to me, joy is:

God.
seeing someone you love really happy.
hearing other people laugh.
exploring new places, new cities.
forgiveness.
laying on the floor listening to good records.
watching someone do what they truly love to do;
dreaming and creating
kindheartedness.
when you meet someone for the first time..
and it feels like you've known them your whole life.
good tea. extra tight hugs.
long drives at night with pretty tunes
ocean in my eyes and ears.

 Favorite things: making birthday surprises for best friends.   

peppermint patties!

So, weird story. I don't like or eat candy. Never have. Except for one kind...Junior Mints!! And so sometimes on Sunday's you're sitting at home killing 10 minutes on pinterest and your friend posts a recipe for peppermint pattites (aka really big junior mints!) and so you decide to go wander in the kitchen & make them because why not?!  They were so yum! Here's the recipe! 

Ingredients:
- 2  1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tbs softened butter
- 2 tsp peppermint extract
- 3 tbs cream
- 1 bag chocolate chips (the darker the better)
- 3 tbs extra virgin coconut oil

In a mixing bowl, combine the powdered sugar, butter, peppermint extract, and cream. Beat until the candy comes together and feels like playdough. Add more powdered sugar until it no longer feels sticky. Roll out the dough on a surface of powdered sugar and cut into shapes. Chill/freeze. Melt chocolate and coconut oil together, and dunk the pieces! Store in fridge or freezer! 

Music.. will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities,

 and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.  

                                                         

 -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

nashville

 

Missing Nashville today. Little pieces from October. 1) Grimey's love. 2) Phoenix!! 3) Sweet potato coffee concoction a handsome at Frothy Monkey made me. literally the worst thing I've ever put in my mouth but it looks so pretty! 4) Holland House. Yummy bourbon things and flannel everywhere. 5) Best biscuits and jam on the entire planet at Loveless. 6) Pretty drives always 7) BFF eating poor defenseless creatures 8) Jeni's icecream. my second home. 9) pretty pals with the sweetest heart for jesus 10) loveless wall country people 11) friend's cute place 12) marche brunch! 14) sweet Naomi Clampitt painting the day away!

...grateful for this life and the people in it...so much.

Grandma

thankful

Today was so beautiful. Thankful for a God who loves and is always right there. Who walks with us in the valleys and climbs the mountaintops with us. Who shows his goodness and beauty in a billion ways every single day. Thankful for a family that makes me laugh every single second. Thankful for best friends, the close and far ones. The kinds of friends who speak life and truth into you. Who call you in the morning just to say "Praying for you." Thankful for music. For a blessed life. Thankful for Christmastime and snow and hot chocolate in my mouth forever and ever amen.

oh christmas tree

"Jesus Christ knows the worst about you. Nonetheless he is the one who loves you most."
                                                                                          -A.W. Tozer

You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.

~   Saint Augustine, Confessions

Grateful for:

♥  Sweet friends heading back to Indiana from Ukraine with their baby girl so soon! (see: The Boswell's)
♥  My garden. I'm in super love. Going out in the late afternoons and coming back with a bowl of vegetables. Blessed life.
♥  Almost fall time! Tights and sweaters and the smell of campfires (my favorite thing.)
♥  House hunting! Hopefully with a kitchen big enough to bake for all the neighbors. :)
♥  Nashville & Bloomington shoots in a few short weeks!
♥  Piano in the quiet of the mornings, with hot tea on the stove and prettiest light all over.

things I love.

Psalm 27

PSALM 27:
"...that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek him in his holy temple."

I was in Psalms this morning and this particular verse spoke to my heart. When I graduated highschool I had a preeeettttty cool teen dream for my life... I would be married by age 23. Have kids shortly after. I'd take pictures for cute lifestyle magazines (only a few times a month) (because I would be way too busy homeschooling, duh) ... I'd live on a 'farm' and have some cuuuteee baby animals, a family band, music playing nonstop throughout the house, windows open, garden growing, pies cooling.. Cute, right? All of us get captured by what we want, what we feel, and what we have determined we need.

We are worshippers. We're always living for something. Something is always laying claim to the affection and rulership of our hearts. Something is commanding our dreams. There's something we look to give us identity, meaning, and purpose. The Bible says that there are two choices: (Romans 1:25) You're living in pursuit of the creation or the Creator. You're looking for your satisfaction and meaning in the created world or you're finding it in the Lord.

So in Psalm 27 we see this amazing beauty. What's David's dream for his life? He says, "I want to spend my life in worship of the Lord. I want to dwell in his temple and gaze upon his beauty." The shekinah glory presence of the Lord filled the holy place of the temple, like a cloud. It was a physical picture of God dwelling with his people. David was saying, "I want to be where God is. I want to do what I was created to do."

His plan and pursuit is for a life that's shaped and directed by daily worship of the Lord. David knows who he is; a creature created for worship. He knows who God is: the only 'thing' in the universe that's truly worthy of worship. His dream is the greatest that could ever be.

We cant see the things we will do in ten years. We can't dream of what all God is going to do through us. He's placed us in the exact right places to teach us what we need. Going through broken relationships, family stress, sickness, discouragement, insecurity, seasons of joy, celebrations, encouragement...they're all teaching us. We simply have to be faithful to the task or situation at hand. Just like David who probably thought 'Is this all my life will be... just a shepherd boy?'... not knowing down the road the huge battles he would win with God.

♥

Andrew + Allee

Engagement shoot with Drew + Allee!
Wedding one month away! Cutest.

♥ Liz

This makes my heart explode every single time!

the longing

I love the reflection on this song.
It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

C.S. Lewis calls this feeling of longing ‘joy,‘ an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction."  Our hearts long for God. Because God, who is love, created us.  St. Augustine wrote, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." God gives us this longing...for Him. It keeps us in pursuit of our creator. It keeps us in pursuit of kingdom things!

We see this in the bible too. I love this verse: "Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above. Here Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died. And your life is now hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your LIFE, appears, you also will appear with him in Glory!

To put everything in one, there is nothing you can want, there is nothing you can ask for, there is nothing you can need in time or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is nothing in this world, nothing in the next world, there is nothing now, nothing at the resurrection-morning, nothing in heaven which is not contained in this text—”I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

-Charles Spurgeon

Jackson Falls

Jackson Falls on the Natchez Trace. Wandered miles through pretty winding trails and up steep hills and could see the most amazing Tennessee countryside forever & ever. Past the animal sounds and the most beautiful falling water, it was the sweetest quiet I've ever known. There's something that feels so right about being among these majestic things. Moments that make my heart sing to the one whose hands formed them.

He holds in His hands the depths of the earth, and the mightiest of mountains. The sea belongs to Him, for He made it. His hands formed the dry land too. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker, for He is our God!
 
                                                                                         -Psalm 95

birthday too

  
Birthday post #2! Had to share just two of the adorable gifts my sweet friends got me this year. Vintage wood lithograph of a cute candy store, pink paper beads (necklace and bracelet) from Kwagala and yummy chocolates! + soooo many unicorn pony cards! Not pictured was a lovely hand knit headband earmuff thingy with crocheted bow, and a gigantic tea mug with hearts everywhere.  Love you friends! We went rollerskating and it was the bomb. There were a million children face planting in front of me every second and I didn't fall once!  Slurped chocolate malts, went on the most beautiful hike to find waterfalls (pictures coming!), strawberry cake at Joe Natural's farm store, puppy loving at the nashville humane shelter, leipers fork adventures, etc, etc. It was the best best birthday week!

Happy Valentines Day! I love today. I will always love today. I think the people who try and bum it out are so silly. It's so cute! Today the littles and I got heart donuts and heart pizza! ♥

Cookies!

Finally getting around to posting these little lovies.. a month late! I know they look like regular ol boring chocolate chip cookies... but they're not! Think delicious chewy cookie pillows! Has anyone ever put corn starch in their cookies before? Apparently it’s the magical ingredient for soft puffy things. Who knew! Love the difference it makes!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Jams

3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened  (1 & 1/2 sticks)
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Beat the sugar and butter. Add egg and vanilla and blend.
3.  Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate.
4.  Put in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.  The cookie will look kinda undone, and that is what you want. I took mine out at 9 minutes.

nashville

Well oh my goodness. Eight months later and I'm finally updating this little blog of mine. February is coming!! (My birthday AND valentines day!) so I'm feeling inspired to share here again. A whole lot has happened since May! All of those magical holiday moments, and eight months of Nashville adventures! Picnics on top of giant hills, baby farm animal hugging, watching the most amazing fireworks show of my whole entire life over the 4th of July (at riverfront park!), square dancing for the first time (danced with at least 2 grandpas), ate a whole lot of Jenni's icecream, wandered the old natchez trace trail, went to a fall harvest party at a pretty vineyard, walked around tiny adorable country towns, drives through Franklin hills/countryside (the most beautiful place in the south?) What a year! I hope this one brings lots of baby pandas into my life, and less homesickness, and more strawberry macarons, and loving well. <3

p.s. if you're ever in the Nashville area these are the places to go!

- Leipers Fork  (adorable little country town)
- Arrington Vineyards  (pretty place for a picnic)
- Baja Burrito  (little burrto shack. SO good.)
- Holler & Stomp (dancing with tons of strangers!)
- Frothy Monkey  (only coffee shop I go to)
- Nashville 4th of July Fireworks  (I still dream about this night. So perfect.)
- Franklin Farmers Market  (buy veggies and honey here!)
- Jenni's icecream.  (oh my gosh)
- Silly Goose  (best dinner of my life here!)
- Lucky Ladd Farm  (baby farm animals you can hug and giant hay slides!)
- The Pharmacy  (cream sodas and black bean burgers. holy moly.)
- Belcourt Theatre  (saw moonrise kingdom here. three times. eek!)

-Liz