28 Things That I am Thankful For

    I decided I wanted to write down twenty-eight things that I am thankful for my birthday. Twenty-eight representing how old I will be in two days. So I finished cleaning the kitchen after dinner and headed upstairs to my journal to start writing. Seventeen minutes later I had my list. Of course, there are many more things and people who I am thankful for but these are the ones that God brought to my mind and heart first. I then got up at 4:30 Thursday morning, I was born at 4:40 am. Sat down with my list and started thanking God for all these blessings. What are you thankful for today friends?

1. Jesus dying on the cross for me. If God had not sent His one and only son to die on the cross for me. Then I would not be here.
2. My God who never fails me. I serve an amazing God who never fails me and never changed. He is the only person who never changes and thus will never fail us. We can always count on Him. Friends, family, and the rest of the world may fail us, and that is okay because a) God will not fail us and b) we are sinful human beings and therefore not perfect and going to fail each other. There have been many unknown seasons in my life where God gently reminded me that it was okay because He never fails.
3. My husband. The man of my dreams. My encourager, my biggest cheerleader, my knight in shining armor. I love you, Sweetie. You are one of my favorite gifts from God.
4. My family. I am grateful that I come from a big family whom I love. I am also thankful for my in-laws and the way they welcomed me into their family all those years ago as if I had always been a part of their family.
5. Blessing. My four-legged best friend. When we were shopping for Blessing I was out for a walk praying about her name. I had a few ideas floating around in my head. God then told me her name would be "Blessing." When I asked why He said, "Because she is going to be a blessing." I figured that was a good answer and told my hubby what God said. From the moment we brought her home she has been a blessing.
6. My health. Now I do not have perfect health, I do have things that I have to deal with and occasionally they get in the way, but they do not dictate my life the way that heart problems, diabetes, cancer, etc affect others. So even though I am not perfectly healthy, I am thankful that my health problems do not get in the way of living my life.
7. My hobbies and the passions that God has put on my heart. Reading, writing, photography, and training Blessing. I have only started digging into these activities on a serious and regular basis over the last year or so, but I am thankful for them and the joy that they bring me.
8. The skills that God has given me so that I can earn a living and help my hubby with our bills. some days people ask me what I want to do for a living or simply for a short-term paycheck. I have worked in a handful of industries and gained lots of skills from them. One day I was wondering if having too many skills was a bad thing, then it occurred to me that some people have limited skills and thus limited options. So I am thankful that I have lots of skills and thus lots of options.
9. My mom. For teaching me about Jesus. If it was not for her, I would not be a believer.
10. My dad. He is always ready and excited for an adventure. Whether that be a bike ride, hike, skating, moving me around the province, or troubleshooting my home appliances.
11. My father-in-law. For always fixing our car. He and my hubby are down in the shop getting our new car fixed up as I write them. Raising the man of my dreams (along with my mother-in-law of course) and welcoming me into his family.
12. My sister. Girl talk, need I say more. I love going to weekend visits to her house. Big back yard with two dogs for Blessing to play with, and her two boys adore my hubby. To me, that makes for a pretty great weekend.
13. The work ethic that my parents instilled in me at a young age.
14. My ability to move without any physical limitations. I do not require the assistance of a cane, walker, or anything else. If I had these limitations I would not be able to share in Blessing's love of running. I suspect that many people, myself included taking our ability to move freely without any limitations for granted. So today I am thankful that I do not have limitations.
15. My husband working and bringing in an income. He has struggled to find work that he enjoys over the years and now he has found one and I am grateful for it.
16. My freedom in Canada. Normally I take my freedom for granted. Not anymore though. With Covid-19 and all the changes and restrictions, especially over the last few months, I am reminded of just how thankful I am that I live in Canada.
17. A roof over my head. Many people do not have this. I am thankful that I have a roof over my head and a place to call home.
18. Running water. Clean running water, hot or cold. Many people in third world countries, or even in our back yard do not have this basic human need. I am thankful that I have them.
19. Electricity. I am grateful to live in a first-world country.
20. Freedom to worship God. I have the freedom to drive to my local house of worship and enjoy fellowship with other believers and not be afraid that I will be arrested or killed for it. Thank you, Lord.
21. My family is under one roof. My hubby came down south at Easter to start working for his grandfather. A job that we are very grateful for. It was hard at first having my hubby away during the week, then we got used to it and by the end, we were sick of it. We miss Cambridge but we are happy to be together again.
22. Our new car. With all the travel in the last six months, our Nissan Altima died on us just before our move. Which was part of the reason why we decided to move early. Well we lined up a new is a week ago and now we are just finalizing the paperwork for it and will start enjoying it this weekend.
23. Tea with honey. One of my favorite way to relax and unwind. Usually paired with a book and or milk chocolate.
24. Milk chocolate. I may love living a healthy and active life, but I also love my chocolate.
25. The colour pink. my happy colour.
26. My many wonderful friends from near and far. Way too many to name or count.
27. All the places I have lived and the people I have met. It has been hard moving to different towns because it means leaving people behind, but on the flip side, it is a joy because it means that I have touched people's lives and they have touched mine.
28. Another year of life. Thank you, Lord.

I pray this post finds you well and reminds you to thank God for the big things and the little things.

God Bless

~Ruth

For today's photos I wanted to do a self-portrait photoshoot for my birthday. It took a lot of strength to do it because I did not want to feel prideful or vain about it. In fact I had a hard time telling my hubby about it because I was embarrassed. I knew he would not judge me, but that just goes to show how nervous I was about doing it. I simply do not want people to get the wrong impression of me. My motivation for the photoshoot was a) practicing portrait photography and b) a little self-esteem boost/birthday present to myself.

Finding my Worth in Christ

    This past week my hubby, Blessing, and I moved down to my hubby's hometown because he started working for his grandfather's mechanic shop a few months ago.

    After a successful moving weekend, hubby went back to work and I continued the unpacking process.

    Before long, a day, maybe two, I started to feel very worthless because I was not bringing in an income yet. Yes, I know how dramatic that sounds, we have been in a new town for less than a week, mostly settled into our apartment, and yet I'm complaining that I do not have a place of employment to go to yet. Just humor me for a minute. My husband is faithfully going to work every day, for which I am very grateful. Because we are staying on the family property for now, which is above his grandfather's mechanic shop, everyone downstairs is working, and I am not. Guess you could say I  feel worthless and jealous.

    Don't get me wrong. I have been putting out resumes and working on making our new living space a home. I am not simply sitting around watching tv all day.

    It occurred to me mid-week how much of my self-worth comes from doing versus being. This friend is when God pulls me aside and we have a good heart-to-heart. He reminded me that I am a daughter in Christ. Period. He reminded me that I find security in my account balance verse how much I trust God to provide for my needs. Ouch, yeah, that stung. I know He will provide for me because He always has and because God never changes, therefore He always will provide for me.

    So for the last few days, I have been praying and wrestling through my trust issues with God and wanting to work and bring in an income. He has also taught me that the desire to work is good. God gives us the skills to work and provide for our families. When we want a job for the wrong reason, ie to make money instead of sharing our faith with our coworkers.  As much as I do not want to admit it, I will be honest with myself and with you and say that I wanted a job for the money. So it is also time for a perspective change.

    Funny enough, my husband and I had planned for me to have a week off after we moved so I could set up our home, and here we are, end of the week, and I did not enjoy it. Funny how that turned out. I completely forgot that I wanted a week off, but once I saw everyone else working, I wanted to work too.

    By now, I'm sure you can tell that my thoughts and heart have been all over the place last few days. If you are still reading and have not gotten lost, I give you a gold star. Thankfully God is helping me iron out the wrinkles.

    Part of the problem this past week is that I do not sit very well. Of course, I have not been physically sitting, I have spent the week setting up my morning routine, decorating our apartment and making it a home for my family, and finding lots of new places for Blessing and me to walk. So despite setting up our life here, I am not bringing in an income yet and therefore feel worthless among other things. As you can see it has been a very unpleasant time in my head and my heart.

    Thankfully God has blessed me with a supportive family. Between my husband and a few other members, I have been able to vent my thoughts and share my heart with them and receive encouragement.

    This brings me to this morning. During my devotional time with God, I was writing out my prayers and pouring out my heart to God. He reminded me of my worth in Christ. He then led me to Casting Crown's "I am Yours," as I meditated on the lyrics and allowed it to wash over me. I started to feel at peace because I am a daughter of Christ and am worthy because He makes me worthy.

    Yes, I am still looking for work and am looking forward to contributing to my family's finances. I am okay because God is in control and will take care of it all. Okay, fine, I am not completely fine yet, I am still working on accepting it all, but in time I will be.

    You see, on a human level, I am a strong, capable, resilient, hardworking woman who is used to working a physically demanding job and then coming home to my family. So when you take away my place of employment, all I have to do is make dinner and exercise Blessing. One family member reminded me that I am used to working it is hard for me to sit. They also encouraged me to use my time off to lean into God that much more because God has given me some time off.

    Another friend reminded me that it's been a crazy few months, now God is giving me a chance to catch my breath. So I am going to try to enjoy it now. I want to pursue my relationship with God more, and dig deeper into my hobbies and develop my skills in writing and photography.

    So there it is friends, it has been an emotional week. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. I can "sit" and rest in God knowing that He is in control and as long as I am obedient and follow after Him, everything will work out.

    I hope this post at the very least did not confuse you too much. My posts are usually much easier to follow, but that is life. It is not always smooth sailing. Have a wonderful evening friends, and God Bless. I am off to watch a movie with my hubby.

"As I stood under the tree, in its shade, I am reminded of how we are covered by God's mercy and grace." 

After I wrote the rough copy of this post I went for a photo walk to find a picture to go along with it. Before I took this picture, God gave me the above thought. By blessed friends.

God Bless

~Ruth

My Hobbies

    For many years I have struggled to enjoy and maintain any hobbies. I did not bother with them when I was younger. Guess I was busy enough with school, extracurricular activities, and working to bother with any. It was not until after getting married and seeing my hubby enjoying his hobbies that I realized I was missing out. So after several years of trying to find a hobby that I would enjoy and researching what defines a hobby. Yes, I researched hobbies. I finally figured out that I enjoy reading, writing, and photography. I have enjoyed them for a long time but never really invested in them. You see, I was not sure how much time and energy I was supposed to invest into them. I am a type-A personality, I need strict guidelines and instructions on what to do and how to do it. Unfortunately, last time I checked hobbies do not come with instruction manuals about how to enjoy them. That sentence sounds ridiculous. There are no instruction manuals for hobbies because most people do not need them. Or at least I assume most people do not need them. I also battled with my anxiety through this process because I felt that any time that was taken up by a hobby or hobbies was time that I should be taking care of my hubby and our home. Even though he has spent the last several years encouraging me to enjoy my hobbies.

    Anyways, long story short, it has taken me a long time to not only permit myself to enjoy activities for myself but to commit to enjoying them regularly.

    For those of you who are still struggling to figure out what your hobby will be, here are a few questions I used to help me in my search. 

    1. Does it bring you life? Do you feel "filled" up when you spend time doing this activity? Personally reading a good book or taking a good picture is time well spent, but if I watch tv for more than an hour I feel that I have wasted that time. I still watch tv though.

    2. Does it relax you? Help you unwind and come down from a busy and long day or week?

    3. Does it bring your pleasure and joy? Do you notice yourself happier during and after said activity than you were before completing it?

    Another big thing for me was not letting it be a part of my regular work and family chores. ie. cooking. Cooking is a chore for me, not a pleasure. For those of you who enjoy cooking, all the power to you my friend.

    So, here are my hobbies and why I chose them and how I enjoy them.

    Reading. It relaxes me. So much so that I can easily fall asleep reading a good book. A dear friend and family member finds it funny actually because one minute I am reading and the next I am asleep. Now, I do not nap for long, generally twenty minutes, but it is still entertaining. I also feel satisfied when I have finished a good book. After I have spent a good chunk of time, at least an hour, I feel accomplished. Where if  I watch an hour of tv I feel like a scrub. That being said I do enjoy tv, just not in the same way as I enjoy a book. My favorite time to read is in bed before I fall asleep, and if I am lucky I can get into bed early and read for an hour and then I pass out. Yes, I can read in bed for an hour but cannot read on a couch for more than twenty minutes. Do not ask. I do not understand it either.

    My second hobby is writing. It helps me to process my thoughts. Whether they are profound or simply everyday things. I enjoy writing in my journal because it helps me to slowly process my thoughts before typing them up on my computer for my blog or even just for myself. I find it very therapeutic to take it slow and write in my journal verses type in on my computer because I can type much faster than write, so writing it on a physical paper vs a computer screen helps me slow down and properly process my thoughts. We live in such a high-speed, technology-crazed world so it is good to slow down, put the computer down and pick up a pen and paper. It is even more fun and satisfying when I am writing in my pink journal with my pink pen, with pink ink.

    My third and final hobby is photography. It helps me get outside and get fresh air. It also helps me to slow down, because if you want the picture to turn out you have to stop, focus on your target, adjust your setting, and then hit the button. Or you can put it into auto mode and make it do all the work, but where is the fun in that. Like reading and writing it helps me to slow down. One of my favorite things about photography is how it allows me to enjoy God's handy work in His creation. Most of my photography is outside, so I get to enjoy and marvel at all the different flowers, plans, and other such things in nature that He made. This is why my tagline for my photography work is called "Capturing God's Creation One Picture at a Time." When I take a really good picture and am proud of it, it is my way of saying "Good job God! What an amazing that you did. Thank you for helping me to capture it." You could say photography is also part of how I worship God. Not necessarily a "traditional" way of worshiping Him, but what does traditional mean anyways.

    So there we have it friends, these are my hobbies and my reasons why I love them. If you do not yet have a hobby you enjoy I hope that this post encourages you and helps you figure out what you like.

    As you can see from today's picture I also love drinking tea and having a little bit of chocolate while I read my book in bed.

    I pray this post blesses, encourages you on your journey in finding a hobby, or at the very least gives you a chuckle.

God Bless

~Ruth

Torn

    Torn is our word this week. It perfectly describes our feelings this past week in regards to our upcoming move. Last week we out in our notice for our apartment and we intend to move south to my hubby's hometown of Wallaceburg. A decision we are both excited about.

    What we were not expecting was the emotional rollercoaster that would follow. We have spent the last week excited for this new chapter and all that it will bring. My hubby has been working in his grandfather's mechanic shop since Easter and thus working away from home. He comes home on the weekends but it is not the same. So we are excited to have our family under one roof again.

    We have a problem though. We had no idea how hard it would be to say good buy to all our friends here. We have spent the last five years here, which is the majority of our marriage thus far. our first church is here along with our amazing church family. We have both had a handful of jobs here and therefore lots of close coworkers and friends to leave behind.

    I have been trying to remind myself this week that it's good to be sad because it means we made many friends and memories, which I am grateful for, but it is still hard. A dear friend of mine told me the other night that we have to give ourselves time to mourn the loss of what we are leaving behind. That it is okay to morn, so that is what we are doing.

    At some point this weekend I'll start packing. I am going to take it slow and enjoy it because it means we are prepping for something exciting and going slow allows us to morn and celebrate all the memories that we made in this apartment and this town.

    We are in a season of change, and just like the weather outside we have to morn and exit the season we are currently in so that we can make room for this next season that we are entering into.

    So to our Cambridge friends, we are going to miss each and every one of you and hope to say as many in person good buy as possible before we go. To our Wallaceburg family, seeing as the majority of the people in this town that I know, I share a last name with. Along with most of my husband's imminent and extended family live in this town or the surrounding area. Guess it is a good thing that I like my in-laws.

    So to those of you who fall into the same or similar situation as my hubby and I are currently walking through, know that I am walking alongside you in this exciting and yet sad season. Just remember that even if what you are walking into is exciting, it is still sad to leave other good stuff behind. Give yourself time to process your emotions, so that way when it's to make that first step into your new home, apartment, town, space, etc. you will be ready for it and be able to enjoy it.

    As always, I hope this post finds you well and blesses you today.

    God Bless

    ~Ruth

Makeup is Fun

    "Makeup is supposed to be fun," I said to myself after playing with my new eyeshadow pallet. 

    This is the mindset I want to have going forward. Enjoying it for myself and not for impressing others or because I am self-conscious without it on. It is not wrong to want to impress others of course, except if that is the only reason you are wearing it. When my husband and I started dating he told me he liked red lipstick on me. So I went and bought red lipstick and it has been a staple in my makeup collection ever since.

    When I first went into my bathroom and started building a look from my new pallet, I was a bit nervous because I did not have any instructions to help me. I like instructions when it comes to eyeshadow. All I knew was that I wanted to use the light sparkly pink, big surprise right. ;)

    So that is what I did, I dipped my brush into the pink and started applying it to my eyelid, and slowly added other colours. It was a struggle at one point and I thought I looked like a clown and then reminded myself it was okay, because not only it is a fun pallet, but no one ever has to see it if I do not want them to. As you can imagine this helped me relax and continue enjoying the process.

    My grandmother once told me that makeup should be used as a tool to highlight your features and that it should not be really obvious that you are wearing it. I was thirteen or fourteen at the time, an impressionable age for young girls, mind you, every age is impressionable. Solid advice though. As an adult, I will add my two sense to it though. "There is a time and a place for every makeup look for every age of girl." Some days you want a simple look for work or school and other times you want more colour for fun, and each is good in its way.

    Over the last few weeks (since I wrote this post in my journal) I have been personally challenged about making sure I am wearing makeup for myself and not for others. Not only am I enjoying it all the more now that I have taken off the pressure of pleasing others, but it has also permitted me to have the days where all I do is my eyebrows and mascara and enjoy those days as much as the days where I finally master the perfect "Smokey eye". Before when I was wearing makeup to impress others and get compliments, I would be thinking about it all day. Now on the days when I do my eye makeup and wear eyeshadow and everything else I enjoy putting it on in the morning and I forget about it all day because it is for me now and not for others.

    So, if you enjoy wearing makeup, do it, but do it for yourself, not for the approval of others.

    As always I hope this post blesses you today.

God Bless

~Ruth

Today's photo is of the fun pallet that I wrote about today. I am trying my hand at object photography.

God Provides

     Two weeks ago I was on holiday and went up North to visit my parents. At the end of my visit, we had our first annual family chili cook-off. After the cook-off, my sister, Rae, and family lovingly agreed to drive me back to their home which is halfway between my home in Cambridge and our parents in Sudbury. Our original plan was for my husband to meet me at my sister's house and take me home. But, as we all know, plans do not always go accordingly. 

    We had just left Sudbury, we were fifteen minutes onto the highway when we discovered we had a flat tire. As we pulled over the tire broke completely, it looked like someone had taken a knife to it and sliced it. So somehow we went from having a flat tire to have a slash in the tire. So we all climb out of the vehicle and start prepping to change the tire. 

    As we stand on the side of the highway, I'm watching Rae's boyfriend, Dave, change the tire (yes, both Rae and I can change a tire, but we let Dave do it instead). It starts to rain, and not just spitting, it's raining hard. So while I'm standing in the rain, getting soaked and feeling rather useless because it only takes one person to change a tire, I start praying. I asked God to take care of us and provide for us. What I was really praying for was the rain to stop. While I was praying God answered and said, "I am providing for you, just not in the way you want." and I responded with, "yeah, that's fair."  I just wanted to rain to stop and for us to get back on the raid. God provided us with the knowledge and the resources to change the tire and it was done successfully and within a reasonable time frame.

    It is funny though how when we pray for guidance and provision we already know what we want God to do, we have already figured out what we need or at least what we think we need. Thankfully God knows best though and already has it all figured out long before we know we need help. It is one of the many amazing things about God, He already knows what is going to happen, all we have to do is be obedient and follow Him. Yes, I know that is easier said than done.

    The point being though is that God always provides. We do not have to worry about anything because God is with us. I recently learned that the words "do not worry" are written 365 in the Bible. Sound familiar? God is telling us not to worry every day all year long. Pretty cool if you ask me. And yes, we all worry, we would not be human if we did not worry, it is what we do with that worry that counts. God wants us to bring our worry, pain, suffering, and everything else to Him because He wants to comfort us. Because He is our Heavenly Father and He is a good father.

    He also never changes. I was praying over something recently and doubting a little that God would come through and then I reminded myself of what God tells me in His word. He said He will never change. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever." Hebrews 13:8 KJV. Meaning that if He provided for me yesterday or last week or even five years ago, He will still provide for me tomorrow and until the day He calls me home. I cannot speak for the rest of you, but that brings me comfort knowing that I can always depend on God.

    So as we were finishing up the tire change the rain stopped. I know, funny right, who said God does not have a sense of humor. Then the next bit of reality set in, because we were now driving on a spare tire, they are not the same as regular tires. Meaning that you cannot drive the same speed on them nor drive for very long. So instead of this part of my journey home taking four hours tops, it took us seven and a half which of course resulted in my arrival back to Cambridge being a whole lot later than expected, but that is a story all on its own and for another day.

    The lesson for today friends is that God always provides. It may not look the way we had hoped, but we can rest in God knowing that He is in control and is always with us. 

    Wherever this post finds you today, whether you are going through a rough season in a valley or on top of a mountain I hope that this post blesses you, as it blessed me to go through this situation and maybe even give you a laugh. I am enjoying using this platform to combine my writing and photography hobbies together. Thank you for reading and journeying with me.

    God Bless

    ~Ruth

Today's photo was taken by my mom, of Blessing and I at a lookout point on the "Cup and Saucer" trail on Manitoulin Island, during our holiday.

Tidying Up

     Today, as I sit in my grandfather's rocking chair, curled up with a blanket and sipping on some tea. I look around my apartment with joy and pleasure. I just spent a chunk of the morning tidying and a little bit of cleaning. I sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor, I am reminded of how peaceful and relaxing a clean home is.

    I have heard it said before that our mental clutter is directly related to our physical clutter and mess around our home. I know I butchered the line, but you get the idea. Anyways, I find the sentiment behind these words to be very true. This is why I am going to start making a better effort in keeping my physical space clean and tidy. Do not get me wrong, I am not a slob by any means. I like a clean home and I love organizing, but I am not perfect and sometimes the dishes sit for a day or the floors do not get washed when they should. Because like everyone else, I am not perfect and therefore not everything gets done when it should.

    I have been on a learning curve recently about what self-care looks like for me and although I do not enjoy scrubbing my floors, I do feel relaxed when the job is done. I have learned that depending on the day, my self-care practices look different than other days because every day is different. Today I was enjoying a clean apartment and yesterday I was reading my book while drinking tea and eating chocolate.

    So friends, what brings you peace and helps you calm down? Is it a walk in the park, a funny video? A good book or the aftermath of your daily housework chores? Whatever it is, I hope you practice it regularly so that we can also enjoy relaxing and feeling calm. Plus, the more we practice it the less anxious we are and the nicer we are to those around us. Or is that just me? 😊

    

I am now trying to combine my love of photography and writing, so starting now you will see my photography work that correlates with my writing. Hope you enjoy it.

God Bless

~Ruth