(no outing is complete without a meltdown)

If you live in the city (or as city as Oklahoma can get), periodically escaping it is mandatory for one's sanity. I love to get in the car and drive, drive, drive until buildings give way to prairie and black pavement gives way to curvy gravel. My favorite, though, is the silence. I live in perpetual background noise; you don't notice just how loud it is until you're faced with complete (blissful, peaceful, wonderful) silence. I could be quite content to live out in these gently rolling plains, forever and ever amen.

Something that isn't so fun, though, is driving over a crest and stopping in the middle of the road to take a picture, only to realize your camera is without a battery. Fun times. Thank goodness for iPhones to rescue silly battery-forgetting photographers.

Despite what I tell myself, I'm not very good at multitasking. For example, I can't cook and photograph at the same time. Well, I can, but it takes me four times as long and who has the time to spend an hour on a recipe that should take fifteen minutes?!

This past Wednesday, Kiley and I decided to embark on a photo-an-hour project. It's pretty self-explanatory: you take a picture of whatever you're doing every hour. Documenting my day proved to be a bit challenging, as I got so into taking pictures (and subconsciously styling/perfecting the shot) that I forgot to "engage" in my normal routine. Oops.

Honestly though, my day-to-day life isn't not very exciting at all (no really. it's not.), and although this might not be an accurate representation of my day, it was still fun to actively use my camera throughout the day.

Enjoy :)



Good morning! Dragging my creaky body out of bed was a little tough this morning (as it always is...).



Boiling water for my morning cuppa (let's just pretend that I'm cool and say things like cuppa on a regular basis).
 

Getting dressed and jumping around to some Macklemore in the process (and yes, I like to wear old soccer tshirts from 2006).
 

Timed essay, ugh. Preparing for the AP English exam that's coming up way too quickly...
 

Wandering around the house and finding random things to eat...isn't that what normal teenage girls do at 10 am?
 

Math class. No comment.
 

Staring out the window at the green leaves (!!!) as math continues to drag on...
 

LUNCH! Food is my favorite.
 

Pretty guitar while I wait for piano lessons to start.
 

Pianoooo. (this is actually my little sister's music, but it's the best I could do)
 

Helping unloading groceries.
 

Dried cranberries and sunflower seeds as a snack...bird food for people! (also I'm starting to notice a food theme in these photos...oops)
 

Driving around town.
 

Church time! I think my church wins the award for prettiest church, yes?
 

Storm rolling in.
    

Drivin' home (while said storm continues to roll in).



Finishing off the night with an Audrey Hepburn movie, yaaaay. Audrey is my favorite. Well, second only to James Dean. ;)

Not pictured: wasting time on the computer, getting ready for bed, going to sleep, being rudely awakened by tornado sirens, and huddling in the basement waiting for the storm to pass.

Whew. Hope you had fun learning about my extraordinarily exciting life. ;)

A few days ago, we headed down to the river (or as I like the to call it, the puddle, due to its current state) to soak up the beautiful day. I pulled into a parking space and grabbed my camera and purse, then went off to go climb around some rocks (yes, I'm actually five years old at heart). I climbed around a bit, then wandered off down the trail. A few minutes later, a man came up and asked if I'd left a purse by the rocks. I ran back and there it was, money, phone, cards, and all.

That same afternoon, the terrible bombing at the Boston Marathon occurred. I was (and still am) disgusted and deeply saddened by it all. I mourn when I think of the innocent lives lost, and the lives who changed so drastically in the blink of an eye. Something so terrible is hard to even fathom, much less comprehend. But then, as I sifted through the news articles and bloody images, the thing that stood out to me was the outpouring of kindness and selflessness (here and here, just to name a few). To see the way humanity came together in the face of tragedy was so, so heartwarming. A man returning my purse might seem rather insignificant--especially compared to the magnitude what happened in Boston--but he could have just as easily taken my bag and no one would have been the wiser. The fact that he took the time to track me down and return it impacted me more than you can know.

I guess the thing that really hit home on Monday was the realization that there is still kindness and goodness and selflessness in the world. It's so easy to get caught up in the terrors broadcasted on the news that we forget the world isn't entirely bad. Yes, there is sin and heartbreak and unspeakable horror, but there is also salvation through Christ, and with salvation comes goodness, and goodness will always outweigh the bad.

Overly dramatic (as usual)? Maybe. But still, humanity totally rocks my socks off.

"Just today, I've been a normal girl, an indian, a maid, a pioneer, and now a pirate!" --Mariam

Having little siblings is fun.

(and for the record, they tried to look fierce in these photos, because after all, being a pirate is very fierce business indeed)