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 1162 – Much Needed Rest

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The sleeping habits of a home business owner are a little crazy….to say the least. Over the past year, I’ve gone through a few sleep cycles. I’m currently on the up until midnight, awake at 7/8. I’ve actually been doing pretty well with this. I’m a little surprised at how easy I switched. (I was on the 3 a.m. – 11 a.m. sleep cycle before) But as soon as Bret came back and started school and working, I got up when he did. I haven’t been napping either. I was wondering when it would all catch up with me.

Today….it caught up today. 🙂

Day 1161 – The Playfulness of God

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Today I started reading John Eldredge’s new book, Beautiful Outlaw. The tag line is “Experiencing the playful, disruptive, extravagant personality of Jesus”

You may remember that the books written by John and Stasi Eldredge have changed my life. Quite literally. One ended a romantic relationship. One opened my eyes to the deep beauty of a biblical marriage. One inspired me to write my own book. All have encouraged my soul and deepened my walk with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Since I’ve been so busy, I didn’t realize John published a new book! Actually….it’s not quite new anymore….just realized it was published Oct. 2011! Yikes!

Anyways, I am SO excited to read this book! I’m only a chapter in, but I’m loving it so far. This first chapter is talking about the playfulness of God. Totally a characteristic we don’t think about often…or at all, really. I won’t share all the cool things I read, you can check out the book yourself! But, I wanted to share one of my stories of God’s playfulness with me.

It happened when I was freaking out about meeting Bret for the first time. I was driving up 95 and trying to listen to the radio and calm down. I’m one of those “HAVE to be listening to music when driving” people….actually, all the time. It makes me uncomfortable when there isn’t any music! So, here I am, trying to sing along….and I just can’t calm down. I turn off the radio and start talking to God….I’m talking the arms shaking wildly at the sky, out loud type. The conversation went like this:
Me – “God! Why are you always putting me into situations where I freak out like this?”
God – “Because it’s easy!”

Here is where I laughed and calmed down for about 2 minutes.

Fast forward a few more minutes and I was talking to my dear friend Kristi.
Me – “Kristi, it’s crazy, tell me it’s crazy!”
Kris – “Calm down, you’re just meeting a guy”
Me – “Ah, thank you, much better”
Kris – “But God’s ways are not our ways…..”

::insert another freak out::

I look back and see how God was just having fun with me. Not in the “kid with a magnifying glass over ants” way….but in the “joking around with friends” way.

I’m so excited to read a book that talks about this side of God! Because I wholeheartedly believe it’s part of who he is and it’s a side that really isn’t discussed enough.

Day 1159 – Playing in the Studio and Jennilyn’s Musings on Prayer

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Tonight we were taking some test shots for a headshot session we have tomorrow. It was a lot of fun! 🙂 Here’s a few of the ones we got…

That last one if my fav. 🙂

Ok! Bret had to take the week off from musings, so I’m filling in!

I wanted to muse on some things I’ve been learning about prayer. One of my obvious prayers is for more work. The past year hasn’t given me as much work as I would have liked. I realized that during the times that it was slow, I learned a lot. It really prepared me for what I would be going through during the busy times. And it got me thinking…I think God does answer our prayers but it’s not always in our time frame or the way we expect. I think part of what really helps you grow isn’t so much when the prayer is answered, but learning to trust that God will use lots of things to make it come true. It’s the old “pray for patience” prayer and then God puts you in a ton of situations where your patience is tested.

Short musings today, but hey….What experiences have you had with prayer?