Where Have I Been?

So, I've been busy once again. I say it every time I blog. You probably expect to hear it now. You may have stopped reading or even checking this blog - I am just that predictably slackerish. Well, this time I have something to show you that proves my hitherto alleged busyness. Click on the banner and check it out!

 I did it.. finally... I started my own photography business. CHECK THAT OFF THE LIST! Ha, kidding. Clearly, "starting" something doesn't also/always mean "being successful" at it. We all know that a business of any kind takes more hard work, learning lessons the hard way (too bad I already have a habit of this), pain, loss of sleep, possible loss of cash, blood, sweat, and tears than we could ever imagine. So far the Lord is really blessing it. I have watched Him open doors even from the beginning of my thought process about starting it. I constantly give it up to Him and know, deep down, that it isn't worth it to put time and energy into if He isn't leading me and opening the doors. Throwing myself at said doors to try to get them to open will never work. Bottom line: I am not trying to make this a million-dollar-money-maker. YES of course I will put my best foot forward into every ounce of energy I do put into it (I'm too tired for proper grammar - I hope you can forgive me!). At this point, I am moving forward and seeing what God wants to do with it. I'm excited and having fun and trying not to freak out when people actually like my photos, my style, and want me to take their picture. #HELP.

I knew this was well over due, so I wanted to share before falling asleep in my comfy chair. I'm exhausted, so.. goodnight.

Oh... check the blog above frequently... I hope to have new photos up often!

Okay really this time.. Goodnight!

Happy 4th Birthday To My Little Monkey!

My little ray of sunshine turned 4 today. FOUR. 

Four going on fifteen. 

I got stickered this morning. I wore them all day in honor of her birthday. I got a lot of weird looks...
I think at first glance it looked like I had a sleeve of tattoos.
Deep down I thought they were cool. 

We had a lovely Easter party at Abby's house,
and she made the most amazing  cupcakes to celebrate Audrey's birthday. 

I told her she should start a business doing this.
She has such style... these were classy cupcakes!!

New birthday sunglasses! Her last two pair didn't last more than a day. Let's hope these last.. they are super cute and she LOVES them. 

Happy birthday girl!

All in all we had a wonderful day. I think (I hope) she really enjoyed her 4th birthday. There is so much I want to do for her, so many things I want to take her to see, so much I want to buy for her, but with the way our finances are, there wasn't a lot we could do this year. We did, however, have a fun day of mommy/daughter shopping with what money we could spend. She picked out her own gifts, and we even got to buy a few pairs of new sandals for the upcoming warm weather. Check these out (terrible picture I know. SORRY! I'm sure you'll see more pics of her in them soon.)

Then we met daddy at Rita's for a yummy frozen treat. All in all, a good day. :) Love my girl so much.

So, if anyone actually reads this or has checked lately, you'll know I'm back to blog slacking again. I can't help it. I have been so busy and out of the house so much that when I am home, all I want to do is sit around, play my computer games, or clean up my house which has somehow turned into a tornado zone while we have been out. Blogging is TIME CONSUMING. At least for me. I want to blog about stuff that people might actually enjoy reading, so I try to put some decent time in. But anyway... something else that has been eating up my time (in a good way) is writing. I am FINALLY back to writing. I am deliriously happy bout it too. Hopefully someday soon I will be finished with my rough draft and can really get to editing, and then one day, I'll get to send it to an agent or publisher. Dreams. I can dream, people. Grand, beautiful dreams. Insanely wonderful, out of this world dreams.. okay you get it.

Hopefully I'll blog again soon. Until then - PEACE!! Love ya'll!!

We don't automatically go to God with everything or react to life the way Jesus would simply because we are Christians, saved and transformed by the blood of Jesus. Right? I mean, that's the goal. But the initial act of being saved doesn't suddenly cause us to become as close to humanly and spiritually perfect as we can possibly be on this earth. We have to TRAIN ourselves, consciously and with perseverance. Whaaaaat, you mean God doesn't do all the work? Well yeah, Jesus died on the cross to save us once and for all. And He helps us a ton on the way thereafter. But we have to do our part.

The above excerpt, which I read a few days ago from my favorite devotional ever, (My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers) struck a chord with me particularly because I was born with a vivid, busy imagination. This is such an amazing reminder to me to continue giving glory to God for each and every thing I see.. to TRAIN myself so that my initial reaction is to go to God. I literally find myself stopping in my tracks on a daily basis to admire His creation... the sky, a flower, an amusing conversation or person, a Starbucks.... you name it. What would happen if I consciously praised God for all of these things, more and more often until it happened naturally all the time? Well, I'd certainly be better trained to go to God when things go south - the second I get angry or am presented with something difficult. This same lesson was confirmed to me again at church this weekend, where pastor Steve talked about training ourselves so that our initial reaction to everything is prayer. When Paul says "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:17), he doesn't mean to be on your knees, with your hands folded and eyes closed, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. CLEARLY being on our knees before is a good thing and something we should do, but literally impossible to do all day long. You've gotta pee and eat, for real. He means - have a constant dialogue with God in your heart and mind. Talk to God, bring all things to God.

I love Chambers' "old time" language. He was around in Scotland during the early 1900's, after all. "Then put a stiletto in the place where you have gone to sleep." A stiletto is a type of dagger (I know this because I am a nerd. Don't judge. Nerds are people too. Cool people. Cool, nerdy people.). So, he's basically saying, WAKE UP. GET UP. LIFT YOUR EYES TO HEAVEN. Don't let yourself become complacent and possibly even miserable if you can't hear God speaking. Remember what God has done in the past. Remember how you have seen Him work in your life and/or those around you. More importantly, remember that you serve the Almighty God and that you BELONG to Him. Remember that He can do anything. Ask Him to prove it to you.

Okay, back to the subject. Someone was supposed to smack me if I started getting preachy. Geesh. Bottom line? I want my reflexive instinct to things on the full spectrum of wonderful and ridiculously difficult to be to GO TO GOD, immediately. Will I ever be perfect? Not on this earth. Faaaar from it. Pathetically far from it. You get the point. I wanted to share this because it was exciting to me to hear of an applicable way to train my instincts away from self, stress, and anger. God is good - I'm thankful on a daily basis that He knows our hearts and has mercy on us! I don't know about you, but I could use a healthy dose of "inexpressibly bright hope", more often than I'd like to admit!

Hope ya'll are having a good week so far! I'm LOVING the sunshine today!

Good Day Sunshine!

Mr. sun decided to bring the warm weather again yesterday, which was SO lovely. We got outside toward the end of the day, and this time I took a few pictures. 

She made a "train track" of chalk. 

"You're not drawing mommy... here's the chalk! DON'T YOU WANT TO USE THE CHALK MOMMY!?"

Of course I did. I just like taking pictures more. Eventually I made alphabet art.

The sky looked cool. 

We had a little spy peeking at us on and off. 

He was very chirpy and curious. Methinks his nest is in that bush.

Hope ya'll enjoyed the sunshine!! Now go put a coat on... the cold is back!

60 Degrees in January? YES PLEASE.

I totally wore my rainbows today. It would have been WRONG not to.

Today was a very nice day. A. VERY. NICE. DAY. This day was such a boost to this sunshine-loving-California-girl's spirits. It got up to 62 degrees or so here in central Ohio, quite unusual for the middle of winter. I think everyone around here capitalized on it. Audrey and I descended on the park with some good friends and enjoyed the heck out of it. I should have been snapping pictures right and left, but the kids had runny noses which doesn't make for awesome pictures. Plus, quite frankly, in my excitement to spend time outside, I forgot my camera. GREAT.

I did have my phone with me, so I snapped a couple of me in the SUNSHINE. I just love the word. I could say it all day long. SUNSHINE SUNSHINE SUNSHINE. Ahhh. It was windy too.

SUNSHINE. SUNSHINE! And wind blown hair. 

Thank God for this day. I doubt we will see many more days like this before spring actually rolls around. But here's to hoping!!!!!!!!

Snow Days!

It's COLD, Mommy!!

She LOVES it though. 

 

"Stir Crazy" personified. These long winters drive us crazy. COME ON SPRING! We want to play outside!

Sometimes we contemplate shipping ourselves to somewhere with a warmer climate. 

As I was rereading my prior post, it occurred to me that my ultra-positive tenacity to motivate myself this year may come across as offensive or unfair. Let's face it, life is hard and we must often trudge through difficulties we didn't ask for and don't want. Often it is impossible to dig oneself out of discouragement or a bad spot. Trust me, I know. Thank God for His grace with us and His faithfulness to come to our rescue should we ask. With that said, I apologize if I came across too strongly or put anyone off who actually reads this blog. While it's good to be motivated and to have goals, I can be awfully blunt sometimes, regardless of how well meaning I am. Love ya'll!

My schedule today is quite open. Therefore I am going to try to get some writing done. We'll see if I actually get anywhere! I found a fun frame in which to share a fun quote, after which I decided I must go make more coffee. *nod*

Have a good day all! I hope to post again soon! Time for more pictures eh?