Dreamer Contact — Liv Photography

Thankful for my own bed, but missing the sunshine + Mountain View’s.☀️

We might have spent our Valentine’s Day (& last 2 weeks) with a dozen other people, but we did get to cross “ride an elephant” off the bucket list so I’m totally not complaining.🐘🤗😍
We are on our way back from a 2 week missions trip to Thailand (with basically no WiFi, which was really refreshing) and while I’m real excited for some alone time, I’m more excited to share stories of God’s goodness with y’all.❤️
For now, just got to shout out to @calebalnes for being my favorite travel buddy, best friend, and the cutest boy I know!😘

The only logical thing to do during a week with sub-zero highs is to make soup.🌬🍲
Tonight I made a “throw your leftover produce + free mom-given meat + staple pantry items together” soup. It’s paleo and basically whole 30 (except the ham is totally not compliant, but it was totally free). You could leave out the ham & it’d be vegan.
Basically, I’m learning lately that you can make anything into an amazing soup with a base of onions, garlic, celery, and carrots + broth. An immersion blender does wonders for texture and coconut milk adds the perfect creamy taste. A few simple techniques really help transform healthy eating from a “have to” to a “GET TO.”😋 (& lets be real, when it’s this cold, you need all the mindset upgrades you can get 😂)

“THIS sparks joy!” - me @ my bath after watching Tidying Up.😂✨
Baths become more sacred and valuable all the time. Here are my featured elements:
• new fluffy robe that was on sale at Target. It helps me feel warm, cozy, and pampered.
• matcha, honey, coconut oil mask. Perfect for winter skin.
• a good book that stirs my soul and makes me feel known. @sniequist always.❤️
• essential oils + Epsom salts to sweat out the yuck
• hot lemon water

When I pause to take a bath, all my energy shifts into a posture of nurturing and care taking. I sometimes pray over every part of my body (head to toe), thanking God for the ways it does work and asking for healing where it doesn’t.

It sets my mind + spirit in a better place for sleep. Sleep can be a tough area for me filled with pain, trouble falling/staying asleep, bad dreams, and knowing that mornings are sometimes really hard. But I also need LOTS of sleep to function well, so I get caught between the dread and desire.

Baths help ease that tension and stir up abundance in my heart. Because it’s hard not to remember how abundantly blessed I am when I’m warm and doing a bunch of things I know are good for me (body, mind, and soul).✨
So if any of that sounds good to you, schedule a bath this week! Put it in the calendar. Maybe even load the time up with other self care methods (as simple as drinking a big glass of water!). You are worth it.🤗

Marriage + ministry brings up all kinds of mixed emotions for me.😭😍🙌🤔🤪😱😬
I spent 10 years as a pastor’s daughter until one day, a moral failure sent that to a screeching, heartbreaking stop.

My high school years were spent church planting. It was so full of hard work and heavy emotions. God was moving, but our human messiness definitely derailed a lot - and the church ended up closing.

Yet in college, I fought for healing. I fell in love with doing ministry again not because I had to, but because I love God + people.

In Vegas 4 years ago, I started to believe that God could give me a healthy family AND a life of missions + ministry.

The only thing harder than believing is actually walking it out.
🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏼‍♂️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏼‍♂️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏼‍♂️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏼‍♂️
As of this week, Caleb is officially full time at our church! 🙌We’ve been praying for this opportunity since he started part time a year ago.

I am so freaking proud of him. He works harder than anyone I know. He loves fiercely every person he meets. He is creative and generous. He is an amazing pastoral presence, but also do-anything team member.

But I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say that with every step towards saying YES to Jesus with this calling on his life, there’s a lot of challenges.

There is major pain & fear I have to face. Figuring out a schedule where he’s full time, doing part time Discipleship School, working a small side job, AND reading about 7 books before early April to get his license is wild. Learning how to take care of our marriage in the chaos is challenging.

But we are not alone. We have a Father who is for us. We are loved for who we are, not what we do. We are kids first, servants second.

So here’s to this wild ministry life that God has invited us into! We are all in.❤️

YOU ARE NOT BEHIND.🙅🏽‍♀️
In social media, we constantly see others getting engaged + married, landing the dream job, buying the house, having a baby, and any other number of life mile markers. The temptation is to compare and let it creep into how we feel about our own lives.
But friend, we have time.
Yes, life is short. Life is also long (Lord willing).
Yes, make the very most of your time here: hug hard, be present, Marie Kondo your closet, tell people you love them, go after the dream, build the kingdom.
Yes, give yourself time: to grow, to learn, to fail a bunch, to try new things, to age like a fine wine (or cheese😋🍷🧀).
There is no Master Timeline.
There’s just one wild, unpredictable, messy, surprising life.✨

Fargo, ND based wedding and senior photographer. Roaming the world and telling the stories of your adventures.

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