Starting Anew

One of the things I have struggled with over the years is starting a project, but never finishing it. I have quite a few journals that have only two or three entries in them. Usually those first entries express my desire to keep a journal, but after the initial excitement dies down, there are only blank pages. A year later, usually around New Years or my birthday, I decide again that I'd like to start a journal. However, instead of using the same journal that I used last year, I generally use a clean, new journal. It is so much easier to start a task when there is no record of failure the last time you tried to complete that task.

I started this blog in December of last year, inspired my my friend Jeannette's blog. I remember being very excited about the opportunity to show all of my pictures, and I was also excited to design my blog. However, when it came to the actual nitty-gritty work of writing posts, I was stumped. I didn't think having a blog would require so much work and effort. 

Fast forward 10 months. It is October, and the Christmas season is around the corner again. Since I started my blog, I have written 9 posts, which comes to .75 posts per month. Not very impressive, huh? My friends have practically forgotten about For What It's Worth, and I confess that I have too.

Until a couple Fridays ago. I was talking to my friend Olivia, and she asked me about my blog. I complained that I didn't have anything good to post, that I hadn't taken any good pictures lately.

Which brings us to another topic. I have not been very diligent at taking pictures this year. Yes, I do enjoy taking pictures, and I do realize God has given me a gift in using a camera. But I have not used this gift wisely. I have not cultivated my talents. I have not used what God has given me for His glory. Although I did take some good pictures at Ryan and Grace's wedding (if you want to see Jeannette's post about it, see here), and I did shoot my first official wedding over the summer, and I have taken senior pictures for a friend, and done a couple other things over the year, I haven't been dilligent. I look at Jeannette, who has taken pictures almost every day this year. I look at myself, who has seen perfect opportunities for pictures and passed them by.

I've been thinking about what I want to do for college, and I've been thinking about Visual Communication Technology. It's basically Photography, Videography, Web Design, and Graphic Design all rolled into one awesome major. (If you are bored, here's the link to it: http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/technology/undergraduate/vct/index.html) Right now I believe that it would be the best choice, based on my interests and the talents God has given me. But as I look at my brother Ben, who became an engineer, I see how through high school he was preparing for college by doing hard things like Calculus and other seemingly boring things like that (although I'm sure it was exciting for him...maybe). I've been thinking, how can I prepare myself for college? Well, if I'm going to school for photography and videography, the obvious answer would be to practice those. To spend time learning about them. To cultivate my gifts for photography by taking lots of pictures. To shoot videos, whether it be short silly things or long complex movies, since I've never done it before. 


Anyways, back to my story. After I complained to Olivia, she said that I should go out West so that I could blog about it.
And I was like, yeah.
And then I was like, oh wait.
I did go out West this summer. I went to Montana. And I took plenty of pictures out there. 

So I went home and organized all my Montana pictures. Then I came back to this blog. I looked around and cringed at the lack of posts, and the lack of continuity whatsoever. I wished that I could just erase all that I have posted in the past and start with a clean page. After all, that's what I've always done.

The end part of Philippians 3:13 says, "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Paul, the author of Philippians, did not have a sinless background before Christ called him. He was a persecutor of Christians. In 1st Timothy 1:15, he calls himself the worst of sinners. Despite his past, do we ever see Paul mired in guilt and shame? Do we ever see him wailing and wishing he could erase his past? No. He repents, and moves on. He strains towards what is ahead. He runs the race with endurance. He fixes his eyes on Eternity.

That's what I should do. Instead of wishing to erase my past, or in this case, all my blog posts, I need to strain forward. Instead of simply pressing the "erase" button, I need to start posting other things that will make up for the failures of the past and prepare me for the future. I need to be diligent, and cultivate the gifts God has given me.

And so I am, sitting in my room, writing another blog post, taking this scolding I've given myself to heart. 

I'm starting up this blog again.

Sunday, April 22nd

First of all, I'm thankful for our first Sunday worshiping in our new building.

I regret to say that is the only picture I took. I wasn't really in a picture-taking mood that day.

Also that day we had a birthday party for Eric Beerbower. It was supposed to be a surprise birthday party, but the surprise part didn't go quite as planned owing to the stubbornness of Eric. He was still surprised, just not in the exact way as we planned. 

After our attempt to surprise Eric at the park, we headed back over to his house and had a Euchre tournament.

I'm sorry that 1) the only person in these following pictures is Parker, and 2) that there are rather few pictures. As I said before, I wasn't really in a picture-taking mood that day.

The bracket that my brother put together

On Easter Eggs

In case you're wondering why I'm doing a post on Easter eggs, let me enlighten you. My goal was to post every day this week, and it's ten twenty and I haven't posted yet. So I thought I should probably do something short. And anyways, I was quite proud of my Easter eggs this year and would not mind for you to see them in all their glory.

This year, being the only one really home, I got to dye most of the family easter eggs. 

 Usually my eggs are really ugly, but this year was a happy exception. I guess I have more patience than I did last year. Or maybe I just had more of an idea of what I wanted them to look like. Either way, the ones I did turned out much better than previous years.

So enough talk, here they are. I hope you like them, or enjoy not liking them (Deanna).

(By the way, in case you were wondering about the white one, we were saving that until Ben got home and could dye it.) 

The blue one was was my favorite

Ben dying his one Easter egg (which he broke)

One awesome thing about inanimate objects is that they don't move (obviously, being inanimate objects) and so you can take pictures of them without worrying about them moving (unless an animate object moves them, which is not likely to happen when you're taking pictures of the inanimate object). 

Reflecting on that last paragraph, I believe that 1) I am definitely showing the Neherenz sarcasm, and 2) I am hanging out too much with the Beerbowers.

Easter Sunday (4/8/12)

For me, Easter Sunday started off much earlier than a usual Sunday, and rather cold.

Jonny and I arrived at the church at about 7:00. (Usually we get there at 9:10) I had to be there early because I was playing in the Sunrise Service, and so obviously had to be there to practice and such. Instead of practicing outside where we were going to have the service, we stayed inside out of the cold. You know, it's funny, I can't remember a single Easter morning that was warm.

The Sunrise service went well. There were a couple hiccups, like Matt Gerken's and my music threatening to blow off the music stand, and Nathan neglecting to tell us about those two extra verses in 'O Worship The King', but all went well. I doubt if anyone even wondered why we didn't play the first half of the last verse. (It was because we thought the song was done)

But the service was good, even if we were shivering while we stood in the courtyard listening to the message, and we enjoyed it even though our hands were a tad bit red and chapped afterwards.

Immediately following the service, there was a pancake breakfast in the fellowship hall.

Even though we ate slowly, we had the realization that a lot of time to kill before the Easter service started. An hour and a half, to be exact. 

So we hung out and talked in the Narthex. This is where all my pictures come in.

Me and Deanna (And Nick)

This was supposed to be an Angry Birds pose. I don't see it, but whatever, if it makes them happy. 

Parker and his camera (he took a LOT more pictures than I did)

Melody. I like the way the light is reflecting off of her eyes.

Kristen

Melody explaining something to Kristen using hand gestures

Abby and me

Brandon with his mismatching tie and shirt. 

Lauren and me. I like this picture.

Abby looking pretty in pink. 

Sweet Jenna Marie...isn't she so cute?? Lauren and I fight over her. Well, not really.

Lauren and Jenna

Jenna making an Ava face

Outside in the courtyard (where we did the Sunrise Service) there's this beautiful tree that was in bloom.

Me doing Kristen's hair.

You know, that was our last Easter Service EVER in this building. 

The orchestra practicing

And that, my friends, was basically my Easter morning!

( I went to the Easter Service after that, of course. I don't have pictures from that for obvious reasons)

The Park (4/6/12)

You're probably like, "wait, isn't Ryan and Grace's wedding supposed to be next?"

Yes, it's supposed to be.

But it isn't.

I tried to do the wedding earlier today but it wasn't working for me. Hopefully I'll post it sometime later this week or something.

Anyways, I have never had the pleasure of posting something that happened recently.

What you are about too see, my friends, happened recently.

Friday, to be exact.

 I wasn't sure if I should take my camera or not, but I decided to take it. I'm glad I did, because I got a couple good pictures. You know, I'd rather take a few good pictures than a bunch of so-so ones. However, I don't want to post a post with only three pictures on it, so here are all the so-so ones alongside the good ones. Needless to say, I did not post the really bad ones.

(Now you're like, "Okay Rebekah, stop all the talking and just show the pictures already")

Wait...I have to give you an introduction first. 

Originally I was going to have the Olsons, the Beerbowers and the Cornwells to our house on Good Friday since there was no FNBS. Through a series of complicated events, it turns out we had everybody at the Olsons' house instead. But we decided to go to the park because we figured we'd get bored and squished if we stayed the entire time at the Olsons.

So we went to the park.

 Eric and Jonny wrestled. From the evidence that this picture gives, I believe that Jonny won.

 While we waited for the Cornwells to arrive at the park, Jeannette and I took pictures of the creek.  It was cool with the twilight reflecting in it. This picture of Jeannette is probably my favorite of the evening.

Jonny climbed a tree. A rather large tree, to be exact.

The Cornwells arrived, and Parker showed us the Lord of the Rings music book that I had found on Amazon  and that he bought because we are too much of Tolkien geeks.

And then the girls had a lively discussion about the Hunger Games, which was interesting for me because I hadn't seen it yet. Well, when I see it, I'll know exactly what happens.

Then we walked towards the woods, which had a path that we desired to walk on.

 

It was a rather cold walk. We wished the boys would hurry up already so we could go on the forest trail, but they were rather far behind, so we decided we might as well sit down on a bench.

                                                                                               I was rather happy with my 50mm lens right then. Sometimes it can just be so agreeable.

(The two bottom ones are not very good. The two pictures would have looked much better if they had all smiled, but I guess that's the subjects own fault)

Of course, no outing would be complete without a picture of Jeannette taking my picture...

Mercy being Mercy

The boys finally decided to make an appearance.

( Since the above picture was horrible to begin with, I thought I might as well have some fun with it.)

Stephen looking for Ben, whom we had lost (temporarily, we found him later on. I'm sure you're relieved.) due to his wandering. Well maybe he wasn't lost. "Not all who wander are lost". However, as far as we were concerned, he was lost from us.

We then left Ben to his wandering and walked through the forest trail. Stephen and Parker had a discussion on the Hunger Games.

We reached the end of the trail, and gazed at the moon.

 (I didn't mean for this picture to have all the streaky things of light, but a lot of times the accidental pictures can be the coolest ones)

This is not the sun. This is the moon. It was so bright we could see our shadows.

And this is where I stopped taking pictures. But, I'm sure Jeannette and Parker have pictures of later on so I am not too displeased with myself. If you're curious about what happened after the park, I'll tell you. After finding Ben, we made our way back through the woods to our cars. We left the park later than I would have liked (you're not supposed to be in parks after dark and it was waaay after dark). Then we made our way over to the Olsons new house and ate. Then some of us we played music for a little bit, but after a little while we felt bad for ignoring the rest of society and returned once more to the general public. Then, admist Ben's poor pleas, we watched half of a BBC Sherlock Holmes episode. Then we got ice cream and moisturized our eyes. Then we watched the rest of Sherlock. Then we left.

The End.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have another post posted!