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 3271 – Quick Trip To The Beach

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We had an appointment in Deleware yesterday and it was super close to the beach. We thought this is the perfect time to catch the sunrise and all you can eat crabs from On The Bay Seafood. So we went to sleep a little earlier than normal (8:18) and woke up around 1 a.m. We still did part of our morning routines and got on the road.

The drive down was a wonderful time chatting about our dreams, our work, our growth, our mindset, and our summer. Even after being together for over eleven years, and almost married for nine years, I love talking to this guy. Marriage secret – talk to your spouse about EVERYTHING. It really does make a difference.

We caught the sunrise at Bethany Beach and it was just lovely.

Of course, we had to get our joy face selfie.

After that, we spent a few hours on the beach reading and relaxing.

We had an appointment that morning and then made our way down to Ocean City for crabs.

The drive back was a little slow, but not unbearable (as is sometimes the case driving back from the beach on a Sunday). When we arrived at our exit, Bret noticed a guy getting out of his car to take a picture. We turned around and there was a stunning double rainbow. We pulled over and took some photos ourselves. It was the perfect end to a wonderful day….even if we were awake about 20 hours. 😀

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Day 3270 – Mini Adventure And Knocking Off A Few Summer Bucket List Items Today!

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I’m scheduling this post the night before you’ll be reading it. It’s already late (7 p.m.) because we’re getting up at 1 a.m. We’re taking our first “leave super early to watch the sunrise” trip to the beach this year! I’ll share how everything went later, but I’m excited to break in our new car on his first road trip. 🙂

It’s so neat to decide on things we wanted to do this summer (watch the sunrise at the beach & get all you can eat crabs at On The Bay Seafood) and already crossing them off the list!

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
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Day 3269 – Life Lessons At 30,000 Feet – Or – How It Took Four Hours To Watch A Movie That Was Two Hours Long – repost

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Yesterday into early this morning, we traveled nearly 3000 miles in 12 hours. I was so happy to be back home to our floor. 🙂 We’re such weirdos. Ah well, it’s good sleep, so what if we’re weirdos. Our second flight was about 4 hours and we thought we’d splurge and pay for a movie. $5 got us Jurassic World. I figured I’d watch some TV after, read a book, sleep or play a game. The movie was just over two hours.

After about 5 minutes, it hiccuped. Think of when you’re watching something in an area with bad reception. Now imagine that for 4 hours. I had to keep track of where I was in the movie so I could put it at the right spot after it restarted. But here’s the crazy thing – I didn’t get mad. I didn’t get frustrated. Ok, maybe near the end of the flight when I still hadn’t seen the whole movie, I got a little annoyed. But I realized that every time the movie hiccuped, I looked out the window. Every time I looked out the window, I thought about the towns and cities we were flying over. I thought about all the lives of those people. How many thousands of families, problems, joys, sorrows, and people who may need to know God. I thought about how many people were on our flight and how many stories, families, problems, etc. they had.

Every time I fly, it makes me feel so small. It’s so easy to get caught up in our lives. It’s so easy to not see the big picture. It’s so easy to think you’re the only one out there. Flying reminds me how MASSIVE this country is. How many people there are out there to talk to, pray for and get to know. It also blows my mind how far we’ve come. We can travel 3000 miles in half a day. We can watch movies in the air. It really does feel like magic sometimes.

So while I didn’t get the full experience of watching a movie straight through, I got a pretty cool reminder of how good I have it and to look out the window every now and then.

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originally posted 1/3/16

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
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 3268 – Fallback Friday To The First Part Of My Life Changing Cross-Country Trip

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I posted this on June 23 in 2016 and thought it would be a great fallback Friday post. It’s been a crazy week and I wanted to be gracious to myself and not try to crank out a long blog post.

How’s your week going?

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On Friday, we started the first leg of our journey across the country. Our first stop was a concert in Philly with friends. This drive should only take about an hour and a half without traffic, that day, it took us about 3 hours. Oy. I was not happy.

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So, after a rough start, we decided to give up driving altogether. Thanks to our friends, we got to quit….at least for a few hours. 🙂

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Then we rocked out to our favs – Thrice. What a great show! Both of us were in the pit most of the show.

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But then I decided to move to the front. Dudes, it’s more intense up there than the pit! But I got some great photos!

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It was a really cool venue!!

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After the show, we drove back to our friends’ house. Ok, these two are some of our favorite people. Kenny and Naomi have been instrumental in our relationship and marriage. They are never afraid to ask hard questions and be encouraging. AND they are very hospitable! These two cut up mangoes and heated up chili at ONE in the morning…AFTER letting us take showers. It was a great start to our trip! We love you guys!!

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We drove through the night, both of us drove and got a chance to sleep a bit. We were pretty energized the next morning!

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Ok, well, I was at least. 🙂

Then we stopped for breakfast/lunch near the other side of PA. I’m really glad we did sandwiches in the cooler! It was a great way to save money, an easy fix and quite delicious.

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We made it to Chicago in the evening on Saturday. There were lots of fun things to see!

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We, of course, had to have a deep dish pizza in Chicago!

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On our way to the car, we saw this outdoor concert! Pretty nifty!

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget
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 3267 – What About The Days When You Spill A Whole Cup Of Coffee…On Everything? – World Productivity Day Followup

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Yesterday, I had a nice post about productivity. How I created new lists and got things done.

But then, a few things happened. First, I stayed up wayyyyyyy too late finishing a book, and then couldn’t sleep because I had two cups of coffee around 3 pm. I still go up on my first alarm (one of the current habits I’m building), but for a number of reasons (read that as a long conversation with Bret) I was way behind where I wanted to be. I was just about to journal about some things that were on my mind and in the process of moving things around my desk, I knocked over an entire cup of coffee….behind my desk, on my computer, all over several of my work folders. Everywhere.

My initial reaction was ‘are you freakin’ kidding me?!’ Then it was get this cleaned up fast. Then it was a little bit of humor ‘at least my desk isn’t as dusty now.’

It would have been easy to just toss my morning routine and follow things I’ve set up for myself. I even started to move on and not do the things I planned to do. But part way through the next thing, I decided, no, I’m going to follow my routine. These little decisions add up. My later commitments are after I finish my morning things. It’s going to be ok self.

So when you spill an entire cup of coffee all over your morning, clean it up, readjust, and keep going.

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget
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