This year I am taking part in a weekly collaborative photo project called 52 Saturday Mornings. You can see the entire group of images here.
I love to get outside with our children and spend time exploring. No agenda set. Just time together. Recently, we spent some time at one of our favorite local spots. The kids spent hours exploring and imagining. They each had their own island in this fun world they created. I sat next to the water and listened and watched as they played together.
In a world that competes with electronics daily, I know without doubt that the real magic happens when everything is unplugged.
Head on over to the 5 minute project to see the rest of these images together. Josh Solar and I have collaborated using the word Explore; one of us in the warmth of Florida and the other in the cold of Kansas City.
With each New Year, we often begin to focus on how we can improve our lives. How can we be better versions of ourselves? We seek to lose weight, eat healthy, get out of debt, etc. This weekend I listened to a sermon that really got me thinking about New Year resolutions in a different way. The pastor, Andy Stanley, asked, "What breaks your heart? What needs to be done around you?" He continued; "if you really want to become a better person, do something to make the world a better place. Be a means to an end." He shared that “we tend to forget that the people we respect the most didn't devote their lives to becoming the best version of themselves. They devoted their lives to making a difference in the world . . . or in someone’s world.”
Someone.
That one word was so profound to me. Oftentimes, we feel like the problems in the world are too big for us to make a difference. We wonder how our little bit of time, effort or finances will make a difference.
But, it starts with one person.
These words gave me such encouragement. First, they reconfirmed that my role as a mother to our children does make a difference. There are days, it is easy to lose sight or downplay the importance of this role, yet as parents we can make an eternal difference in the lives of our children. Second, I was encouraged to seek the people in my daily life that are in need; people I see in my neighborhood and community. Who is in need of a smile, an open ear, a genuine heart? Each of us can make a difference and make this world a better place.
We must ask this question daily.
How can I make a difference in the life of someone?
AND
Who is that someone?
The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.
Lamentations 3:22-23
This year I am taking part in a weekly collaborative photo project called 52 Saturday Mornings. You can see the entire group of images 
You got new sneakers for Christmas and have been determined to learn to tie them by yourself. This week you mastered it and you were super excited. My mama heart loved this moment for you.
There’s something emotional for me about seeing these five together in a frame. Family knows us in ways that some never will. My husband has seen me in some of my most ungraceful moments; moments of selfishness, moments of hurt, and moments of fear. My children have seen me in my most impatient hours; tired, worn out, and irritable. And these realities; they go both ways. It's a constant yo yo of love and forgiveness. It’s not from lack of love; but simply humanity filled with our imperfect and selfish ways.
Family can often be the people that we hurt the most; yet, at the same time we love them with the deepest and most crazy love. It’s incredible to know love like this. Pure and unconditional. I believe love and life are both made up of the imperfect. People. Memories. The mistakes and stories waiting to unfold. The struggles and successes merge together to create a life that we will one day look back on.
Many days, I hurt my family and in turn they hurt me. We are all weak and imperfect on our own. But, each new day is adorned in grace and mercy. Each new day, we have the chance to come before God and ask Him to help us be more like Him. Each trial we go through on our own, or as a family, gives us a chance to seek Him. He brings light to the dark. And because of that, I humbly thank Him for this imperfect life and for these imperfect people to love and grow with.
This year I am taking part in a weekly collaborative photo project called 52 Saturday Mornings. You can see the entire group of images 
This image was taken as part of a series for my 10 on 10 for January. See the rest of these images 
I really don’t listen to pop music. The truth be told, I couldn't name three songs on the mainstream radio right now. A couple of weeks ago my husband spent the weekend at a conference in Atlanta for college students called Passion. Somehow during the course of the weekend, he was introduced to the song Shake It Off by Taylor Swift. When he first mentioned the song, I didn't pay much attention. But then as it was played and replayed in our home, I found myself singing along. And then I found myself dancing with our kids to this song.
There’s something really awesome about the message Taylor shares in this song. In a recent interview she says, “The message in Shake It Off is a problem we all deal with on a daily basis. We don’t live just in a celebrity takedown culture, we live in a takedown culture,” she explained about the insanely catchy track. “People will find anything about you and twist it to where it’s weird or wrong or annoying or strange or bad. You have to not only live your life in spite of people who don’t understand you — you have to have more fun than they do.”
I have spent many years as a people pleaser. I dislike confrontation. I enjoy peace and comradery . I try to love all people and embrace that we are all different. It hurts when people don’t take the time to know below the surface and make judgments based on their own assumptions. Sadly, I have spent way too many hours of my life worrying too much about other’s opinions and I don't want our children to have these same wasted hours. I want them to love others fully, but realize that others will not always love them back.
It’s a new year and I keep coming back to these three words. Shake It Off. Perhaps, they are three words you need to sing as well.
As Ann Voskamp once said, “People will always have opinions about you. But you live for God because He’s the only one who has intimate knowledge of you.”
We spend countless hours here; such a peaceful way to end our days.