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 3151 – You Have No Excuse For Not Reading – repost

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originally posted 2/25/15
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I hate excuses. I hate when my tendency is to make them. Starting an email to someone saying “I’m sorry this took so long” kills me. I hate when people whine and complain and don’t DO anything about it. Seriously, if you hate your job, do something else or be thankful for what you have.

Ok, ahem, let me step down from my soap box and give you some practical tips I’ve used over the last week or so.

A list of tips for everyone who thinks they don’t have time to read:

– Take Facebook, Twitter, whatever off your phone and install/use your ebook reader. When you have the two minutes to kill in line somewhere, pull up the ebook reader and READ.

– Turn off the TV at the end of the day and READ. Want mindless entertainment? There are a ton of books that fit that bill. (But I’ll be nice and not give suggestions.) 😀

– Waiting for someone? Pull out the book in your purse, laptop bag or satchel and READ.

– Fun fact – the average person reads between 40-100 pages per hour. Even if you’re SUPPPPPPER slow and read 10 pages per hour, if you cut out that hour TV show each night, you’ll read a 200 page book in under 3 weeks. If you read your 10 pages every night for an hour, you’ll read about 17 200 page books in a year. If you can read 50 pages an hour, that’s one 200 page book every 4 days…..averaging that, you’re looking at about 90 books in a year.

– Accountability/tracking app – Goodreads. You can find your friends and share books with them, add books you want to read and find books you didn’t know about through suggestions.

– Listen to them! Books on tape are a great way to rack up the numbers. The last two weeks, I’ve gone down to a friend’s house in DC, which is about an hour from Bret’s school. So I’ve been listening to How To Win Friends And Influence People In The Digital Age. It also helps to pass the time of a long drive. This particular book helped me figure out a problem I was facing almost immediately. Great read!

– Read to your kids, spouse, dog, cat, invisible friend.

What’s your excuse? I’ll talk you out of it. 🙂

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Day 3150 – One Of My Favorite Perks Of Bret’s Day Job – A School That Loves Books As Much As I Do

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Last night was the annual literature night at Bret’s day job as a teacher. The school is transformed as recreations of epic lands. From a Wonder Woman set of rooms – where you can build your shield, bracelets, and tiara – and then run an obstacle course – to a Lorax room – to a room where you could read to two dogs – to a HARRY POTTER ROOM! I jumped up and down when I first arrived and saw it. This was by far my favorite room (especially since I’m tearing through the books again). It included bookmarks with quotes from the book, a bowl of snitches (chocolate candies), to a virtual reality broom riding station, to a wizard selfie station. I, of course, encouraged Bret to participate.

We also got to visit the local library’s book mobile, something I’ve always wanted to do. As luck would have it, they had a copy of the movie version of The Book Thief. I’m currently listening to this on the recommendation of another reader. I have attempted to read it SO many times and just couldn’t get into it. This fellow reader had a similar struggle and was also caught up in the audio version. It’s crazy how much of a difference the right reader can make.

I can’t wait for next year’s literature night! Woo!

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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 3149 – Fallback Friday To The Day I Got My Road Trip Book

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I have to say my book, Planning An Epic Road Trip on Any Budget was my favorite to write. I’m so thankful for the community it is has created in my Facebook group. I’m excited for the 22 (ok, 21, I did buy a copy for myself) people who bought my book!

I hope that you have plans to take a road trip this summer, no matter if it’s cross country or just a few hours away. If you need help planning, this little book can help you do it.

Happy road tripping!

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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 3148 – World Yoga Day!

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One thing that I’ve really enjoyed recently is yoga. I happened to find pretty much the best yoga channel on YouTube, Yoga With Adriene. Some videos even include her heeler dog, Benji. Every time I practice with her videos, I grow stronger, increase my flexibility, and just all around feel better.

I used to stay away from yoga, I guess mostly because I’m not big into classes (my little pride monster likes to show up in those situations), and yoga was always this big unknown.

But I happened upon Adriene’s channel a few months back and I have really enjoyed the process of learning the different practices. I have to say, her Yoga for Depression practice has been life changing, every time I practice it.

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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 3147 – When It’s Hard To Be Sober – or – Thoughts On Society And Drinking

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There are times it is hard to be sober. I’ll see a drink that looks like so much fun to drink or I’ll read someone’s meme about drinking. It’s the memes where they are making fun of those who are sober that are difficult. The ones that are especially hard are the ones that seem to say – “it’s no fun being sober. I’ll never be sober, because I’d be boring.” As someone who is now sober, and some days feels alone and not normal, seeing that really makes me feel sad. What also makes me sad, is that drinking alcohol is almost the expected thing to do. “Long day at work? Have a glass of wine. Bad break up? Drink from the bottle.”

Why is alcohol the first thing people go to on the best days and the worst days? Why do we say – “Let me buy you a drink to celebrate!” “I’m sorry to hear about that, tell me all about it over a beer.” It’s the default posture of our culture – grab a drink.

It also really bothers me how TV and movies handle alcohol and addiction. While thinking about this topic, I noticed something on a show I happened to be watching. One guest character was dealing with addiction to drugs. He was shown in a negative light. You almost got happy that the characters were treating him with contempt. “We see you have a problem, we caught you in it, ha ha, you need help now.”

Yet in the next scene, we see a main character having a tough day, when offered the chance, they get drunk. We’re told, “oh, you had a bad day? Let’s drown it in alcohol.” This is shown as a fun and perfectly normal response. Forget about your responsibilities and the fact that your bosses are here, have fun! Thankfully the character does make a mistake and is caught. But it’s still glorified.

If you pay attention to how much characters drink in TV shows, you would think every one of them has a drinking problem. I can definitely look back on some of my drinking days, and watching shows about drinking was a trigger. “Oh, hey, so and so is having a drink, I’d like one too, thank you!” But it would leave me hungover the next day, again.

Is it any wonder people struggle with addictions?

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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