It's Finally UP!

Hi friends.  I am posting to announce that my new blog which I talked about in the previous post is up and running.  I will no longer be blogging here.  So.. go check out my new blog, "A Hopeful Place" here!

Thanks to all of my followers for being faithful readers even when I have certainly not been a consistent blogger.  It's been lovely everyone :)


Love,
Meg <3

Checking In

HI!

I know that I've been gone for quite a while...

but....

       

                   I...

                                    HAVE...

                                                  REALLY...

REALLY

EXCITING

NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




I am working on creating a new blog to replace this one.  The reason for this is twofold.  One, because creating a new blog is a lot of fun. And two, because I think it would be great to have a fresh start.  I have not been keeping my blog on a focused path.  I would like to refocus it and stay with the game plan.  It is so easy to go on rabbit trails in the blogging world.


So iMeg will soon be....

- at a different site
- may have a different title
- will have a new design
- will be switched over to Wordpress (for design reasons) :)

I will update you with more details soon!


:) Meg

Sunshine Award

I'm finally posting this since it has been a month since I was awarded! :)

First of all thanks to Willa who awarded me.  You should go check out her blog right now because she is a great writer, and photographer, and blogger, (she's basically awesome at everything) :D  So click here to see her wonderful blog! 

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link to his/her blog.

2. Nominate other bloggers and let them know on their blog.

3.  Answer the list of ten questions given.

4.  The sunshine award must be posted on your blog.

So here we go!

1.  What is your favorite Bible verse?

I would have to say John 10:27-29 which says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”

2. Would you sacrifice your life it would save that of a strangers?

It would totally depend on the circumstance.  I don't know why a situation like this would happen but you never know :)

3.  Given the chance to swim with dolphins... would you accept?

I'm not very fond of animals but I guess swimming with dolphins could be fun.  However, I would not accept.

4.  Are you more fascinated by light or darkness?  Why?

I am more fascinated by light.  The way it bounces off of things and makes rainbows is amazing.  I am also awestruck at the way your pupils respond to light.  When there is an abundance of light in a room, your pupils are small, but when it is dark your pupils are huge!  I think it is awesome that the Creator made our eyes this way!

5.  Can you speak in a different accent?

Not well.  I can kind of do a British accent though.  I hear if you say "raise up lights" really fast it sounds like "razor blades" in an Australian accent.  (And now your trying it.  I know you are)  It works!

6.  Would you rather be disliked or forgotten?

  Honestly, neither of these are fun but I would rather be disliked. 

7.  Has the ocean ever filled your dreams?

I'm not one for remembering my dreams (unless they are crazy, blow your mind away kind of dreams) but I'm sure at some point I have had a dream with an ocean involved.

8.  Assuming you have one, how often is your journal put to use?

I do have a journal (it's actually pretty cute) but I'm horrible at being consistent with it.  I wish I journaled more often than I do.  

9.  What is your favorite fictional character of all time?

Anne in Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery  (although I haven't read the whole book), August Pullman in Wonder by R.J. Palacio, and Ida B in well... Ida B by Katherine Hannigan.  These are just some of my favorites.

10.  What is your favorite hymn?

A few of my faves are: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,  How Great Though Art, Holy, Holy, Holy, Blessed Assurance, and practically every other hymn on the planet!!

Well this has been jolly!  Thanks again to Willa for awarding me!  

Oh, I almost forgot... I'm nominating:

Anna who blogs here.

Rebekah who blogs here.

I was awarded again so I will be posting that soon!  Also, keep an eye out because I'm going to start a new series where I share my favorite books of the month! :)

Have a great week everyone!!!!

Meg

Snow.. Snow...Snow

It has been snowing sooo much here.  I thought I would post some pictures I took outside today.  I was given the Sunshine Award last week and I promise that there is a post for that coming soon! :) But for now.... enjoy!!!

                    Snowy selfie!!

                   Dramatic picture!

I hope everyone stays cozy!!! More posts coming soon!!!

Meg

Weekend Music Video! :)

The weekend is finally here.  Our gang has been fighting nasty colds and fevers this week.  Prayers are appreciated. :)  To celebrate the weekend, I have a fun music video to share with you.  The song is called, "To Love You Back."  It is from Jamie Grace's new album, "Ready to Fly."  You should check out the rest of her album when you get a chance.  I promise that you won't regret it.  Without further ado.....

I love the message in this song.  Christ loved us first and we have the chance to love Him back.  I love the part that says, "I get to know you more and more, and make every single day about You, I wanna live like I can't afford, to spend another second without You."

If we stopped focusing so much on ourselves and started focusing on Christ by making every single day about Him I think our lives would look a lot different.  I want to live like that.

 The last part of the song says: "So I answer the call, I give You my all, I lay it at Your feet, I can't praise You enough, but I promise to give You my love."

This weekend I want that to be my goal.  Who else is with me?  

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Love,

Meg

Happy Valentines Day!  Today may we remember that the King loves us dearly, more than anyone else.  May we glorify Him this Valentines Day and the rest of the year through all we say and do!

 

"May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ". ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:5

Xoxoxo

Meg

Winter Unity - It's the Little Things

 Glittery but fresh.  Sparkling, but quiet.  Luxurious, but soft.  The snow lays on the wet grass.  In several places you can see the pointy blades popping up through the sleek, slippery, snow.  Somehow there is silence outside on this icy evening.  To some people this picturesque scene is nothing out of the ordinary.  To others, every time snow falls it is like a taste of heaven.

Shivering people come into a warm house where they are joyfully welcomed.  The fire is glowing, hot chocolate is being served, and inside this house there is something unique.  Something that you don't find in the middle of summer, spring or fall.

Little children wake-up and peek out their frost covered windows to find snow falling from the sky.  "Maybe school will be closed and we can go outside and play!" they excitedly exclaim.  There is something different inside children that can't be found in any other season.

Could that something be unity?  A warm hug on a cold night.  Reading books around the fire together.  Lending a jumper chord to a friend who can't start their car.  Wrapping that sweet little baby in blankets and quilts until she is nice and toasty.  It's the little things.  Fresh snow, on a cold dark night.   People sharing together and being united.  Love is everywhere.

Warm winter wishes!  

Meg

Merry Christmas (Late)

Okay, so I'm a week late on wishing you all a Merry Christmas but now is better than never so, Merry Christmas!  I wrote a poem and took a picture to share with you today.  The poem is about how we can still celebrate Christmas even after Christmas.  Without further ado…..

Christmas all Year 'Round!

by 

ME!

Christmas is over, the stockings are down.

But we can remember the joy, and the sounds.

As you look at this candle, the flame so tall.

Remember Christ, who is Lord of all.

Our sins are forgiven because of him.

Now we can be born again.

He came to exchange our darkness with His light.

We can continue to thank him every day, every night.

Though Christmas is over and the tree is down.

We can remember Christ's love all year 'round.

Mornings

Ahh how I love slow mornings.  There is just something super sweet about them.  They say "Hello, it's a fresh new day!"  Devotions are a pleasure in the morning because I am more focused and awake and ready to start my day right.  Sometimes on a slow morning a cup of coffee is a wonderful treat.  However, there are mornings that are far from perfect.  (You know those mornings... I know you do)  Sometimes there is no time for a cup of coffee or I don't feel like devotions.  But on such mornings, I am missing the gift of a slow quiet morning where God whispers to me and says "This is a new day, a chance to start over."  Yes, sometimes life is too busy but we must learn to make time.  It's worth it.

Psalm 118:24

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

A Quick Post...

I realize that I haven't posted in a while but I am starting to work on some posts and designs.  An update is coming soon on what I've been doing since the last I've posted (IN JULY!?).  However, my blog is giving me grief.  A few months ago I customized another header but it won't fit the size of the header on my blog.  I think it has something to do with the HTML but I still haven't quite figured it out yet.  If any of you know how to fix this please let me know!  I would definitely appreciated it!!  Also, I tried to put a background on my blog since it was boring without the header but as you can see the top of it is white!  I would appreciated suggestions on how to fix this also. :)  Though I have neglected my blog for a while, I thought I would let you know that progress is in the works!  More posts coming soon... I PROMISE!  :)

Fabulous and Frightening Friday

Hi!,

I hope everyone has had a great week!  Our gang has!  I haven't done a Fabulous and Frightening Friday in a while so here we go.

Fabulous:

• Going to the park for a picnic

Click this link for a picture: http://instagram.com/p/cPUp-YIgqj/

• Finally getting headphones that work for my iPod.
• The lime cantoloupe we had for lunch. Delicious!
• Face Paint.  Introducing Molly the puppy dog!  (Click again!:) http://instagram.com/p/cPkOfQogku/
• Spending time with the best big brother ever.  We sat on the swings and listened to music together.  It was great!
• Sleeping in till ten this morning.  Since I got back from Student Life camp, I haven't really slept in because I was in a habit of waking up at six every morning.
• The fact that we have nothing to do this evening and dad has no meetings.  I can't wait.
• Our Wi-fi is back!  (I'll try not to put too many smiley faces.) :D :) :O !!!!!
• A sweet piano teacher who will totally change her schedule so ours works better.

Frightening:

• Getting ready for the day when  your little sister comes up to you and says, "Your face and hair do not go with that shirt!"  ...gee thanks sis?
• How hot it was today after a few pretty cool days.

Today was pretty wonderful.  For tonight's supper we are grilling.  YUM!  

How was your Friday?

Meg

Graceful

Hi everyone!  I hope your summer has been wonderful.  It is hard for me to imagine summer coming to an end soon.  It has flown by.  I just finished a book and wanted to post a review.  The book is Graceful by Emily P. Freeman.  It is a very rich book and I have MARKED IT UP!

In Graceful, Emily writes about things we hide behind, masks we put on, and how to come out of our hiding.  She opens the book talking about playing hide-and-go-seek as a kid with her dad when he came home from work.  She would hide in the same spots every time.  Her favorite part of the game was being found.  This illustration was a great way to open up the book.

There our many "good girl" voices in our heads that tell us to hide behind different things.

The Actress says "You have to perform."
The Girl Next Door says "You have to impress."
The Activist says "You have to make an impact."
The Heroine says "You have to be strong and responsible."
The Bystander says "You don't matter."
The Judge says "You have to be perfect."
The Intellectual says "You have to be the best."
The Dreamer says "Your life won't start until later."

We listen to these voices.  We hide behind our performance, our reputation, our causes, our responsibility, our comfort zone, our rules, our report card, our somedays.  We try to handle everything ourselves but we can't.  We need grace.  Instead of hiding behind these things, we can hide ourselves in Christ.  He gives us grace to live everyday.  That is what this book is about.

A phrase that stuck with me from this book is, "Grace plus anything is no longer grace."  And it is true. I would recommend this book for any young lady seeking after grace.

Meg

Summer (+pictures)

Some of you know that I lost my camera.  :(  I haven't posted a lot of pictures (or anything really) lately.  However,  I figured out that my dad's old iPhone takes pretty good pictures.  I thought that I would share some of the ones that i have taken with it recently.  These pictures just say summer to me.  A lot of them are of Kate because we had a "photo shoot."

Without further ado.....

 

  

Selfie :D

Kate wanted pictures in her new, fancy outfit.  We found out that it was a great spinner! 

What's a new outfit without shoes?

I hope you are having a wonderful summer!

What have you been up to?

Day 1 of our Special Time Together

This week Cole and my dad are both in Honduras and Kate and Molly are at my grandparents.  This means that my mom and I are able to spend a few days together.  It has been a blast so far and I am looking forward to the days ahead.

We started our first day together on the porch.

Then we started a book together.  It is The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne.  Many reviews say that it is a heartbreaker but we are enjoying it so far.

Next we watched The Princess Bride.  That was the first time I had seen the movie and I really enjoyed it.

For dinner that night we ate Brown Rice Pasta With Tuna, Olives, Fried Capers & Parsley.  It was delicious and very picturesque.  

We ended the evening by watching a bit of My Fair Lady.  We will finish the rest sometime today.  It is very wonderful so far :)

I can't wait for today's adventures.  Hopefully I will post about them tomorrow.  Chao for now!

Meg

Inspiration

After a busy day...  I have finally had the chance to just lean back and say ahhh.   Today I picked up Kisses from Katie and was quite inspired.  I walked into the living room after a while to give mom an update on the progress I had achieved book.  She reminded me of an email forward that she sent me a few days ago of a Holy Experience blog post that I hadn't had a chance to look at yet.  So, I hopped on the computer to check it out.  The post was about Kisses from Katie and talking about a lot of the things in the book that I had just read.  Every day Katie finds at least 100 children in her yard ready for lunch, homework help, and showers.  This chapter was about how Katie found scabies on some of the children that were in her backyard on that particular day.  She took them into her home, gave them food, a bed, warm baths, and courageously treated their scabies with the risk that she our any of her girls could catch them.  Katie's willingness just blows my mind!  A convicting fact from this chapter was that if 8 percent of Christians would care for only one more child, there wouldn't be ANY orphans or needy children left.  Katie also says that if you go into a village to teach a child about God's love, how will they ever understand if they don't know what is?  The only thing you can do is just love.  Love.  That should be our goal.  Love.  That's what we can do.  Love.  That's how we will make a difference.


Let's love others together.  What do you say?

Books

Hi! :)  I wanted to tell you all about some books that I've enjoyed recently.  The first one is Perfectly Unique by Annie Downs.  

This book is perfectly charming.  It teaches you to use your body to glorify God in many different ways with many different parts of your body.  Annie writes in a fun loving, down to earth tone which I enjoyed greatly.  She blogs here.  The appendix of the book contains many recipes, websites, and more.  I loved Perfectly Unique.

The next book happens to be a fiction book that I zoomed through.  It is called The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, The Mysterious Howling.

This book is well written, different, and captivating.  It is about a well educated woman named Penelope who is looking for a job.  She finds an ad that says there is a position for governess available at the house (more like mansion) of Lord and Lady Ashton.  However, Penelope does not find the children in the nursery where she expected.  She keeps hearing mysterious howls that seem to be coming from the barn.  She strolls outside to take a look.  She finds......  THE CHILDREN!  They are howling like wolves.  Most think they've been raised by wolfs.  They are drooling, licking, and did I mention howling.  With sooo much to teach them, Penelope is not pleased to figure out that Lady Ashton is hosting a Christmas ball... and inviting the children!!!  With many mysteries along the way, this adventure is thrilling.  It is one of the many books in the series.  The Mysterious Howling is a great read.




These are the recent favorites of mine.  Next are some that I have started reading and plan to finish soon.

Amazon says Graceful goes along wonderfully with Perfectly Unique.  So far, this book is great!  I hope to read more of it soon.  Emily blogs here.

Kisses from Katie has been both heart breaking and gripping.  It tells the story of how Katie came to Uganda and became used to the culture there.  It is interesting how she planned to go on a trip to Uganda for a week and then it turned into coming back for a month which turned into living there and adopting many children.  I can't wait to finish Kisses from Katie.  Katie blogs here.

I got a hold of this beautiful book yesterday.  I am loving it!!!  I love Jenna's writing.  Redefining Beautiful is about what true beauty means.  I have read another book by her called From Blah to Awe which I posted about here. 


What are you reading lately.  Comment and let me know!


Meg