Best thing about Monday...

Sister-time....

We eat with the fam on Monday nights...
It's just plain great.

(the consistency of these family nights actually started this time last year when mom & I were going strong on the wedding plans... wow!!)

Mom & Dad spoil us with a great meal. AND leftovers.

And many times Kayla & I work on her Sunshine Math. Which I love. (word problems are my favorite.)

And she's amazing.

Speaking of amazing... MamaKat's MLK Day post really encouraged me in my prayers for this little one...

...I don’t want to just hope that they will stay away from drugs. I dream that they will dive into the lives of hurting classmates, help them break free from addiction, and introduce them to Life....

...definitely got me thinking, dreaming, and praying bigger...

..for kayla, my nephews, our marriage, our family & friends.. we only get one shot at all this, so we may as well go for it, right?!

thanks for reading along! ♥


For who/what what are you dreaming & praying big?

Charleston road trip...

Sweet weekend away with my love...

we slowed down, 

talked, 

listened, 

read, 

dreamed, 

laughed... 

sweet, restful moments... ♥

Friday evening.. Isle of Palms

Saturday sunrise <3

breakfast-chill-time

http://bluebicyclebooks.com/ 

Dave's 30th birthday oyster roast... mmmm! :)

I knew it was good when I returned ready to face the busy work-weeks ahead!

Really good stuff. 

pure thankfulness in this heart of mine... ♥

J&K... Winter update

Not here though... over at that other Sunsets & Sushi spot...

Heart-Breaker...

What breaks your heart? 
[And what are you DOing about it?]

As Claire so eloquently put it on her water blog: Perhaps the things that break our hearts are also the things that cause the greatest passion within us, the things that lead us to action. (full post...)

I can think of plenty of things that break my heart, but this one --this human trafficking & physical/sexual abuse-- continues to break me in two.

This morning I read A Trafficking Survivor's Plea... and I broke for her and those like her:

I was forced to dance, strip and sell sex (along with five other young girls) for over a month while he pocketed the cash ($1,000-$3,000/night from each girl) and planned our next gig. I was trapped in a life I never wanted without any hope of escape. (full article...)

My brain seriously fights me on this stuff...
What can I do?
I can't even SEE this injustice.
But I know that it exists
and I know it's closer than I realize.

And until it's clear what I can DO...
I will pray
and continue to educate myself
and watch
and listen
and look to get involved

fashion-smashion...

never have been a very fashionable one, BUT I think I may have done it this time...

thanks to naptimediaries' thrift & find post, I have gone and created a Polyvore wishlist/collage --while I'm clueless as to what to call it, I kind of love it...

gathering a few image-favorites definitely helped this non-fashion-sensical-scattered-one gain some direction as I venture to fill in some very gaping wardrobe holes!

Good Will & Plato's Closet, here I come! :)

basics by kimariesays featuring flat shoes

Chocolate ruffle bandeau dress, 29 GBP
Old Navy Womens Roll-Up Button-Front Tops, $20
Ladies Crinkle Ditsy Shirt, 14 GBP
Strickjacken Damen - jetzt versandkostenfrei bestellen | Zalando, 30 EUR
Oasis Tops| Pale Camel Spot Mesh Pintuck Blouse | Womens Fashion..., $41
Gap Petite Classic Khaki Pants, $50
Franklin Extend-Tab Stretch Flare, $33
Blowfish Nella Flat Flats Women's Shoes- DSW, $37
Khaki crochet pumps, 18 GBP
Pearlescent Bead Necklace, $9.80

How about that party dress?? Not sure what it would look like ON, but in theory, I love it! :) ...kinda stuck on chill earth-tones I guess... either way, looking forward to thrifting for a few 'basics' like these!

Next on the VacationDayOne agenda... some potential Mission Statement writing... this guide is intended for moms, but I think it might just be able to help me along! Thanks to this sweet mama Kat!

Any personal mission statements or fashion-wants to speak of??

Peace! ...and thanks for stopping by! ;)

sunday night thoughts... (aka: weekend recap)

thankful for these days...

I kind of have a head full and would just like to unload a little...

*took some pics for the Photography class today. awesome. loved it more than I imagined. even froze my fingers and nose off just to keep shooting outside for a while. (my goal/assignment was 12 items two different ways.) I made it to 6 items plus a few excursion photo shoots of the cat, sunset, and then the fridge... yep, even the fridge captivated me for a bit! ...enjoyed it though. big time. here's a pic from the teacher's page... i spent some time checking out the site and photo portfolios tonight. some really great work. particularly liked this one though.

wedding album

*got to spend a little downtime (taco soup & football) downstairs with the fam tonight. nice to get to hang with them so much. love that they invite us to eat so often. [for a while I was feeling pretty slack cooking so little, but I've since embraced it and decided to just enjoy theses moments!] ♥

*visited christ community church this morning. in honor of their first anniversary, freedom readers' founder Tracy Bailey was given the full service time to celebrate, inspire, and challenge us all to live an impactful life. it was awesome. she told the story of ezekiel and the dry bones. mmmm. definitely inspired... and just in time. 5 weekdays off in a row. welcome, dream-time... (my prayers for this week: vision, courage, ACTION, wisdom, & sweet continued guidance.)

*Jeremy played at fresh brewed last night.. with Doug. also awesome. they did a sweet little worship set. loved every minute of it. 

(camera-phone pic:)

*In the spirit of the weekend recap: Friday night we enjoyed another a Redbox movie date night-- Wall Street. not that great. except the couch-time part; always my favorite! the movie was all right really, just not what we expected.


*I've got some blog ideas that will hopefully develop soon.... a flashlight story, one inspired by claire's water blog post What Breaks Your Heart?, and another one inspired by this sweet author/blogger ann voskamp.

that's all for now. sleep time. yay.
happy dreaming! ♥

So Easy to take it for granted...

True story! (source)

"Almost a billion people struggle every day to collect water that's likely to make them sick" ...while we have everything we need to keep our water fresh and clean... 

just two of us use about a pitcher a day

sure beats drinking tap water.. or worse...

our daily dose of clean water

not to mention how great it is being able to wash our hands several times per day...

and shower...

and clean out our dishes, sinks, tubs, etc...


We're so accustomed to it all that we forget the many that don't have it quite so good!!

Claire made a great point about this in her post today: Pond Water.

She's working hard this month to raise $5,000 so our neighbors overseas can have the luxury necessity of clean water like us! Wanna help??

(Reading Claire's blog for just a few days inspired me to give up fast food for the year.. maybe forever. (not that I needed it anyway!:) ...Thankful for her spark!! Hope you'll at least read her words, maybe get inspired, maybe GIVE &/or give up something... who knows what could go down!! Thanks for reading this far. And for checking out Claire's blog!;) ♥

my artist-husband [loves to draw with DOTS!]

Currently enjoying a sweet, lazy Saturday with this guy and felt the need to brag on him a sec...

this post is pretty fantastic...

 

that's all I really had to say...

just click on the word, or this link, and enjoy :)

photo challenge...

 

http://paintthemoon.net/blog

Thanks to Happy Together I found this very wonderful photo challenge by Paint the Moon.

the gist of the project...

Post a photo each week … and feel free to join us at any time! .... You just need a free Flickr account to post your images in the PTM Let’s Do 52 group … it’s simple and free.

If you're interested in joining, definitely keep reading, and do let me know because it would surely make my day!!

So, to keep us inspired, there's a theme each week... 

1/52: New Beginnings

2/52: Togetherness or Metal + fun challenge: viewpoint

3/52: to be posted today!

Apparently I need to catch up... 

...and guess what else...

I'm very excited to be officially enrolled in my first ever, long awaited photography class!!!!! (Thanks to my sweet husband for recommending and supporting!!!) ...very thrilled. and very very thankful.

I'll definitely post the weekly photos once I get started...

want to join me??

in honor of January (self-improvement month)

My January Read: 

Throw Out 50 Things, by Gail Blanke

In honor of self-improvement month, I will be throwing out [at least] fifty things... (HOORAY!!)

I'd say (and I think J would agree) I'm off to a decent start and have been quite motivated to keep it going! (The book is just plain GREAT, so that doesn't hurt one bit! Also, I kind of love organizing; it's staying organized that gets me... hence my goal: get uncluttered. timeline: 30 days.)

In items I would have surpassed the goal of 50 things, but of course Ms. Gail counts sets as individuals, SO these 12 empty cases, 27 sermon CDs and 30 cassettes only count as ONE.... nice!

Actually, I'm GLAD for her logic, and look forward to getting through the physical stuff (ch.1-10) and on to the nitty gritty heart-stuff (ch.11-25)!!

What's on your self-improvement agenda??

[Do other countries treat the new year as self-improvement time? Does their january consist of an overload of exercise and weight-loss marketing like ours, or do they get out of hand in much different areas.....???? ..Steph? How's Thailand looking this new year??]

Baby Silas..

Davis, Sophia, & Christopher... 3.20.10 ♥

Our buddy Davis has a new baby brother!

Born Tuesday morning: meet Silas! ♥

(actually, if you get queazy at the sight of blood, maybe skip the photo and just read about Baby Boy Floyd #2:)

We got to see just how handsome he is... all cleaned up and swaddled up tight! Super thrilled for our Floyd friends! <3

3 simple resolves...

My general goals for 2011:

• Read more.

• Reflect more.

• And take more action.

Baby step #1... 

I started by finishing my December read... the dip by Seth Godin. 

Three word review: HELPFUL. informative. wise-words-for-guidance. 

(Okay, that's six, but still... )

Baby step #2...

A new journal to start the new year!!!! 

Action Method by behance

I LOVE JOURNALS.. more than blogging; it's true!

And this one... leads to ACTION!! :)

space for dreaming and DOing!

Which leads me to Baby step #3...

an opportunity to take some action.

http://www.charitywater.org/

My dear friend Claire is working on a Big little project and I've been considering ways I could help.

Honestly this idea didn't come from those considerations as hoped, but instead came from a fast-food-fried-chicken-craving I was having on the way home from work this week.... 

Jeremy was eating with his family, I had a $5 bill to spare, and could imagine no other excuse not to cave to my craving and have what I call an at-least-monthly-guilt-free-'chicken-day' 

...UNTIL I thought of the water project. 

(Booo! said my stomach, but Yay! said my heart) --I promptly reminded my stomach [& taste buds] of the yummy black beans they could have instead and proceeded to steer the car home.

So, in the spirit of helping Claire [by helping a community get clean water that they currently don't have access to!], and helping my own health & well-being [by not indulging in fast-food-fried-chicken], I shall abstain from my at-least-monthly-guilt-free-chicken-days this year. And instead give at least $5 per month to charity:water.

Furthermore, I will abstain from all fast food eating this year (sooo sorry, CFA, I WILL MISS YOU!!!) and any vending machine indulgences I may or may not be wishing for in the middle of a long office workday, and will instead add at least $2 per month. (The donation can always be more if I feel led to make any extra fast food or vending machine stops but don't.)

There you have it.

A little self-sacrifice and a whopping $84 this year.

Not a lot, but it's something.

Please know that I share this not to celebrate myself, but to promote this worthy cause -and to hopefully inspire you to somehow take action as well, whether it is with this project or another.

If you have a minute, check out the blog Claire started and send some encouragement her way...  http://waters-rising.blogspot.com/