Free Indeed

The 4'th is special to me. Not only is it the day before my birthday (24 in just an hour!) but it is also one day a year you are encouraged to wear super bright colors and you won't stand out. But this year I have really enjoyed the celebration of freedom. It is an excellent reminder to me personally to pray for those who don't have the same privilege to live in a country with so much freedom. But most of all, I celebrate freedom from sin. 

This is a day I am seizing this year to just rejoice that I am no longer a slave to sin, I am set free by God's amazing power. 

Ephesians 2 is such a rich passage but verses 4-5 are my favorites: God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (NLT)

Romans 6:20-23: When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 8:34-36: “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.

Romans 8:2: And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

We were dead, and He gave us life. We were slaves, and He set us free. Any day is a perfect day to celebrate the freedom we find in Christ. We are free, my friends, and that is incredible. 

One Massive Update

Well, that was massively longer than one month, sorry about there. 

I chose the word Rest as my word of the year after a conversation with my sister. We started asking seriously why it felt so important to get so many things done. We both agreed that there was no reason we needed to make massive goals for the year and try to achieve great things. We both needed a year where we didn't try to do so much. And you know what? It's been lovely. 

I've been doing a lot of babysitting, and hanging with family. My dad helped me install a tiny desk in our greenhouse, so now I have a bit of an outside office where I can write, do Bible time, and paint. That has been fantastic!

One of my only big goals for the year has been to spend more time outside. So I've been spending a lot of time out on my hammock, or on my new Slack Line. Y'all, that thing is the best thing ever. I learned to ride my bike without holding the handles (very big accomplishment, I know. XD) 

It's been a really good year so far, and it's hard to sum all of it up. I got to go to a young adults retreat, we had the whole family together for Easter, and my friend Hannah let me come to a For King and Country concert with her. Rose and Stewart got married a month ago(!!!), I got to see the new Mario movie in theaters, my sister paid for me to pet a Kangaroo (Beyond epic), we traveled to SC and back for a friend's wedding, saw Anastasia the Broadway play, had a lot of awesome Bible Study nights, danced at a dear friend's wedding, got to see my first Marvel movie in theaters, and with my dad so that was epic. I also got to meet my friend Faith in person for the first time. <3

It hasn't all been good, but it has been good. Losing my dog at the end of the year was a blow at the end of a very long, hard year. But I can tell I'm finally adjusting. Life is falling into a new routine. I'm switching to a different schedule for the summer as I try to find more work for my days, but I am choosing experiences over accomplishments, and just really enjoying what God has brought into my life. 

So am I back? Yeah, kind of. Today marks five years since I opened this blog and ten-odd years in the blogging world. Honestly, I don't love it like I used to, so I'm not going to put a lot of my effort into this, but I still might pop in every once in a while with updates. So thank you, even if you don't stick around, for being here. For caring. I'm glad to be here, and I hope to be back soon. 

Please tell me how you've been doing below, let's catch up!

Goodbye to 2022

 Goodbyes 

So many goodbyes 

Another one tonight 

I’m clinging to little things 

Hoping they help me through 

Telling myself I won’t break down

I won’t let this spiral 

I will trust that this is for my good 

And for theirs as well 

And that goodbyes 

Can be good 

But I can’t help but asking 

If maybe 2023 

Might be a year of hello’s  

If at all possible 

Hey y'all, I know it's about time for my highlights post, but I just couldn't bring myself to write it. cliff notes: it was epic because my sister got engaged to a fantastic guy, we had a great family Christmas, my mom gave me a new camera (AHHH!!! =D) and I photographed my first wedding. But then my dog, Luke, got sick and died. I've had Luke since I was eleven, and we saw each other through a lot of rough times. He'd been declining for a while, but these last two weeks of it were awful, and I still feel pretty raw. My room feels pretty empty without him. 

So with that, I'm going to take a break from blogging for a while to just rest and recover. Hopefully, it will just be for a month or so, but I don't know how long it will be. 

See you later, and happy new year!

November Highlights

This was an insainly busy month. I cannot believe we packed so much in and Decemeber is just getting busier. 

This was my tenth NaNoWriMo! Honestly, this was one of my favorite NaNo’s yet. I challenged myself to write 2k a day instead of the 1,667 words you have to, so I was able to take every Sunday off without ever falling behind. It also came a lot easier than I have ever had before. I rarely found myself at a lack of words, just a lack of time. I wrote during a lot of late nights, car trips, and between events. I also got to have a few writing parties with my sister Grace, and my friend Hannah! I came out with a complete Novella, some poetry, and a handful of short stories, including my (apparently annual now) Star Trek Fan fiction! 

I got bored one day at an event, so Rebekkah showed me some of the basics of knitting. I was amazed at how much fun I had! This probably isn’t going to become a new hobby, but I’ve had fun practicing. Rebekkah’s lets me use the end of her string a lot as long as I take it out when I’m done. I did make a perfect little one-inch square that she let me keep and that made me insanely happy. XD 

I’m not really into puzzles, but I got the Mysterious Benedict Soucity puzzle book and stayed up late after doing NaNo to finish it one night. I normally don’t stick with puzzles that long, so I was so excited when I cracked the final code and was able to get my certificate online. That was fun! 

Sarah and I finished Star Trek Deep Space Nine. It was very bittersweet because it was the last new show I had that we were going to watch together. We always have re-watching, but still, it’s not the same. Anyway, it was fun to watch together, even if the ending was not super satisfying. Now we just have to decide what show to watch together next! 

Our kitten Shadow. 

So for a few months, Rebekkah and I trained to run in a 5K. I am not a natural runner, but I had gotten to where I could run a fair bit of it and I was pretty happy about it. It had been nice and warm up until the day of the race. Actually, it had been 80 the day before, and it dropped to 40 the day of. So we drove to the Zoo with chattering teeth, and about five minutes in… I had some of the worst leg cramps in my life. So we managed to run a bit, but mostly it was walking/limping. We never figured out if it was the cold, dehydration, or what, but anyways, we still had fun. Rebekkah was super epic and stayed with me even though she could have run ahead and we got free entry into the Zoo after, so that was fun!

We decorated for Christmas over the course of a week (We have a LOT of decorations), but when the day we were supposed to decorate our tree came Sarah and Scott surprised us by coming for the evening! I had been really sad that so much of the family was gone, so it was just about the best surprise. <3 

I had to get a lot of cavities filled, so we just went in and got them all done at once. I am so grateful to have it done, and I’m hoping to never have to do that again. It was hard to chew for two weeks solid and that’s not an experience I want to repeat. On the awesome side, I now should have much less discomfort eating hot and cold foods! 

I decided to make a lot of my own Christmas presents this year, so I spent a few evenings binging crafting. One night I watched straight through Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2 while working on it. Movies and painting is such good therapy.

For Thanksgiving, we were able to get about two-thirds of the family together, which was awesome! I missed having the whole family, but we still had a delightful time. We had a lovely meal, and then just all sat around talking and catching up with each other. <3 

Us at the top of Enchanted Rock.

We have a tradition of going to Fredericksburg every year around Christmas, so we made it a girl's trip. We did some shopping, had epic Tex-Mex, and then we hiked Enchanted Rock. It was a beautiful day, and it was awesome because my mom fought her fear of highths and made it all the way to the top with us! We enjoyed the top, then got hot chocolate and looked around at Christmas lights on the way home playing a very long version of the alphabet game. Believe me, you are never too old for that game. 

Because we were prepping for our annual Christmas cookie party, Rebekkah and I spent a lot of time baking cookies. We spent one whole day baking, and so we put the Netflix Carmen Sandiago show in the background, which was awesome (we were trying desperately to finish it before my subscription ran out). We had a lot of fun, killed our feet standing that long, and managed to somehow double an already doubled recipe so we spent three hours baking those off. We took a huge plate to our community night, served them at the party, and we still have a lot. XD 

My favorite new read was The Mysterious Benedict Puzzle book, and my favorite re-read was Grace by Contract. The only book I didn't enjoy from the month was On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. It just wasn't my style. 

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Sarah and I finished watching through this. Overall, it was my least favorite of the three series I've seen, but I did enjoy it. Dr. Bathsheer was by far my favorite character, and I enjoyed his ending. 

Merlin: I had seen this show around for a long time so I decided to give it a try and watched the first season. It was cute, and I enjoyed the characters a lot. But the magic was a bit much, and I didn't like it enough to continue it. 

Enola Holmes 1&2: They came out with the second movie, so Kate and I watched it together. I was super impressed. The mystery kept me guessing, and the character development was amazing. I ended up re-watching them again on my own and I cannot wait until they release a third. 

Carmen Sandiego: Rebekkah and I re-watched this show. While it's not what I thought of as Carmen Sandiego as a kid, I enjoyed it, and it was very well done.  

Finding Father Christmas and Engaging Father Christmas: These were adorable. I'm a sucker for a good hallmark, but the ones that don't make you gag are few and far between. This was a sweet movie with good characters, without a lot of unnecessary drama in a lot of hallmarks. 

Aladdin: I have never seen the animation, and honestly never been interested, but after hearing a lot of the music from the live-action I wanted to watch it and was pleasantly surprised. I haven't seen a sweet, clean Disney live-action in a long time so it was comforting to know they still make them, even if I didn't agree with everything in the movie.

The Christmas Card: This is by far my favorite Christmas movie. It is just delightful from beginning to end. <3

Mcgee and Me: Classics, these never fail to warm my heart and make me want to do better. The simple conviction in these stories was amazingly well done and now I want to rewatch the whole show. 

It was a crazy month, but I enjoyed it too. How was your November?

G R E A T F U L

It’s a time for dreams

The time for thankfulness  

And family all together

It’s hard not to think

Of all that’s not here

All the people who couldn’t come

Or who never lived to make it

All the things we wanted to do

And all the things we wanted to say

But today I’m going to be grateful

Because we had them

Even for a fleeting moment

We still have family

We still have friends

I wanted to hold on to those fleeting moments

But at least I had them for a moment

And I’m grateful for every last one of them

And all the new moments that are coming

All the new dreams I get to have

It still hurts to dream

But I’m hoping that today

Marks the sunrise

And a new beginning

Not to a perfect life

But to a grateful one