05/29/2026
Funny story about these hymn pages...
My mom used vintage hymn sheets in her artwork for years. Backgrounds, mixed media pieces, all kinds of things. I honestly hadn't used them much in forever. Earlier this year, I started recreating some of her cross blocks the way she did, and then I started hand lettering on hymn pages because I thought they were pretty. Simple as that. They looked great framed, tucked into journals, added to collages, or incorporated into other artwork. You guys have loved them, and I love creating them!
Around that same time, I was working on the chapter about my mom in The Healing Table and was completely stuck. Now if you knew my mom, she was a great cook. The problem was she rarely followed recipes and almost never wrote them down. A little this, a little that, whatever sounds good. And that’s how I learned how to cook and to measure with my heart, especially when it comes to cheese, bacon, or powdered sugar! 😂
Anyways, I took a break from writing and was trying to find some inspiration. I dug through my photos of her, tried to remember dishes….I was struggling and frustrated. Then I remembered she had been my only pinterest follower years ago…. .maybe there was something there to spark my memory. Turns out my mom hadn’t pinned anything on pinterest since 2020…..
But ya’ll. Just wait.
So my first idea for this particular chapter was to include recipes from friends who had so kindly brought us dishes after my mom had passed away. The dishes that were brought to us ALL had a connection to my mom, her fave dishes, memories tied to them. Except for one dish I had never even tried before but was still so delish…..but I fell short and only had a handful of recipes and it just didn’t feel quite right.
Here on my mom’s old pinterest page under her ‘dinner’ board…..All. Those. Dishes.
I knew they had been some of her faves, so that didn’t really surprise me.
But ya’ll. Here’s where it gets wild…..
Some dear friends brought us Zuppa Toscana shortly after Mom passed. To be honest, I don't think I'd ever had it before in my life (btw I have been missing out! SO good!) I certainly don't remember my mom ever making it, and it didn't seem like something she would've even liked all that much.
I sat there staring at my screen thinking, "No way!”
There it was…pinned multiple times.
But wait! There’s more! It gets EVEN wilder…..
At the very bottom of her Pinterest was another board called "Music Sheets."
It had exactly one pin.
Nine vintage hymn pages lined up side by side with hand lettering on them.
Y'all!!!!!!!!!
I could have sworn they were mine! The curls, the swirls, even my quirks and imperfections! IDENTICAL to my handwriting!!!!!!
The thing is, my mom never showed me that image. She never mentioned it. As far as I know, she never even made them herself.
Yet here they were, pinned 6 years ago.
Not only did it make me feel closer to my mom, it reminded me that God is in the details. Even in old pinterest boards! I don't believe it was an accident, I don’t believe it was luck, or just a coincidence…I believe God knew exactly what I needed that day. He had already been weaving my story together long before I could ever see it. I was also reminded that my mom is woven into so much of who I am today. In the way I cook, in the way I create… In the things that inspire me. Even in something small like old hymn pages… One little God wink after another. 💛
He was pointing me right back to the story I was meant to tell…..
