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A deliciously funny story of siblings learning to get along.

This heartwarming and relatable story about two siblings who must learn to get along reminds readers that, no matter how messy, life is better when shared with the ones you love.

Follow along as big brother Mouse tries to bake the perfect dessert, only to be interrupted by his energetic yet clumsy, baby brother Moose. No matter how Mouse tries to avoid it, catastrophe strikes whenever Moose comes near, and every “perfect” dessert gets destroyed! Can Mouse learn how to navigate his relationship with his baby brother and come to appreciate Moose’s uniqueness and spirit?

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2025

ABOUT

Justin Whitmel Earley is a lawyer, author and speaker from Richmond, VA.

He graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in English Literature before spending four years in Shanghai, China, as a missionary. Justin got his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and he now runs his own business law practice in Richmond, Virginia at Earley Business Legal.

His book, The Common Rule – Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction, was published with InterVarsity Press in 2019. He frequently speaks at businesses and legal events on habits, technology and mental health; and at churches and conferences on habits, spiritual formation and parenting.

His second book, Habits of the Household – Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms, released with Zondervan in 2021. His third book, on the spiritual discipline of friendship, is called Made for People and released in fall 2023.

Justin also writes fiction and poetry, and is probably most excited about his kids book that just came out in 2025--The Big Mess!

He is married to Lauren and has four sons – Whit, Asher, Coulter and Shep.

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Law Section

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LAW

Justin Whitmel Earley helps companies navigate key legal moments, and generally serves as an outsourced in-house counsel to a number of growing and established business. If you're looking for help with issues such as the below, you can contact him and read more about his law practice here.

Incorporation
Choice of entity
Venture capital
Partnership and LLC Agreements
Nonprofit formation
Employment contracts
Joint Ventures
Stock sales
Asset sales
Mergers and acquisitions
Partnership disputes, valuations and buy-outs

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@justinwhitmelearley

Quick and simple template for a devotion with your sons. Let me know what y’all do. ⬇️

Some more context. Leaving them in the woods was harder for some of the parents than the boys. They loved it. (And we were only a ten minute walk away at a house, so we’re staring safe and small.)

Some more color on the teachings. Each of the dads shared something. And we tied each teaching to Biblical principles.

1/Life is hard: John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

2/Life is Not About You: Mark 12:30-31 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Both Richard Rohr and @jontyson / @jeffersonbethke have some great books to read if you want more on this stuff.

Hope this helps. Would love to hear your questions and thoughts in the comments.

It bears noting that it was also just really fun. Great bonding time.

Happy Mother’s Day to our Queen. Love you and your sunglasses @laurenmakeslists

Whether you had a good Mother’s Day or not, hope this is a bit of encouragement to you. It’s from the beginning of a delightful little book called the Domestic Monastery.

Four ideas for Mother’s Day! Two are my books, two are things I love and I bet she’ll love.

1) The Big Mess - Kids book that she’ll love reading to little ones. Bonus, has an author’s note at the end for having spiritual conversation with your kids’ about sibling reconciliation. (Also great for a grandma gift cause she’ll love reading to the grandkids.)

2) The Flask - My new favorite way to make coffee. It combines French press steeping with Aero press function with Chemex vibe and it tastes really good. If she’s into coffee she’ll love it.

3) Concrete Conversations - Awesome way to make dinner time more conversational, also LOOKS great on the table.

4) Habits of the Household - Two ideas here. You READ it as a gift to her. That would earn you the most points. You could also give to her, still good but really you should read it to her. Or jump on audible and I’ll read it to both of you ;)

Anyway, I’m not biased or anything but I’ll note with the books you know they’ll be there in two days and on time for Mother’s Day so….

(Send this to your husband if he needs the hint…)

🎉 THE BIG MESS IS HERE!!! Here are 4️⃣ ways you can use the book with your kids:

1. 😄🍦 Delight The Big Mess is first and foremost about the delight and joy of children—because I believe that God is deeply about the delight and joy of His children! This is a book about two brothers making giant desserts that explode on nearly every page because, well, I want to see your kids laugh, smile, and say, “Read it again!” That’s enough right there.

2. 🤝💥 Sibling Reconciliation You’ll find that in the end, big brother Mouse has to learn how to bear with his clumsy little brother and invite him into his play. There’s an author’s note and a few questions to help you talk about that with your children. But it’s always helpful for us to remember: The mark of a Christian family is not that we don’t have problems, it’s that we forgive and we reconcile. This is a little story to help keep that theme in front of your family.

3. 🗣️📖 Story-Shaped Conversations The Big Mess is also a way to practice the art of discussing stories in families. Stories shape the world. Kids included. And one of the great arts of parenting is learning to engage in stories with your children and talk to them about them. That takes practice. But even with small children, it might just be a question later that night or at breakfast the next morning: “Remember when in that story such and such happened…?” Starting small is still starting.

4. 💛✝️ Grace in the Mess This book is also for YOU, parent. When you read it to your kids, I hope to be talking over their shoulder a bit to you. Just like big brother Mouse learns to extend grace to his brother in the mess, we as parents are called to love like Jesus who enters into our mess! God’s grace doesn’t wait for a clean kitchen. He forms us in His love right in the middle of family chaos.

BONUS 🐛🔍 Roly Poly is hidden on every page. Some are easier than others. Let every “There he is!” from you kids be a little reminder that God has made a world for us to delight in—if we have the eyes to look and say: “There He is!”

📣I’m sending a signed copy to one person who reposts this, will pick tonight!!!

🎥 @mizganaw

On May 6th we’ll prove them all wrong…

(Neither @loweshomeimprovement nor @sugarshackdonuts endorse the claims in this video. Neither did @laurenmakeslists approve of serving more desserts on wooden planks.)

The Big Mess Really brings the neighborhood together. Launch #3 was @drinktractor Root Beer from Richmond’s @eazzyburger. Special shoutout to the neighbors for coming out to make this one happen, and hat tip to Jake who suggested the root beer as a good launch. But thanks most of all to the moms who let this happen on a school night. Lots of showers and laundry followed. 👏 May 6 is almost here! 👏 Are you ready for The Big Mess???

Do you have any family traditions to help kids practice reconciliation?

1️⃣: Is there any song better than @hiforrest “Up” for launching desserts?
2️⃣: is there any better way to prepare for The Big Mess launch week then launching desserts?
👏 May 👏 6th 👏 is 👏 almost 👏 here!!! 👏

PS: Today’s selection was our favorite local Richmond ice cream @gelati_celesti and yess the ice cream went right on the board and yes @laurenmakeslists was slightly appalled but the book is called The Big Mess after all… 🍦 🚀

What should we launch next??? ⬇️

Yes this book is about sibling reconciliation, but it’s ALSO JUST A LOT OF FUN! I love seeing the delight of children, and that’s at least half the reason I wrote a book about two brothers who smash and launch huge desserts. So we’re gonna spend all week launching sweets in preparation… 🚀 🧁 📕 🐭

BTW dresser launched was the glazed Olive Oil Cake from @birdiesva … spectacular

Y’all this is getting SO FUN! I’ve been reading The Big Mess to kids all week ever since my early copies came in and I can’t tell who’s loving it more, me or them. I CANNOT WAIT to see your kids reading it. Make sure to grab your copy this week! Coming out next Tuesday on May 6th! And remember, if you pre-order you can fill out the link in my bio for a bunch of freebees including a Zoom with Lauren and I this Sunday!

👋Friendly reminder to teach your children to REFLECT.

📖 I gave my oldest this journal for his birthday. And once a week we’ve been sitting down in the mornings to learn to do a quiet time together. Some of this is me teaching him about life and the Bible, but a lot of it is being “apprenticed” into how to spend time with God, how to pray, how to be a man. Part of that is to learn to not just live life but learn to REFLECT on living life.

✍️ So this week I took him on a speaking trip with me and we sat down at a coffee shop this AM (thanks @inclusioncoffee) to spend some time journaling. I think he mostly wrote about the dinner we had at @tasteoftexas and what he observed in the NFL draft last night, but that’s a perfect start. Reflecting on what God is doing begins with just noticing the life you have, whether or not you happen to think it’s spiritually significant. Turns out, when you learn to reflect, it all is.

👉 So here’s a gentle nudge to get back into the habit of journaling tomorrow, and teach your children the same.

💡And next time you sit down, remember, journaling > scrolling. Your body and brain will thank you later, and God will meet you there too.

If you have a journaling habit you recommend, I want to hear about it ⬇️

Thanks to @homebrew_coffeeshop_eatery and all y’all who came out for an amazing spontaneous hang out and book signing!!!

Also congrats to the first two people (@rynncox and Annie) who got early hard copies of The Big Mess and don’t have to wait until May 6 like everyone else.

Thanks to the amazing @annie_grassi at the @unrefinedjoypodcast for spearheading and also thanks @carolynsotojackson for the amazing pictures and all y’all should go check out her amazing new kids book Pickles for Breakfast!!!

Let me know how these go in the comments ⬇️

Only two weeks away!!! (Y’all the illustrations from @jannamattia are 🔥)

Somehow we forgot to take a picture in our fancy church clothes but we got one in the matching Nike suits @laurenmakeslists bought us for Easter presents. I’m sure you have a lot of questions. So do I. But here we are. Happy Easter!!!!

I want to see your kids smiling like this when they get theirs! May 6th coming soon…

Try this blessing with your kids tonight!

Send this to a friend and challenge them to try it with you! Will be emotional 😭 But SO worth the perspective!!!

🚨 Alert 🚨 We want your feedback for the Made for People podcast!

Over the past few weeks, so many of you have reached out with thoughtful reflections, personal stories, and honest questions. So instead of rushing to the finish with our final episode, we’re giving you the chance to shape how this series ends!

We’re collecting listener questions—about anything we’ve talked about: friendship in marriage, parenting, loneliness, making friends as an adult, or something we haven’t covered yet—and in a few weeks, Matt, Steve, and I will release a final episode where we respond to your questions directly.

In the meantime, we didn’t want to leave you empty-handed—so we’re sharing this short bonus episode on a topic that has come up again and again: geography and how much your physical location shapes your relational life.

Finally - if you haven’t listened to the most recent episode with the Queen (@laurenmakeslists) go do it now!

Can’t wait to get all your questions!

Much more in Chapter 3 of Habits of the Household!

Not all screen time is created equal. Here are three more constructive uses. (Now we still have serious limits for screentime and they can’t just do these things wherever they want, but these kids of things are MUCH better for them than just passively scrolling YouTube!) There’s tons more ideas I’m sure you have. Share some below! ⬇️

👏 Parents 👏 Being present with your kids after a long day is the second race. But Christ ran the race for you. He is with you. And He is using this to make you and your kids more like Him. Keep running.

👏 SAVE THIS POST 👏 Our Top Family Devotion Resources for kids 5 and under. Curated by the one and only @laurenmakeslists of course! Here’s Lauren:

➡️For family devotional or worship times, remember something is better than nothing! We’ve loved all the following resources for family worship with littles (especially kids 5 and under), since they are actually short and sweet, and match little kids strengths: playfulness, joy, being fully present.

1️⃣ @slugsandbugsofficial Sing the Bible albums - These are our favorite children’s christian music because they’re strong musically and the words are directly from the NIV translation of the Bible, so it’s helped us memorize scripture as a family.

2️⃣ @sallylloydjones Jesus Storybook Bible, illus. Jago - Ok most people have this already, but the reason I recommend it here is because it’s the best children’s Bible to read aloud! I’ve tried many (I just counted 5 others in our house), but this one is by far more readable and captivating to kids than all the others.

3️⃣The Hands-On Bible (New Living Translation) - Love this Bible for preschoolers because it breaks the Bible into short chunks, and concludes each Biblical text with short prompts with creative and do-able ways to retell the story or apply it through play, games or activities with your kids (e.g. after reading the story of Jericho, build a wall of blocks and retell the story of what God’s people did and how God knocked it down).

4️⃣What Every Child Should Know About Prayer - Nancy Guthrie, illus. Jenny Brake: This book is so short and sweet: the lessons are rich theological explanations of what prayer is, how to do it, Biblical categories, etc but all explained succinctly on a child’s level in 2 pages, including a prompt with how to practice that in prayer right now. Love this one!

5️⃣Animal Tales from the Bible - Nick Butterfield and Mick Inkpen: Retellings of four gospel stories from the perspective of animals. This cute book is fun to read!

➡️A few years ago I made the age chart (see last picture) and realized this season would be our years for family trips. Youngest is old enough to hang and oldest isn’t too old to NOT want to hang. So we’ve been chipping away at some trips.

🚐Few weeks ago we did our spring break trip by renting an RV and driving from Richmond to the gulf coast. Sooooo much fun.

📚We didn’t want it to be full of just watching movies (as much as we love a good movie), so we made it a reading trip. Did one movie on the way down and one on way back and the rest of the day long drives were audiobooks, @laurenmakeslists reading her picks out loud to us all, or boys retreating to their bunks to read. RVs are tight quarters, but super fun and cozy for packing family time.

📝 Encourage everyone to try the age chart. (A blank version and instructions are in the last chapter of Habits of the Household.) And if you’re in or nearing the trip years, splurge for family time. God bless!

PS - @bucees is everything you hope it will be

🚀 Who wants to join The Big Mess launch team!?!? 🚀 Link in bio.

Spiritual formation rhythms for middle and high schoolers!!! Get on those pre-orders. Will be out in time for a summer read!

Whether it’s a toddler or an adolescent, try pause prayers before you address misbehavior!

If it’s not a big mess it’s not a real family! In the past year, we have had seven holes in the drywall, one cracked house window, and today we added a busted car window. Casualty of standard kid play (throwing rocks in the driveway). This is why I’m so excited about my kids book coming out in just six weeks! It’s all about teaching kids (and reminding parents!) that love, forgiveness and relationship all happen in the mess. God bless y’all!

Stick around for the parenting advice at the end. A lot of my readers don’t know that I’m a business lawyer, and a lot of my clients don’t know that I’m an author. So I decided to do a series here combining my two realms: Negotiation advice for parenting! Rule #1 - Always make the first offer.

Who wants to join me? Best way to start is to check out my pinned story “Fast with me” which has a link to my “Simple guide to making a fasting plan”. Check that out, and then join my email list so you’ll get weekly emails with tips and encouragements. God bless!

Would love for you to join me in fasting this lent. MUCH more info in my pinned story “fast with me.” Join my email list if you want to fast one day a week with me. Link in bio. God bless!

#Lent #fasting

God’s love for you should change your habits.

Who wants to join me in fasting once a week during Lent? Y’all know I talk a lot about spiritual rhythms for eating (fasting / feasting / & ordinary fare) and Lent is a great time to practice fasting. If you want to try it, follow along here and ALSO join my email list (link in bio) because I’ll be sending lots of tips and ideas on how to fast (how long, from what, how to turn to prayer, etc.)

For those who don’t know, Lent is a six week period leading up to Easter and traditionally is a great time to practice restraint, fasting and repentance. It’s a wonderful way to really prepare for celebrating Easter fully.

Note with fasting: This usually is from food but doesn’t have to be if you have a health issue that would make it not possible or history with and eating disorder that would make it unwise. I would love to still have you join and simply fast from something that’s appropriate for you.

So comment below and join my email list if you’re in. Also send this to a friend because it’s way better to do this in community, and honestly learning to fast usually requires accountability to do well!

Finally - please ignore the thumb tape. I forgot to take it off after the gym, my thumbs are fine, no injuries here. 😆

I have just five years left in the house with this one. Those years will be about calling him into manhood.

I have been waiting so long to tell you this!!!! I wrote a kids book called The Big Mess!!!! Your kids are going to LOVE it and you have got to go pre-order right now. It’s full of exploding desserts and siblings learning to get along and love each other… what more could you want in a household??? Seriously, I’m so excited for you to read it and there’s even an author’s note and discussion questions in the back to talk to your kids about how God works in the mess of family life. Go check it out!!!

Shout out to @jannamattia for making the pictures in this absolutely legendary.

Have lots of conversations. Not one “talk.”

Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried this. Also, ideas for questions to ask below:

Favorites category:
Favorite food?
Favorite sport?
Five favorite friends to play with?
Favorite thing to do with mom?
Favorite thing to do with dad?
Favorite thing to do with siblings?
Favorite book to read? Favorite movie?

Deeper questions:
When do you get nervous?
Does anything at school make you sad?
Do you feel sorry for anyone?
Do you have any bad dreams that happen a lot?
When do you feel scared?

Spiritual questions:
When you picture God, what face is he making?
What do you pray for when you pray?
What do you hope you’re like when you grow up?

Suggestions on letter writing:
Just sit down for a half an hour, write “Dear ____” and keep typing. I usually spend half the letter telling them about what they said and what their life has been like this year, then spend the second half updating them on my life and the family‘s life, as if I was talking to a close friend. Telling them good things, challenging things, what we’ve been going through, what I’ve been learning about God, what I’ve been reading. My goal is to talk to them like an adult, because when I give them all these letters, that’s what they will be. I don’t know when I’ll give it to them, I just know it’ll be an important moment and this will be an important gift.

Fast, feast and hold to ordinary fare in between.

Quick thought on the spirituality of exercise. (Give me grace on the female interpretation here. I speak mostly to dads but assume a lot could be applied to moms. Would love to hear your thoughts.)

Try this bedtime blessing with your kids!

Lauren and I are on a week getaway without kids. We’ve never done this before, but we’re at the “hinge year” of our parenting. We’ve been at it for 13 years and in just another 13 all our kids will be out of the house. (We also just turned 40!) So we’re taking a week with close friends to relax, reflect and celebrate. Posting the thoughts I have as they come.

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