+ we bought an espresso machine several days into the new year + it has proved to be the best purchase of the year for us! we make lattes + americanos + jared gets to live out his love language of making coffee for others. ☕️
• faith is formed in the mundane days. how you walk with the Lord on a random tuesday will reveal how you react to mountaintops + valleys alike.
• learn to be unoffendable. in a world where offense is lurking around every corner, it is beneficial to simply let things go. stop taking everything so personally. in doing so, bitterness + anger have no place to take root.
+ jared + i celebrated eight years of marriage. 👰🏼♀️
• my favorite thing to do to elevate the vibes in our home is to turn on an ambience youtube video. we love this one + the one + this one. it just makes it more fun to have this on in the background, especially when we have company over.
+ at the end of our spring trip to oklahoma + texas, as we were pulling out of waco + headed back to kansas, we randomly decided to extend our trip one more day so jackson could experience the beach! we headed south a few hours to galveston + had such a fun time. it is definitely a trip we won't soon forget. ☀️
• we never truly know what others are going through. what we perceive is not always (actually, rarely) the whole truth.
+ we celebrated two of my favorite days in the neighborhood: fourth of july + halloween.
• rock the bold lipstick. burn the good candle. DNF the boring book. wear what you like. ✨
+ jackson lost his first tooth! (and then three more, including his two front teeth -- just in time for christmas).
• today’s culture will tell you the church can be anywhere except the four walls of an actual church: your living room, the coffee shop down the street, hey- i have also read where someone claimed the beach was their church. they have it all wrong. what i have come to learn is the church is a lifeline of a believer. community, worship, preaching from scripture — it is vital to the christian life. some of my deepest wounds have been from those in the church, but i have lived long enough to know if i let bitterness have an inch, it will overtake my life. so i forgive + i show up each sunday + each wednesday + i get to live out my faith with other believers like the Lord designed.
+ on my birthday trip weekend, jared caught the biggest fish of his life! i am so, so happy i got to experience it with him. 🎣
• i discovered, through a book, that after years of wondering why my eye color is different, that i have a condition called central heterochromia. it's a fancy word for having a different color near the border of my pupils. 👁
+ jared + i joined the youth ministry staff at our church.
• if you only turn to God when circumstances in your life are hard, it is likely you are not trusting in Him, but in your circumstances, when life is good.
+ i read 35 books this year. see the list here.
• a beautiful blessing to come from this year was the gift of friendships. i am so, so grateful for the deep relationships that were formed + the new relationships that are growing. to have a friend, you have to be a friend. this has not always been the easiest thing for me, but what a blessing from the Lord -- to bring people in my life (and some, out) this year.
+ in what can only be the Lord, i accepted a new position at work. i was promoted to a staff accountant. the story is a beautiful reminder that He is in all the details of my life.
• i made a conscious effort to live slower this year. while i said yes to a lot of opportunities, i also said no, in favor of rest. most saturday mornings were filled with reading + scripture + no plans. we made our home cozy, so that it was a place of rest + not chaos. there is a balance in this process, and i really feel like i nailed it this year.
+ i journaled every day of the year in my hobonichi. it was such a fun practice!
• my faith in the Lord grew + stretched this year. there was spiritual warfare + highs + lows. by His grace + with a grateful heart, this was a big year in my faith. He is jehovah jireh.
+ i took 83752903 photos of flowers. i ate way too many honey pimento cheese chicken sandwiches from chickfila. i drank many cups of good coffee. i wore a sweatshirt at least 90% of the year. i had the most wonderful day when it snowed nine inches. i played wordle every. single. day! i took a lot of walks in our neighborhood. i stopped to marvel at His creation many times, whether it was a sunrise or a flower or the sound of the rain on the window or a hug. tears of joy + tears of sadness were shed. i said i love you a lot. i said i'm sorry a lot. i celebrated the little things. i romanticized my life. this year was a gift, even with all its sorrows, because i got to walk with the Lord each step, each day. He is good, not because of His gifts, but because He knows no other way to be.
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