Making Home {photo project} 10

Wow!

I am feeling, like, 200% better overnight. Very weird. Like someone flipped a switch and I was... better. Soooo thankful for that!

I'm still not running up and down the stairs or anything, but I think I'll actually sit at the kitchen table and eat dinner with my family tonight! It's been exactly a week since I've shared a meal with them.

They have all been so precious. Seriously. Not perfect (who is?)... but so loving and precious. They've all made cards and little notes for me. This one from Shug cracked me up. It's so her. "To the Conqueror, having fought the evil Lord K. Stone and destroyed him." ha.

I had to cheat a wee bit this week on the Making Home stuff. I couldn't really take any pics after the surgery until today. So, I took this one this afternoon, but I'm including it because it's really about last week. Make sense? My in-laws sent me those lovely tulips. So bright and cheery.

Last week, when I posted the MH photos, I mentioned that something was different. I had shot almost all of those photos at f/1.8 (which I don't normally do) and I had edited them all differently than my usual method, too. I'm liking the "stepped up" editing. I think I've always had a tendency to under edit just a tad. Can you tell a difference? Probably not.

Total change of topic... but, I've been thinking about blogging... why we do it. Why it's worthwhile. I appreciate so much that you guys come back here to read. That you leave a little note. I've been thinking about the blogs that I feel like really build me up... either by giving me perspective that I might not otherwise have, reminding of things I know are true, or encouraging me to be thankful and delight in the blessings of my gracious God.

I want to build you guys up, too. But, I'm not really one to speak poetically or write in flowery language. I am a pretty sentimental person... commercials can make me cry at the drop of a hat... but, that's not really what I want from this blog. Lots of sentimentality. If I encourage you, I hope it's to see that there's a lot to read between the lines in Blogland. Even if someone presents their life as nearly perfect... it isn't. Real life is not smooth and easy and Pinterest-ready. There is laundry. There are bills. There is illness.

But, there is beauty.

And, let's face it, all of you reading this are among the world's wealthiest people. There is blessing. In theological terms, we call it the "common grace" of God. He sends rain. He shines the sun. He gives babies impossibly adorable buns. Although we ignore Him, defy Him, and sometimes even deny His existence... He gives.

He gives.