Author Archives: 365 days of marriage

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About 365 days of marriage

I started this blog in April of 2011. At the time, Bret and I were wedding photographers and it was a way to share how marriage is more about the day to day and so much more than the wedding day itself. For about 5 years, I blogged about the joys and sorrows of the Christian walk, marriage, work, family and friends. I’ve blogged every day since a few weeks after I started. In May of 2015, we photographed our last wedding. Now, I have become passionate about simplicity, particularly in marriage, Christianity, business, travel and life. For a number of reasons, we have become minimalists. I’ve found that having simplicity makes life so much deeper, refreshing and joyful. I hope that this blog will help others see the benefits of living simply.

Day 2766 – Making The Most Of Your Southwest Credit Card And Getting More Miles Quickly

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I absolutely love Southwest. I’m asked a lot about what we do to earn miles. I was about to write a nice long post about all of those ways and thought, hmmm, I’m going to search the blog to see what I’ve written before. Wouldn’t you know, I wrote this exact post here!

So I guess that’s it for today! Southwest has a great promotion right now where you get 50,000 miles if you spend $2000 in 3 months. If you are interested in signing up, send me an email through my Facebook page. Full disclosure, I would get 5,000 miles if you sign up!

Do you have any Southwest tips?

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
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Day 2765 – New Video About Arches National Park!

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Curious about our trip to Arches National Park? We talk about one of the biggest disappointments in our travels that lead to one of the coolest experiences we’ve had. If you’ve read our blog, you might remember the story, but we include some video from the trip!

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
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Day 2764 – Yes, That Day IS Seven Days Ahead Of Yesterday – or – I Made A Big Mistake!

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I try to be organized as much as I can. I’m always looking for bigger and better ways to stay organized.

I have a to do list that I update every week that has the Days listed. I’m guessing I didn’t update the days on a week, and I reused a week of days. It took me a little while to find it, but I repeated numbers back in May. I have been a WEEK behind for 243 days! Good grief! But we are all up to date now! Today is 2764 Days of Marriage for Bret and Jen!

Have you ever made a big mistake like this?

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Day 2763 – How To Turn A Terrible Day Into A Great Day

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The past week has been one of the better weeks I’ve had in a really long time. Lots of things are clicking, new habits are forming, I’m super positive and motivated, I haven’t struggled with depression/sadness/downness too much. I’ve been meeting my goals. It’s been fantastic.

Until this morning.

Friends, I have a deep down angry side. It doesn’t come out often. But when it does, watch out. This morning, Bret asked me to print something for him. It didn’t work. I started throwing things (mainly because they were on top of the backup printer), I said lots of bad words (and I’m not talking “shut the front door”), and after Bret left (without the needed print), I was still seething. Just plain angry.

I’m big into trying to figure out the why of things – why did I snap? Why am I down? What was my trigger? Etc. I’m pretty sure this morning was just about the printers giving me trouble. But I knew I had to snap out of it. I do have jobs to do after all. One of the things I’m trying to do is have quick responses to my consistent negative thoughts. For example, when I stress about money and think no one will ever pay me for anything ever again, I have the total that I made in wedding photography over the years. The other day, I created a playlist on Spotify with some of my favorite and most uplifting songs. I also have a ton of quotes surrounding my workspace.

So while I was stewing in this anger, I thought, I HAVE to get this under control. I did some stretching/yoga, took a shower, and had a cup of coffee and put together a digital puzzle, while listening to my playlist. As I listened, I started to sing along. I found myself thinking of ways to handle work tasks and projects I have on my plate. I added notes to my to do list. I felt joy rising. I felt encouraged. I am so thankful to past Jen for putting these things in place. I am also so thankful for Rend Collective and Thrice for songs that feed my soul and set my heart ablaze for life and Christ. Bring it on day!……not really, leave me alone day! 🙂

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Day 2762 – Road Trip Book Preview – How Do You Stay Entertained On The Road?

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I’m SO excited about my next book, all about planning a road trip across the country. This is obviously something very close to my heart and I just love giving advice about travel. Part of the book will be a frequently asked questions approach. I wanted to share one of the questions and my answer. If you have a burning question about planning a road trip, let me know below!

Disclaimer, the links to books below are affiliate links. This only means if you decide to purchase the book, we’ll get a percentage. We ONLY share links to things we have personally listened to and recommend.

How do you stay entertained?
One of the most entertaining things we do is listen to audio books. If you have multiple drivers, I would recommend being organized with the audio books. If you are able, use two different audio players. For example, we have two iPods, so we put my books on one and Bret’s on the other. That way, when it’s my turn, my book is already queued up.

Make sure you listen to part of the book before you leave! I’ll listen to about 3-4 minutes of a book to see if I like the author’s voice and if they’ll keep my attention. Biographies read by the author are really, really fun. If you can find one where the author took a road trip, even better. We happened to listen to a biography during our 2016 summer trip, Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox, and he author talked about a road trip he took with his son and wouldn’t you know, it was on the SAME route that we were on!

On a smaller road trip, I didn’t take my own advice of listening to a few minutes before I left. I ended up with a book that was very interesting, but the reader’s voice was very monotone and wasn’t helping to keep me awake. Unfortunately, it was a night drive and the only book I brought.

Some of our favorite audiobooks have been – The Hunger Games series, the Harry Potter series read by Jim Dale, Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox, As You Wish by Cary Elwes, Wildflower by Drew Barrymore, to name a few!

We sometimes take a book of questions to ask each other. Writing prompts books are great for this. Or books that ask “What would you rather” or “What if?”

If you will have kids with you on the trip, know what keeps them occupied. Make a game out of the drive – count how many of blue cars we pass or have a bingo game. If you’re traveling in more barren areas, make sure to have bingo for that area.

Bret and I play the alphabet sign game where you call all words from signs in alphabetical order and you can’t repeat other’s words. So it would go like this (note, this is for example purposes only, obviously these signs would be thousands of miles apart:
Jen – Albuquerque! Buffalo Wild Wings!
Bret – Alexandria! Baltimore!
Jen/Bret – California! (whoever says it first gets its)

This is a great game, but it can be terrible if you’re in a stretch with few signs and buildings. I recommend the alphabet sign game near big cities and would you rather/what if games in wide open drives.

Another game we play is the alphabet volley game with movies/entertainment/actors. You have to say a movie/insert category here, the next person uses the last letter of the previous person’s answer.
Jen – All Dogs Go To Heaven, Bret – Next, Jen – Time Cop.

We change the rules depending on how long we want to play. Sometimes it’s just movies, other times it’s a huge realm – any actor, movie, tv show, etc.

Another way to stay entertained is having a good mix of music that you love for the times you want to enjoy the drive. Sometimes you’ll want to focus on what’s around you and not have the distraction of a story. I have a few playlists that I just love for my “thinking and driving” portions.

What about you? How do you stay entertained on the road? Do you have a question about planning a road trip? Let me know below!

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(Note, you’ll notice Yes, Please in this picture. I did listen to part of it, but had to stop it. It was funny, but a little too crass for my tastes.

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel