April Photo a Day

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B & R Week- Day 4

Okay so I can really only claim to be on day 2 since I had leftovers in the refrigerator to eat on Sunday and Monday. However, this is HARD. What a lesson in how incredibly spoiled I am! I had been approaching this fast as more of a way to make sure I eat what I have instead of going to the vending machine at work and getting a snack or going to the grocery store and buying something to make when I already have plenty in my pantry. Last night my mom, my sister, and I went to Last Wednesday church service and I kind of felt like maybe I was taking the easy way out. Of course I didn’t go to the grocery, I wasn’t taking my occasional trip to Dunkin. I wasn’t eating out at lunch like I occasionally will. Certainly no trips to Starbucks, but I had so much food in my house to eat off of it just really wasn’t feeling like a huge sacrifice, I was just doing something I should have been doing all along. So I started eating beans Tuesday night, had some left overs Wednesday and now it’s beans and rice from here on out.

The dish I made last night is gross, really gross.  Maybe because I don’t particularly appreciate the taste of beans, at all.  But I have a pot of it, so how big of an A-hole would I be if I threw it away?  That would completely defeat the purpose of this assignment.  So guess what, I might be starving enough to eat my chapstick, but it doesn’t matter that will be lunch and dinner today and possible lunch on day 5.  This is how people HAVE to live, what a way to appreciate what you have. 

I got to work this morning and there were donuts on the table and cupcakes. If you know me you know my live for cupcakes. These weren’t just any old cupcakes. A woman in my office, every Easter, makes little cakes in the shape of an egg and then dips them in white chocolate (my heart literally hurts talking about this.) Anyway I came in the donuts were there, I picked one up, thinking “I didn’t buy these!” I took two bites and the guilt started to sink in. This is not a sacrifice. So after a very elaborate argument with myself I gave the donut a new home. Then I noticed the cake and thought okay if I don’t eat that, that is a huge sacrifice for me.

Moral of the story, I am so spoiled.

 
Things I’ve learned about myself so far:

• I will skew anything to make it sound better
• I hate doing hard things
• A huge sacrifice for me is passing on a cupcake

I appreciate this fast, it’s teaching me a lot about myself.

Photo a Day - In the Mirror

March 28, 2013

mob

I secretly want to be involved in a flash mob.  I understand the ironly there, 1. flash mobs are a secret and 2. i just told you the secret that I want to be in one.  They just look like a really good time.  I looked on a website where you can find them around you.  Surprise there are none around here.  I'll keep checking

Judge

Beans and Rice Week

This week Crossroads church has been doing a series called ROI or Return on Investment. We’ve learned a lot of statistics to really show us how blessed we are. How abundant our lives are. We talked about how the richest 1% of the world live. How they open a pantry full of food and ‘don’t have anything to eat,’ how we have shoes for running, dancing, walking, baseball, basketball, swimming, etc. How we give them away before they’re even worn out. We open our closets full of clothes and ‘don’t have anything to wear.’ It was really an eye opener to learn that if you earn at least 34,000 a year that you are among the richest ONE percent in the world. It’s so easy to forget that there are billions of people who have one outfit, one pair of shoes, no running water, no sanitation, no heat, definitely no A/C. And I get upset because I don’t have enough money for Starbucks or a new bigger TV to replace the one I have that already works fine. I needed this message from church, I really did. It is incomprehensible the blessings that I have, the opportunity I have. Sometimes you just need someone to remind you of those things, even though they’re constantly all around me.


So as a closing to this series, as a church we’re all sacrificing our luxury to go to the grocery store and pick out whatever it is we want to eat and replacing it with a sustenance diet. We will be donating the difference in what we would have spent on groceries to bless three different initiatives:

First is an organization called Cincinnati Recreation Foundation Cincinnati Recreation Foundation the money raised for this organization will be used to keep Cincinnati Public Pools open on Sundays when they would normally be closed due to budget cuts.

Second is The Strive Partnership “Recent studies show that preschool is the single biggest factor in a child’s chance of success later in life.” Strive Partnership helps provide quality preschool to more local children

Third is Compassion International, a lot of times people sign up to sponsor a kid, the child gets the good news that they’re being connected with a family who will donate money so they can eat, and then that sponsor doesn’t follow through. We’re donating money to those children as well.

I’ve decided to do this for two weeks. Mostly because I had food in my refrigerator that would spoil and that’s obviously not the point of this exercise, but also because I waste way too much money on food. I go to the grocery every single week and buy whatever it is that I feel like eating that week. I am that person that opens my pantry, opens my fridge and says “I don’t have anything to eat,” to a refrigerator/pantry full of food. So I went to the grocery store and spent $5.57 (instead of about $60,) and will not buy groceries for 2 weeks. Instead I will eat the beans and rice and anything else in my pantry or refrigerator instead of buying more of what I do not need. I’m hoping to keep this practice up from now on. I know it will save a ton of money for me, after my donation at church next week of course.

Check out #beansandriceweek on twitter or instagram for photos!

Photo a Day - In Your Drawer

March 25, 2013

Photo a Day - Up

March 24, 2013

Go Cincinnati Update

Yesterday I got the privilege to meet with the organization I will be serving for Go Cincinnati. I was looking over the paperwork that I needed to, to be prepared for the visit and noticed that I was allowed to bring a wingman (score!) So I asked my mom if she wanted to be my wingman and we made the journey an hour south to Falmouth Kentucky. We will be working with an organization called Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission or NKCAC.


NKCAC serves the community by helping people find jobs and the skills they need to become self-sufficient. It reminded me of a much smaller scale citylink center (with less funding.) This location clearly didn’t have a lot in the way of resources. We were greeted by a very sweet woman, she is the only employee that the Falmouth branch has. Due to budget cuts her only co-worker was laid off a couple months ago. She occasionally gets the help of volunteers, which is great but you can tell she absolutely runs the whole place herself. There were 4 or 5 rooms in the building and we are going to be tasked to move their food bank from one room to another. Luckily they’re food stock is growing and they need more room!

I was really impressed and inspired by what they do. It’s basically a place that anyone in Falmouth to go to for food if they’re going through a rough time. They have no income requirement and it really seems that the people of Falmouth really don’t abuse that fact. You could make enough money to support yourself and if you have any kind of financial difficulties (medical, home, any type of unexpected bills) and go to this community center for a few can goods, baby supplies, cleaning, personal care items, etc if you needed to.

A few years back there were some tornados and flooding in the area and NKCAC made care packages for people and sent them where they were needed. It’s such a small outfit in Falmouth but it has done so much good for its community and communities surrounding them that are in need. I’m so excited to work with them because you could tell how sincere they were and how much they cared about helping people in need. I asked them if they needed anything since I do have a budget to work with for this project and all they wanted was food to stock their shelves to be a blessing to others. I feel like if I donated money myself to NKCAC that money would truly go and help families 100%.

I can’t wait until May 18th! I was so nervous about leading a team having never done this before. I am so happy I went with it, I feel like God is showing me what it can be like to be love, to be a blessing and there’s really not a better feeling. There’s really no reason not to. It will be great to help such a sweet woman, a great organization so that they can continue to be a blessing to their community!

I must always remember

Photo a Day - Working

March 21, 2013

Babies!!!!

For the past few weeks my family and I have been meeting every Tuesday for a bible study through Crossroads called Dwell.  I made a post on facebook asking who would do it with me and my family replied.  It’s something to get us together once a week and I love it.  We normally get together to drink and party so it’s good to get together for a bible study.  Yesterday’s bible study was especially fun because my sister-cousin Jamie and her husband Scott found out the sex of their baby!!  I knew the appointment was in the morning but I also knew that they would do something fun to reveal the sex.  I got to my uncle and aunt’s house and they had cupcakes waiting.  She had filled them with the colored icing, it was so cute!  I can’t believe how much I love this baby already, I cannot wait to meet HIM!!!

Photo a Day - Clean

March 20, 2013

New obsession

I absolutely canNOT get enough of these videos.  My sister got me hooked on Saturday Night Live again.  I had watched it back in the day, and when a lot of my favorites drifted off the show and into the movies I stopped watching it.  Let's not forget too that in my early to mid 20's I was never in the house on a Saturday night to watch it either.  My sister pointed out that from 2005 until last year Kristen Wiig was on SNL and I love her so why not check it out on Netflix.  There are definitely some recurring skits that I LOVE, but by far my favorite is Garth and Kat.  They are HILARIOUS!  They remind me so much of me and my cousin Jamie when we sing and act ridiculous.  They sing holiday songs and improvise the whole way through.  You can tell that Garth (Fred Armisen) starts out a song and makes it up as he goes along while Kat (Kristen Wiig) does her best to follow along.  This one is my favorite so far…

Garth and Kat Halloween

Photo a Day - A Sign

March 19, 2013

Photo a Day - Shoes

March 18, 2013

Photo a Day - Green

March 17, 2013

Photo a Day - 9 O'Clock

March 16, 2013

Photo a Day - Explore

March 15, 2013

Photo a Day - Tasty

March 14, 2013

Photo a Day - Sound

March 13, 2013

Photo a Day - In The Distance

March 12, 2013

Photo a Day - Important

March 11, 2013

First Impressions

This week was my first week serving at Crossroads as a part of their First Impressions team and I absolutely loved it!  I’ve been wanting to get more involved with my church for a while now but always found an excuse not to.  This year is a year of sacrifice and reprioritization (I checked and yes that is a word.)  I went to an orientation a week ago and everyone was so nice.  Today was no different.  I showed up to a room full of smiling faces, coffee, tea, and donuts.  The volunteer team leader showed me around and I learned about each station I could possibly work at on any given weekend.  I was assigned to hold open the door to the auditorium, the door that my family goes into, so I was happy to see them, and be the one to greet them in the morning.  Once I took up the offering I was basically done for the day, but I stuck around since Jenna and I go to the following service together.  It gives me time to journal and then when my family comes out of the early service I can sit and talk to them until the next service starts.  It’s easy and its fun and it absolutely makes me look forward to Sundays!  I’m hoping it will eventually get me involved a little more behind the scenes and at some point I can become a little more involved.

Go Cincinnati

I’m really excited this year for GoCincinnati!  an event that takes place on Saturday May 18th 2013. As described on Crossroads’ website:

“Each year, an army of volunteers impacts our area through service projects in a one-day blitz of compassion. Working with our families and friends from Crossroads and other churches, we show love to hundreds of community and faith-based organizations throughout our region.”


I have never been in town to even be a part of the volunteer initiative but this year I will be in town and I’m excited to be a part of the team! I’ve signed up to lead a team and have been assigned to a Community Center about 40 minutes south of the city.  The team and I will be cleaning and organizing their food pantry and stocking it full of food.  I get to meet with them in a couple weeks to go everything they need.  This is the first time I’ve ever led anything like this so it’s exciting and a little bit nerve wracking at the same time!  The day I received all of my paperwork for the project I was completely overwhelmed but luckily I got a smaller project to start out with.  More to come!

Photo a Day - Faceless Self-Portrait

March 9, 2013

Letters to heaven

I think this year on the five year anniversary of my daddy's passing, I might just send a letter to heaven.

Say yes to the dress!

Today was so much fun!!  My best friend in the whole wide world is getting married!  And today was the day that she said yes to her wedding dress.  We went shopping after church and met up with her mom, her work mom, and her friend Stacy.  She tried on about 7 or 8 dresses and she found the most perfect dress!  Tears sealed the deal and everything.  We had so much fun.  Obviously I can't show hers but I can show mine!  I can not wait for her big day!





Photo a Day - Key

March 3, 2013

Photo a Day - I Made This!

March 2, 2013

Photo a Day - L is for...

March 1, 2013

Late!