March Highlights

Hello everyone! It's nice to be back! March was a hectic month, full of ups and downs. I also flew halfway across the country to spend a week with friends in Georgia. 

My babysitting job at the church is over for the season. It was a good semester, and I can't wait till my job comes back in the fall. <3

I finished designing the new blog. I'm almost ready to switch over!

I went to Whataburger with Rebekkah for breakfast one day. We listened to Bible and colored together. It was awesome.  

Flying back home

It also got warm enough that we were able to take a lot of walks! 

I got a haircut. So now it's back up the length it was last July. 

We got a tiny little puppy, Belle. We don't quite know what breed she is, but we're thinking Mini Aussie, with maybe a bit of Border Collie in her. 

My sister was in a wreck. The car was totaled, but praise be to God, neither of my sisters in the car were hurt. 

Toccoa Falls

Out kayaking 

Julia, me, and Jessica

I went on my Georgia trip.

Some trip highlights include: 

1. Spending six hours of travel time in the air, at airports, and getting my last Whataburger before I left Texas. 

2. Going to dinner with the lovely Hailey Hudson. (She is awesome) 

3. Getting adopted by my friend's cat (She took a lot of naps with me) 

4. Finally getting to see Toccoa Falls college.

5. Kayaking for the very first time (I loved it!!)

6. Hiking Tallulah Gorge. 1000+ stairs and worth every one of them. 

7. Little Ceasers pizza and Hallmark movies. 

8. Metting up with my friend Aubri (And staying at her house for the last two days of my trip) 

9. Getting to see Red Pandas again (Three of them!!) 

10. Flying out in the early morning. Which was nothing short of magical. 

11. Being met by my family, figuring out my sister had taken off work so she could come greet me, and being taken to Whataburger to celebrate being home. 

The trip wasn't perfect, it had some hard points, but it was good. It was a very mixed month for a lot of reasons, but I was insanely blessed to be able to do the things I did

I had a lot of time to read this month because of my trip. So my favorite (aside from Dear Mr. Knightly which was my sixth re-read) was Kiera. This was my first time reading the corrected version and it was beautiful! I pretty much liked everything I read this month!

Still I Grow on Sunshine and Joy

Weathered Wood A Farm Girls Life

Time Management Stories by Firefly 

I Forgot How to Write Elizabeth Anne

Jack and Other Pictures I've Promised Once upon the Ordinary

Small Break

So, I'm working on creating some back content for my new blog, and I'm also working on finalizing the changes to it. Tomorrow I'll be getting on a plane to spend some time with some very dear friends of mine. 

I'm super excited because this is my second plane trip ever. I'll be spending some time just relaxing, and catching up on my reading. So, while I'm gone, I won't be posting here. Hopefully, I'll be back at the end of the month with the link to the new blog and we'll be making the switch over. 

While I'm gone, go on over and check out this song by Ernie Haase and Signature Sound. It's fantastic. 

I'll see y'all in just a bit!

Big changes coming

I started this blog almost six years ago. Back when I started, I wanted to have a place to share my pictures and tell people about my life. Fast forward a couple years, and I decided the name I had chosen was too childish. So I changed it from The Bubblegum Ballerina to Ordinary Girl, Extraordinary Father and I started sharing a lot more of my writing. Fast forward to last January where I became very dissatisfied with my blog. I began to pray about why I felt so unsettled about it. I really feel that God told me I had the wrong mindset about my blog. It was all "me" focused, and not outward focused. So I worked on it and finally came to a decision.

To really have a blog outward focused, I want to start over. 

I have loved this corner of the internet for six years, and it was a hard decision to decide to move. It's scary for me to think of completely starting over with followers and a new type of content. But I know it's the right thing for me to do. 

So what will this new blog be like? 

Well, for one, it's named after me. Yup, I went all boring and just slapped my name on it. Not only is that good for simplicity's sake (No getting tired of the name), but also it will give me a base if I decided to be a professional and want a website.

My goal for the blog was to be a comfortable space where people would feel like they didn't have to  'clean up' to leave a comment. So yeah, it's got the ".blogspot.com" part at the end of my URL. It's not a professional design. The photos on my "About me" pages were taken by me. Because I'm a messy person, I don't want to feel like I have to be all formal with y'all on that blog. It makes me so happy because it's purple, grey and white. It's got flowers and swirly fonts. All things that just make me happy.

The content of that blog is going to be different, but not completely. I'm going to be focusing more on diving into discussions on my faith, and my actual writing process. I will be slowing way down on how many blog tours I am part of, and "filler" posts like tags and the like. Also, I have made the decision to slow down how much I post my poetry.

So yeah, that was a huge info dump. I'm still setting up the blog, so I'm not quite ready to give y'all the link, but it will be coming soon! 

This was my six hundred'th blog post, and it feels fitting that it would be the beginning of saying goodbye to this blogspot.

So what are y'all's thoughts on this?

When Waiting Begins to Hurt

This is not one of my most put together poems, but a lot has been piling up recently and prompted me to write this. I was recently reminded in several ways how much I need to be storing up treasure in my eternal home, not in my temporary one.

Sometimes the waiting hurts 

When people we love die 

When pets go on 

And there’s financial strain 

When people get injured 

And decisions are hard 

The waiting begins to hurt 

It’s a subtle realization 

A small stabbing in the heart 

That this world 

Will never be my home 

I’m trying to store up treasure 

In that home, not this 

I’m laying aside things 

Knowing I’ll see them again 

But as friends go before me 

And hurt begins to stab 

I know I’ll see them again 

Because what’s lost in the world

That clings to His mighty grace

Is never lost for good 

It's waiting at home 

But this waiting is beginning to hurt 

I’m getting a hankering for home 

So I can see what I lost face to face 

And know, as I always have 

That all this pain 

Is worth the wait 

February Highlights

Well, February was not an amazing month. It had some super awesome times in it, but also some really hard ones. 

I got a sprocket! It's a tiny photo printer you hook up to your phone via Bluetooth. It's kind of like having a Polaroid camera. I have been using that a ton and I love it. 

So I did a bit more baking this month by trying my hand at lemon bars and cupcakes made from scratch. I was pleasantly surprised that both turned out pretty good! Though the icing on the cupcakes was a bit

I got to skype with my friend Kate for the first time. <3

I went to see the Lego Movie 2 in theaters with my siblings. I don't go to the theater very often, so that was a treat, and the movie was super fun. Not as good as the first, but good. Then later in the month, my sister Sarah took me again. =)

I babysat some super awesome kids, which was definitely a highlight of the month.



One of the most exciting things I did this month was buying plane tickets!! One of my dearest friends and I split the cost of a ticket, and I'm heading to Georgia near the end of this month!

Texas had fun with the weather (as it always does). It was 87 degrees on the fifteenth, and two weeks later it barely got above freezing one day.

I got sick for a solid week and had a fever for most of that, so I spent my time catching up on my reading and some Mission Impossible (old series). It was actually a good break, despite not feeling well. I am very grateful to be better now and diving back into work.

Ascari

Our dog Ascari died. It's been sad not to have him around anymore.

Also, our fridge went out for a whole week. That was... a learning experience.

I was struck with inspiration the other day and pulled a lot of books off my bookshelf that I just like, but didn't love. So I had about 25 books I got rid of. I never thought I would toss that many books at once, but it felt really good. Then I rearranged my bookcases and got them to fit better then they have in a long time.  

My favorite was The Protector by Dee Henderson. My least favorite was You're the Cream in my Coffee.

An Adventure Stories by Firefly

Levi + Elenor Sunshine and Scribbles

What I Wish I'd Known Inspiring Writes

January Video The Introverted Extrovert

Make Your Own Sunshine A Farm Girls Life

If Riley Poole were a Writer A Storynerds Life