spiral.

Oh, slinky's. You can't go wrong. I'm sure I'm not the only one who had hours of fun rolling these things down the stairs! OK, maybe just minutes of fun. But still.

Anyways, I am SO EXCITED to have some time off of work. And to go to a wedding. And do fun things, like laundry. (kidding, that probably won't get done). Right now, life is good. Always, God is good. Hope you all are well! :)

food fun.

This is a mom-daughter collaboration. Haha. Hope it brings a smile to your day :)

and it was all yellow.

"I drew a line,
I drew a line for you,
Oh what a thing to do,
And it was all yellow.

Your skin,
Oh yeah your skin and bones,
Turn into something beautiful,
And you know,
For you I'd bleed myself dry,
For you I'd bleed myself dry."

-Coldplay; "Yellow"

Park today with Audrey :) After I found my yellow shots, we got to take a few shots of our own by a blossoming tree...

mustache?

haha...love this :)

And that, my friends, is that. Have an excellent day :)

New Challenge

Alright. I found a new photo challenge. Each week, for a month, I will choose a color. For that week I will take as many pictures as I can with that color as the main focus. I got the idea from this website:

http://photochallenge2.wordpress.com/

and the writer was inspired by the video on this website: http://www.snapseed.com/

which, after I watched it, inspired me as well!

Now, the specific challenge on that blog is to choose one color per month and do it for a year, but I'm doing a modification to see how it works out :)

My color this week: yellow. I will post pictures as I take them, and some weeks may have more pictures than others. At the end of each week, I'll compile the pictures together into a collage.

I promise I'll stick with this challenge. Let the games begin!

the right foot.

This is an amazing song. And it is a part of our intro video at church that someone really talented made. I thought it might brighten your day as it brightened mine :)

nameless.

Fear blankets desire
mutes and suffocates,
twists and dissipates.
A longing long forgotten,
perhaps never known.





Frostbitten darkness
Breath escapes in gasps, for heat, for life;
Cling tightly to yourself.
Sky turns from black to gray,
whispers of brilliance emerge
As the sun brings forth
eternal morning.

Redemption.

I woke up this morning unsettled and discouraged. I had a good quiet time, and just prayed that God would somehow just give me joy for the work day ahead. I came across a quote in the book "Practicing the Presence of People" by Mike Mason, and it sparked an idea. I will write something encouraging on a note. So I did...I wrote a couple bible verses. But then I wanted to write it where I could constantly see it...so I wrote something on my wrist. "Overwhelming flood of love and grace ALWAYS." I chose this because I LOVE the image of being flooded with love and grace. Not just spritzed, not just drizzled, but flooded. I always receive this from God, so why shouldn't I let that overflow to others? In a retail setting, I need this reminder ALL the time. And I think I'm going to write notes on my wrist more often! With the combination of a double-shot iced coffee, the surprise of Audrey working, and nice customers, my day was redeemed a thousand times over. God took my expectations of a crappy day and obliterated them...and I am so thankful. :)

Photo Challenge Revisited: Day One - Favorite Food

Alright. It's time to try this again. I don't know if I'll be posting every day or not, but I'll try! Today I got to have lunch with my friend Kirsten, and it was very grounding. She gives me perspective and encouragement when I need it most. We went to Chick-Fil-A...which, as those of you close to me know, is my restaurant of choice. Why the kid's meal, you ask? Well, it's a.) cheap and b.) just the right amount of food for me. What could be a better combo? My new favorite discovery is that you can trade in the toy for an ice cream! Brilliant. You can even get sprinkles...but sometimes even I can't push it that far. Haha. Chicken nugget kids meal + Chick-fil-a sauce (crack) = All around favorite food.

My thoughts are pretty jumbled tonight, so I will leave it at that. But I hope you all have a great night!

For Audrey :)

A wonderful sanity day.

Starting the day off right with lunch in the park.

tea time!

I still love this picture of you a lot! :)

The sweetest cup of tea :)

a memento of chai deliciousness!

steam!

Audrey, I'm excited about how this one turned out. Thanks for taking it :)

Painting time!

blurb

Pretty sure Monet used the same pose before starting his paintings.

Two magnificent pieces of art. The paintings are ok I guess, too. ;)

zzzzzzz

amazing day on Saturday with one of my favorite people, Audrey. no time or energy to post. pictures to come! :)

I think...

...that it's time to start another photo challenge. One that I had tried to do before and never did. The date? To be determined.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

 "There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 a time to be born and a time to die, 

   a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

 a time to kill and a time to heal, 

   a time to tear down and a time to build, 

 a time to weep and a time to laugh,

   a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 

   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 

 a time to search and a time to give up, 

   a time to keep and a time to throw away, 

 a time to tear and a time to mend, 

   a time to be silent and a time to speak, 

 a time to love and a time to hate, 

   a time for war and a time for peace."

leap year.

Went snowboarding for the first time on Saturday the 25th. I don't know why I haven't written about it sooner. Maybe because I didn't fall in love with it like I wanted to. It was humbling, painful, scary, and simultaneously freeing and restrictive. And man, was it a workout. I wanted to be enthusiastic, but it didn't feel like I fit into snowboarding. Even though I knew it would be hard, I guess a part of me deep down wanted to be a natural. Unrealistic, I know...Haha. I think I'd be willing to go again someday though.

Anyways...

Sometimes I'm amazed at how I turn the littlest things into much bigger than they need to be. How I can take the smallest action or occurrence in my day and use it to define my life.

For example. On Monday, I was having an awful day. I was nauseous, still sore from snowboarding, hyper-emotional, and felt on the edge of a breakdown. I was at the register at work later that day, and a customer came up. Now, to give you some background, we have this coupon program that we have to up-sell...and we have to make a certain percentage every day. A "yes" counts for us and a "no" counts against us. We have to get one in every three people to sign up to make our minimum, and a lot of pressure was put on us about this at our most recent meeting. So this guy walks up and when I ask him to sign up he said "sure!" and then when I proceeded to get the rest of his info he rudely said "no" and brushed the inquiry away like it was the most disgusting insect. For some reason that interaction embodied this complete inadequacy that I had been feeling...this coupon program suddenly represented my inability to meet standards in life...and after he left I lost it. Thankfully I regained composure a short time later, but yeah. Ridiculous trigger, right? It was a strange day.

Sometimes I have a hard time dealing with where I'm at right now. Dealing with my purpose, or seemingly lack thereof. When I am reducing my life to the petty moments of my day where things don't work out, I need to check my perspective. I'm thankful for so many people, and so many things. It's a day-by-day, moment-by-moment choice to recognize the good and use it to fuel happiness. And it's not always easy.

I was reading Jon Acuff's blog "Stuff Christians Like" tonight and really liked the post. Part of it was:

"But we’re not promised our purpose. We’re promised God’s purpose. We’re not promised our definition of good. We’re promised God’s definition of good. And in the moment when life crashes down, and our own expectations of what “good” should look like fall apart to ashes, we tend to think God has failed us. Or does not love us. Or that “all things” don’t work for the good, just some things.

The truth, though, is that all things do. How? Because his purpose is exponentially bigger and more beautiful than mine could ever be. He is painting pictures with the universe as his backdrop. He is unraveling stories with generations as his paper. His vision and his ability to define good is so much grander than mine. So when I get his purpose, when whatever situation I’m in works toward his purpose, I don’t get my small definition of good. I get his massive definition of great."

I love that. And it speaks the truth.



Night all :)



P.S. Isn't it weird to think that today only exists every four years? Crazy.