Illuminate.

This week's prompt on The Sunday Creative is "Illuminate".

I couldn't stop myself from using this picture.  I have others that I've taken even more recently that may fit the prompt better, but there are three things I love about this.

1.  I love the way his face is just illuminated with joy, and the contrast of his sparkling eyes and blue sweatshirt against the concrete wall.

2.  I love the way the light reflects in his eyes, so much so that you can even see the sky, me, and the other kids gathered around.

3.  I love the way this picture lights up my life every time I look at it.  And that's what photography is supposed to do, right?

Also, I think I'm going to join a little project called 365 Days {A Photographic Journey}, another brainchild of Maegan over at Madeline Bea (I just LOVE the blogging community!).  I'll be taking one picture a day for the next year, starting today, August 29, 2020, and ending on August 28, 2020.  It's not going to be easy, but I'm so eager to grow and develop my photography further, so here goes!  For the sake of not overrunning this blog with that project, I'm going to be using my Flickr account, so feel free to check it out if you want, and if you enjoy photography, consider joining in!

Hope you've had a restful Sunday and are ready to face the week!  :)

After a few days of rain...

its been gorgeous here at Gordon.  So I took advantage of the sun and biked down to Long Hill Reservation and the Sedgwick Gardens yesterday for a little photo op!

I also snapped a few pictures of sunflowers while we were on vacation last week:

I just love summer.

Orient.

Maegan over at The Sunday Creative used "orient" as this week's prompt, and how fitting it is!  As it turns out, I'm sitting on my freshly-made bed at Gordon after having just moved in and find that it's time to orient and reorient myself to this place, this new apartment, my classes, old & new professors, friends, and responsibilities, and so many other surprises that will come my way during my "senior semester".  (Not to mention all of the freshman that are making their way through the crowded waters of college orientation!)  Sometimes I wish that I could take a step back from it all, reorient myself and assess the situation, and then dive back into it all.  But alas, that's not the way life works!  However, the definition of orient made me think immediately of this picture that I snapped at the beach this week.  Is there a magic one of these things that will let you take a look at life from a distance?

Home. (or, By George! I think I'm growing up!)

As I was catching up on friends' blogs today, I came across a post written by my dear friend Sarah about home.  I know I've blogged about this in the past, but its that time of year again, and here I am, getting ready to uproot and move to another home.  Usually when mid-August rolls around, I'm filled with equal amounts of excitement and dread.  I'm always excited to see friends and (ever the nerd) even excited to start new classes.  But I always dread leaving home.  This year, though, something is different.  I'm not sure why or how, but I do know that I'm excited, no, beside myself, with the thought of packing up my car on Sunday and driving up to Massachusetts.  Perhaps its the fact that I'm moving into an apartment, or maybe its the classes that I'm taking, but at a time when I'm usually heartbroken and welcoming a familiar friend called knot-in-my-stomach to spend a few days with me, I'm totally at ease and just excited to see what the next few months hold.
I think I've finally grown comfortable in this state of never really feeling at home.  It seems that at some point over the past year, I've learned that it is an adventure, and that I want to be adventurous.  A year ago, if I had known I was graduating early, I would have been in a frenzy of planning and panicking.  But for some reason, I'm completely laid back about it all.  I think I'm supposed to be freaking out a little.  But right now, there seems to be this still, small voice that keeps saying, "sit back, enjoy these days, it'll all work out."  And I know it will.  I may not have a permanent home for a while.  Heck, I might not even know where home is for a while.  But that's okay.  It's part of the adventure.  And I'm so ready to take it on.

Starting with a little roadtrip on Sunday.

Ethereal.

This week's prompt on The Sunday Creative is "ethereal".  The word, I think, typically brings to mind stars and night scenes, but I took this one on a sunny day last week and love how you can see the sun's rays!

but here's the thing:  I'm really torn, because I really love this one for its soft glow and the delicateness of the flower.

So I guess I have no choice but to enter them both, right?  :)

i LOVE books

I decided tonight that I would make a pledge to myself that I will buy a new (or used) book every time I get a paycheck this coming semester because, well, I just really love books.

It's a dangerous love.  The kind of love that makes it really difficult to sell textbooks, or makes it really easy to justify saving a book that I know I will never read again.

I love new books and the way they are perfect and pure and have never been opened and read.  I love old books for their character and the fact that they usually contain more than just the story printed on their pages.  I love textbooks for the references that they are and all the knowledge they contain.  I love novels for their ability to suck you in and get you lost in another world.  I love memoirs for the peek they give into another's life.

So that is why....

Raw.

This week's prompt at The Sunday Creative is "raw."  Maegan (the creator of this great little project) comes up with the coolest prompts.  I feel stretched and challenged, and at the same time, I feel like I'm not even keeping up with some of the other wonderfully creative interpretations of these prompts!  I so look forward to sundays already, and now even more because of the promise of a new challenge!
The prompt included these definitions of "raw":  not processed; Not trained or experienced.  Since its summer, the first thing that came to mind for me after reading those definitions are flowers that have yet to bud.  This is one of my favorite pictures that I've taken this summer:

Nationals

Can I just say that I'm SO PROUD of my brother and cousin?!?!

Mark and Zac participate in the Assemblies of God's Fine Arts Competition with our church, Glad Tidings.  This year, they competed in Instrumental Ensemble, Songwriting, Worship Team, Christian Band, and Small Group Drama.  Their Instrumental Ensemble, Inaudible Mathematics, actually won the entire competition!  After being asked to play for a crowd of 14,000 people, they were named the best group in the nation!  You can watch them play their Mutemath cover here, they begin around 30:00.  Then, Zac's worship team, GOE, which performs a rap-infused hip-hop worship style, took the Worship team category and was named the top in the nation!

Its so awesome to see all of these young people using their talents to glorify God, and seeing not only an entire church, but an entire denomination come together to support them and give them a venue to express themselves creatively in a constructive and loving environment that is committed to growth and giving glory to God!

These two are ridiculously talented.  I'm so glad they're in my family!

Things I'm currently loving:

1.  These Rockstars:  

(their instrumental ensemble got to open for a crowd of 14,000 tonight at the AG Fine Arts Festival in Detroit)

2.  Baking fun things, like these cupcake bites:

3.  That this girl will be here tomorrow!

4.  That I went to Africa two months ago (even though I miss it like crazy):

5.  That I will get to see these girls VERY soon!

6.  Pictures of flowers:

1 year

I've been blogging for 1 year.  Well, actually, it was a year last Friday, but things have been a little busy.  I don't exactly know why I started, I guess I just wanted to see what it was all about.  Over the past year, though, I've discovered a number of blogs, some written by friends, that are fun, bring a smile to my face, and I mostly just enjoy checking out, and they are what's kept me blogging.  I love the idea that my family can check my blog and see what I'm up to or see some of my recent adventures as shown by the pictures I'm taking when I'm 400 miles away at school.  I love that my friends can catch a quick glimpse of what was going on while we were separated on a break from school.  I love that I can use my blog as a venue for creativity, to meet new people, and to, hopefully, encourage others once in a while.  So, for now, I'm going to keep blogging.  Mostly, because it's fun!

I hope you're enjoying your summer!

Shapely.

This has been a ridiculously busy week.  A week filled with 4 hour dress rehearsals and the opening and closing nights of Charlie Brown.  It's been a long, very fun, but very busy summer!  So, as I finally got time to relax tonight, I checked out The Sunday Creative for this week's prompt, and it just happens to be "Shapely".  The first picture that I thought of when I read this prompt was, of course, one from Africa.  Perhaps one day, I'll move on to using pictures of other things and places for this project, but I couldn't not use this one!