Sunday, May 29, 2011

Ramblings on Home

Home. It has been said that home is where the heart is. If that is true, a lot of places over the last 8 years have been home. Others think that home is where your stuff is, or more accurately where you live. Well there is a lot of stuff here, piles of it in fact. A portion of it is all boxed up and waiting for a more permanent move. So maybe that is why I don’t think that is a good definition. Maybe a better definition is that home is where you make it. Over the last number of years, home has been many places - upstate NY, Lynchburg, VA, Hawaii, Germany, Asheville, NC, Speculator, NY, and most recently Newington, CT. Some places I have lived a few years, some places a few months, or even just a week. Yet I have left piece of my heart in each place.
All during my growing up years, I lived in one house. Vacationed primarily in one place, and was never really away from my parents more than a couple nights at a time. Then comes high school. My parents started going out on car shows and I’d be home alone on the weekends, or for longer trips my grandmother came and stayed with me. Then, I started working at a camp for a couple of the summers. My father’s day present was that I was leaving for the next 9 weeks....Only to come home again at the end of the summer. College comes around and things change, big time! I went away to school, came home for Thanksgiving and Christmas break, back down to school for a semester (traveling to Belarus for spring break), home for a couple days, then off to work at another camp, then back to school, then home at christmas, back to school (myrtle beach for spring break), then I stayed in VA for the summer, back home at Christmas, back at school (Hawaii for spring break this year), then camp, and school, home at thanksgiving because I went to Germany for a month over Christmas break, back at school, then camp again, then grad school. After grad school I moved to NC for what was supposed to be 15 months... 7 months later I moved home to NY where I was for two years, spending both summers at camp. Then I did an internship in CT which I just finished and am back in NY again.
Needless to say, the idea of going home has very different meanings, depending on where I am. Am I going back to the address on my drivers license? Or am I going back to wherever I currently reside at the time? Sure, my stuff may be here, but when all I see are boxes pilled up of things that are waiting for me to have some semi permanent digs, it’s hard to call this place home. My heart longs for every and any other place I have lived. Sometimes this place seems more like a cell that I am confined to for the time being than home.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Praying For Your Future Husband

Praying For Your Future Husband, by Robin Jones Gunn and Tricia Goyer, has honestly been the best book about preparing for marriage that I have ever read! Many relationship books give you principles and share some stories, but this book had one main point - every person should be praying for their future spouse! Robin Jones Gunn and Tricia Goyer spend 13 chapters sharing 13 different areas that women should be praying over for their future husband, such as praying for patience, praying that he will be a God lover, praying for contentment, praying for understanding, and praying for trust. These chapters are filled with specifics ways to pray for each of the areas, then Gunn and Goyer share their own personal stories along with stories from Gunn’s own daughter, and other women who spent time praying for their husband.
This book is not just a book about waiting to have sex, or even waiting to have your first kiss on your wedding day. It is about preparing yourself now for marriage, at whatever age you are, by praying for your husband regularly and specifically. I recommend this book to any teenage girl, any single woman, and even to married women. Women of all ages and relationship status can learn from this book. They will be encouraged to not only pray for their future (or current) husband, but also to strengthen their own relationship with God.

To read an excerpt from this book, click here:
"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review"

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Departures by Robin Jones Gunn

Departures is two novellas by Robin Jones Gunn, the author of the Christy Miller, Sierra Jensen, Katie Weldon, and Glenbrook series’ among other books. Departures includes “two rediscovered stories” “Now Boarding at Gate 10” about Christy Miller and “In the Event of a Water Landing” about Sierra Jensen.
“Now Boarding at Gate 10” follows Christy and her family as they travel back to Wisconsin after Christy graduates high school. They go back to celebrate her grandparents 50th anniversary. Christy gets the chance to see her old Depcrush, Matthew Kingsley, and they spend some time visiting places from their childhood. Christy learns a lot about herself, love, and friendship.
“In the Event of a Water Landing”, Sierra spends her summer in Montana with her friend Jana. Jana is consumed with guys, while Sierra just wants to find some friends to hang out with.
Join both of the girls on a summer of fun and adventure. This is sure to become a classic for Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen lovers!
"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review"
To read an excerpt: 

Friday, May 6, 2011

The 34 Photo Blog

It's time for the creativity to come out again. I was inspired last night to make up another list of things to take photos of for the next photo blog. I was given the random number of 34, so I have 34 categories to be taking pictures of in the next many weeks. The end date for this blog is December 31, 2011. Hopefully I'll finish it sooner, but we will see. I don't want to just take any picture of things, but I want there to be some artistic thought or a desire to capture something beautiful and unique. This may be through different angles or capturing a piece of the whole object. I'll be posting these pictures along with some of the best of other pictures I've taken (or things that inspire me) on Facebook.


  1. Auto Hood (Ornament) Details
  2. Architecture (Abandon Buildings, Arches, Churches, Columns, Covered Bridges, Porches)
  3. Balloons
  4. Bare Feet
  5. Bicycle Parts
  6. Bottles
  7. Butterflies
  8. Catching People Unaware
  9. Churches/Church Windows
  10. City Street Scenes
  11. Doors & Door Knobs (locks)
  12. Fences
  13. Flags
  14. Flowers/Flower Petals and Close-ups
  15. Fountains
  16. Gates
  17. Hands
  18. Hallways
  19. Isolated Objects
  20. Iron
  21. Jewelry
  22. Keys
  23. Letters (things in the shape of letters)
  24. Looking “Down”/Looking “up”
  25. Peeling Paint
  26. Pictures “in” Pictures
  27. Rust
  28. Stairs
  29. String Instruments
  30. Swings
  31. Waterfalls
  32. Weathered
  33. Wood
  34. Watches