type a

last week was full of errands, work, homework, commitments, and just life. by friday afternoon i was totally exhausted and feeling a bit overwhelmed.

some might say i'm type a. i say a is for awesome.

the weekend was also full of more homework, errands, church, commitments, and life. and i was dreading it.

so saturday morning i took a break from all the things i had to do and had the privilege of shooting some christmas photos of my friends' babycakes. you may remember them from their pregnancy christmas shoot last year.

basically we transformed the empty "dining room" of my house into a makeshift photo studio. complete with christmas tree and lights. consider this the sneak peek. you'll have to wait until closer to christmas to see more.

the weekend was busy and hard and exhausting. i took the most epic nap sunday afternoon and pretty much woke up feeling like i had been drugged. but it was also one of the best weekends. full of God's grace and mercy and power.

i can't even begin to tell you what an awesome weekend i had at church. i can't write out in words the joy and blessing of witnessing so many people give their hearts to Jesus. i can't express to you how humbled i am to have served alongside my church as they walked with people to meet Jesus for the first time.

every week won't be hard. every weekend won't be overflowing with activity. but this past weekend was also a gift. and i don't want to forget baby smiles through my photo lens or the look on people's faces as they realized they were loved by God.

fire

I am a summer girl. A summer girl and a city girl but alas summer is finally fading here in North Carolina. Even though I already miss summer, there is something really beautiful about how the afternoon light makes the changing leaves look like the trees are on fire.

I may not get to live in the city. Or in perpetual summer. But I'm grateful for the big maple tree in my backyard that glows yellow and orange like flames.

And um. G may not have expressly permitted me to post the above photo featuring the insides of his nose. But maybe he doesn't read the blog and he'll never know?

Moving on. I've never been a big fan of Autumn. But this year, as I'm challenging myself to be more thankful for the things I've got going on, I'm going to be thankful for a husband who will begrudgingly be my model and for trees that look like fire.

Let's end with a random bit, shall we? Man photos. Hands and fingers totally in the pocket or thumbs poking out as seen above? I think it's totally strange to have a picture where both hands are shoved completely inside pockets. But perhaps I'm wrong. What do you think?

bandwagon

There is something really awesome about joining in. For quite some time I've been a passive observer when it comes to church. I go regularly. I am in a small group. I clap my hands at church and I share my heart in small group. But I’m not part of the movement. I've just been riding the wave.

And for awhile that was fine. God allowed me a season to rest after a dark season with organized religion and church splits and all sorts of other ugly things. But I used that season of rest to become lazy. And when it was time to get involved again, I held my ground and refused to join in. And so it was for years.

Until recently.

G and I decided to join our church’s worship band and after many months dragging our feet, we finally had our first Sunday serving on stage. And you know what? It was good. Not because I sounded awesome and everyone clapped for my mad keyboarding skills. Actually, I made several mistakes and strayed from the almighty click track once. It was good because God is good and being a part of the body of Christ is good. 

Submitting to God’s will for your life is sometimes really hard. But not submitting will wear you completely out. I felt more full and rested after a long Sunday at church than I had so many other weeks of sleeping in and sitting through one hour long service. And it’s hard to juggle work, school, worship band, small group, marriage, friends, and family. But God gives you the time for all the things he’s called you to.

And that is all the time you need.