a new perspective

In honor of Easter, I wanted to share this video. I've shared it here before but it was a while ago. This song is meaningful to me because I listened to it on my mission and it brings back so many memories from that time. It is so inspirational and always brings tears to my eyes when I hear it.



I've been thinking this weekend about what is really important in life; specifically, how we treat others and how our Savior would treat others if he were here with us. I think it is so easy to get caught up in our lives and not think about other people who are living close to us but may be living in drastically different circumstances. So many people are going through difficult times right now. It is so easy to judge others or to make assumptions when we don't have all of the facts. I am reminded of a quote I read once by Ian Percy that states, "We judge others by their behavior. We judge ourselves by our intentions." I guess I've sort of had this reminder this weekend about needing to reach outside of myself more, put myself in others' shoes, not to be quick to judge, and to remember to keep my priorities in order. It can be so easy for them to get out of order, even due to good things.

I am grateful for Easter, as it is symbolic of starting new. It not only brings hope for warm weather and new life, but it also brings an assurance that we will be resurrected because of our Savior. It brings hope that death is not the end. That is such an amazing thing to know! I know that my Savior lives and I am forever grateful for Him.

I will leave you with a current picture of my little cutie in his Easter outfit that his grandma sent him.

confession

I have a confession to make. I am a little bit addicted to Pinterest. It's kind of amazing. I love that I can catalog cool things that I see online to reference later. Before, when I would find something cool, like a cute activity to do with kids that I wanted to save for future reference, I would email it to myself and tag that email with something like "kids." But I would forget what I emailed myself because I didn't have a visual. With Pinterest, I log in and there are all of my inspiration boards, right there in front of me. It's brilliant. This is what my boards look like:

 
Then when I click on one of my boards (or categories), I can see everything I've saved under that category. When I click on the image I've saved, it takes me to the site where I originally found my source of inspiration. I love "pinning" when I have a few minutes of down time. You should try it - but I have to warn you that it is a bit addicting. You can follow me on Pinterest here.

makes me smile

I attended Kali Leenstra's Photography Workshop last Saturday. It was an anniversary gift from W last year. I planned to attend last Spring but I got the flu the night before the workshop, which I was so sad about. Then I was going to attend the next one last November, but I was working on my Senior Capstone Project and I had a big deadline looming. So last Saturday I was on my break from school, and somehow all of the stars aligned and I had a babysitter and was able to attend. Yay! I'm so glad I was finally able to go. It was so great. I loved spending the day with other photographers who are as passionate about photography as I am. Kali is wonderful and her workshop was really fantastic. If you're interested in photography, you should check it out. She has a beginners workshop as well. Kali lined up some amazing models for us to shoot. They made our jobs so easy! It makes me smile as I look at these pictures. It felt so great to get out and shoot again.

I had a very difficult time narrowing down my favorites, so be prepared to continue scrolling down for a while. Let me know which ones are your favorites.