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 3156 – An Unexpected Day Off

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Today, we were going through our normal morning routines. I was in the middle of one of my podcasts, when an alert came through both our phones – “Schools Are Closed Today.” Bret wasn’t near his phone and I looked at him with wide eyes and showed him the phone. We ended up doing something akin to a sumo wrestler/tough guy “YEAAAAAAAAAA” exultation. There was excited fist raising, high fives, and us voiced our shock at a day off. We were SO excited! Now, there isn’t snow sticking on the ground, or freezing rain, but there is cold, a light snow, and there is epic winds. I was planning on driving for our real estate business today and as I heard the wind howling as I woke up, I definitely had thoughts of “oh man, I do not want to drive in this.” But Bret had said it was ok driving after his morning run at a local track, so I planned on my drive. The first thing I said after our excitement was, YOU CAN DRIVE!! It’s a job we share and have a weekly goal of hours. I was super thankful that he agreed.

Now I feel such a weight lifted and now I am so much more about the day ahead than I was previously. Not only is Bret taking the drive off my plate, but we will be able to actually sit down and watch a movie together. The only thing I’m worried about now is if this crazy wind will knock out the power. Haha, if so, guess we’re having a marathon reading day!

East coast/Maryland friends, how are you going to spend this unexpected day off (if you were lucky enough to get one?)

Us enjoying a previous snow day. 🙂

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Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
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Day 3155 – Plan A Solo Vacation Day! – or – How I Plan My Own Vacations

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I love talking about traveling with other people. I love helping people plan their road trips. I love giving advice on how to have a trip that’s great for you. So I’ve been super excited about this “fun day” – Plan A Solo Vacation Day!

When I first started thinking about this a month or two ago, I thought that I would do something in Maryland or close by. There is so much to do so close to me. I can even drive to the beach for the day. I love living in such a central location.

In January, I read a fantastic book of poetry, The Princess Saves Herself in this One* by Amanda Lovelace (This is an affiliate link to buy the book on Amazon. If you buy it, I will get a small percentage of what you buy and anything else you buy. I only share affiliate links to products I LOVE and have used/read myself). I loved this little book so much I started following her on Facebook and Instagram, which I don’t do often for authors.

Fast forward to me thinking about this trip and I happened to see a book signing event pop up for her new book! I thought, this is totally perfect! It will combine my love of reading AND driving.

When I start planning a trip, I look at things in the area to do, I do random searches to get an idea of what I’m looking at for price, I look at the Rocketmiles site for hotels that would give us bonus miles for our Southwest credit card. A new thing I’m adding into the mix is Govx. I found out about it through looking into tickets for a music festival. It was considerably cheaper than the normal tickets. They offer discounts for current and former military AND local, state, and federal government employees including first responders, fire fighters, police and more. The discounts are across the board, from travel to products, and more. I haven’t used them yet to get anything, but am thankful to have found them. They offer discounts for the Choice Hotels, The Wyndham hotel group and Omni Hotels & Resorts. As well as theme park discounts and more.

I will then look at how far away the destination is. At this point is when I try to figure out my budget and my goal(s) for the trip. How much can I spend on this? Do I want to stretch my money with cheaper lodging so I can stay more days? Or do I want to have an epic experience for less nights in a great location? I figure out what my MUST do’s are.

Then I start working through my spreadsheet (which you can get for free if you sign up for the Journey With The G’s email list) and seeing how I’m doing with what I want to do and how much I have to spend.

At this point, my bare minimum trip will be a drive to the signing the day of, doing some exploring in the area, and driving back. (I’ll try to do some Facebook Lives no matter what I do, so stay tuned.) We don’t really have any money set aside for this as it was a totally last minute idea I had. So at a minimum, I’m looking at the cost of gas, the cost of food, the cost of the book(s) I buy at the signing, and whatever fun little side adventures I find. Bret and I have decided that if we get money back on our taxes or if what we have to pay isn’t as high as what we’ve saved, then I can splurge for a bigger trip. So we’ll see how that all shakes out.

If you want help planning your epic road trip, check out my brief and helpful book – Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget. I use the same methods when planning my own trips.

Have you taken a trip by yourself? What was it like?

This guy was taken on one of my previous solo trips. 🙂

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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 3154 – What Would I Change Or How I Would Do Things Differently If I Could Go Back In Time

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I’ve read a few books recently about time travel and the ramifications of changing the past. During our coffee date this morning Bret and I talked about some of the ramifications of the characters and what they changed or didn’t change. It got me thinking about my past and what I would change.

There are lots of things I think about and how my life would be different if I said yes instead of no or vice versa.

What if I got a ride home the night I was arrested?

What if I didn’t date multiple guys that were way wrong for me?

What if I said no to meeting some guy who lived in California and was getting deployed to Iraq?

What if I knew and accepted that I had a drinking problem sooner?

What if I had actually charged what I was worth as a wedding photographer and raised my rates accordingly slowly over time?

What if I had never started this blog?

But all of those thoughts and conversations lead to the same place and thought – I would not change a thing about my past. Every decision lead to me being who I am today. Every mistake lead to the person I am now. While it can sometimes be hard to live with the consequences of my actions and decisions, I can look back and see how everything fits leading up to this point and I would not be the same without it. I would not value the things that I value if it were not for what I’ve walked through.

What about you? Would you change anything if you could go back in time?

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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 3153 – Thoughts On Rereading Harry Potter

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Last night, I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. When I first read it, I read it in about 24 hours. This time around, it took me four days. One of the main reasons I wanted to reread the series was to read it slower. Some of the better books I’ve read over the years, I’ve read very fast the first time, that another read through is warranted.

It was fun to read this epic story again, especially knowing how it all ends and ties together. You see things you didn’t see the first time. One unexpected thing was that I saw different characters in a different light due to my life experiences since the first read through. Instead of feeling one way about a character and their actions, I found myself sympathizing with them. Further proof that people can change and that things look different with experience and time.

And obviously, I had to wear my Deathly Hallows socks while reading. 🙂

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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 3152 – Starting Again

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Ah, I am totally a list maker who makes lists of the lists I need to make. I am a collector of goals. I am ambitious of a lot.

In some respects, I feel I lost my way, my momentum, and focus on my goals. I seemed to forget that even super tiny progress towards a goal is still progress. Even reading a few pages of a 600 page book is still a step. Even editing or writing one page is still one more page than I had before.

I had a renewed excitement about my goals this weekend, I reprinted my daily checklist to highlight (oh man was I doing poorly with that!) I reprinted our floss journey (I was also not as consistent). This way, I won’t see the failures and inconsistencies of the past few weeks, I will see my fresh start and current consistency.

How can you start again today?

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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