END IT

#enditmovement 27 million in slavery today. pic.twitter.com/WrQJIfKr7p
— Joanna Webber (@Josnazz) February 27, 2014

enditmovement.com

My photo essay on Human Trafficking. 

L'eau

L'eau.  Or Water, as we say it in english.  It is incredible stuff.  I've read a number of articles on it recently and then I came across this succinct graphic on Pinterest and decided it was time to actually do something about it.  

Being a full time online student I spend a lot of time as a couch potato.  I wake up and then sit down for the rest of the day.  I'm reading and taking notes or I'm on my computer and I don't realize that hours have passed.  I'm starting to implement some changes for my physical and mental health now and water is just one of them.  I read a statistic that said you should take your body weight, cut it in half, and that is how many ounces of water you should drink a day.  I don't drink anywhere near that amount!  This handy graphic says 8 glasses, which is a little more reasonable.

So I'm starting tonight. :-)  We just got a reverse osmosis water filter recently, so there is no excuse that the water doesn't taste good.  Water, water, everywhere and every drop was drunk...

Cheers!

Tuesday 14:00

I love Tuesdays.

I get the house completely to myself.

Today that means:

Devotions in bed

Music or podcasts as loud as I want

Fancy lunch

Checklists to keep my multitasking organized

Financial Accounting/Microeconomics studying

Answering emails

Studying French

Editing pictures

Doing Laundry

Letter writing

Productivity is an awesome feeling.

4 Things

• Never have I read a post quite like this one on this topic.  Dressing well.  Modestly, yes, but this article moves beyond that.  Dress like a lady, act like a lady! Go ahead and read Rachel's post and get inspired yourself. . . 
• A beautiful read about life and abortion.  This mother is so loving and encouraging, even while she disagrees with something.
• The audiobook Sylvester by Georgette Heyer read by Richard Armitage.  Yep.  Mr. Thornton folks.  Check it out if you need a good diversion.
• A beautiful set of Thai commercials.  Such beautiful stories.

The Art of Life

Saturday was quite.  Snow gently fell and the temperature continued to drop.  Grandma and Grandpa had just gotten home from Panama.  Poor them.  80 degrees to -10 degrees is no fun.  My Grandma is a wonderful artist.  She is always quilting or painting or drawing or weaving or sewing something funky and incredibly BRIGHT.  She pulled out her paints and got to work on her hundred day challenge: to work on a creative project everyday.

She's been doing a study in poppies for the last couple days that is gorgeous.  Some she paints, some she uses chalk and today we gave her markers.  Permanent markers.

Mom bought this break taking set of 36 colors and we all wanted to try.  I felt like a kid on Christmas.  I couldn't wait to try something, but for fear of ruining that pure piece of paper I sat and sketched, erased, and sketched some more.  Finally I asked my brother Hudson if he wanted to collaborate.

We settled on a cityscape and I dug in my dusty bag of art skills till I found my one point perspective.  I dress an intersection and then mirrored it.  We were going to draw society.  Society from two opposite perspectives.

We got to work on the graffiti.  May I just say that I have so much more respect for graffiti artists now?  This is hard!  It's quite a bit harder to draw it in permanent marker though because you have to create your own layers and decide on everything before it happens.  We included a number of references to politics, books, movies, and our favorite tv shows.  Because we can.  Shout out to Doctor Who, Sherlock and J.R.R. Tolkien!  I spent probably 8 consecutive hours on this with occasional input and help from the Hud. (Hey!  He's a busy fellow.)

The official statement of meaning has yet to be released to the press.

4 Things

• Do we need more worship songs?  I submit to you that Christian pump up songs may not be worship. Check this article.
• Are you spiritually strong? There are some good reminders and probably some wake-up calls here.
• Truth. This has been on my heart in many arenas of life, but I have never been able to articulate it in the area of photography.  Thankfully We Are the Parsons has already done it.  And how beautiful it is. :-)
• I've been listening to Passenger, Andy Mineo, Linkin Park, Jeff Erb & Paul Renes, Secret Garden, Bach, Beethoven and Hans Zimmer recently. Talk about diversity!  Enjoy this mash-up of the wildly popular songs Let it Go, and Let Her Go.