Fun Factoids About Holy Hen House!
Where did the idea of Holy Hen House originate?The idea for our Christian women's collaborative blog originated two years ago when I was going to move across the country and knew I would miss out on our weekly women's bible study and encouragement. I asked the women at our bible study if they would consider writing a blog together... see if we could balance it with life... and they answered crazy - Yes!
How do the HHH writers know each other? We are not some clique of women that have been friends all our lives. Quite the opposite. In fact, a few of us haven't met each other yet!
All of us live in the Midwest. Some of us know each other from high school, college, being counselors at Christian camps, through sister-in-laws, moms' groups, and through mutual friends. Over time, these women have become my closest friends and I couldn't imagine life without them. I pray that you can find (and if not - start!) a group of women who build you up in faith that can meet regularly.
How did the name for Holy Hen House come about? Two years ago Katy and I were walking on a Friday morning together and were discussing what our collaborative blog name might be. Many ideas were put on the table and none were agreed on yet so we were feeling a little down. It's hard enough to name a child with one other person let alone name a blog with a group of women! ;) I mentioned to Katy how all of our talking and brainstorming together was like a bunch of Hens "clucking" in a hen-house. We laughed. I said, "I know! What about His Hen House?!" and we quickly said, "Noooo." We laughed a little harder and then Katy suggested, "What about Holy Hen House?" I loved it. We wanted the name to be memorable, fun, marketable, and suggest that it was a group of women and the content we would write about.
After we shared the name with the other women most liked it but some felt that it may be a bit too risqué sounding or like a house full of holy hens instead of a house full of hens talking about their holy father. We were back to the drawing board.
So we lingered and Katy (clever cat!) came up with the name "Raising Roots" based off of Jeremiah 17:7-8. But we began meeting more and more obstacles with the name choice and at one our meetings we decided to nix the "Raising Roots" name and went back to Holy Hen House. We haven't looked back ever since.
Who designed our website and hen logo? HHH writer Amber put together a great vision of what our website should look and function like. After a terrible experience with a blog designing company that prolonged our site over 2 months - ugh! - I contacted designers directly that designed several blogs that I liked (Cakies being one of them!). We shared our mission and vision for Holy Hen House and one designer stood out far beyond the rest. She fully embraced our mission (Titus 2:3-5) and was a dream to work with. Her name evokes her spirit - Joy! She even joined us in a Google Hangout to meet and talk us through blogging a bit before we got started. Much appreciated! Please check out this talented, big-hearted designer and illustrator at joylaforme.com
How many babies are there?!
Five babies have been born since the beginnings of Holy Hen House and four of us (that we know of!) are now pregnant. So within two years nine babies will be born. :o
Writing with a supportive and understanding group of women has been essential to keep Holy Hen House going. It seems that there are certain seasons where we take turns and cover for one another. In time, that help is returned when we are having a high demand time at home and others have less. Our whole mission is to encourage women in the roles that God has designed. If we are drowning in our home life and stressing about the next blog post - we're missing the point and purpose!
If we were to get all together we would have 28 children (so far!). whoa. Talk about a crazy party! The pictures below are from when some of us got together for play dates several years ago. Yup, there are even more children now. Hands' full? Yup. Hearts' full? You betcha.
How did you begin doing workshops at churches for women's groups?
One of our dear friends, Corrisa Nelson of Corissa Nelson Art invited us to speak at her church's Mom's Circle. I wasn't sure what we would talk about but I promised her I would share the idea with the Holy Hen House writers to see if any were even interested in speaking in public. Again, they answered crazy - Yes! So we put together our best and yet humble beginnings of our workshop with topics that we felt were near to our hearts.
Some of our current topics include:
- women of all seasons unite
- how to find and be a mentor
- being still and filled in Christ
- being in the Word with our husbands
- fitness for body and soul
- having a world mission heart... right at home
- trusting God's plans
After being mutually encouraged at our first workshop we realized the need for more quality fellowship for women at churches that bridged the gaps from "Ladies' Aid" and "Moms and Tots" groups. So far we have done three workshops and have one more scheduled coming this fall. Click here to learn more about our workshops and if you are interested in hosting one for your women's ministry please contact us!
What other questions do you have about Holy Hen House? We'd love to answer them!
