It is what it is

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Book Review-Sit Stay Love

I did receive this book complimentary from Litfuse Publicity Group for my review. These thoughts are my own.

A book about dogs, baseball, and romance? I mean really, how could I say no to this book?

This was a fun light read. It was very easy to get into, and I read it in a few days.

This story is about a professional baseball player who inherits an elderly dog after his mom passes away. He hires a dog sitter since he wants nothing to do with the animal (how dare he!). Tippy, the dog, is a comedic thread throughout the story. She brings the sitter and the baseball player together even though their worlds are miles apart. Here is a simpleton dog sitter trying to maneuver through this very public sports figure’s world.

The characters are highly relateable. The author touched on loss and how your past can negatively impact your present. Sometimes things happen to us that cause this dark cloud to remain over us if we let it. We see how these two characters come to rely on each other and Tippy to move to a better place. I thought how they spoke to each other was real and honest. I felt really connected to Gina, the dog sitter. Some of her thoughts could have been my own. She was a girl after my own heart. I laughed out loud a lot reading her perspective on things.

The only part that I didn’t like was how the author described their physical reactions to each other. Note it was nothing real in depth or highly sexual. I just thought it was slightly awkward how she would describe them as distant and having known each other for only hours/days, and then the next page he was stroking her face or hair. I felt that their physical intimacy was weird with the other context of how she wrote their personalities. It just didn’t seem to make sense all the time.

Other than that tidbit, this was a great little afternoon read that I thought was funny and a nice change of pace.

I rate it a 3/5 on my meter. Good but not great. If you love baseball and dogs, I would recommend it. I love that I read this right around opening day!

 

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Pocket Prayers Books

I did receive these books complimentary from Litfuse Publicity Group for my review. These thoughts are my own.

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I was really excited to be part of this review. I was able to connect with several people who I felt fit the bill for each books audience.

I also am someone who struggles with prayers and feeling like I am never on the right track. I also lose focus so quickly and having guidance like these books sounds great. I think things like this help me in my prayer life and give me ideas of how to strengthen my faith.

Before I gifted these off, I was able to spend some time with them. They are small books but full of impactful nuggets. Each prayer is associated with a bible passage, which makes for a great devotional as well. They seem very down to earth and highly relateable.

My dad used to listen to Max Lucado tapes in the car to prepare for Sunday school, so it was nice to see something of his again. I love his honesty, and he explains how he struggles with prayer at times such as staying awake. Yep, I’ve been there.

I would highly recommend these if you are like me and struggle with knowing where to start with prayers.

—Moms (written with daughter Andrea Lucado)

  • I gave this one to my friend, Amber. She and I work together, and is the only other mom in our office suite. We are constantly swapping baby stories and lifting each other up when a mom struggle happens. She just announced that she is expecting her second, so I was super excited to give this to her. I am also always in awe of her faith and dedication to it is refreshing to see and share as a friend.

—Grads (written with daughter Andrea Lucado)

  • My friend Sandra is about to graduate from seminary, and she is getting married the next day! So many changes for her. She is surrounded by faith conversations constantly with her schooling and job, and I know that her prayer game is pretty strong. Knowing Sandra though, she is always looking to hear other perspectives, and I hope that she enjoys this prayer book as she starts her new adventures.

—Dads (written with Mark Mynheir)

  • This one I gave to Tom. We have been working to incorporate prayer a lot more in our house because George is now at a stage where he is picking up things so quickly that we really want to instill in him to have this conversation with God. Tom was really excited when I gave it to him, and he keeps it in his work bag.

—Military Life (written with Mark Mynheir)

  • This one I gave to my friend Janelle. She is a military spouse, who just had a baby with in the last year, AND they just moved due to military orders. Dan and Janelle went to school with me, and I know that their faith is very important to them as well. I hope that they find these prayers helpful especially in this time of change due to military transitions. Oh and she  is a blogger too!

—Teachers (written with blogger Jennifer Hale)

  • This one was so obvious. My sister-in-law is a teacher. We talk all the time about our prayer life and our faith struggles. I knew this had to go to her, and I hope it helps with centering her around God even when she is surrounded by a room full of kindergartners.

—Friends (written with Betsy St. Amant)

  • My friend Leslie. This woman has a heart of gold and she makes friends with everyone. Her friendships are so important to her and developing those is one of her greatest skills. I am in awe of her ability to connect on such a real level with people so quickly. I was so excited to send her some snail mail with this book!

I love sending out mail and giving to others, so it was fun to be part of this review!

As I said, these are a great addition to any faith walk. Sometimes we all need a little guidance. These would make great gifts! They could easily fit into any bag to be on the move with you, but would also be perfect on a nightstand.

You can enter a giveaway for these books here.

How do you stay focused with prayer?

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35 Before 35

I love lists. I love checking things off my lists. Let’s see what I can check off this month towards my 35 before 35 endeavor.

1. Crochet something else besides blankets or scarves at least once a year (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)

2. Do a photography challenge (Took pictures once a week George’s first year)

3. Visit 5 cities I have never been to before (8/5)

4. Tour at least one a winery, brewery, or distillery

5. Send at least 5 snail mail a month

6. Become a “professional” photographer

7. Run at least 10 races (any distance) (6/10)

  • I did the Wicked Wine 5K with my sister-in-law. It was ok. We had fun dressing up as our favorite teams on opening weekend.

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8. Go camping with Tom

9. Pay for the car behind me in a drive through

10. See Tyrone Wells live as many times as possible

11. Tour Fort Defiance here in Clarksville

12. Water ski with my dad

13. Do a 5K with my mom

14. Take a swing dance class with Tom

15. Read at least one fun book a month and one professional development book every three months

  • I finished a book just this morning!

16. Take a pottery or stained glass class

17. Do one new recipe each month

  • Ambrosia Salad-I made this for Easter that we hosted at our house. I loved it! I will probably make it a lot over the summer to take in for lunch.
  • Zucchini Cheese Rice-This was really good! It makes a lot too. I added chicken to it so it was more of a meal.

18. See both a Clemson and UCM football game live

19. Find a place to volunteer on a regular basis

20. Go hiking

21. Ride in a hot air balloon

22. Go to at least 20 “new to me” restaurants. (31/20)

  • Heidelberg-It’s a local bar and grill. It was pretty good and very reasonably priced. Great atmosphere!
  • West Main Pizza-This a pizza joint where they flash cook your pizza, and it is ready in a few minutes. It was really good, but the pizzas are huge and you can only buy one size. I had leftovers for two additional meals.

23. Stay at a bed and breakfast

24. Spend a day without electronics (phone, t.v. and computer)

25. Do something unique and new for my birthdays

26. Explore Nashville while we live here

27. Watch at least 10 movies that I have not seen before that won Best Picture at the Oscars and at least 20 documentaries (not necessarily Oscar winning) Movies (3/10); Documentaries (7/20)

28. Sew an item of clothing from scratch

29. Do a personal devotional/bible study on my own

30. Be a mascot for an event

31. Go on our honeymoon (preferably somewhere tropical)

32. Host an annual NCAA Basketball Tournament Championship game party

33. Go on a mission trip

34. Be on a recreation volleyball team

35. Become a mom

  • I got to experience George getting into Easter for the first time.

 

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Being Authentic With My Photos

Being a part-time professional photographer, I often think about the images I post on this blog.

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Then I think about the time that it takes to make them look “professional.”

I don’t like editing. It probably takes me twice as long to edit photos than the normal photographer, and I am not even doing full out editing. It’s just not something I enjoy. And I don’t really want to spend a lot of my extra free time doing things I don’t enjoy. I already struggle enough with the dishes.

Then I think about the staging of photos.

So much time.

That I don’t have.

When I got serious about blogging, I started questioning a lot surrounding my photos and whether it was the “brand” I wanted to put out there.

There are so many articles about what your images say about your blog and how to

  • make them simple
  • make them cleaner
  • make them bring traffic to your blog
  • set the stage
  • make them not “just” a phone picture

So basically how to make them everything that my photos weren’t.

I started comparing my quality to those bigger bloggers and wondering how they made time to set their rooms, always have a clean space, and have time to edit these beautiful images EVERY day. Or had time to search for the perfect stock photo from the interwebs.

I could barely get one post out a week. What am I doing wrong?

I started thinking that I couldn’t call myself a professional photographer if I didn’t also translate that to the photos I was sharing on my blog. I started obsessing about bringing out the big camera to document everything for blog purposes. It didn’t really happen if it didn’t happen under this lighting, taken at this setting, and from this angle, and this angle, oh and everything needs to be clean. My life became consumed trying to be a constant photo shoot.

It.Was.Obnoxious.

I was drained trying to keep up, which really I wasn’t even keeping up. I was like the little sister who was trying so desperately to be just like her much older and much cooler sister.

I also found that I was missing moments trying to capture the moments.

I have come to realize over the past year, that I don’t want to be that person who over-analyzes every photo that goes on to my blog. I can do that for my clients, but this blog is a time capsule for my life. I should be the only one dictating what goes on here.

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And I also want to be authentic in how my life really is.

Sometimes (ok all the time) there is clutter in the background.

Sometimes life is blurry.

Sometimes the lighting is off.

Sometimes George people don’t want to look at the camera.

Sometimes what I see can’t be captured in a single photo.

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Almost daily I see a post on how to make my Instagram/blog photos perfect. So to be honest, I have been skipping any post that mentions my every day photo compositions and what I could be doing wrong. I don’t need that game in my life right now. (I will still read things about professional photography mind you).

I want to be real here on the blog, and staging every photo that I share isn’t real. So most of my photos are from my phone because that is what is easiest for me to capture what I want to capture in the time frame I have. I want to share things, and it just isn’t realistic to do all that on the “big” camera.

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I had to come to the realization that my blog photos don’t define me as a professional photographer, and they also don’t define my life as a total mess. Even though let’s be real, life with a toddler is messy (metaphorically and literally).

Now I am not knocking other people who do have beautiful photos for their blog. I admire their tenacity and ability to orchestrate that for every post. And I get it that it looks great! Even more so with those who are making money off their blogs. But the reality is, that is just not going to happen for me. And I am perfectly ok with that now. So there is no reason for me to need nice photos for every post.

So I may not have stock photos or pristine images here, but that is my life. Thank you for reading my blog despite the horrible composition and fuzzy frames.

I think my life is as close to perfect as it can get. I am finally ok with not having to prove that within every post. You can just take my word that it is awesome.

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20 Questions

Contrary to popular belief, it is really hard to blog as a full time working mom. I have so many ideas, but unfortunately I am the type of writer where it can take me a long time to get original posts out. Some days there is just not enough time to ponder on what I am writing. So sometimes getting ideas from other bloggers is the best way to get a post out there! Thanks Chelsea for this idea and letting me “steal” the questions!
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My brother and I circa 2007

1. Are you named after anyone? No. My brother is, but I am not. Coincidentally, I am also the only one in my immediately family that doesn’t have an ‘R’ name.
2. When was the last time you cried? Last night I cried during Dancing With the Stars when people recounted their most memorable year. People talking about their kids is a way to unleash my tear ducts. Sunday I also had an ugly cry watching last week’s episode of American Idol. I mean really, I can cry at the drop of a hat, so this isn’t surprising that I had two in the last 48 hours.
3. Do you have kids? George is my only. He will be 20 months old in a couple weeks. We are at a fun yet terrifying age where he wants to do everything himself. It’s awesome to see him learn new things, but it is also so scary at the same time.
4. If you were another person, would you be a friend to yourself? I would like to think that I am a good friend. This “other” person would have to like books, TV, and being a homebody with the occasional walk in the wilderness.
5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? It depends on who I am around. I am a pretty serious person in all honesty, and I have to know you fairly well to feel comfortable with the sarcasm. Tom and I use it a LOT. I also use it a lot at work with my colleagues. We have a pretty tight office.
6. Will you ever bungee jump? Are you kidding me? I used to work in a theme park; this sounds awesome! If someone else paid for it, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would not jump out of a plane though. No way.
7. What’s your favorite cereal? This is the hardest question ever. I love cereal. It would probably be the one thing I would choose to eat for the rest of my life, if I had to pick. I love all kinds of cereal. I am really digging the chocolate cheerios and the berry cheerios right now. There aren’t many cereals that I haven’t liked though to be honest.
8. What’s the first thing you notice about people? Their smile. Do they open their mouths? Do their teeth show? How much of their teeth show? I feel like how someone smiles says a lot about someone or the mood they are currently in.
9. What is your eye color? Blue
10. Scary movie or happy endings? Happy endings. I am like a child and get nightmares from scary movies.
11. Favorite smells? I can’t smell so this is the worst question.
12. Summer or winter? Summer all day every day. I would so much rather be sweating than shivering. Plus, from my perspective there is so much more to do in the summer.
13. What’s the furthest you’ve been from home? I went to the British Virgin Islands while I was in high school. It’s my only trip out of the country. I want to go back! I loved it there. Beaches and boats. You can’t really get much better than that!
14. If you had to shop exclusively at one store, where would it be? Target. They have everything I would ever need or want.
15. Where were you born? Smack dab in the middle of the country. Missouri is and will always be home.
16. What are your hobbies? photography, crocheting, working out, baking, blogging, keeping up with George and the pups
17. Do you have any pets? Two boxers: Grace and Crosby
18. What’s your favorite movie? Singing in the Rain.
19. Do you have any siblings? Yes, a little brother. He is younger by 3 years.
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Newborn photographer. If I could do anything outside of my current job, that would be it. I do feel like I really do have the life that I have always wanted though. I have job that I am passionate about with working with academically at risk students. A wonderful family at home that completes the picture. We are finally homeowners-which I don’t think you can get anymore grown up than that.