5 Things I've Learned From Six Months of Marriage

My husband and I have officially been married for about seven months now. It's weird - at times it still feels like we're just dating. Marriage is a lot harder, though, and I'm reminded of that especially on laundry days. ;) Here are 5 things I've learned in the past six months of marriage.

1. If I don't pick up that sock, it's likely to remain there until Jesus returns.

Seriously. I just pick up the sock now.

2. I couldn't imagine lifing without my best friend at my side. 

Lifing - yes, it's a word; I just decreed it so. I couldn't imagine doing it without Justin. He's just the left to my right, or the cookie to my chocolate chip! I was always a loner throughout life, and I thought I'd probably never get married and have kids. Look at me go: both of those in one year! (I wonder what I'll do next year... hahaha)

3. Combining finances was our mountain - it's GOT to be downhill from here!

Oh. My. Goodness. Finances were seriously the roughest part of cohabitation and cohesion. We tried to kind of shove everything together and basically squeeze one shoe onto both our feet, and it didn't work. We took it slow and we're STILL working on budgets and learning how each other views money and savings, but we're a little better about it now.

4. Agreeing on goals is difficult. Don't underestimate it.

Goals have always been a giant part of how I plan out my life. I'm a huge goal-setter and I'm a goal-digger, for realz. When Justin and I got married, he actually had a point in his life for about three or four months where he just struggled to have any goals. He was so concerned with providing for our little family that it consumed him. He no longer thought about ten years from now and focused on TODAY only, EVER. It was incredibly frustrating! I'm really grateful we got over that hump and are now discussing our goals almost daily. Agreeing on them can be rough, but the more you talk, the more you understand, right?

5. It's very easy to take each other for granted. 

Honestly, most of the time I forget to ask him about his day. It's hard to remember that he had a day outside of my own, and that I haven't been with him for the past 9 hours. We text constantly, so taking time out to ask the caring questions can be hard to remember. 

What's something you've learned from marriage or the marriage of your friends/family members?

Project Lead Kindly + Giveaway

As bloggers, we use a lot of words. We have realized that WORDS are POWERFUL and we have decided to use our words for good and spread a message about a great cause...

Today, I wanted to introduce you to Project Lead Kindly and their 2016 Pregnancy Shelter Hop.

Project Lead Kindly is a nonprofit organization that assists mothers & children affected by domestic violence and homelessness. They are also on a mission to encourage, inspire, and remind everyone that we ALL have the potential to serve & "lead kindly," no matter our circumstances. Each year, Project Lead Kindly provides a BIG service project to the community. Last year, they organized a children's book drive.This year, we are raising money for Project Lead Kindly's 2016 Pregnancy Shelter Hop. We will be assisting 5 different shelters throughout California that house homeless, pregnant mothers and their children. We will be donating newborn necessities to:Harvest Home, Precious Life Shelter, Casa Teresa, Angels Way Maternity Home, and Elizabeth House. We will also be throwing two events to assist the mothers serviced by Elizabeth House & Angels Way Maternity Home.

How you can help!

While the events are local to California, we wanted to find some way for the amazingly supportive online community to help out! We've set up a GoFundMe with a goal to raise $1000 for Project Lead Kindly:

www.GoFundMe.com/PLKshelterhop

All funds donated will go to Project Lead Kindly & help:

1) provide these necessary items for the mothers & their babies at all 5 shelters, 2) throw the events for the mothers from Elizabeth House & Angels Way, 3) help spread the Lead Kindly message (the reminder that ALL have the potential to do good and to be an example to others, no matter what trials they face) to these women who need to be encouraged & reminded of their worth & potential and that they are cared for!

Please consider donating even $1 to the cause. Every little bit helps. In addition to donating, if you want to share the cause with us, please:

1) take the image below

2) share it in your own blog post and social media

3) encourage others to join our initiative & donate!

You can also email projectleadkindly@gmail.com your blog post link so they can share it with others!

And if you don't have a blog, but simply want to share the cause, we encourage you to take the image & share it on social media! We have a goal of $1000, and if we all use our words together, we can reach it!

We also wanted to include a fun giveaway as a thank you for your support! This giveaway is sponsored by the bloggers and not Project Lead Kindly directly.

The prizes:

Raewyn will be giving away a $25 Starbucks gift card and ad space on Be a Warrior Queen.

Pam will be offering ad space on Hodge Podge Moments

Emilie and Laura will be offering ad space on Burke Does

Check out our giveaway hosts:

Be a Warrior Queen // Mamas Plus Coffee // Hodge Podge Moments // Coastie Couple // Coffee n Ink // Wandering Forevermore // Ramblings of a Fake Redhead // The Dahlia Scene // Motherhood Through My Eyes // The Blushing Mama // The Motherhood Journey // Burke Does // The Petite Mrs // Absolute Mommy // And Then Life

How to enter:

Bloggers Leading Kindly Giveaway

Any little bit helps! If you want to find out more information about Project Lead Kindly, visit www.projectleadkindly.com Thank you so much for leading kindly with us!

Summer Goals

I can't wait for the summer. Alaska in the summertime is incomparable to any other place I've ever been (Honduras... Argentina... Mexico... any state in the lower 48). The weather is beautiful, the days are FOREVER long, and the scenery? I can't even describe it. My description would fall really freaking flat.

Also, the photo above is in Palmer, Alaska. Beautiful, right? This is just a normal summer day!

Here are my summer (outdoor) goals:

Run the Mayor's Half Marathon
Hike Crow Pass (again)
Bike the entire coastal trail
Kayak on Mirror Lake
Run up Flat Top (this was a goal last year too... but #pregnancy)

Why I Refuse to Apologize for My Language (especially on Facebook)

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of posts on Facebook that go something like this: "Sorry for the language, but..." or "This person cusses a lot, so sorry about that, but you should watch it if you like funny people doing funny things." I've also encountered people who have confronted me about using language on my Facebook page because "my kids are your Facebook friends."

Well, maybe your "kids" shouldn't be on Facebook. I say this in the gentlest way possible, because I know it's hard - as a mother, I don't want Diana to be subjected to anything the world has to throw at her until she's good and ready. But that looks more like me filtering what she's exposed to than trying to control the people around her.

I won't ever apologize for the use of "damn" or "shit" on my Facebook page because that is my space. For me. I don't have a Facebook for everyone else - I have a Facebook for me. Because I enjoy having a Facebook. I upload photos of Diana, connect with other new moms, play games, and I like a ton of pages.

I walked on eggshells for YEARS after being confronted about my language because I felt the right thing to do was obey the person who confronted me. And then, a few days ago, I was sitting in my living room chair and the memory came upon me and I had such a strong sense of irritation. At first I didn't know why, but as I dug deeper (something I've been trying to do lately - be more intentional about everything and due to that, find out why I feel certain ways about certain things) I realized that I was irritated and rubbed the wrong way because I am going to be 26 this year.

I am not 13. 
I am not 17. 
I am not your child.
I am not even a child at all. 

I am an adult. And I will choose to behave - in my own space - how I see fit. I won't come into your space and criticize you for posting too many pictures of David Beckham with no shirt (not that that offends me), so don't come into mine and try to control my language.

As a Christian, I fought for a long time against using profanity because I felt that it was wrong. While you won't ever catch me using His name in vain, you also won't catch me pretending to be something that I'm not just for you.

Not sorry.

I feel like I should end this post with a smiley face so that I don't get berated.

So here you go:

:)

Letter to My Little: Love + Compassion

Dear Diana,

Someday, something is going to happen that will cause feelings of bitterness to arise in your heart. It will be something small - someone else got the last donut at your school's fundraiser or you didn't get the part of Snow White for the biggest play of the year - but it will feel giant to you. These feelings are commonplace and nothing extraordinary - but honey? These are so dangerous. Bitterness, even in the smallest doses, steals the joy away from your heart a tiny bit at a time, until one day you might wake up and feel that there is nothing left to be happy about.

What do I do, you ask? How can I avoid these feelings of irritation for others who have it better or don't appreciate what they got? Compassion, my sweet girl. Compassion leads to love. And trust me when I say this: love is what will carry you through the world on the wings of gentleness and a warm heart. I promise you that with love and compassion in your heart, the world will always be a fantastic place, because every trial that you encounter will be so much easier to overcome.

Moving past the rejections and the heartache and the heartbreak will be much less difficult with a little bit of love and compassion. Please listen to what I'm saying, Diana. Love never fails. I hope that 1 Corinthians 13 is a lamp unto your feet forever, and that you show each and every person you encounter the SAME love and all that compassion that you have in your giant heart. You're amazing. Keep being you, daughter.
I love you.

xoxo Mama

You can read Raewyn's Letter To My Little here.

Black & White Going Away Party

We said goodbye to our amazing worship pastor on Sunday. After 8 long years, it's really sad to see him go. He's the energy and enthusiasm of the worship team - dancing and praising with his whole body on stage. At first, having grown up so conservative, I was really taken aback at his method of praising, but after a couple years of watching him and getting to know him on a personal level (he officiated our wedding), I'm going to greatly miss worshiping with him.

I took all these photos in color and edited them to be black and white. Lots of them are blurry because everyone was moving around so much, but I kept them even so because they're pretty special. The last one of Justin hugging Mark with Diana in his arms is just so sweet.

Coffee Date IV

If we were on a coffee date...

// I would tell you I get to take this girl's photos again! I'm really excited. She's going to be posing with her horse and I couldn't be happier to be around horses again. I've missed them terribly. Sometimes the missing them even hurts.

// I would say I've been hustling my butt off lately. I'm almost burnt out completely... I have bit off too much and I'm afraid I'm going to fail all of it because of everything I'm committed to. I really wish I had someone here to support me and go to coffee with me and talk blog stuff and strategize and help me schedule. I'm really flailing around by myself without someone to physically encourage me.

// I'd probably mention I just learned to use Canva and I'd have to say - it's making my life a hell of a lot easier. I actually have time to write content now because I'm not too busy designing and obsessing over the design. The Blogging Bestie mini course design was done with Canva and looks GREAT. I've been considering making small videos with tutorials on Canva, Photoshop, and Illustrator and posting them on a YouTube channel. Maybe also some blogging videos.

// I would tell you my faith has been really, really minimal over the past month or so. It's like I had a great month in December, but then in January I completely stopped picking up my Bible or even caring to read it. I'm very discouraged and feeling somewhat empty.

// We'd probably talk a bit about how big Diana is getting and how, as she gets older, I get less and less time to myself. I actually thought it would get easier as she aged, but instead, she's now following me from room to room. Or crawling so fast that I can't leave her in a room with anything she can't have. Which is everything in this house.

// I'd tell you that I am more overweight than I have ever been in my life and because of it I feel pretty crappy all the time. I have no energy or desire to work out in the evenings, plus it's dark and cold (in the 20's) by the time Justin gets home and can watch the baby. During the day, I have no idea what kinds of things to do to get into shape with a 6 month old on my hands. Any ideas?

// I would probably gush a lot about how excited I am to move out of Alaska. I cannot WAIT to be able to go outside without my nose hair hurting!

If we were at coffee, what would you tell me?