The wedding celebration continues...

For our wedding, I asked my good friend Jenna Walker from photojournalism class to be a photographer. She is amazing and just posted a link with some of those photos, which came out wonderfully. You can check them out at her website, Jenna Marie Photography.

The depths of His Presence.

I am so enjoying getting to know the Lord and just sitting in His Presence. It is so satisfying and fulfilling. I think I am finally understanding, truly, that being with Him is not about getting things done; it's about moving to the rhythm of His heart. I think about how, under the Old Covenant, if people other than the High Priest went into the Holy Place, they would die. Seriously. They would die. God resided in an ark. Why? I don't really know. But what I do know is that we have total access to His presence now, and that blows my mind.

I think part of the process of making our house a home is just this--to meet Him there instead of only feeling that He is accessible at a place like Wesley. When Eric and I anointed our house we prayed that our house would be a place where people can feel the Spirit when they walk in. That because of the fact that the presence of God resides in us, there would have a tangible and noticeable effect on the atmosphere of our home.

Sabdate (Sabbath-Date).

Today neither of us had work, which is rare--a full, free day for both of us.

1. We woke up to the heavens being unleashed upon the earth via a crazy torrential downpour.
2. We played on the Wii.
3. We realized that the rain was free water that we could wash our car with, so we put on our bathing suits and did just that.
4. We went and got coffee (pumpkin spice latte--all the feelings of fall combined into a delectable sensation in your mouth).
5. We went crazy-mega grocery shopping.
6. We made herbed feta-pesto potatoes and had some leftover tomatoes, so we decided between these recipes:

-Roasted tomato-basil soup
-Greek tomato balls
-Double tomato bruschetta
-White beans with roasted tomatoes
-Roasted tomato, cream cheese & basil tarts
*Basil tomato soup

And made some basil tomato soup. Delicious. So delicious that we licked our plates clean (I wish I only meant that metaphorically).

Today Lamar rang our doorbell and invited us to his home for dinner next week. After Eric and I had donned our bathing suits in the neighborhood and whatnot and explained our cleaning intentions to his sweet wife Althea... well, needless to say, I was thankful that we were invited to dinner. We are really excited about it. I can't wait to hear their story and bless them with love and baked things.

Pictures of the day to come later. For now, go and get yourself a pumpkin spice latte or other variation of a hot pumpkin drink, sit in a pile of leaves and be thrilled that autumn is meteorologically (aka in the weather) approaching within the next couple of weeks. And please make sure you share these moments with dear friends. Because let's just be honest: you need them and they need you.

Affection, friends. Truly though.

Girl with her starry-eyed adventures.

Today I had the absolute joy of meeting up with a Cola* friend in Atlanta today (*important note for all you non-natives: Cola is code for "Columbia, SC").

Please just take a satisfying breath and meet my dearest friend, Laura.

We have been good friends since high school and she is absolutely covered in some sort of crazy musical grace. And I mean, it's not what I love about her most or anything... but I definitely feel cool knowing her.

Today she and a buddy Jason were recording some sweet new jams. It sounded brilliant and beautiful. Honestly, they put together some really legit music. So I was spoiled to witness it and play around in the booth for a few minutes.

Gosh it was just glorious. Good friends and good music.

The Lord spoils me like it's ridiculous. He's such a great Dad. Without a doubt he handpicked the people I get to share life with.

On that note, I'm working on becoming more of a daily photojournalist. I just want to capture life and glue my camera to my body (except not). I'm also pursuing writing more diligently and pondering the beginnings of some Etsy endeavors. This is Greek for "I'm hoping to start designing and selling journals."

As far as the heart... Jesus is taking me back to something simple, which is love. More on that later.

Well, Eric and I are in bed now. He's reading Harry Potter. 'Nuff said. (Good night friends.)

Testimony: God is good.

One of our favorite parts of our internship at Wesley is just spending time with the staff, especially during Thursday staff meetings. It's our last "workday" of the week and we share what the Lord has done, what we think He is up to, and even stand before each other and confess that we are broken and need each other's prayers. I think it has now officially become Family Time... and that resonates deeply within me.

Every week it blows me away. Every week there is testimony of healing, words of encouragement, the Lord speaking and breaking through the darkest places with His promises. I can't describe how amazing it is to live in a place where the kingdom is actually breaking through from heaven to earth. We have not arrived, but we are seeing Him. He is bringing us to the core of what it means to be rooted and established in love. He is uprooting the things He did not plant, and shaking us free of what hinders.

Projects.

This past week I have been working on a couple of design assignments, both for Wesley.

The freshmen ministry is starting a new series on God's global mission--His heart and plan for mankind from the beginning to the end of time. I'm excited for the desires and passions that the Lord will awaken in the students. Majorly excited. I love the nations.

Here's the evolution of the logos.

The country shapes are actually a typeface called GeoBats, and that is the template I started with.

This logo is more contained, specific, and informative, but when I started the project I had only a little information to go off of. I met up with Stephen (Freshley director) and he gave me the vision for what we wanted, so now we have this:

Yeah, pretty big difference. Replacing Algeria with the U.S. makes the countries more recognizable--since we naturally recognize our own country pretty immediately.

As for now, I'm hoping to finish the draft of the first Wesley newsletter of the year. To be continued.

I love my job.

Other projects:

1. Cover our walls in photos and art.
2. Ongoing photography projects: photograph a pregnancy, door project, Wesley project
3. Produce stop motion art films
4. Building photo website, picking out a name, so Eric can get the server up and running
5. Rebinding hardcover journals
6. Learn to sew
7. Conceptual design

More tom foolery to come.

"They taste like I KNEAD them."

Today was labor day.

Husband and I didn't really labor, and it was amazing. We had a day-long date and at one point, driving back home, I told Eric, "This has been one of my most favorite married days."

Why, you ask?

Well, for one, my love language is quality time. And our day went as such:

1. We slept in. Then we woke up. And made these delectable whole wheat biscuits:

(The quote in the subject line is what Eric said after he ate them.)

2. After deciding that we didn't really want to drive to Amicalola or Tallulah, we realized we really just wanted to ride our bikes.

The problem is, we only have one (for now).

So we took turns riding around our cul-de-sac.

3. After riding around our cul-de-sac, this was our conversation with our neighbor Lamar:

Lamar: You have only one bike too?

Us: Yeah, only one right now.

Lamar: I told my wife, "We should do it like in my country," because in my country a man rides on his bike with his son and his wife!

Lamar is from Guinea, his wife is from Florida, and they have a newborn baby boy. I don't think they've caught on yet to the fact that I am in love with them and have had an intense desire for the past month to cook for them. As we were chatting and were finding out more about Lamar's family, we said that we need to eat together soon and talk about our lives. I am eagerly anticipating this day more than they know, I think. They are just really kind and interesting people, and I can feel the love of God welling up within me and spilling out for them.

4. We went to the free zoo at Memorial Park. The baby bears are adorable. And after walking by the ex-owl exhibit we concluded that somebody cut through the owl's former habitat (aka a fenced cage) and set it free.

5. Not long after, we ran some quick errands, then got Starbucks. Eric paid for mine with his own allowance money (yes, allowance)! Haha, but seriously, it blessed me because it was one of our first married dates, and he really didn't have to pay, because now we have the same bank account.