1 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. 2 Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. 3 Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Psalm 105 (NLT)
Today I am grateful for my new iPhone. Collin and I upgraded our phones on the 17th but the phones were on backorder and were delivered on Friday! I LOVE it. It is so awesome and amazing. And a really cool feature is the 8 megapixel camera!! Oh how I love it. It takes such beautiful and clear photos. Mmmm so wonderful. And even before I had my iPhone I was wanting to use Instagram. So you can bet that I got the app and have used it already! I am so grateful for this awesome technology!
1 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. 2 Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. 3 Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Psalm 105 (NLT)
Today I am grateful for a husband who thinks I'm beautiful. I love the look that Collin gives me when he's filled with love just before he tells me I'm beautiful. It's such a nice feeling to be loved like this. Like any woman I am filled with insecurities. I believe whole heartedly that I am fearfully and wonderfully made(Psalm 139). And I know that because I was created in the image of God that alone makes me beautiful; but sometimes it's nice to hear from the person you love that you are beautiful. And I am so grateful Collin does tell me. And the funny thing is, it's the days where I feel so ugly and fat, when my hair is a mess or I hate my outfit that he gushes over me most.
So Collin, thank you for loving me, for seeing the beauty in me and for telling me all the time that I'm beautiful. Those words and your love mean more to me than I can express. I love you, dear!
I love Christmas. I love everything about it. And I'll post more about that later during the month of December sometime, but right now I want to talk about Christmas cards! I love getting snail mail. It makes me so happy to get snail mail and Christmas time is amazing because I get lots of it! Last year was really special because it was the first year Collin and I were married and so we got our own cards!! We didn't get added on to our parent's cards, we had our own. And it was fabulous!
In addition to my love for getting Christmas cards, I love to send Christmas cards! It's such a special way to let people know you care and that you wish the best for them at Christmas and all year through! Plus, I figured if I love getting mail this much I'm gonna make someone else very happy! =D
This year I have the opportunity to be a part of the Tiny Prints Holiday Campaign! I am so excited to have this opportunity because Tiny Prints has wonderful Christmas cards. They have such bright and colorful cards that are beautiful and fun! It's so hard to choose the perfect one. Now I'd like to share with you a few of my favorites that I'll be choosing from!
We're having our pictures taken this weekend so soon after I'll be able to officially pick which card to order! I'm so excited to see how they turn out. And I can't wait to get them and put them in the mail!
Do you enjoy sending out and receiving Christmas cards? Where are you getting yours this year? Do you buy generic ones, photos ones, or are you super crafty and you make your own? Which one do you think I should choose of those above?
1 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. 2 Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. 3 Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Psalm 105 (NLT)
Alright, so I know I haven't updated the gratitude challenge in over a week, but don't doubt my gratefulness! I sure have been grateful everyday! This past week has been so full of awesome things and I've been over flowing with gratitude. But I just didn't have time to update. I was too busy enjoying life and that to me is more important than blogging. =) Even though it may not be as fun for you guys, it sure was awesome for me! But.. I'm back! And here I am updating!
I am so grateful for all the awesome stuff that happened this past week! Last week my grandmother was in town visiting from the Chicago area and so I got to spend lots of awesome time with her! I hadn't seen her in a year and it was great to have her in town and I spent as much time as possible with her. I even took off work one day just so we could spend some time together! And then this past weekend Collin and I went to Ocean City, MD with our youth group for the ALIVE middle school youth conference with our youth group. We had an amazing time with the kids! They were so awesome and the whole weekend was wonderful. Leeland was the worship band and they were phenomenal and the speakers were excellent, too! We heard Runks, Eric Samuel Timm (who is also a painter) and we saw Dave the Horn Guy and Schwinney the stunt bike rider. It was such an awesome weekend and even though it was geared towards youth I think I got just as much out of it as them. God is absolutely awesome and He revealed some pretty wonderful stuff to me this weekend. I took quite a few videos and I plan on making a "review" video of the weekend sometime soon that I'll share when it's done. I surprisingly didn't take very many photos, though I did take a few of the beach while we were there Saturday afternoon. If you'll indulge me, I'd like to share them with you guys!
I hope you all can forgive me for being silent so long but I hope you understand! As much as I love my blog and updating it (it's like a little diary for me) I'd much rather spend my time enjoying my friends and family!
*I know I haven't updated the gratitude challenge in a week and I'll explain more on that tomorrow, but for now, know that just because I haven't updated it does not mean I'm not grateful and everyday giving thanks for my blessings!*
Okay, so have you ever had one of those mornings where it just stinks? You wake up late due to nothing but your own fault, you're freezing cold in the shower, and you don't have enough time to blow dry your hair? That was only part of my morning. When I got out of the shower and finally warmed up I quickly picked out what I was going to wear to work this morning and was so excited about it. I was going to wear my brand new pink tights with a black skirt, white shirt and pink cardigan. So I start getting dressed and I'm pulling up the tights and I get them all the way up but I wanted to pull them up just a little more over my butt. And for those that might not know I do not have a small bottom. It's not big as in wide, it's large as in it sticks out the back of my body a lot. Anyway... I'm only telling you that so you can understand this... As I'm pulling up the tights over my butt I hear riiiiip. I look down at my butt and sure enough there's a HUGE tear in the tights. I was SO upset. I was really, really excited to wear those tights today. So instead I put on my black tights and was instantly disappointed with how drab my outfit now looks. (It's actually not bad and I still like it, it's just not what I was envisioning and in the heat of the moment I was exaggerating how bad it looked.) Then because of this whole tight ripping incident I spent like 5 minutes putting on the pink tights, taking them off and putting on black ones. And 5 minutes may not seem like much but it's a lot when you're running late and trying to hurry.
So I'm on my way to work steaming about how upset I was over my tights and that I'm now going to be a few minutes late to work because of it and I didn't even get to have a filling breakfast when I finally started paying attention to the music that was playing from my iPod. "Happy Day" by Fee begins to play. This was one of the songs that Leeland, the worship band at ALIVE (more about that this week), played this weekend for us. And I immediately just stopped my grumbling and began praising my God. How absolutely wonderful that God knows just what I need to make me feel better. I needed just a simple song as a reminder of how blessed I am and how even though my morning may not have started off the way I wanted it to that this is a happy day!
A happy day indeed!! My sins are washed away. I am forever changed all because Jesus died to save me! Every single day, no matter what troubles or strife I am facing, is a happy day!! A happy day because I am saved and I am free! Hallelujah!! Go and enjoy this happy day!
1 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. 2 Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. 3 Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Psalm 105 (NLT)
Today I am grateful for photography. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to capture beauty in the world through my little camera lens. I've always taken pictures, but I've not always been as into photography as I am now. Over the summer I participated in a 30 Day Photography Challenge hosted by Mary at White Peach Photo and because of that challenge I really got into the art of photography. Ever since then I've been challenging myself and growing and expanding my view of what's acceptable for photographs. And really, everything is acceptable for photography, it's all in the eye of the person with the camera. Art is subjective. Anyway, I've loved following other bloggers who are either professional photographers or just take really awesome pictures. It's helped me grow a lot and I really enjoy seeing all their pictures as well. Here's a list of a few of my favorites!
I am just so grateful that I have those wonderful blogs to view and glean great ideas from. And some of them have photo challenges I participate in and I'm so grateful for the comments I get from other wonderful photographers who have much more experience and are way better than me. It really helps me grow and I love that!
1 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. 2 Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. 3 Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Psalm 105 (NLT)
Okay, so this is going to sounds a little silly and maybe a bit odd, but today I am so grateful for my bathroom. You don't really think about it but how lucky are we to have bathrooms to use? I am so grateful that I don't have to use an outhouse or even just go outside. Having a bathroom reduces the potential for diseases and it provides comfort. Like I said, I know it's silly, but when so many people in our world don't have the luxury of a modern bathroom, I think it's very important to be grateful for mine! Have you ever thought about it like this before? Do you agree with me? Am I just crazy? lol
1 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. 2 Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. 3 Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Psalm 105 (NLT)
Today I am grateful for my church. I have been going to Lexington Park United Methodist Church since I was 4 years old. My parents started attending then and so I grew up in the church and have stayed there now that I'm an adult. I have my roots in this church. But I'm not still there just because it's where I've always gone. Our church is so full of life and has such a focus on making disciples. My church family is extremely generous and there is no shortage of volunteers for most tasks. Our church has the reputation of "The church that helps everyone" because we have such a strong relationship with helping the community and the homeless. I am so grateful to attend this church and be surrounded by such a wonderful body of Christ.
1 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. 2 Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. 3 Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Psalm 105 (NLT)
Today I am grateful for books. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to read as much as I want, when I want, and what I want! I absolutely love to read books. This morning I finished my second book to review for Booksneeze and this one was called Softly and Tenderly by Sara Evans with Rachel Hauck.
This book was actually really good. It was a much different genre than the last book I reviewed and it was right up my alley - Christian chick lit. The book is about Jade who is happily married to her husband of two years. They are struggling with infertility but other than that, life is good. Jade runs two successful vintage stores and her husband Max is a lawyer at a very successful law firm owned by his family. Her relationship with her mother has been restored and they're making up for lost time, enjoying being together. And she has a close bond with her in-laws as well. Then Jade finds out that her husband, Max, has an illegitimate son and he wants her to help raise him. This turns her world upside down and she doesn't know what to do. So when her mom wants to go back home to Iowa because her health is failing, it gave her the perfect opportunity to escape for a little while to clear her head and think things through. So Jade, her mom, and her mother-in-law road trip to Iowa and spend some time on the farm where Jade grew up. While there in Iowa Jade begins to struggle with and question everything she thought she knew. She struggles to figure out what to do with her future. But while there Jade also begins to rely more on God and begins to see her future through His eyes and that her past does not dictate her future, God does!
I really enjoyed this book. It was full of real-life sceanarios that people may face and I felt like I could really connect to the characters. I may not be able to relate to the situations in their lives but I was invested in their lives. I felt like I knew them personally and was rooting for Jade and her relationships. The book was very well-written and it kept me captivated. I literally did not want to put this book down and read it in two days because I unfortunately could not read every moment. I am excited to read other books by Sara Evans and Rachel Hauck. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone to read. It's a great book about the struggles in life and how God can work through those struggles to make you stronger and better. Definitely something worth reading!
Cindy
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's guidelines.
1 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. 2 Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. 3 Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Psalm 105 (NLT)
Today, I didn't take any pictures of what we were doing, but you know what, it didn't matter. I had a wonderful day and I am so grateful for the low-key evening that Collin and I were able to have at home. Life can be busy and hectic. I am grateful that Collin and I were able to just sit at home tonight watching tv and playing video games. It was a delightfully lovely evening!
Do you ever have these evenings? Ones where you just relax at home and snuggle with the one you love (or with yourself if you're single!) Which do you prefer? Ones relaxing at home or ones where you're out and about doing stuff? I do enjoy both and honestly I don't think I could choose one or the other. I need an mix of both. But tonight just happened to be a night where I needed to stay in!
1 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. 2 Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. 3 Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Psalm 105 (NLT)
Today I am grateful to live in a free country. I am grateful to be an American. I know the our country has its issues and I'm not getting into that here, but put aside all the financial and political troubles we're having and we're very lucky to live in this country. Collin and I went to D.C. today to be touristy and we took a tour of The Capitol building and though I'd learned about the history in school, watching the video at the beginning of the tour on the history of our country and the history of the building just filled me with such pride to be from this country. We are very privileged here and it's because of the hard work of our forefathers. Have you ever taken a tour of The Capitol? If not, I highly recommend it. It's very beautiful and you'll learn about our country's great history and different things that took (and take) place in the building!
After we were done with our tour of The Capitol we walked through the tunnel that connected The Capitol to the Library of Congress and walked around. It's a really cool place, too! Very much touristy in the parts we saw but that's because it's what is open to the public. I was absolutely in awe of the Reading Room. My only wish is that I could have gone into the Reading Room. It's been a dream of mine since I was a child. One day. I just need to come up with a project and a need to do research in there and then I can go!
After leaving the Library of Congress we hopped on the Metro and over to the American Art Museum to see just one thing.
That is the most amazing piece of artwork. Basically it's this colorful wall/floor display and then there's lights that are continually changing colors and directions that are shining on the display and it's creates the most amazing colors display. And it's absolutely incredible. The colors in the display are brought out and "hidden" by the different lights that are shining and it's just awe-inspiring. If you're ever in the American Art Museum, visit the Contemporary Art room and see this exhibit. Collin and I spent about 20 mins just staring at it yesterday. Our first time seeing it (a year ago) we watched it for about the same amount of time.
