DIY Chalkboard Signs

My cousin's getting hitched in the beginning of October and I was asked to create a few signs to ship over to Montana for her wedding. One of the signs on Etsy was listed at $175 and I was able to make ALL of the signs for under $100 bucks. In total they took about 14 hours. All I used was 5 blackboard sheets from The Home Depot ($9.99 each), ruler, pencil, q-tips, and a chalkboard pen.

#LoveMoore

I don't know what this post's going to look like. I want it to be joyful and full of witty dad puns, but I need to warn you it may be messy because I'm sitting in a coffee shop in everett with tears in my eyes as I write type these words because I am reopening wounds that have never healed. Here we go.

On April 21st one of my buddies, Woodrow Moore died. Woody's passing was sudden and shocking. I never allowed myself to process his absence in my life. I felt guilty mourning him because I wasn't as close to him as his other friends. I didn't have time to slow down to feel sad. I was also afraid to slow down in attempt to figure out what it would mean to no longer have Wood be part of my life in fear of falling into a sadness that I wouldn't be able to come out of. The consequences of try to run from the truth of my friend's earthly absence is now catching up to me. I fear that I need to try to reopen the painful wounds that Wood left when leaving earth to go home with our Father.

I will no longer have Trueman Show moments with him on campus, I can't have awkward yet heart filled conversations in my room, I will never receive another squirrel comic, never will I be able to look at Woody and have him speak directly to my heart with the words that our Father gave him. Woody had an astonishing capability to love me and others exceptionally well. Every interaction that I had with him left me feeling loved and worthy. Lord, I miss that boy. I will always miss him. Here's the thing, because of Woody's love for the Lord and his bold ability to love me and others, I've learned a new way to love people.

Woody's still very much here. His body may not be functioning and I may not be able to hug him anymore, but I know he's here because of the way that I see people loving each other. Woody will always be part of my life. He pops up where I least expect him. He pushes me to love others well and be joyful in all I do. I never heard Wood complain in a serious manner. He knew life was too short and his mission was much bigger than earthly trials.

This morning, as I was driving to have a cup of coffee with a dear friend a wave of grief hit me as I missed my friend. On the back of my car, I have a window decal that says #lovemoore in remembrance of Woodrow. As I stopped at a traffic light and glanced in my rearview mirror, I saw the driver behind me develop a great smile as he pointed to the sticker, nudge his passenger and mouth Love Moore.

Wood, you're still making people smile. I miss you. Everyday. I promise to try to love people as well as you did, although you were able to do it on a level that I didn't even know that people were capable of. Thanks for loving me. I can't wait to see you soon.

Searching for Joy

I started this blog 5 years ago as I was fighting to come out of a year and a half long bout of depression. I felt hopeless, alone, and worthless. I did not see my future progressing and I couldn't imagine living a happy life. Each day was a struggle and took immense amounts of energy to complete.

I remember my counselor explaining to me that our brains create thought pathways. These thought pathways are carved through repetition of thoughts, whether the thoughts are negative or positive. The thought pathways that I had created in my mind were deep and maladaptive. I had a very unhealthily negative view of the world. I believed countless lies that made me have a dark and hopeless view for my life. I would attribute every negative event that happened to me as the world fighting against me. I had lost all hope of having a productive future and I felt incredibly alone. In one of my last therapy sessions my counselor gave me a homework assignment. Each time I produced a hopeless or anxious thought I was instructed to write it down, challenged to seek truth (if there was any) in the thought, think of the worst thing that could happen in the thought was true, and then counter it with a positive outcome or a truthful statement embedded behind the lie. She also begged me to focus on the positive things that were occurring in my life.

This assignment proved to be ridiculously monotonous because I had absorbed so many lies as truths. I stuck with it though. To ease the repetition of writing the negative thoughts I thought that I should record the little things that brought me joy in a dark time. Instead of writing those little pieces on paper I wrote them down on a blog. Thus, Little Pieces of Happiness was born. I was required to find joy in my mundane everyday life.

I am so thankful that the Lord brought me to such a low place in my life where I was so hopeless because He became my only hope. He broke me down to the point where all I could do was crawl back to Him. He became my Joy and I was able to notice every little piece of joy He brought into my life. This blog was started as a place where I shared my joy. I want y'all to share your joy too! I want to share our joys and sorrows together. We were created to do life together. If anyone who is reading this is to the point where I was, feeling hopeless, alone, and ready to give up, know this, you are love. You are never alone. There is so much more out there. Seek help if you feel this way. God create all emotions but we need to experience them in moderation and in syncrany. We will face many different seasons in this life. If you are in a joyful time, experience it fully. Soak it up and write about it so you can remember how beautiful life can be. If you are experiencing pain, betrayal, or hopelessness know that it won't always be like this. Look towards the light and chase after your creator who loves you beyond your belief. Seek professional help because you deserve more. Plain and simple, you deserve to be free and live in joy because we are protected by a savior who has it all in his hands. Find peace in that.

 If there is anyway that I could be praying for you please let me know.


 So much love,

New Year, New Me

New Year, new me, as cliche as it sounds, has been said a lot in my home the past few days. We've all adopted new goals and resolutions for this next year and it's motivating to see individuals starting their year off strong. I neglected to sit down and actually mull over what my resolutions would be this year. So here is me doing that. I think that I have overarching goals that I would like to keep throughout the entire year and press into my lifetime.

• Stay motivated. I want to invest my heart into what I'm doing 100%. I've spread myself too thin recently and because of that I've lost the value that could come out of each commitment. I want to follow through and enjoy my activities as I complete all of their duties.
• Get healthy. Not in the sense that I want to loose weight to find satisfaction. I want to feel healthy. My sleep schedule is wack, my body feels fatigued and my mind gets foggy. I want to eat right, push my body, and get the necessary amount of sleep my body needs to function. To achieve all of that I'm gonna try to reduce the crap I eat, walk as much as I possibly can and do yoga, and go to bed by midnight every night. 
• I want to serve. I've realized how selfish I've become while being in college. My weeks are centered around my schooling, which is a priority in my life, but so is loving on others. I want to help carry others burdens and walk along side of them through life. 
• I want to break down my walls and allow others into my heart. This is going to be a long process. It's going to start with coffee outings and solid conversations but it's going to happen. I want to share my mistakes and brokenness so I don't look intimidating to others. 
• I want to fully rely and push into God. I want to feel and be in sync with him.  I want to find truth in his word. I want every move of my to be intentionally inspired by him. I want to recognize his work in my life.

There is my start. This list will grow, I'm certain of it. I also want to add blogging onto it, but lets be real, it's not going to happen as frequently as I would like it to. New Year, New You! Go change the world, loves!


 Yo, Yo, Yo,