How to Cultivate Grace: Interview with Nicole Lawrence

Sometimes being a creative mom means finding the margins of life and creating there. And offering yourself a ton of grace! Here’s How to Cultivate Grace, an interview with Nicole Lawrence of Our Holy Threads and NicoleDeAnnLawrence.com.

Guys, I’m excited to share with you Nicole Lawrence and her beautiful perspective on how to cultivate grace in the messiness of motherhood. She’s a relatable mother of small children and a lover of Jesus with some helpful insights. Not only does she offer soul-quenching encouragement, she also gives us a sneak peek into her life, showing us a way she finds space to create while including her daughters.

Without further ado, here is my interview with Nicole Lawrence on how to cultivate grace and balance as a creative mom.

Hi, Nicole! I’m so thrilled you could join me on the Dressed Up Rustic blog today. Could you tell everyone who you are and some of your story?

Hey y’all! I am Nicole Lawrence. I have two of the most precious little girls, Aria 3 and Hadley 1. My sweet husband, Jarrod, owns and runs a local golf retail store here in Midland, Texas. Currently I have my own blog, where I share how to cultivate grace in the messiness of motherhood. I have been extremely blessed to pursue this creative outlet of writing by being a monthly contributor for a local mom blog, writing for an online women’s ministry (Thrive Moms), and I am currently working on a very exciting collaborative book project. Just last month, I launched an online shirt and homegoods store where I get to be my own head creative designer. We kinda have an entrepreneurial spirit around my home. When I’m not working on those passions you can usually find me and my girls having dance parties with Alexa or donning our best ball gowns during dress up time. Outside of my family I love being in the mountains, especially when I can escape to hike or sneak in a quiet cup of fresh coffee. I also love moms night out with my friends, even though it feels like moving a mountain to get it to happen!

Love that, Nicole! We have dance parties at our house, too. And sing looots of songs. Tell us about your blog and online store.

Last year after getting diagnosed with postpartum depression I began processing through getting healthy emotionally, spiritually, and physically. During a huge weight loss journey, I started writing about it. Journaling was so therapeutic for me. Once I began sharing bits and pieces of it, a desire to encourage others started growing inside of me like a wildfire. Out of that came my first blog, Our Holy Threads. After hearing the writing nudge from God for several months, I finally started to move away from this being a hobby into the direction of pursuing it in a bigger way. I rebrand my writing page. Writing to moms was laid heavy on my heart. Exploring the hard topics of postpartum depression, anger in motherhood, overcoming our huge expectations of motherhood became my focus. And in the last few months I’ve been sharing what the sweet redeeming grace of Jesus has taught me through it all. Becoming a mom has broken and remade me over and over again. I think it is such a beautiful brokenness that we experience. It forces us to face our own personal giants and battle them once and for all.

In all the excitement of the new blog name, I was left with this domain name of Our Holy Threads. I had this nagging voice in my head that I couldn’t let this old domain name go away. This is where the idea of a faith-based shirt and homegoods store was born from. We sell faith specific designs for babies through adult sizes, and a few cute mugs as well. This week our Mother’s Day collection launched. I love giving moms an opportunity to tell their story through their clothes. That is my heart behind this store. Being able to share what your passions are, what your faith is or tell your story by wearing a comfy shirt, what’s better than that?

You have some great designs in your shop, Nicole. And I love that you’re finding grace in the midst of raising children. How do you work toward balancing all of your “spinning plates” from day to day?

Balance is a very new concept for me. I dove head first into both of these passion projects, all within less than six months of each other. My personality is both a blessing and a curse. When I start something I intend to work non-stop until the project is complete. For three weeks I worked tirelessly to get the designs for the shirts ready, the website perfected, and navigate the ins-outs of starting a business. That was a very tricky situation being a stay at home mom. My girls often got to the the point in a Netflix binge where it asks, “are you still watching?” during this season. Everyday I would turn around and the house was a complete wreck. That is still one of the strange talents of children I cannot understand, the speed at which a mess can be made. Mom guilt was extremely high during this time. I had several breakdowns, where I cried to my husband, I’m quitting. This isn’t my time, I would say. My youngest was a miserable sleeper, so nap time hustling was nearly impossible. I was running on fumes and something had to give. My husband and mom became my lifeline. I will be forever grateful for their support. But what finally changed my overcrowded heart was breaking the chains of expectations and allowing myself the permission to not say yes to things. I felt more free when I started saying, this specific opportunity isn’t for me right now, but that doesn’t mean it will be a no forever. It might just be a someday yes.

Balance now means knowing my boundaries. It’s a give and take. A delicate dance of maintaining a commitment to my family and my passions without compromising the other. As my roles are competing with each other, my heart desperately wants harmony, but that is a quest as mysterious as the lost stockpile of socks in my home. Life is unpredictable. If my hope is placed in task oriented checklist, I will always fail. Kids get sick (at the worst time possible), tiny toddler moods are ever changing, and naps are never a guarantee. I’ve learned to work in the in between moments of life. My mind is always creating new things. The notes app on my phone is an ever growing list of shirt designs and writing prompts. I fill in the pages when I can, and give myself grace when it doesn’t happen on my own timeline.

Yes, agreed, balance is knowing your boundaries and working within your parameters. How do you incorporate your creativity into the busyness of everyday life?

Crafting a space that feels peaceful is important in the chaos of working while my girls are around. Peace to me is more than just a feeling. It is something that elicits the emotion of peace by using all my senses. From my desk I can feel the warmth of the sun as I draw back the curtains. As my favorite scent escapes my diffuser, the smell opens my senses to create. A sip of a fresh cup of coffee sets my mood. In my headphones the melodies of my favorite playlist prepare my way for creating. And my most favorite off all, I can see my girls creating too.

My desk and workspace is directly adjacent to their creative nook. We get to create together. Their minds are in a constant state of creating. They create through play, through art, through music. As I slowly built our little creative oasis, I made sure to keep the perfect balance of me and them. It’s not so kid cluttered that it hinders my creative process, but also not so pristine that they don’t have the freedom to make it their own. Our space has baskets of toys, perfect for playtime. Bookshelves stacked at just the right height for their tiny hands to reach. An art easel that beckons them to draft masterpieces. A rolling cart of puzzles and crafting tools to spark their tiny minds. A drawer in mommy’s desk, designated just for play doh.

And because I know that their attention span is much shorter than mine, I always have a movie ready, just in case I need to get a few extra minutes of work done. This is yet another perk of having my work area nestled in the corner of our living room.

Their creativity simulates my own. Whether it’s a watercolor rainbow sky or a play doh pizza, the joy of my children inspires me.

What a fun space! I’m going to have to incorporate something like that in my home, too. It’s so fun to watch your kids as their imaginations blossom. For our creative homemakers out there (or one that wants to be!), what advice would you share?

Two of my greatest pieces of advice are: If God wanted us to do 36 hours of work in a single – day, He would have made our days 36 hours long. Give yourself grace to get done what you can and leave the rest for tomorrow.

The second thing that I have learned the hard way is from the words of one of our most beloved children’s characters, “let it go!” Get rid of the expectations of perfection. The expectations of doing it all or being it all. Embrace chaos and uncertainty. The weight of expectations is too heavy to bear. When I started letting go, I became infinitely more free to create.

Beautiful. And a great way to cultivate grace in the messiness of life.

Thank you so much, Nicole for sharing with us how to find balance and cultivate grace in the midst of motherhood.

Guys, I know I can use these gentle reminders and I’m guessing you can, too. There is beauty to be found in the everyday chaos, and I pray you find snatches of that joy today.

To learn more about Nicole, and the encouragement she’s bringing to the world, check out her information below.