Happy Days

I follow a great blog called The Girls with Glasses.  It was created by two awesome girls who are cute, quirky, and both wear glasses like me!

Their latest blog post is a video they made titled "How To Be Happy".  Obviously the name gives away the main idea, but it essentially talks about finding your 'happy tools' for when you're having a bad day.

Sometimes life just has you down and its important to know what things can pick you pack up again.
I decided to sit down and make my own list of happy tools.  Here are the ones I was able to come up with:

Nature

This has got to be the biggest one for me.  Getting away from everything and retreating into the wilderness really brings you back to who you are and reminds you of what a beautiful world we've been given

Wear a Flowy Dress

When in doubt, slipping on a nice twirly dress and doing a few spins can really brighten up any boring old day!

Reread an Old Book

One of my favorite things to do is go back to an old book, preferably one I read in my teenage years. Reintroducing yourself to the old characters hidden between the dusty pages and coming back to a comfortable story you have heard before is a lovely thing.

Listen to Music 

I especially love Sara Bareilles when I'm in a funk. Her music is very fun and empowering. Pumping up the volume when her songs come on (preferably when wearing a flowy dress) can cure any bad day!

Bake a Cake (Then Eat It) 

Creating something yummy out of nothing more than a few ingredients you have in your pantry is slightly awesome.  Especially when you get to lick the spoon and eat the finished product a short time later!


What are some of your happy tools? I'd love to hear!

Embrace the Change

I have two weeks left of school.  Well only one, if you want to be technical, because after this week comes the dreaded finals.  Where has the year gone??

As my sophomore year of college comes to an end, I have found myself thinking a lot. I've been experienced two mind sets; the "oh my gosh its almost summer I'm so excited and next year is going to be great!" mindset versus the "holy crap I only get two more weeks with these people and next year is going to be WAY different" mindset. It's been tough because most of the time I think about the fun stuff, but then I stop myself and my mind wanders to things like change, and life, and how everything will soon be very different.

I'm not a big fan of change. I can handle it most of the time, I can tolerate it, but that doesn't mean I like it. Being a creature of habit, I thoroughly enjoy my routines and rituals and when these get thrown off by any degree of change I get slightly uncomfortable. Thinking about all of the things that will be different next year makes me excited, but it is after all change, so I am also wary.

But thats life, isn't it? Life is encountering change to further who you are.  If you avoided change your whole life you would be nowhere. You would be at home, with no schooling, no job, no social life, nada. Change may be hard, but it gets you places. It takes you on a journey to a more exciting and vivacious life.  If I avoided change I would not be anywhere close to where I am today.

So while I do fight with these two mindsets, I have come to terms with the fact that I am feeling both ways. My adventurous side is saying "Melissa, this is a new chapter of your life and its going to be awesome!" and my cautious, comfort-seeking side is saying "AHH CHANGE!!".  Thats okay, though, because those are both a part of who I am.

So, for now I am planning on finishing off the school year strong.  I am planning on soaking up as much of this chapter of my life I can, including seeing friends that I may not see as much next year and jumping in the pool every day at our apartment complex. Soon these things will change, but thats just a part of life. Luckily, I can know and trust that God is guiding me on my life journey, and that next year will be infinitely more fun, crazy, and spirit-filled than anything I could've hoped for.

I will embrace the change, and with a smile on my face no less! :)


“The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself.” 
-C. Joybell C.

Erin

I was so happy to be able to dust off the camera and do a little photo sesh with my good friend Erin this past weekend!  I have been wanting to get some portrait practice lately, and she was the perfect person to shoot. As you can see, she always had a smile on her face and she was a great model. The shoot went as smooth as possible, and we got a nice big breakfast afterwards to top off a wonderful morning :) Check out some of the pictures I took of this lovely lady!

Happy Friday!

Why We Rescue

I have always admired those who rescue.  I have three dogs, two of which are from shelters and one of which was a stray. It is such a gratifying experience to rescue an animal.  You are saving these animals from living in the shelters and worse: becoming another statistic. The Humane Society of the United States says that 6 to 8 million animals enter shelters every year, and 3 to 4 million of those are euthanized. By rescuing an animal from a shelter rather than adopting them from a pet store or a breeder, you are changing this statistic and saving a life.

Okay, now that I'm done with the PSA, I want to tell you about something.

So there's this guy named Theron Humphrey. He seems like a pretty cool dude. I'm not sure how I originally heard of him, but somehow I found him on Instagram and was blown away. Every picture he posts is beautiful (he's from Washington so that is expected), but the photos I love most are of his dog.

Her name is Maddie, a coonhound rescue, and she is in almost every one of his pictures. He actually published a book about her (you can find it here) called "Maddie on Things", where he poses her on top of all different sorts of objects for fun.  There is also a blog of the pictures he takes here.

Apart from his adventures with Maddie, Humphrey has been working on a project. It's called "Why We Rescue", and it is essentially a documentary of people from all 50 states who have rescued animals.   There are beautiful pictures of the pets, the owners, and their homes.  Along with this Humphrey recorded the people telling their stories so as you scroll through the photos you can hear them speaking to you. He made this documentary so that others can see the beauty that comes from adopting, and how these everyday stories display just how transformative pets are.

I love this project.  It really communicates in a beautiful way how such a small act of adopting can change lives.  I know this to be true, and now other people can see how great it is through "Why We Rescue".

If you want to check out his project, click here!

Have any of you guys ever adopted pets? If so, tell me your story!

Comparison

I have always struggled quite a bit with comparison.  I think it is one of those overlooked problems, simply because other things seem to be a lot worse.  While there may be more detrimental problems, comparing yourself to others can be significantly hurtful to yourself and to the God that created you.

God has been trying to open my eyes to my struggle with comparison.  There have been quite a few things popping up lately that are pointing to this, and I have started thinking about it a lot. It is a problem that many teenage girls struggle with, myself included, mainly because we are unhappy with parts of who we are.

While we may overlook the fact that we compare ourselves to others daily, it is actually a big problem. Doing so says a lot about who we are and the God we put our faith in. It says that we are unsatisfied with who we were created to be and therefore want more than what we have: we want to be prettier, nicer, more patient, have more money, more opportunities, more adventures. It says that we are unhappy with how God created us to be.

The reality is that God created you EXACTLY the way he wanted.  He is a perfect God, so how could he make a mistake? Yes, he may have given you a bigger nose than you'd hoped for, or a more stubborn personality then most, but he didn't do any of this by accident.

Think about it: if he created us the way we wanted, each of us would probably look like a beautiful model. While you may initially think that would be awesome, where is the fun in it? We wouldn't have any of the unique qualities, gifts, or talents God has blessed us with.  We would all be carbon copies of each other, created from the same overused mold.

I think we need to view ourselves less as what we see in the mirror and more how God sees us.  We are his masterpiece: he created us in his image, and all of the things we see as imperfections he sees as perfect.  We are the beautiful art of a creative God who built us each exactly the way we are meant to be.

Just remember: you are beautiful and perfect in his eyes, and that's all that matters!


"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." -Ephesians 2:10





photo credit: seyed mostafa zamani via photopin cc

Weekly Update

photo credit: ginnerobot via photopin cc

It is finals week.

I am currently writing this in between cram sessions for my next test and binge sessions from my cupboard.

My mind is stuck in an endless cycle: sleep, eat, work, study, sleep, eat, work, study.......it goes on and on, with tests splattered haphazardly in between.  In this week, the hands down craziest time of the quarter, it is hard to think about much else.  Its hard to get your mind off the next thing on your five page to-do list, or how late you have to stay up in order to shove all of the endless information into your tired brain.

Its weird to think that people, myself included, can make it through this whole week without truly enjoying it.  We spend a whole five days (at least) studying, eating, studying some more, and occasionally sleeping.

We are spending all of our time concentrating on these tests that simply end up as a number on a sheet of paper.  A number that, in no way shape or form, defines us.  We were not created to ace a class, or get an A on a paper. And yet, we have grown up our whole lives in an education system that teaches us that we will only be truly worthy if we get good grades in high school, go to a good college, and graduate with a good GPA.

While this does kind of suck, obviously we will always have some level of concern with our grade on the finals.

Wouldn't it be nice  if we could just let the stress and anxieties of finals week go? We could forget about the pressure behind the exams and, while still studying for them, take time to enjoy the beauty of this world we live in.

In practice of this idea, I present to you some things to do to relieve a little bit of stress and enjoy this beautiful week.  Whether you are studying for finals or not, use these little tidbits to brighten up your day and bring some joy into your life!

 photo credit: jenny downing via photopin cc 

Listen to music!

Particularly, this playlist. Every song on it is worthy of blasting. If you want to be extra daring, dance around the room to it.

If you're feeling a little more mellow, put on Josh Garrel's Pandora station and I promise you'll be a happy camper.

photo credit: Jason A. Samfield via photopin cc

Go sit on a patch of grass and read a book.  Do it.  You can't not enjoy life while doing this.

 photo credit: John Wiseman via photopin cc

Do some simple yoga moves.  Practice your breathing, curl up in child's pose for a little bit, rest in downward dog to get your blood flowing to your brain.  These things will calm you down and relieve some of the built up stress.

photo credit: Funky64 (www.lucarossato.com) via photopin cc

When in doubt, watch a funny TV show or your favorite childhood movie.  Sometimes you just need something that doesn't require much thought after you've been studying for hours on end.  The movie Frozen should do the trick :)


Hopefully you can do some of these things throughout your week to relieve some of the stress and just take a breather.  Just remember, your success in school doesn't define you!

xoxo
Melissa

photo credit: ginnerobot via photopin cc