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 3131 – Southwest Credit Card And Rapid Rewards Tips – repost

Posted on February 5, 2018 by 365 days of marriage

One thing I’m doing in the next few weeks is figuring out how many points we’ll need for our next Cali flight, then I can figure out how to get those points. Check out some of my tips below.

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originally posted 4/18/16
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We absolutely LOVE Southwest, the credit card and rapid rewards program. Seriously. We are not paid to say this! Though, people have asked if owned stock in them. Which wouldn’t be a bad idea! I love talking about travel and saving money (check out yesterday’s post on cross country travel for more on that!)

I wanted to share a few things with you!

First, there is a promotion going on where you can earn a nice bonus of miles:
If you’re interested in getting the Southwest credit card, let me know your email address and I can send you some info. There’s a promotion right now where I get 5,000 miles for everyone who signs up and hits a minimum. If you spend $2000 in 3 months, you get 50,000 miles, which is enough for 2 round trip tickets. We’re big fans of Southwest. We’ve gotten to fly almost free ($22 in fees/taxes), almost all the way to Cali to visit Bret’s family 3 times because of the cards. (We have two accounts with them). We’ve used the card for a while now, I’m able to pay it off online immediately (I’ve seen credit cards where you have to wait until it posts to the account before you can pay). lol, how else can I say I’m not trying to sell you something, we really do love Southwest and their credit card.

Tips to get more miles!

If you don’t have it yet, sign up for rapid rewards through Southwest. It’s free. I tell people, think of this like a grocery store’s membership card. And the credit card is like the store credit card.

First, log in to Southwest.com and check out the following:

Companion pass
Click on Rapid Rewards
The first window should show Snapshot. This is where you’ll see how close you are to a companion pass. It does look like it’s cumulative, but it’s only in one year. I haven’t hit this yet, but if you get a new southwest card and get that 50,000 AND follow some of these tips, I wouldnt’ see why you couldn’t get to the 110,000 miles.

Promotions
While logged in still, click on the promotions tab, you’ll see current deals.

Rocketmiles
You can book hotels through here and apply them to your Southwest card. They may be double/triple. Your first stay will give you a bonus 5,000 miles (not sure if that’s a constant promotion or not). Each night will give you about 1,000+ miles. These hotels cost a little more, maybe $20-30 more than we typically spend, but when we’re getting essentially $1000 worth of miles, it’s no biggie.

Dining rewards
Sign up here, you can attach up to 5 credit cards (don’t think they have to be a southwest card, but I haven’t tested it out). The points won’t count until your cards are attached. You’ll see that you can write reviews and get more points. The first time you go has a huge bonus.

A whole bunch of tips here!

A ton more ways to get bonuses can be found here.
Click through the different areas at the top – Travel, specialty, home, etc. e-rewards is found under Specialty – it’s an easy/free way to earn miles.

e-rewards
This is an easy and free way to earn miles. This is a survey site. Once you get to $100 worth of “survey money” you can transfer them to your rewards account. Last time I checked, $100 = 1000 miles! I haven’t done this in a while, but when I was, it didn’t take long at all to get to $100. This is a great thing to do while watching TV or waiting in line.

Do you have any good tips for quickly earning miles?

Thanks to Tif for my favorite airport picture, ever.

day_00793b

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Day 3130 – How To Find Joy When You’re In The Middle Of Your Story

Posted on February 4, 2018 by 365 days of marriage

I have to say, this week was just amazing. From spending hours learning lots of things, to realizing a TON of things about myself, to communicating with absolutely amazing people, it’s been a full week.

One thing that seemed to come up a few times was being in the middle of your story, whether it was conversations or seminars. It’s hard to be in what I’m calling “the middle of the story.” You know what I mean – the times when you can’t see the finish line, when it looks like there’s no way the bills will be paid, when it feels like you’ll be stuck at the job forever. But it also struck me that we are ALWAYS in the middle of our story. If you are alive, you are in the middle of your story, no matter what. So there should be some solace knowing there are still things to come.

Ok, so we know it’s the middle of the story. There is still more to come. But how do we find joy where we are? Here are a few ways I try to find joy.

– I remember how far I’ve come. I’m a big believer in tracking your progress and having a record of what you’ve already done. I love looking up at my daily checklist and seeing my consistent showing up in a few areas. Some days it’s super small steps, but each day is a step. Facebook’s On This Day has been a huge source of remembering the past for me. I can see what I was talking about, complaining about, wishing about, etc. I can see pre-Bret Jennilyn looking for love, I can see pre-engagement Jennilyn wondering if she’d marry Bret, etc. Ha ha, I can also see pre-minimalist Jennilyn versus the minimalist Jennilyn of today.

– I take time to celebrate the things I HAVE done. It can be so easy to wish for things we want to do. I want to visit all 50 states. I want to travel here. I want to buy this thing. But if I take a few minutes to remember the places I have been, the experiences I have already had, and things I have bought, I’m blown away by the sheer volume of them.

– I try to stop, and enjoy where I am TODAY. Not tomorrow, not yesterday, but today. Whether it’s “I am having an AWESOME and productive day!” or “I am having a terrible day and I need a nap.” In both cases, I embrace what I’m experiencing, and celebrate my growth. My past self used to work way too hard and was way too hard on herself for not meeting unrealistic goals. My current self has gotten a lot better at self love and letting poor tired Jennilyn take a nap or take the day off.

– I remember that every moment is a chance to start over, to change my perspective about something, to enjoy the fact that I may not see Mordor yet, but I’m on my way to the mountain and will get the one ring there.

How do you find joy in the middle of your story? Let me know in the comments below.

How To Find Joy When You're In The Middle Of Your Story #middleofthestory #hardtimes

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Day 3129 – An Important Lesson – Rest

Posted on February 3, 2018 by 365 days of marriage

Today I am definitely recovering from a pretty full week. After watching all of the amazing speakers on The Sales That Don’t Suck Summit, my body is so done. From a crick in my back, to numb arms, to pains all over from spending way too much time in front of a computer. I have said multiple times to myself – “self, I’m going to give you a break this evening/weekend” but in practice, I keep working on the computer, I keep pushing the sore parts of my body.

So, how does my body respond? Well, with the beginnings of a migraine, and somewhat of a fuzzy head.

One thing that I have learned over the last few years is the importance of actually listening to your body and your gut. There are times when all you need is to listen to what your body is saying – if I’m cranky, maybe I just need a nap and/or a sandwich. If I have a bad feeling (i.e. a gut feeling) about a situation or a person or a business opportunity, maybe I don’t do it.

In an effort to listen to my body, I’m going to try and avoid my computer this weekend (beyond things I HAVE to do….ah how easy it is for the need to work to sneak back in!), I’m going to read, I’m going to sleep, I’m going to rest my poor muscles.

How are you resting this weekend?

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Day 3128 – One Of My Best Experiences Was Right In Front Of My Face And How You Can Experience It Too

Posted on February 2, 2018 by 365 days of marriage

Eight years ago, we were drowning in debt, I was working a job that was not the right fit for me, I was struggling to build a photography business, and I really wanted to travel. It was the second Christmas Bret and I were married and we were hoping to visit his family in California. We had flown the year before, and friends, as I’ve written before, flying to California is a LOT during the holidays. I’m so thankful for Southwest and our many free/cheap flights over the years, but I hadn’t discovered this magic yet. When we started to do the math, and look at the time off we could both get, we realized that driving might be an option. It turns out that it was really affordable to drive across the country instead of flying. There is the time factor, you have to take off work (thus not make money, unless you get vacation time) and spend days in a car. But we did it, only stopped at a few hotels, and got our visit.

Here’s the thing though, we got to take a cross country trip! We did something together that people sometimes only dream about. To us, it was a way to save money, to make it work with what we had. But as it turns out, we were able to see eight states on that trip. We were able to spend days together. We took a totally epic road trip.

We used this technique two more times for Christmas visits until Bret started a full time teaching job. It wasn’t until our 2016 summer road trip that I realized I had learned a really valuable skill – how to take an epic road trip on any budget. I learned so much the hard way (and some the easy way) that I could use to help others take an epic trip as well.

It seems to me that people don’t realize how easy and affordable it can be to take a road trip. I figured out a sample budget for a trip from Baltimore to the Grand Canyon for two people under $500! While I haven’t taken that exact trip myself, I have gotten coast to coast for under $500 in gas (for my 2016 trip…but that was not a straight coast to coast, ha ha, we went all over the place on that one!)

There’s one phrase that I hate to hear when I tell people about my cross country travels – “I’ve always wanted to do that.” It seems to be quickly followed by a “I can’t wait until I retire to do it” or “once I have XZY I’ll take it” or “every other excuse in the book.” I want to shake them and say, “don’t you understand? You CAN take an amazingly epic trip on any budget!” Coming from the experience of paying off a debt of over $30,000 , I know what it means to sacrifice to save. The hard work we put in to get out of that hole really prepared us to plan and save for the road trips we wanted to take.

So friends, listen, it IS possible to take a cross country road trip. You CAN take the trip. I have put together all my knowledge over the years into a book, it’s not long, you can probably read it in one sitting. It will help you plan YOUR epic road trip, so you can be the person that people say to “Oh my gosh, I’ve always wanted to do that!” You can hand them my book (which hopefully you’ve got a physical copy of and have written all over!) and say, “here, this is how you can take one, and much sooner than you think.”

So if you want to take an epic road, get a copy of my book (which includes the sample trip for under $500 to the Grand Canyon), and then I want to hear your story of how you TOOK the trip. (p.s. If you have Amazon Prime, you can get it TOMORROW!)

Here’s us on our first epic road trip at the Grand Canyon.

When are you taking your epic road trip?

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Day 3127 – Doing Things You Said You’d NEVER Do

Posted on February 1, 2018 by 365 days of marriage

How many times have you thought to yourself…
“I would never do that”
“You’ll never catch me doing XYZ”
“Can you believe they 123?”
“I would NEVER stop ABC!”

I definitely have a long list of things I said I would never do, that would never be true of me, that I would never do again. Thankfully, my story doesn’t stop there. I am SO glad that I am doing things or not doing things I would have thought I would always do.

– After a break up with a long distance boyfriend, I said I would NEVER do a long distance relationship again. Thankfully, I did have a long distance relationship (ha ha, and at one point it was multiple countries long distance).

– After different experiences, I said I would never date a military guy. Thankfully, again, that was not the case.

– I thought I could never quit drinking. While I attempted many times to do so, I finally did do that thing I never thought I would/could do.

– I’ve never really liked the MLM marketing systems. I HATE being sold to and not helped (can you tell I’m watching a summit on sales that don’t suck this week?) I hate being sold a product that I don’t need. Last year, I had a need for a good way to change the smell of a room. Through talking to a friend, I was helped by using essential oils. For YEARS I thought those “oil people” were crazy. Like, really, it’s just oil, come on now, calm down. But I got myself set up with a diffuser, and started diffusing lemon, peppermint, and lavender. It smelled great, but it wasn’t until I came upon allergy season and something happened that I was changed. Dudes, as soon as I felt my allergies kicking in, and thought, wait, I wasn’t feeling that earlier, I refilled the diffuser, and I realized that it was actually helping me! Now, this is NOT a buy oils from me statement. I have no desire to do that. But you better believe I’m encouraging people to try it out, no particular brand (though I am a doterra girl), just a “hey, this worked for me and it might work for you.” I’ve also come to believe in the “even if it doesn’t make sense, but it works for you, go for it!” school of thought.

– I never thought I would stop wedding photography, and yet, it was one of the better decisions I’ve made. And a really awesome ride. We met so many great couples and made so many friends along the way. There are days I miss THAT part. Ha ha, and the wedding industry is really really cool. But hey, it meant I could jump out of a plane and not worry about leaving my couples without a wedding photographer (seriously, I didn’t jump out of a plane until a few months after my last wedding).

I never thought I would change in a myriad of ways. But I’ve learned that constant change is the best thing that can happen to you.

What have you sworn you would never do, but did?

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365daysofmarriage

Simplicity in Marriage, Christianity, Travel, Business, Life

Author Archives: 365 days of marriage

About 365 days of marriage

Day 3131 – Southwest Credit Card And Rapid Rewards Tips – repost

Day 3130 – How To Find Joy When You’re In The Middle Of Your Story

Day 3129 – An Important Lesson – Rest

Day 3128 – One Of My Best Experiences Was Right In Front Of My Face And How You Can Experience It Too

Day 3127 – Doing Things You Said You’d NEVER Do