Photo a Day - May

Test

Dealing with a ton of anxiety and it feels like a test, praying that it's all laid to rest before tomorrow night...

Dear friends, don't be surprised by the fiery troubles that are coming in order to test you. Don't feel as though something strange is happening to you, but be happy as you share Christ's sufferings. Then you will also be full of joy when he appears again in his glory. (I Peter 4:12-13)

trust

Photo a Day - Tiny

April 9, 2013

Tiny Poodle Bella

Photo a Day - On Your Plate

April 8, 2013

This was actually a really good recipe, although you might not be able to tell by the picture.

I took one can of grand biscuits, cut them into 4s and put them in the bottom of a glass pan (9x9)
Then put sausage on top (cooked sausage links)
Layered pizza sauce on top of that

And last but not least cheese and Italian seasoning

I cooked it at 400 for about 20 minutes checking it every 5 minutes after 10. The outside biscuits will look done but the biscuits on the inside took longer to cook through.


Really yummy!

Photo a Day - Dreamy

April 7, 2013

This may not look dreamy, but it's coffee, and it's at church, on a Sunday morning where I got to see my family and friends and meet new people.  It's kind of a dreamy type of day for me :)

Photo a Day - Air

April 6, 2013

I Am (a documentary)

What’s wrong with our world and what can we do to make it better?

I watched a documentary last night called  I Am made by Tom Shadyac. I absolutely loved this documentary. Tom Shadyac is better known for comedy (Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty, Nutty Professor) but after he experienced a life changing accident he decided to go around the world and ask famous philosophers, scientists and people in the church and ask them the question above, what is wrong with the world and what can we do to make it better?

I love any story that, sort of, restores your faith in humanity and reminds us that we’re all connected. That life isn’t about being bigger, faster, stronger, richer, or better than anyone else. The documentary tells about how connected we really are, how my emotions can affect the person next to me whether they’re good or bad and whether I’m silent about them or not. How our hearts are stronger than our minds. We are wired to care about each other, that is why we feel pain when we see someone in pain, we experience joy when watching a child reunited with their parent who was maybe away at war. Scientifically we are connected; our bodies are hardwired for this connection “from the Vagus Nerve which releases oxytocin at simply witnessing a compassionate act, to the Mirror Neuron which causes us to literally feel another person’s pain. “ That’s pretty powerful, and we experience it all the time.

Another part of the documentary that really interested me was Random Event Generators or Electronic Random Number Generators. Princeton University started The Global Consciousness Project in 1998, the purpose of this project is to prove basically that our emotions can have an effect on the things around us. These random number generators are like flipping a coin 200 times. What they’ve found is a correlation between major events and the randomness of the generators. The largest example is September 11th. They found that the numbers were no longer random at the time of these attacks, the remarkable part is that these changes in randomness started on September 5th, suggesting that it may be possible to predict a catastrophic world event. The same thing happened to the generators when the Tsunami struck in Japan 24 hours before the Tsunami hit. Their research shows the same patterns in 300 world events both tragic in nature or upbeat, anything that would cause human emotion on a large scale.

For a quick look at information on this click here or for the full in depth study from Princeton click here.

This kind of information absolutely fascinates me. They had done some experiments on Shadyac to demonstrate this idea. They showed how monitoring your heart rate can measure your emotions. Between each heartbeat there is a measurable frequency ( I know that’s maybe not the right word, but clearly I’m not a scientist) that shows whether you are happy, sad, grossed out,neutral, etc. So they would show a picture to Shadyac and measure the reactions in his heart. After a while his heart would show the reaction he would have for the next picture before the picture was even shown to him. Amazing right?

There were countless experiments shown that just really blew me away. I really believe in this type of thought. That we’re all connected, that my mood can affect your mood. That people around me experience my pain as if it were their own, both because we are naturally compassionate people and because we all give off energy that can be read by each other. Honestly if you believe you have a soul, then you believe that you are more than just your human body. Interestingly enough, the book I just finished reading called Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, explored these thoughts as well. In the book Mr. Alexander, a neurosurgeon, that believed in science only, until he contracted an unheard of disease and completely recovered from it when doctors believed there was no possible way it could happen. While he was in a coma he believes he experienced heaven and knew that everyone was connected, that love was the main drive and focus of everything around us. That so much more existed than we were aware of. Funny that I came into contact with these two things at the same time. They’re both hard for me to refute. And I absolutely wouldn’t want to.

Even if you think all of this is far-fetched.  That's understandable, there is so much more to this documentary than a few scientific experiments.  It’s about being the change you want to see in the world, the idea that what you do matters.  What’s in your heart matters, your actions matter.  Compassion is important to all of us, it’s essential to all of us.  Studies show that if your heart is in a position of compassion you will be a happier person.  That’s how we’re made.  We aren’t made to compete but to cooperate with each other.  It truly is a beautiful message.  An important message.

A big part of me just thinks there’s so much more going on around us than we realize and there’s so much evidence that suggests that. Not that I’ll become some lunatic that runs around prophesying about number generators and such, but is it so weird to think that we all have souls and that our hearts are powerful enough to put out energy that effects the things around us? I don’t think so. Is it crazy to think that we’re all connected to each other and have the power to change the world through good deeds and generosity, it don’t think so either. I highly recommend this documentary!

Photo a Day - Something Good

April 5, 2013

What a sweet way to start the work day!

grace

I’ve had a hard time with grace lately. I have 3 situations in my life right now with people or situations that I try to provide grace in. I’ve truly become a person who tries to be completely aware of how my actions can affect another person. I’ve tried to really make sure I watch my words and to try and be quiet when I’m angry or upset. It’s important for me to always remember that you can’t unsay hurtful words. So I’ve been trying my best to always practice grace since I know how much grace is given to me.

I’ve been learning lately that sometimes even when trying to do the right thing, the gracious thing, the results can be pretty hard to deal with. A lot of times you still end up feeling like the bad person. Because even though you think you’re being gracious it’s more than likely not received that way by the recipient. It’s unfortunate that in today’s society, most people need to be screamed at before they understand what a person has been calmly saying to them. I just refuse to be a part of that anymore. Do I get frustrated? Absolutely. I am far from perfect and I see that more and more every day, but I can say that I try every single day to do the right thing. Even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time.

So I say, no matter how hard it is, even if it doesn’t seem worth it, always give grace. I thought about this a lot last night and started reading the Good Book for a little bit of guidance and I found that Jesus always gave grace to everyone and he was hated by many for it. Seems like the right type of thing to be hated for.

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Later today I read The Daily, and this was part of the message

While I haven't been through a huge suffering with it, it is a form of suffering, to try to do the right thing, the gracious thing and feel like you're disliked for it or persecuted for it.  This is only reinforcement that the right thing to do isn't always the easy thing to do.  A message I needed to hear today.  Messages that God gives us all the time, you just have to pay attention to them and listen for them...

Photo a Day - This Happened Today

March 4, 2013

Photo a Day - Something Beginning with A

April 3, 2013

Five years ago today my daddy became my guardian Angel. 

Up on Heaven's Boulevard

I had thought about all of these grand things that I might want to say today. I had this big plan to write something great since my dad has been gone for five years now. Five years. Such a long time. So many things have changed in the last five years. I have changed in so many ways. The bottom line is when you lose a parent a chunk of you is lost with them. Although you carry on, you vow to live out some portion of your life for them, something is missing from that day forward. Something pretty big. And a piece of everything you do is missing.

Every single season, every single event, every single life change can bring back that feeling, that distinct feeling of loss that I endured five years ago today. That feeling can be there around any corner, when I least expect it. However now I'm able to release the tears when I need to and know my dad is out there somewhere, everywhere, still guiding me, still loving me, still there, just like he always was.

I've said it several times and I truly believe I wouldn't be the person I am today had I not learned the lessons I did with this loss. Things like this can make you bitter or they can make you better and I know this made me better. No matter how upset it can get me. Loss of a life in someone close to you should teach you the preciousness of the life still around you. Should teach you the blessings you had in having that person with you for the time that you did. I no longer question why it happened, because I 100% believe we don't just come here to live and die, I believe there is something so much bigger going on that none of us could possibly fully understand. I have much more peace about it than I’ve ever had before. Are there times that I still get really upset and wish he were here? Absolutely. The majority of the time I just know he’s always there. That he’s in this amazing place that we’re all just kind of waiting to get to. But when times get rough and I struggle with not having him here I talk to him, I pray about him, I think about the kind of place he might be in now. How happy he is when he sees me happy, how he probably laughs when I do, and the strength he provides me when I’m down.

I think about the power of love between a Father and his daughter and how not even death can break that. It lives on every single day and I can see it in so many things. I am thankful for the lessons I have learned in the past five years.  For all those times I fell and was picked up again.  For the woman I have become and for the changes I continue to make.  All because I lit a fire with the love he had to leave behind.

I saw the quote below tonight and I absolutely believe this. Because there are certain things that can open that scar tissue and the wound is as big as it was on day one....

This song is one of those things that can rip that scar tissue right off...


Love and miss you forever and ever Amen.

Color Me Rad 5k

A couple weeks back I was skimming through Pinterest as I often do and I saw a picture of a festival that takes place in India:

I immediately wondered if anything like this happened in the United States because it looked like such a good time. As usual I pinned it, and didn’t do any research on it.

The next day a friend of mine posted a link to a 5K run at Kings Island were people throw paint on you while you’re running, I thought it looked fun but didn’t think much of it. A couple days later a friend of mine in Texas had done the run and posted pictures and I thought, that looks like a great time! Then I looked it up online and saw that they use the same powdery colors pictured in the photo from India. The following day my sister-in-law “liked” the Color Me Rad Facebook page and yesterday I got an email from groupon with half off the entrance fee!

Sometimes God pursues us to make us better, to heal us, to teach us a lesson or to help us reach others. But sometimes He puts the same thing in our path a million times so we can go out and live and experience the things that will bring us joy. You just have to listen.

I'm absolutely doing this! Color Me Rad. Time to start training!

Photo a Day - Blue

April 2, 2013

Photo a Day - Play

April 1, 2013

My first time at Red's Opening Day!  Go Redlegs!!