A Heart More Focused

New beginnings with a side of cute

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Spring brings newness.  It’s a time filled with fresh life that, often, restores one’s spirit.

Renewal started for me at the beginning of the year with two New Years resolutions, which I followed through on: 1) to make time for fitness with the goal of both weight-loss and strength-gain and 2) to strive for “contentment”, which was more my private word for the year.  The word was something my husband and I agreed on over a date night dinner at the beginning of January.

I believe, with all my heart, that God took my hand and helped me follow through on these decisions.  For those of you just stumbling upon this blog, I lost 25 lbs in five months.

It all really started last summer when I recommitted to spend time everyday both reading and meditating on the Bible.  I’ve done my best to start each day anew with the love and encouragement I find there.  Obviously, that wasn’t possible some days with the unpredictable sleep schedule of a baby, which necessitated some creativity.  Now, my day doesn’t feel complete without time spent in quiet reflection.

In short, God’s transformed my life in under a year.
 
That’s not to say I’m a completely different person.  I am who I am, flaws and all.  And let me tell you, there have been some pretty ugly days in this house where I’ve screamed and cried and fallen apart. Where I feel like a complete mess and wonder how I’m going to make it through the rest of the day.  I fail constantly to be the peaceful parent I yearn to be, but I’m learning and growing right along with my children.
 

What my transformation has resulted in is forgiveness for myself and others, a changed heart, and a fresh perspective.

Everyday, as I wake, I can hear the birds chirping outside my window.  In about a month from now, I do know I’ll be over the 5am wake-up call, but right now?  It’s beautiful.  As the sun rises and sets, the light that reflects off of the new flowers and leaves takes my breath away.

The beauty of God’s creation and the refreshed spirit within has inspired me to redesign my site.  Again.  I’ve changed my tag-line to better reflect my mission with this blog: joyfully capturing a renewed life.

Really, that’s more for me.  I’ve felt stuck with what to write for the past few weeks.  This new tag line helps to remind me why I want to keep blogging when chaos sets in and I start to doubt myself.  I hesitate to label this space as a holistic mommy, photography, or fitness blog alone because it’s all of thee above and so much more to me.  I think this new tagline better reflects that.

Spring brought me another gift: a renewed passion for photography.  I’ve enjoyed capturing moments of playtime outside with the boys.  Hence, the side of cute.

Here are some of my favorite moments over the past couple of weeks:

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I’ll share pictures from our trip and talk about both the good and the bad on Wednesday, so stay tuned 🙂

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Comments

  1. I love the new look, I love your open and honest heart, and you have a beautiful family (and mad good photography skills)!

  3. I love your honesty and openness. And I love that rediscovering your love of photography will mean more beautiful pictures!