it's rodeos and county fairs...

|| post title from  t h i s  song ||

we spent the evening at our county fair last monday. mostly we just walked around, smelled the delish carnival food (and the not-so-delish smells in the barns), ran into old classmates, walked through tons of 4H animal exhibits, listened to the screams from the carnival, and had a picnic on the grass. and i took loads of carnival bokeh pictures and played around with manual mode. (manual mode is fabulous, guys)

it was just basically all awesomeness, and i've decided the county fair is my favorite part of summer. 

xx. marcia

p.s. speaking of shooting in manual mode, i listened to the live stream of Jasmine Star + her second shooter / hubby JD's workshop on "The Art of Second Shooting" and woah, woah, woah. i just kinda want to go second shoot a wedding, like now. practically, i am so not there yet, but this was the best motivational course ever. it was the bomb-diggity. 

(and it's actually rebroadcasting >>here<< right now, and you should totally go listen to it.)

the cry of my heart.

(photos from over the last year)

a few days ago I came across this quote on tumblr.....

"if you want to know what someone fears losing, watch what they photograph." -unknown 

that just stuck in my mind. I kept thinking about it throughout the rest of the day. I was in the process of finishing backing up all my photos from my computer to our hard drive. and I was looking through some of my photos and observing what I photographed the most.

i realized....
i'm afraid of losing the sound of laughter from my friends and family.
i'm afraid of losing the cloudy rainy days that i love so much.
i'm afraid of losing the beautiful  l i f e  i've been given.
i'm afraid of forgetting all the simple joys in life... cups of coffee and tea, favorite books, the way the sun shines through the slats in the blinds leaving patterns on the floor, the stack of messy dishes on the counter which i was avoiding, the messy hair days, the wildflowers swaying in the breeze along the highway... i don't want to forget that.  

you see, there is nothing wrong with living a simple life.

"But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more [in brotherly love], that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands..."          -1 Thessalonians 4: 10-11

 i can get so caught up in all the things i need to get done that i forget what's the most important. America (and the world in general) has such an attitude of busy-ness. We rush from one thing to the next; we are literally attached to our technology 24/7 (you might as well super glue them to your hands); and we build our lives around the next big thing or deal. through all this, we forget about the God who created us. we push His plans onto the back shelf and carry on as if our life is still our own. THIS IS NOT OUR LIFE.. we've have been bought with a price, and that price was the Son of God dying on that cross for us. Yet we push off our morning devotions and prayer time, each time promising ourselves "I'll do it tomorrow when I have more time." or "I am to busy right now, I'll make up for it later."

we are all guilty of it.

i am guilty of it. i am guilty of putting God on the back shelf, even though i want to be living my life in reckless abandon.  

but, it's stopping here. I am tired of the busy. I am tired of missing the important things that God created especially for me to enjoy. I am tired of spending time on the stuff that doesn't matter, and missing the stuff that does. and I want the cry of my heart to be the same cry of seventeen year old Amy Carmichael...

"Nothing could [will] ever matter [to me] again, but the things that were [are] eternal." -amy carmichael

xx. marcia

an overload of cuteness | k + k

we got to babysit these little darlings a few weeks ago. they played around in our backyard, laughing and playing while I snapped these shots. they dug around in the rocks finding bugs and squealing with delight as they squashed them. (so much for being "little angels". haha ;)) 

but really, K & K are two of the sweetest little girls on the planet. 

b e a u t i f u l,   b a b y

you're sweeter than strawberry pie. just like the morning, your smile brings the sun that shines...

every day the sky is a deeper shade of blue, when I'm with you....

you make me believe in love.

when i'm with you - jj heller

            aren't they the sweetest?

            xx. marcia

ordinary life (and i'm okay with that)

   i've been in such an inspiration rut of late. 

   i don't know how many times i've started a post but ended up starring at the blank page with that little      blinking cursor. it's not that i don't have anything to say; my mind has been spinning with all the things i want to say and do. but i just haven't been able to get it from my heart and mind to my fingers. 

    lately, my life right now has been just ordinary. 

this summer has been rather lazy. it's the first summer in the last few years that i've had important to do. in   previous summers, i've was busy babysitting full time and doing a year extra of school. this is the first summer   i've technically had nothing to do. i've been busy doing things i've been wanting to do for a while. and that's   been good. but, i feel like i'm holding my breath- just waiting.

i have no clue what's on the horizon; but i know who my Jesus is- and that's enough for me.

(i'm not gonna lie though, i'm dying for winter and school to start again.)

xx. marcia

p.s. i have two absolutely darling little girls that will be appearing on here in a few days. ;)

our july fourth camping trip

I'm pretty sure camping is one of my favorite things in the world (though I readily admit after a couple of days away from showers, I will always be ready to go home). There is something so freeing about being out where there is no cell service, no wifi, no people, and none of that generally busy rushing feeling that America is overflowing with.
 it's so nice some time to just relax, enjoy nature, and soak in the quiet.

next time though, i'd like to have the nasty mosquitoes subtracted from the recipe of "how to have a perfect holiday".
xx. marcia