! Be watching, the new content rolls out in just a couple of days! - jay & amy higham  Hi we're Jay & Amy, and we've been married for 19 years and are super blessed to be busy raising our 5 kids; 4 boys and 1 girl! We juggle the adventures of life and ministry and share what we are learning as it relates to marriage, family, raising kids, serving in the church, and chasing after Jesus. Raising a family is hard work, especially in today's culture. But our hope is to encourage you and your family, as we live for the glory of God.
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Thanks for taking the time to read The Higham Family Blog. Each week we try to share new content about something we are learning, something we love, or something to offer encouragement to the family. We love to hear from our readers, so please share your thought in the comment section of each post.
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