My Reality

  

These are a few pictures I took on my day off this week. Life has been crazy lately. Sometimes I feel like my blog doesn't accurately portray my life, it just highlights the good stuff. Truthfully?
I'm swamped with 30+ hour work weeks and my school load, there's a load of wash from Tuesday that I still haven't folded, my socks are perpetually unmatched/MIA, my grade on my last anatomy exam was a C, the new lamp I bought just needs a light bulb..but I'm too lazy to go find one, I ate fried chicken for dinner, AND my closet looks like a WWIII.
I'm not telling you this to complain. 'Cause gosh, I don't really care about any of that too much. I just wanted to make a point that my life isn't perfect, just like yours isn't perfect. Truthfully? There's so many wonderful and amazing things about my life that I could not even begin to list them, there's that many. I'm thankful for each and every one, even the messy closet and unfolded wash.
linking up with friday favorites. :)

Foggy Friday

I'm linking up with Rachel for Friday Favorites :) All props to her for her letter-writing style.

dear beautiful foggy mornings,
thanks for reminding me how much I love to capture the beauty around me. you are beautiful.

 dear homeworks thift shop,

you're pretty much my favorite. i love your crazy collaboration of used items. thanks for sending me home with a nice dress, fabric, a bandana, & like-new pair of puma's for only $13. you're the bomb.

 dear neighbor's pink tree, 

every year i get jealous of you. then i sneak into their yard to take pictures of you. this year you're in bloom super duper early, but that's okay, i like it.

 dear big dog,

never stop being so cute. seriously. you could loose the drool though..

 dear dew-covered spider web,

thanks for reminding me about the amazing & intricate details of creation.

dear silo,
i could barely see you peeping out of the fog this morning. thanks for giving me a fun game of hide & go seek on the way to school.

 dear God,

thanks for the beauty you bring into life. i rather enjoyed our foggy & dewey morning in the valley. it was beautiful.
love, me

Life As of Late

It's Fridaaaay!

& because I haven't told you wonderful folks what's happening in my life lately, I decided that linking up with Friday Favorites is the perfect way to do so. :) Here's the wonderful things about life lately..

001. My new Bamboo plant. I got him/her at the farm show along with some cool water beads to keep him/her well nourished. They're perfect because I'm no good at remembering to water things! I have my spider plant in a few water beads too. Maybe it'll stop dying.. ? PS: I need a name for Bamboo & Spider Plant. Yes, I'm naming them. Said plants are replacing my wonderful fishies that passed away during our 5-day power outage in October. They're living. They deserve names.

.../endramble.

002. The Pennsylvania Farm Show is one of my favorite events each year. It's so much fun and my pictures won a few awards too. :)

003. Fried vegetables = yum. They weren't mine, but I tried a few. I liked the cauliflower best.

004. Milkshakes at the Farm Show are soooo yummy. They're so good that they were..

a. my lunch

b. so rich I couldn't finish it all

005. Best friend's little brother (who's my adopted little brother) gave me a camo hat to wear to the Farm Show to blend in. It worked. We counted individuals wearing camo hats and the number came to 100+ in less than two hours. Pennsylvanians,  - you're awesome.

006. Winter finally decided to show up and it's getting colder. Typically we've had snow before now, but it's holding off this year. I'm okay with that for now, because running is nicer in warmth.

007. Speaking of running... guess who ran 1/2 a mile & 6 minutes straight yesterday?! I know, it doesn't seem like much, but I've never run that far or long in my life. I'm on track for an 11 minute mile. Not very fast, but I'm a-okay with that. Just as long as I'm running. 5k in March, here I come..

008. Bonus from running? I've dropped five pounds (since the beginning of December). That's definitely not from just running. I've actually been eating right and not feeding myself a bad stuff.

009. I've finally found something to do with the abundance of college mail I receive, - scrap paper for math! I'd like to thank Grove City, Indiana Wesleyan and many more for furthering my education.

010. Which reminds me.. I started on-campus college classes this Wednesday. I'm doing American History and Anatomy & Physiology. I have to be at school MWF, and I'm only there from 9-1. It's nice. Plus, my A&P teacher is super nice, and my history teacher seems a bit scary.. but he's interesting.

011. California was great. I love exploring new places. It was kinda cold camping (it got below 30 degrees a few nights) but it was well worth it. More photos on Monday.

012. I'm off for the weekend (snow camp with the YG), but I've got some posts planned for the weekend. Hope you have a great weekend! I'm pretty sure I will. :)

Stille Nacht

I haven't particpatied in Friday Favorites in quite some time, but there's no time like the present. :) Here's to the little things in life!

Charlie the Christmas Tree Branch. He's still going strong. Sorta.

Church Caroling

Popcorn

Chocolate from my boss, he's the bomb

$8 New fleece sweater at Target = my fav.

Cookie baking.. lots and lots of cookie baking.

Raw dough. Yum.

Secret Santa at work

College kids home for break. I miss some of those kids!

Gingerbread House Making

Wrapping all my Christmas presents BEFORE Christmas Eve

Take that, wrapping paper

Coffee cups with water in them. (I've never been a normal one)

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshakes

Receiving my first very-own Christmas card from a friend. She's so sweet.

(you know who you are, you blog stalker ;))

Cute little sisters

..and brothers too :)

Hot-glue, thank you for making gingerbread roofs easier to attach

Chick-fil-a calendars - Adorable. Cheap. Great Gift.

Christmas Parties

Receiving a Christmas card picture with photos I took.

So special. Made my day. I love you guys!

(you know who you are, blog stalker #2 :))

My family's somewhat-historically-accurate nativity. Currently only the animals are in the barn, you can see Mary and Joseph on their way, the shepherds are to the right in the fields with their sheep, and the wise men are about two years away in the living room.

Yeah... we're homeschooled

My new lens!!

50mm 1.4, a little Christmas gift to myself. I bought it cheap used and LOVE it. It came with a macro adapter, which is how I took the photo of the eyelashes earlier in the week and the first & fourth photo in this post. It gets super close. I love it. Until tomorrow... Happy Christmas Adam!
half of you are going .. what? & the other half is shaking their heads with sympathy. ;)

Friday Fav's - Summer

I'm joyfully participating in Friday Favorites this lovely summer day. :)

 

Super cute and huge dogs who love car rides

High-powered vacuums to get the hair that was left in said car

The awesome week at pre-camp that God blessed me with

New friends and reconnecting with old friends

Chocolate-covered coffee beans to keep me going

Fun summer art projects

New cow ringtones for text messages - it's beyond cool

Clear summer nights that are perfect for star gazing

linking up here & here!

The beautiful amazing details of creation

Matthew 5:19-21 - about storing up treasures in heaven, not on earth

Cool summer days

The friends I'm abundantly blessed with

&

My best friend who didn't get the tongue memo in this picture, lol :)

Happy Friday folks!

Fabulous Fun Fotographic Friday Favorites

 Like my alliteration? Yeah, I did too. I am pleased to bring you folks my Friday Favorites. :)50-cent bubbles at Five Below.

Those bubbles providing me with..

laughs and smiles from my favorite three year old & (almost) one year old

a science day project idea

a very wet and soapy kitchen floor (if you're reading this Mom, I'll mop it later :D)

& lots of fun with my little siblings!

Totally worth the whole $1 spent on the two cans.

Sunny days that promise warm weather.

The little light at the end-of-the-school-year tunnel that says only 25 more days left! Hooray!

Freshly sharpened pencils.

The sound of the mower as my little brother cuts the grass.

Grass that's long enough to be cut!

 

Hide-and-go seek games.

Cute kid's books.

Trapezoids and rhombuses.

Whoever created Geometry thought they'd make it a bit better by naming shapes silly names.

They were 100% correct.

Hockey playoffs. Go Flyers!

This dog.

This dog who has been sick since Tuesday but is starting to perk up now.

Driving on empty roads, open windows, praise music blasting, & my two little sibs in the back seat making a joyful noise to our Creator.

My siblings. I'm going to miss them so much come a few years.

Mashed sweet potatoes.

Honey-glazed pork tenderloin.

Dinner made by yours truly.

Learning that I can cook? Apparently. :D

Double-Chocolate Oreo Bars. YUM! (recipe coming tomorrow!)

Mornings spent in sweat pants watching movies.

(props to my sister for the pic!)

Giant bubbles. That was actually a tiny one.

Homeschool Group Science Days.

My mismatched hair-ties going on there.

Weekends with your best friend.

My super sweet best friend's Mom who filled up my car's gas tank AND lets me crash at their house AND eat their food.

She's the best.

The super-huge ginormous blessing it is to have my friend's family as a part of my life.

How today we remember that the same God that made me, who made absolutely everything, came down to the earth he created to die for me.

Blows my mind.

I honestly can't wrap my mind around it.

We were singing the song "Your Love is Amazing" last Friday night and it the song it says your love is a mystery. It truly is just that. An amazing mystery.

I saw this video this week. Go gawk over the absolute amazingness of creation and then gawk some more over the fact that God is more amazing.

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Happy Good Friday. :)

Self-Proclaimed Mismatch Day

I'm Sara.

& these are my Friday favorites!

 My favorite blue and orange socks.

Self-proclaimed mismatch day.

Free Redbox Rentals.

Movie nights with my sister.

Little victories (like a clean kitchen!).

Making new friends.

That tired-but-good feeling knowing you've spent a day productively.

Spring flowers. It's about time!

Splashing my feet in the pond. Even when it's still kinda cold for this.

Going shoe-less outside.

Knowing that when I'm weakest, he's strongest.

Days where I don't have to do anything but school.

(linking up here & here!)
Daffodils.

Spell check. To correct my horrible tries at spelling daffodils.

Wearing shorts all the time.

Coupons.

Receiving God's strength to serve, even when I don't have it or even want to have it.

The drumming of the water going down the spout.

Giant marshmallows.

Giant smores!

My friends. What on earth would I do without them?

Pigtails.

Homeschool Group.

Making people smile & laugh

..with my awkwardness awesome mustache. It was my disguise for 'Who am I?' at homeschool group yesterday. It looked pretty spiffy. I kept it on most of the morning. :D

The feeling of rain hitting my skin.

My nice dry self inside my raincoat.

Jumping in puddles.

Wet & muddy shoes.

A warm house.

Saying yes to letting my little sister wash the car windows. She thought it was the best thing ever.

It's the simple little things that you find joy in.
Take a moment to find some in your own life.