7th Wedding Anniversary!

     This weekend we are celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary. Monday at 2:30 pm marks exactly 7 years of man and wife. 

    Over the last few weeks, I reflected on this last year of our marriage and nearly gave myself whiplash with the thought of how much has happened. We started the year in a long-distance relationship. Hubby had started working at his grandfather's mechanic shop in Wallaceburg last Easter, and I was working in Cambridge and keeping the fires burning at home. Shortly after hubby started working in Wallaceburg, we felt God calling us to move back south. We spent the next five months driving him to London on Friday and Sunday, where his dad or brother would meet us and take him to Wallaceburg. As you can imagine, that routine got old fast. Even our car was tired of all the driving and died two weeks before our move. We weren't ready to move when the car died. We were trying to stick out our two-month notice with our apartment and then decided it was no longer worth it and moved early. I put my notice in at work and power-packed our apartment in two weeks. Not fun, by the way. Worth it, but not fun. But we made it. God used that time to help us work on our marriage, and we grew closer than we had ever been at that point, and we are even closer now. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and they are correct.

    After five months, it was time to move back to Wallaceburg and get our family under one roof. We were sad to leave Cambridge and the friends we had made over the years, but we were even more excited for what God had in store for us in Wallaceburg. When we arrived, we moved into our temporary home. We had struggled to find a home before moving, so we negotiated with my in-laws and decided to stay on some family property in a bachelor apartment until we settled and found an apartment. Five months later, we found an apartment and happily moved our family into our new home. A two-bedroom apartment with a balcony. A dream come true.

    It's been just over three months since we moved into our apartment. We are settled into our home and are working on making a life for ourselves in Wallaceburg. I am also regularly surprised that this little "in-law town" as I call it, has just about everything we need. Okay, the shopping stinks, and there is no Cardfight Vanguard Community for hubby to play in. But it has more than I expected, and I'm sure it has everything that God wants us to have.

    God just blessed me with a new job, and I am loving working from home and no longer ending my work day covered in dust and dirt. Blessing and I just finished her next level of obedience school and are now saving for her final class of obedience school before we enter into therapy dog training. I have started digging deeper into my love of photography. Now I take my camera out as often as possible. I am also getting my dog walking business going and am working out the details with my first client. I wanted to start this business when we first moved, but then I started working, but between the hours and energy that was required I decided it was not worth it. This new job does not require nearly as much energy. So even if I have one or two clients, it will be a little extra income to make our life a little more enjoyable. I was working on getting my photography business up and running, but then I felt God tell me to enjoy my hobby now and not worry about making money. That being said, if anyone wants some portraits done, I would love to connect with you and help your family create some beautiful memories.

    Since moving to Wallaceburg, God has strengthened our marriage and our relationships with Him, and we are grateful for it. We have lots of stuff to work on, but what marriage doesn't.

    We also decided that by the fall, we plan on adding another member to our family. We have been talking about it for a while now and have decided the time is right. Blessing is ready to be a big sister. She recently demonstrated her maturity and "big sister" qualities to her classmates and showed a younger classmate how to properly interact with fellow doggy friends and what manners look like. It was funny to watch. The owners told me a week later that their dog had listened to Blessing and was using his manners properly while interacting with other dogs. So now we are doing the financial prep work to bring a new fur baby home this fall. We are very excited.

    Its been a big year for our family and, we are excited to see what God has for us as we step into our seventh year of marriage. Not only was it a big and busy year for us, but it was also our best year thus far. Now we will take everything we learned this past year and make this new year even better.

    Outside of our faith and political opinions, hubby and I are polar opposite. He plays video games and I love reading. He is a couch potato and I walk six km a day. He loves burgers, meat and all things fast food and I like garden salads. He is mellow and I am high strung. They say opposites attract and boy are they right. Over the years I have disliked our differences and  wondered why we were together. Then God would remind me that we are together because God brought us together to balance each other out. He is my yin to my yang and I am so grateful for it.

    Happy Anniversary, Sweetie. I love you forever and always.

~Babe / Hannah

Our annul anniversary photo. I forgot to turn on the white balance setting on the camera, so my shirt and his shorts and a lot brighter then desired. Lesson learned.

A New Adventure

     A week ago, I started a new job that God gave me in customer service, working from home. Like any new job, the first few days were stressful due to all the newness. By day three, I was settling into my new routine and starting to learn about the computer programs for my job.

    It has been an interesting first week working from home. The first two days were stressful due to technical glitches. By Wednesday, they were fixed, and it has been smooth sailing since. The trainer is great and is doing his best to make sure we are all on board and understand everything he is teaching us. So many jobs these days just throw you into the deep end and hope you can swim. With this job, you have to be trained. Thankfully this company sees that need and gives time to do so.

    I love not having a commute. I know a few people who enjoy their commute, and I'm happy for them. I am not one of them. I feel like a commute is simply a waste of time. There are other things I could be doing instead of driving. Mainly chores around our home. Yes, I am aware my opinion on a commute being a "waste of time" does not make much sense. A commute is simply a part of life. I have tried to use that time for prayer, podcasts, etc. But despite my love of routine, I do not enjoy that part. Maybe I just don't like driving. I am enjoying my commute from our bedroom to the living room.

    I am thankful that with this new job, Blessing is not home alone all day. Meaning that if my hubby and I have somewhere to be in the evening I no longer feel bad for going out because Blessing has had company and freedom in our apartment all day. It has been fun watching her move from her bed, crate, mat by the door, and bed in our room throughout the day. She was really confused the first two days when I was home, but by Wednesday, she started to understand and now understands when mom is "at work" vs "at home."

    Another very exciting outcome of working from home is that I no longer need my steel-toe boots and can wear skits, dresses, and all things girly. 

    It is also not a physically draining job. I have energy after work now. For the last four years, my jobs have been physically intense, and by Friday, I am dragging myself to work. This Friday, I had energy all day. It was a rather exciting feeling. Sure, I assume it will be mentally draining at some point. It is customer service. But for now, I am enjoying not feeling drained.

    On my last day at the factory, I was thinking about how I would miss not having coworkers to talk to during break, and I do. I also discovered that during my break times I can get chores around my home done, where before I would be thinking about them all day and be making lists of them. Now I simply get a few things done on break, and when the work day is done, I don't need to worry about them.

    On Wednesday, I did groceries after work, and it felt so satisfying and exciting that I didn't need to shower before going to Walmart because I wasn't covered in dust, dirt, and sweat.

    Basically, this job is everything I have been wanting for years and I am very thankful for it.

    Now I am praying for the right shift time. During training, you are on the day shift. Once that is complete, they will be assigning us to shifts based on business needs. I am praying for the day shift starting at 7 am and not the afternoon shift.

    I realize that over the last two years with Covid-19 that many of you transitioned from working in an office to working from home. What was your experience like? Did you enjoy working from home or would you rather go to the office?

    I pray this post finds you well and that you have a blessed new day and week.

God Bless

~Hannah

Not my usual editing style, I was playing around with Paint.net and like how this photo turned out.

Obedience = Blessing

    Recently God and I have been on a personal development journey. He has been teaching me about my self-worth, with the understanding that I would not be leaving my job without learning this lesson. Plus, when God says He has something to teach you, you have two choices, obey or go kicking and screaming. After a few seconds of kicking and screaming, I obeyed.

    After God and I finished my lesson and, were both satisfied with the results, I started thinking about my next job. I looked over Indeed a little and saved a few posts but hadn't applied yet. The entire week (from the 30th to the 3rd) I was having brain fog and didn't take any initiative in my job search. I was not sure what was causing the brain fog, but I was too tired to fight it. Now I know it was God because He wanted to bless me.

    Then on Friday, June 3rd, God sent me an email from a company in the customer service industry that  I had applied to when I applied to my current job but turned down because they were not paying enough. Since then, they have figured out how much people need to make.

    I knew it was a mass email that was sent to many people, but, I also knew it was from God. So I applied. The field I wanted and the pay I needed.

    Tuesday, June 7th, I was contacted to set up an interview. I picked the Friday of this week for my interview. Figured I should give my supervisor a little notice that I would need to get off work a little early.

    On Wednesday, June 8th, at lunchtime, I saw a voice mail on my phone. It was from the recruitment department of the company I applied to. Saying that they wanted to move up the interview up so that it, along with a background check (dealing with customer's personal information) could be completed before lunchtime on Friday because they wanted to have me start orientation on Monday, June 13th. In three business days. So I reschedule the interview for Thursday after work and told my coworkers that I was expecting to leave my current job a whole lot sooner than expected. No, I did not have a job offer at that point but I as watched God work I got the feeling I was going to get it. Talk about a hectic lunch break. I was expecting to eat my salad and enjoy visiting with my coworkers. God had other plans. Typical. 😉

    The next day, Thursday, I had the interview and received a job offer at the end of the call. Customer Service, working from home, good pay, no more dirty, smelly factory, goodbye steel toe boots. Okay, I will miss my boots. We have gone through several jobs and lots of life together, but it's time to put them on the shelf for a while. Heck, this will be the first time in five years I will be able to come home from work and sit down on my couch before taking a shower and not worrying about getting my couch dirty from my work clothes. I will no longer have a "work wardrobe" and a "personal wardrobe." I can pack up all my "tomboy" clothes and pack them away.

    I have been praying for this job for three years now, and God has answered my prayers. As much as I enjoy my steel-toe boots, I love shirts, dresses, and high heels and want to wear them regularly and not just on Sundays. Yes, I have worn makeup to work off and on, and sometimes do my hair, but it just feels like a waste of time and product if it will be covered over by dirt in an hour. Seriously, last month I sanded raw spoilers. To those of you who have spoilers on your car. Enjoy. Like most car parts, there is a long and very detailed process to getting it onto your car. I would come home dirtier than my husband, who works in a mechanic shop.

     This morning when I got dressed I was so excited to put a skirt on with a pretty top knowing that I would be doing this a whole lot more often now and it makes me excited. I can finally go to work as the girly girl that I am and not worry about getting all dirty.

    If you are waiting on God to answer a prayer, don't lose faith. He is listening and He has a plan. Yes, it's hard to hear that in the middle of your frustration. I too get annoyed when I think I know better than God and "know" what He should be doing. Obedience is not always easy either though, there are plenty of examples in the Bible and I'm sure in our lives today that show how hard obedience really is. But the good news is that it's worth it. God is a good God and only wants what is best for us, his children.

    So that's my good news friend, and the best part about it is that it had nothing to do with me. It was all God. I simply obeyed God and He blessed me for it.

    I pray that this post blesses you and reminds you that God is faithful and good.

God Bless

~Hannah

The Son rising on a new day and new journey. Hallelujah

Took this picture as a thank you present for a family member and I love how it turned out.

Expectations vs Reality

    I recently decided that I wanted to start blessing people with my photography. I thought I would offer some portrait sessions to some friends and family. My love for photography has been growing recently, but, pictures of flowers and Blessing are getting a little boring. I need to expand my repertoire. I was going to book a session for a family member this Saturday, but by Wednesday I was exhausted and I knew I would have no people skills by Saturday. Then I decided to bless myself with a portrait session with Blessing.

    I spent the next two days getting excited and building myself up for this photoshoot. I wanted to mix a sunrise photoshoot with a portrait set. I've never had people in my sunrise shoots before so I wanted to see how it would go. I had all these ideas for poses and such, but it's harder and more time-consuming when you are both the photographer and the object of the photo. Blessing was a trouper though, she patiently stood around smelling the flowers while I set up the camera and sat nicely during the pictures themselves. What would I do without this dog?

    Turns out, not so easy. Guess I should have done more homework on how to do it. Basically, it's a lot easier if the sun is completely in the sky and not in your face or creating shadows from other angles. I'm sure there is a way to make it all work, I just need to figure out what it is. I also thought that if I  put the camera in portrait mode vs manual mode it would handle all the settings itself, and I wouldn't need to worry about my iso setting. Wrong again. After a little while, I was frustrated and no longer enjoying
myself. We packed up the car and headed home. I tried to convince myself to think of it as a learning experience and not as a failure. But I'm a perfectionist, and when you are a perfectionist, it can be hard to look at a frustrating situation and see it as a learning experience. Before leaving the park, I took a quick inventory of the pictures I had taken and found one that I was happy with and figured with a little editing it would be pretty.

    There is always next time though, and I will plan a little better. It's funny though, I am the queen of planning and organizing. Although now that I am reflecting on it, I realize that my plans don't always work. I tend to overpack my time and energy. I tend to think I can do more stuff in an unreasonable time frame. The really ironic part is that I have friends who are also great planners, but their execution fails or at least lacks much of time time. What I'm trying to say is that a) I need to learn from my mistakes, and b) I need to give others more grace in areas where they struggle because no one is perfect.

    So what areas in your life did you once consider yourself supreme to others? Do you also need some self-reflection? I assume the answer is yes, because, no one is perfect.

    I hope this post finds you at the end of a restful weekend and ready to take on the challenges of next week.

God bless

~Hannah

 The one and only good photo from our photoshoot.