Have I got 15 Minutes?

Good morning friends!!

It's me, Jessica with a question for myself...

"Do I have 15 minutes to write down my thoughts, and share them with my friends?"

My answer? If I have 15 minutes to scroll on Instagram, check Facebook or 'pop-in' on YouTube, then YES I 100% have 15 minutes to reach out to whoever may be reading this post and say, "Hey.. how YOU doing?"

Recently I have taken it upon myself to dedicate an hour every morning to reading books. Yes, BOOKS. I laugh while I type that because when I was a younger wife and mother (long before audible and audiobooks were a thing), while I considered reading a book a task, it was always a non-option for me. How else was I to learn anything new? Need to build a bookshelf, Bob Villa has a book on that. Want to be a better wife, sister, daughter, mother? There are LOTS of books on that.

Fast-forward 30 years (we celebrated our Anniversary last July, thank you! :) ) and here I am picking back up the habit I once deemed necessary for survival, namely... reading every day. Currently, I am reading three books; Bill O'Reilly's : Killing Lincoln, Jenny Marrs: Trust God, Love People, and Jaime Winship: The War of Worldviews. I am one day away from finishing Jenny's book, probably a week away from finishing Bill's, and at least a month from Jaime's.

It's Jenny's book that has inspired this blog post. The first for our 15 Evergreen website. The thought to begin using our website as a platform to journal and blog my thoughts had never occured to me. I have been so heads down sewing, creating, building, and promoting our product I hadn't even thought about the fact I also LOVE to write.

Yet, as I read through Jenny's memoirs and all the references she had to her journal, I was moved. The very fact that she could look back at her hand printed notes, her cries out to the Lord in both praise and pain was inspiring. I thought - "You know what, I think I'd like that. I think I'd like to be able to look back as we build 15 Evergreen and be able to read about the process and where my head was at while we were putting our shoulder into the work. I wonder what would happen if I just gave myself 15 minutes every morning to blog about what I am up to and what I am doing to grow this little company. I wonder what would happen if..."

In these last two years of waking up at 4AM every day (which later became 3AM - don't ask- haha) I have made the "I wonder what would happen if..." statement my MATRA. In my opionion, these six little words form a statement which can change every situation and every person who DARES to utter them. It is a world changing, open ended, faithfilled, and God-Inpirsed phrase.

"I wonder what would happen if..."

• I walked to work today?

• I gave my sister that coat of mine she really likes?

• I brought donuts to work today for everyone?

• I called my dad, just to say "hi"?

• I blogged for 15 minutes each, and every day?

Why 15 minutes? Branding. To be honest with you. We ARE 15 Evergreen, afterall. So when I went to open up my laptop and begin typing this first post, I was kind of snickering. You know that laugh that you do when you are feeling particularly cocky and especially smart. "Witty". I was feeling like that and a bag-of-chips, until I opened my laptop and saw the time stamp on my screen. What time was it? 5:45 AM Insert humble pie right here. I had NO IDEA what time it was but the second I opened up my laptop and seeing it 15 minutes to the hour, I was taken back. Here I had this "brilliant" idea of blogging each day for 15 minutes because it "made sense" with our company name and God was clearly already a million steps ahead of me in His inspiration and confirmation that not only did I in fact have 15 minutes - I have 15 minutes, because HE gave me those 15 minutes!

" My times are in your hands..." Proverbs 31:15

By asking the "I wonder what would happen if?" question, followed by the idea to start a new blog written in 15 minute increments, followed then in opening up my laptop to seeing I had EXACTLY 15 minutes before the hour change was all the confirmation I needed from the Lord that not only should I begin this blogging and journaling process - but it was an important action to add to my daily routine to Him too.

Who will read this? Honestly, I don't know. This isn't a "blog" or a "newsletter" it won't have all kinds of self-help tips, or TOP TEN lists, heck half the time it probably won't even be edited. 'Cause it's my journal you know. It's not meant to be perfect, catchy, trendy, or to go viral - it's just Jessica's Journal, me - being me. You get what you get. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What's on my agenda for today?

10/14/26

My daughter Ness has a pretty brutal pain inducing cavity, so I take her to the dentist this morning for them to fix it (I will be bribing her with squishies), I need to work on creating some graphics to share on social media for our monthly 40% OFF flash sale for tomorrow, I also need to clean up the website and make sure it is more user friendly. I have added the feature to make pre-orders 30% off, because they are not sewn yet and I may need to shop for the fabric. Since these take more time, and the potential for disappointment is there (I may not be able to source the fabric) I thought pre-paying at a discount rate was a better option than charging full price and "pretending" the product was in stock - when it is not.

I have been working on prototypes for laptop crossbody bags for men (I have now sewn 2x and I am still not happy with them). I have an idea for motivational wristlet keychains which I would like to work on so I can begin to post them on the site for sale. I would like to sew some today. I will also need to cook meals, squeeze in a nap, and be ready by 6PM to go to church tonight - it is Weds. and Pastor Noah is preaching - got to show up and support!

In closing - I'm not really sure how to sign off... what I can say is this, not only did I have 15 minutes at 5:45 this morning it turns out I actually had 60 minutes of journal worthy gab in me -as it is now 6:45am.

I am praying you have a great day today, I am praying you are encouraged and know that you are loved! God loves you!! - I don't even know you, silly - but I hope over the next few days/weeks/months/years, I GET to know you, even just 15 minutes at a time.

Sincerely in Christ, I wonder what would happen if...?

Jessica.

#jessicabuilds