intentional living Archives - Page 8 of 14

How do I know if it’s what God wants?

I struggled for a long time with my relationship with God. It seemed like we just weren’t communicating very well. I kept asking Him what direction I should go. What He wanted me to do with my life. Was this the right direction or this?

And I felt like I wasn’t getting any real guidance.

I always knew God was there. And that He was listening. I never doubted He was there. But I felt a little lost. And unsure. Like God was holding back on his answers. Or I wasn’t listening good enough. I couldn’t hear Him.

Because if I knew, for sure, that it was God telling me to do something, I’d do it. Not just me, or someone else telling me. But if it was God, I would do it.

And I worried about making decisions for my life story because I was afraid it would be the wrong decision. And it wouldn’t be God’s will. And I wouldn’t even know. I didn’t want to waste my time on things God didn’t want me to do. And I didn’t want to miss out on all these great plans God had in store for me. Because when you say “yes” to something, you also say “no” to something else. And I didn’t want to be saying “no” to the thing God actually wanted me to say “yes” to. Did you catch that?

So I was essentially doing nothing. Stalling. Waiting for the heavens to open and God to tell me what my next move was. In a fairly loud booming voice so I could hear over all the other life noise.

And then I was reminded of the following scripture.

“For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their inheritance”

Men and Women should be anxiously engaged in a good cause. The power is in THEM. When all is said and done, God just wants us to DO good. To BE good. And to be anxiously engaged in good things. And he’s okay with ME choosing what good things those are.

I’m working my way through the book “Storyline Finding Your Subplot in God’s Story” by Donald Miller. (worth every penny by the way)

Miller supports this idea that God has left a lot of the decision making up to us. If it makes our heart sing and we’re anxiously engaged in something good, that will save other souls, then go for it. He says:

“I don’t believe God has a specific plan for most people. I could be wrong, though, because there are several people in the Bible for whom God had a specific plan.

In fact, here’s a little checklist so you can know if God has a specific plan for your life.

According to the Bible, you know God has a specific plan for you if:

A. Your donkey (or any other animal, for that matter) talks to you
B. An angel appears before you and wakes you up because he’s so bright
C. You are a virgin but pregnant

Where did we get this idea God doesn’t speak clearly when He wants something? When I talk to people who believe God has a specific plan for their lives, they act like God is some kind of mystic weirdo talking to them through riddles and we are supposed to use the Bible like a secret decoder ring.

If God has a specific plan for your life, you’ll know it because He’ll tell you. According to the Bible, it will be very, very clear.

For the rest of us, the scary truth is we get to decide what we want to do with our lives. And we get to decide with God.”

He then goes on to say,

“I think we are spending a lot of time asking God to tell us what to do when the whole time He’s asking us what we’d like to do instead. I think He’s asking us what’s in our hearts, what makes us come alive, what ignites our passion and saves many lives.”

What makes me come alive? What’s in my heart? And how can I use that to save many souls?

Now this isn’t to say God doesn’t provide direction. Because I absolutely know He does. And He’ll give me little nudges to pursue certain things. And sometimes He’ll speak loudly about a path He wants me to pursue.

But He also allows me to figure out what makes me come alive, and then wants me to GO DO IT. And trust that God will put on the brakes if he needs me to go in a different direction.

Project Life

“Cultivate a good life and document it”

That’s the slogan of Project Life. And I can’t believe it has taken me this long to find out about it.

I am NOT a scrapbooker. The thought of designing and even worse, creating a scrapbook page makes me want to cut my fingers off. It does not appeal to me.

Sure, I love the end product. But even then, I always had an “issue” with scrapbooking because it felt like it was more about the “stuff” than it was about the pictures. And I want my displays to be about the pictures. About the people. About the story.

So I’ve tried several different ways of displaying photos. And, unfortunately, I’ve just left a lot of my photos on my computer where no one gets to see them but me.

Until I found Project Life. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. Simple. Affordable. And something I can keep current with. And it supports my intent to display photos that will enrich our family’s life. Project life is about the STORY, not about the STUFF.

I listened to a 3 day conference Becky Higgins (the creator of Project life) did online and decided we should probably be friends. Because our mission is the same. Document your life. Tell a story. CREATE a story/life (cultivate a good life). And in the process of doing that, you become more grateful, more aware, and more intentional.

“The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either.” Donald Miller

Cultivate a good life, and then tell the story by documenting it.

Project Life goes hand-in-hand with the Tell My Story class.

Here’s how it works. You buy a Core Kit, an Album, and Sheet protectors (I use 40% off coupons and get them at Hobby Lobby or Michaels). Select and print your photos. Then it’s simple. You just slide pictures and journaling cards in pockets. And in no time, you have a completed album. (You can watch video demonstrations on the Project Life website)

There are a few reasons I prefer Project Life over an album you design digitally online.

First, I sit in front of a computer far longer than I’d like to for my business. Any more hours in front of the computer and my eyeballs might fall out.

Second, I like to be able to do it while I’m doing something else (like catching up on all my DVR shows, or sitting by kids while they do homework).

Third, it’s FAST. And super simple. Both of which are requirements in pretty much anything I do these days.

Fourth, they look AWESOME when they’re done. More visually interesting than a traditional photo album with pictures in pockets.

Fifth, my kids can get involved and help. They become invested in the project.

Sixth, you can also journal in the albums. There are “journaling cards” where you can write small amounts of information to supplement (note I said supplement as the pictures are the main focus of the album for me) the pictures.

Seven, you can make some killer unique gifts with Project Life. I’ll post some things I’ve done with them so far in a separate post.

But the biggest reason I appreciate Project Life is that I’m able to look through my albums and see what we’ve accomplished and what efforts we’ve made at living a good life story, but it also helps me see what we’re missing so we can be more intentional about our future and live the life we want to live.

The boxes also make a great spot for folding paper cranes. Folded 30ish of those (out of 1000) for a friend fighting stage 4 Lymphoma.

Try it out. I’m pretty sure you’ll fall in love like I have.
And your kids will love you!

And for those of you who aren’t really the scrapbooking type (which I’m totally not) check out the Project Life App. It’s a game changer!!

Click here to visit the Project Life website.

And for another idea on displaying photos in your home, click here for a super awesome wall display.

FUNBOOTH. The perfect alternative to traditional family pictures.

I get it. Getting family pictures can be super stressful. Finding the right clothes. Getting everyone ready. Finding a location. Getting there on time. Making sure the kids don’t still have ketchup on their face. Trying to act calm and happy while your kids are being terrors.

I get it. Trust me. I do.

But. Family pictures are SO important. So so important. One of those things you’ll always be glad you have and never regret that you did.

I also realize sometimes the stress is too much. Too overwhelming. And you have a kid that simply will NOT cooperate during family pictures. So you just never get them done. Even though you want to.

Which is why I came up with Funbooth sessions.

They’re fun. They’re FAST. They’re easy. And they work for kids with all different types of personalities.

The point is to be casual. Crazy. Fun. Like a photobooth.

Low stress. No weather elements. Sessions only take about 25 minutes. And you end up with a bunch of photographs with your family, your kids, and their personalities.

I’m doing a Funbooth sale during the month of April. Book a funbooth shoot in April for only $150 (normally $225). That includes the session fee as well as a disc with about 50 images in color AND black and white and a print release to make whatever prints you want.

Here are some samples of a session I did recently.

And here are a few I did with my own little family. We did these on a whim on a Sunday afternoon. We just wore the clothes we already had on. Simple. Easy. These are my favorite sessions to do with my own kids. The pictures I am in were taken by my husband. I know he’ll want proper photo credit. 🙂

Here’s how I displayed them in my own home. This is the first thing people see when people walk into my house. And people LOVE IT!! So do I.

Maybe I should have moved the vacuum. Oh well. Not taking it again. 🙂

So if you’ve been feeling guilty (or better yet, excited) about getting family pictures but haven’t done them for awhile, this is a great option.

Or, if you get family pictures regularly (GOOD FOR YOU) this may be a good alternative to change things up a little bit.

To book a Funbooth session, e-mail me at [email protected]

Sale runs until April 30th, 2014!

Real Life Stories–Women of Inspiration. My friend. She has cancer.

I’m starting a series on my blog. “Real Life Stories–Women of Inspiration”. I’m inspired by strong women who show up every day and share their stories with the world. I’ll be interviewing women from all different life situations that I want to learn more about who inspire me to show up and live a better life story. And then I’ll share their stories with all of you (and my kids).

The first person I wanted to feature is my friend.

You know those e-mails you never want to get? Those ones that tell you one of your childhood friends has cancer. Yea, I got one of those. And though it was obviously devastating news, it’s turning out to be a defining period of my life.

Lisa, who I also affectionately call Nickell (her maiden name), and I met when I was 12. We played competition soccer together. So we’re not just friends, we’re teammates. We played soccer together for nearly 10 years.

She’s had more than her fair share of health problems. And then got hit with Stage 4 non-hodgkins lymphoma. A game changer to say the least.

No one wants to hear the word cancer associated with themselves or someone they love. But along with the hell associated with cancer, there is also an element of hope. A look into the human spirit at its finest, bravest moments.

She decided to shave her head before chemo started taking her hair. She wanted to be in control of whatever she could. So I asked her if I could photograph the “hair funeral”. Watching her shave her head was one of the bravest things I have ever witnessed. Those pictures are still too painful and intimate for her to share, but here are a few after she was done.

Here is the interview I did with her. And stick around until the end cause we’re doing something really cool for her (that can also be used as a template for other people to use for those they love with cancer) and I NEED your help!!!

1. Give me a quick peek at your story: I was born and raised in Utah. I played soccer since before I can remember. I played in high school for Alta. I’ma lover of all sports and outdoor activities. What I lack in size, I made up for in my determination. I’m very competitive. I went to nursing school and met my amazing husband at the University of Utah. I’ve been married for 11 years. On September 5th our life changed when I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. I’ve been battling for my life ever since.

2. Tell me an “every day moment” you are grateful for: Right now, I am grateful for waking up alive each day. Getting to tell my family that I love them, and giving my niece a hug.

3. What is one ambition you have right now: I want to start a health clinic on wheels for the homeless. Similar to the 4th Street Clinic, but mobile.

4. If you could speak on anything to a large group of women, what would you talk about? That one single person can make a difference. You, alone, can make a change in the world. You don’t need thousands of dollars and thousands of people to help make a difference. What you, alone choose to do each and every day can change someone’s world.

5. What does the phrase “create a good life story” mean to you? To me, it means living every single day to its fullest. Live each day like it could be your last.

6. Tell me something someone taught you that made an impact on your life Right before my grandma died, she told me to never hesitate to tell someone that you love and appreciate them. Don’t assume that they already know. It’s okay if you told them yesterday…say it again. If you’re feeling it in the moment, say it.

7. Name one event in your life that has made the greatest impact on the course of your life story Becoming a wish granter for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Also, going to Haiti.

8. What is something you want to accomplish you haven’t yet? I want to have children

9. What photographs are you most grateful for from your childhood or teen years? I’m most grateful for photos of my family and close friends. I’m relying a lot upon those people right now, and it’s comforting to look back at older photos and see that it’s the same group of people that have continually supported me through whatever life throws my way.

10. What are you most proud of? Never quitting. Never giving up.

11. Tell me something you are sure of: I’m sure there is a level of happiness that comes from serving someone else that can’t be reached any other way.

12. What is your favorite quote or your life motto? I have two: “Life’s most persistent and urgent questions is, ‘What are you doing for others?'” Martin Luther King Jr., and “You must be the change you wish to see in the world” Gandhi

13. What is your favorite part about yourself (not a physical trait)? I really care for those less fortunate than me, and try to do whatever I can to help them.

14. What type of photographs do you wish you had more of? I wish I had more photographs from my honeymoon and dating my husband.

15. What is something you do to help drive away fear or anxiety? I used to exercise to drive away fear and anxiety. Now, I hand out hamburgers to the homeless.

And for fun:

Favorite Book: Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss

Favorite Family tradition: Dutch Oven Cook off at the cabin

Something you enjoy doing with your spouse: playing tennis

Talent you wish you had: I wish I could play a musical instrument

Favorite meal: It changes weekly. Right now I would say it’s cantaloupe. Yep, just cantaloupe

If you never had to do one specific things again, what would it be: Go through a round of chemo. Or, on a lighter note, fill the car with gas

Favorite show on TV: Vampire Diaries

Something that scares you: Dying without having told my family I love them first

Favorite thing about your husband: Brian can always make me laugh. It doesn’t matter what trial we’re facing he helps me face it with humor. And he is just so kind. Brian is the kindest man I know.

Type of candy you can’t life without: ALL CANDY. Anything you would find in the candy isle. I need it all

What’s something you think about often: I think a lot about hunger in the world. People going hungry.

If you don’t know Lisa, you’re missing out. For those of us who get to call her a friend, well, we’re pretty lucky. She’s definitely one-of-a-kind. She’s nearly killed me (literally) on several different adventures we’ve been on together. Once in a very sketchy mini-van ride, another where I nearly drowned. I blame her for my fear of water.

Here’s where I need your help. For any of you who know and/or love someone with cancer, you know how brutal it is. Not just physically, but emotionally and mentally. The days are long. The weeks even longer. Because her cancer is so severe, she has to be admitted to the hospital each time she receives chemo. She stays there for at least 6 or 7 days, often more, at a time.

It gets lonely. And hard. And scary. And there are days where all she can do is draw on the strength of others. Her walls in the hospital are lined with pictures of people who love her. To remind her why she’s fighting.

Right now, she needs something more than ever to take her mind off what is still ahead. She still has a long way to go–more chemo, then a bone marrow transplant.

Lisa is famous for her “peace sign” in pictures. Always flashing that peace sign.

So. We (she’s in on this) want to collect as MANY pictures of people flashing the peace sign as we can and put them in a huge collage (I’m talkin’ huge) for her to hang on the wall in the hospital and in her home. Even if you don’t know her, we’d love for you to participate. My guess is we ALL know someone affected by cancer (it’s so rampant) so we know how desperate people get for hope. And when Lisa sees pictures of people doing the peace sign with HER in mind, it brings her hope. And peace to her soul.

There is strength in numbers. And strength in knowing people are thinking about you and people CARE.

We’ll be collecting pictures for ONE WEEK. Deadline is next Thursday, March 27th. Doesn’t need to be anything fancy. Just a picture of you, your kids, co-workers, family, strangers, whatever doing the peace sign. Then e-mail it to me. [email protected] Please title the e-mail “PEACE PICTURE” so we don’t lose any. That’s it. (You can e-mail it directly from your camera phone. If you don’t know how to do that, ask a kid. They’ll know how:) )

You can also send more than one picture with different groups of people. We’ll take as many as we can get.

Once we have them, we’ll make a killer poster. And post it so everyone can see. And hopefully make it into a useable template for anyone else who wants to use it to do a similar project for someone they love with cancer.

Thanks in advance for your help. My friend needs a boost. A push to keep fighting. She’s a fighter. But no one can fight cancer alone.

Love you Nickell.

We now declare the following week “Peace Sign Picture” week. I gave myself power to do that.

To read more “Real Life Stories–Women of Inspiration” interviews, CLICK HERE.

Picture Display Movement. Step 3. Organize

{For Step 2 in the Picture Display Movement, click here}

ORGANIZE YOUR PHOTOS:

For me, this step initially felt the most overwhelming. But once I got started, it turned out to be no big deal and went really fast.

I use iphoto for all my photo organizing. BUT. You don’t have to have iphoto to organize photos like this. You can use the same “folder” system on any computer, Mac or PC.

The problem for me initially was the lack of organization within iPhoto and being able to effectively choose what I wanted to print and keep some sense of order in doing that.

All my pictures were in iPhoto, but that’s it. If you don’t use iPhoto, your pictures are all sitting somewhere on your computer waiting to be organized (probably in a native “Pictures” folder). I started using iPhoto in 2009 so I had 5 years worth of photos in there and was overwhelmed by the prospect of organizing them.

Until I came up with this system.

Keep in mind there are hundreds of different ways you can organize photos. Which is what overwhelms me. So I had to pick something simple. That I know I would do and that I would maintain.

To organize the photos that were already in iPhoto, 5 years worth, I created folders for each year as well as a “vacations” folder. See the photo below, under “albums” where it has folders for each year and one for vacations. If you aren’t using iPhoto, just create these folders right on your desktop or in your “Pictures” folder.

I then created an album for each month in that year as well as an album for Holidays in that year. Then I moved those albums into the folder for that year. If you aren’t using iPhoto, just create another folder for EACH month and put those months in the individual years folder (so each year will have 12 folders–one for each month).

Then I clicked on “Events” in my library so all the pictures in my iPhoto library would come up and went month by month and put the pictures in their corresponding folder. The physical pictures don’t move so they are all still visible in the events part of your library. But then when you click on one of the months folder, only that month shows (which can make it easier to find certain photos). If you aren’t using iPhoto, you can sort the photos on your computer according to the “date created” and then drag and drop the pictures into the correct months.

To do this quickly in iPhoto, you can click on the box with pictures from the first of the month, then hold down the shift key and click on the box with pictures from the last of the month. Then just drag and drop them into the appropriate album. You can also drag and drop if you aren’t using iPhoto. Just look at the date on each photo and drag them into the appropriate folder.

{See how the boxes for July are highlighted in yellow. Then just drag those into the “July” album.}

After each month, I would look through that month for any holidays or vacations, highlight those pictures and drag those into the appropriate albums as well. You can have the same picture in multiple albums without moving the original file. It just makes a “copy” of those pictures which takes up very minimal space on your hard drive.

This entire process of organizing 5 years worth of photos (I have about 30,000 photos in my iPhoto library) took me about one hour. Quick. Easy. And simple.

And I feel So. Much.Better now that it’s done.

When I first tried organizing my photos I was doing it by events and dates and each individual kid and it was taking forever. I chose the month-by-month system because I have a general idea when we did certain things so when I’m trying to find a photo, any photo, I just search in the month folder it would have taken place and there it is.

Now to maintain. At the end of each month (on a SET date) I will move those files into their album for the month and put them in the folder for their year. Should take about 2 minutes.

If you don’t have iPhoto, figure out a photo organizing system that works for your family. Just keep it simple and schedule regular times to maintain it. If you have the right system, it really doesn’t take very long.

You can still set up a Folder for each year, then folders for each month and drag the photos into those folders. This works on a PC or a MAC.

Step 3. Organize those photos

Now don’t stop there! Step 4 is to PRINT THOSE PICTURES!!!!

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me! I’m happy to help where I can.

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