Category Archives: Live.Laugh.Love.

The Greatest Gift of all

Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. – Luke 2:10-11

The biggest reason that Christmas is pretty much my favorite season of the year, is the fact that I get to celebrate the birth of my Savior, and be reminded of the greatest Gift that was given during Christmas.

While it is sometimes easy to forget and get caught up in all the Christmas sales, shopping and stress of gift-giving, I constantly remind myself that Jesus is the reason for the season. What an amazing gift was given some 2000 years ago.

May your days be filled with much love, joy, peace and hope as we celebrate the birth of the Savior this Christmas.

Blessed Christmas to you and yours.

Post-a-Parcel | Christmas edition

If you’re anything like me, each Christmas, you decide to start early on your Christmas gifts + wrapping. But somehow it happens later rather than sooner, and Christmas is just round the corner before you know it. Then it’s all a mad last-minute rush to get everything completed in time.

Since today is Christmas Eve (!!), I thought I’d share the packaging that I did for Post-a-Parcel a couple of weeks back. Earlier in December, I had the really fun opportunity to participate in Nia Neve’s Post a Parcel exchange. Post-a-Parcel is an international gift exchange of sorts, where you are paired with a partner and send each other five items. You can check out Nia’s blog post here where she explains more about Post-a-Parcel, or search #postaparcel on Instagram to see more inspiring packaging!

Aside from getting to go to the post office to send out my parcel, packaging these little parcels was one of my favorite parts. Brown paper packages tied up with string are some of my favorite things indeed.

I used some colorful twine from American Crafts. Then completed the package with a tag from Crate Paper’s Sleigh Ride collection.

Simple but classic.

I hope this post has inspired you to finish up your Christmas preparations pronto. Happy holidays!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Watch

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Oh my, I’ve been a terrible blogger lately, haven’t I? So terrible that I even missed my usual Hello, December post.

With the lack of posts and being MIA without a word, you would’ve thought that I’d fallen off the planet or something. 

But I haven’t! I’ve only been swamped with the busyness that comes with college life and all that jazz – the last couple of weeks have been a flurry of finishing school assignments and a week at church camp. Now that it’s all over and I’m looking back at what seems like a blur, I’m so thankful for God’s goodness in sustaining me through what seemed like never-ending cycles of work.

I’ve yet to have a break this year where I haven’t had to worry/stress out about submitting school assignments and meeting deadlines. And since the last of the assignments are in and I’m officially on Christmas break, I can wholeheartedly join in the Christmas preparations and soak in the Christmas spirit.

Needless to say, I am beyond thrilled and excited to *finally* be done with school for the year and enjoy whatever is left of 2013.

It is truly the most wonderful time of the year.

Somehow, I’m really appreciating the holiday season this year and especially feeling the Christmas spirit. I’m remembering to soak it all in, each moment, one day at a time.

And I’ll watch with glittering eyes and enjoy the moments while they last.

Have a smashingly good weekend. I know I’ll enjoy mine x.

Thankful…

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Each year, I am reminded of how much I have to be thankful for:

For faith, love, family, friendship, God’s provision each moment of each day, all-sufficient grace, the ability to see the world, to laugh and appreciate life…

And the list is just beginning.

This year, I’m remembering to cultivate the habit of being grateful. Not just on Thanksgiving, but every day. Because when I truly stop and think about it, I know I can count my blessings in abundance.

 I hope you remember it too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Right Now | Thursday

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Reminding myself to keep going.

More than a little excited that Christmas break is less than a month away!

A little apprehensive about how I’m going to make it through the next couple of weeks.

But plodding on anyway.

Trying to stay focused.

Enjoying our Christmas decorations that just went up last night!

Needing words to get started on my essay + paper due this week.

Excited for the weekend. As always.

Getting inspired by watching Becky Higgins talk about Project Life and scrapbooking on Creative Live!

And so thankful for replays that let me watch while it’s actually daylight over here.

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The secret to getting ahead is getting started.

Only one more day to the weekend!

I hope the rest of your week is crazy productive.
Like how I hope mine will be.

the 22 list | run a half-marathon

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When I ran my first official 10K run back in April of 2012, never did I imagine that I would run a half-marathon just eighteen months later in October 2013. To me, 10K runs were pretty manageable. But I thought that half-marathons were just a little too long and certainly not for the faint-hearted.

I don’t know what possessed me to sign up for the craziness of a half-marathon. But I did. And now that it’s over, I’ll say that it was one of the best things I did this year.

This race was originally scheduled for July of 2013. However, due to the haze that smothered us in June, the organizers postponed it until October. It would’ve been pretty cool to add “Ran my first 21K” to the list of things I did at twenty-one. But at least I still get to say that I ran 13.1 miles in 2013 (:

I wasn’t as prepared for this race as I should’ve been. Training started late, but I tried to be consistent with my long runs as much as possible, working up the miles each week to race day. My goal for this race was just to FINISH under three hours. I really wanted to push for two and a half, but I think under three hours was much more realistic.

I felt pretty good during the first 15k – my energy level was high and I hardly walked at all (must’ve been those GU chomps!). But the last 4k really killed me. Everything was hurting and all I wanted to do was stop. It took everything I had to keep going. But I had my support team who pushed me on and soldiered with me to the end. I crossed the finish line with a time of 2:37, which exceeded my expectations so I was pretty happy about it (:

I surprised myself. But I know I wouldn’t have done it without the support of my siblings, who were my biggest supporters. They cheered me on, pushed me forward, and just ran with me even when I felt like giving up.

Sometimes, I’m still in disbelief that I actually ran (and finished) a half-marathon. It’s one of those things that I never thought I’d do. But I guess, you can accomplish more than you think you can – if you believe you can.

I’m not sure if another half-marathon will be a part of the future. But I’m definitely loving this running thing while it lasts.

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The 22 list is a list of things I made to accomplish while I’m twenty-two. For more about my 22 list, read this post.

Right Now | Wednesday

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Choosing not to let myself be overwhelmed by all the things I need to do but don’t have enough time for.

Embracing the rain + cool weather.

Staying warm despite the rain.

So, so thankful for God-given friendships.

Eagerly anticipating the weekend.

Plodding on to the end of the week.

Persevering to the end of the term.

Really needing a break, pronto.

But counting down the weeks until Christmas break(!!!)

Getting into the Christmas holiday spirit.

Still a little bit in disbelief that it’s almost halfway through November and 42 DAYS until Christmas!

Reminding myself to dare to dream BIG.

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If you can dream it, you can do it. – Walt Disney

I hope your week’s been some kind of fabulous xx.

Wednesday Word | no. 019

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Lately, the truth of this quote has truly resonated with me.

I really feel like I need more hours in a day – more hours to spend time with people I love, make creative fun stuff, go to places, and check off things to do (like writing blog posts). On a side note, I actually have an entire backlog of posts I need to finish writing and post. I’m getting on it, I promise.

But anyhow, while the number of hours in a day stays the same, I’ll try to make every minute of it worthwhile and productive.

Here’s to right priorities and mind-blowing productivity!
Happy Wednesday – I hope your week has been super duper so far (:

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Every Wednesday, I share a quote + some thoughts that have been especially relevant in my life during the week. Read more Wednesday Words here.

Hello, November

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I thought I just wrote one of these posts not too long ago.

But October was pretty incredible.

I loved everything about it, from running my first half-marathon and going wakeboarding, to spending lots of time with friends and family. THE BEST.

Anyhoo.

Hello, Thanksgiving + preparing for the holidays. Hello, school work + counting down to getting a break! Hello, sunshine + rain. Hello, running with friends and doing better at a running routine. Hello, goodbyes + see you laters. Hello, laughing and making time to spend with people who matter. Hello to routine and switching things up at the same time. Hello, new 2014 planners.

Hello, November.

You’re here a little too quickly for my liking. But I promise I’ll make you a good one anyway (:

Beginning with Mondays

you'll get there.

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To be honest, I haven’t come up with a complete makeover plan for this blog. It’s all still kind of up in the air and whatnot. But I missed being around here too much that I decided to (officially) come back anyway. After all, this space (as with most things in life) is still a work in progress.

This semester is proving to be pretty crazy busy. Four classes and tons and tons of reading. I’m not even kidding. But that’s what college life is all about, isn’t it?

So despite the piles of reading and assignments that need to get done, I’m starting the week reminding myself, Small steps every day.

Beginning with today.

And as my philosophy professor says, I should handle all this work like how I would eat an elephant – one bite at a time. Uh-huh.

Here’s to a super-productive and nothing-less-than-amazing week! (: