welcome

Welcome to my blog! I used to love blogging when I was in high school and I've tried since then to start again with little success. But this year has caused me to want to have a place to keep track of the little things in life. Scrapbooking just takes up so much space, time, and money. And I found that using Instagram as my "journal," where I posted about the little things and the big things in my life, was detrimental to my mental health because of the ever enticing need to scroll. "Doom scrolling," as my husband refers to it. I also realized that I wasn't posting pictures and videos or even the words I was typing for other people, I was posting them for me took look back on. So, if you've stumbled onto this blog, you are certainly welcome here. But the purpose of my blog is for myself; a place to post the pictures I like and want to remember, a place to share my thoughts about the pictures I post, or about my day, or about current events. A place to think through what I'm learning. A place that I can look back on and see how much I've grown and to remember some really sweet times but also some hard times. I'm excited to be doing this again. But I am not under the impression that I am doing this to influence other people in the slightest.

What a year this has been! I have experienced some of the highest of highs this year as well as the lowest of lows. My husband and I rang in the new year in the hospital as our little girl made her way into this world. She has been a beautiful light throughout this pandemic. God has answered our every prayer for her and we have been overwhelmed by his grace and goodness to us through her. However, this has also been one of the hardest years of my life as I struggle with anxiety and depression. Whether postpartum related, pandemic related, or something else that I just don't know yet, it has been hard. Everything is hard when you're depressed. I am not an expert on depression. This is really my first battle with it and I don't have answers. But I am learning a lot and God is using this to grow me, as well as my husband, and my prayer is simply that it doesn't last forever and that we come out of this season knowing God better and loving each other more.

Today's Scripture

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe m that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, bevies I am going to the Father. Whatever you  ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it."

John 14:1-14