2013 in review

2013 was one of my greatest years! fo' sho. so much joy, memories adventures and even its fair share of downs. 

here's my annual play-by-play:

January: 

- I was half way done with my senior year, begging the Lord to do big things with the next chapter/season of my life, and working a lot and had a few coffee dates. 

(some real classy filters)

February: 

-February consisted of a lot of celebrating the little things, working, some rest, gratitude for amazing friends, watching my older sister fulfill her life long goal of moving to New York City, and an AWESOME youth retreat that helped me check off a few of my "Before I Graduate High School Bucket List" items. 

March: 

- I failed my road tests, which sucked so much at the time. 

- Did a lot of baking and reading and enjoying of snow days.

-Had an AMAZING (i use that word a lot) and memorable birthday on Easter, with my besties which indluded a lot of laughs, encouragment, and Thai food. 

(i'm such a dork, but i dig a social life with my co-workers)

(banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies) 

(birthday love) 

April:

-Mother Hen's 50th birthday, crafternoons, reading the Hunger Games Trilogy, and PASSING MY DRIVERS TEST!!!!

GLORY HALLELUJAH!!!!!!! 

(mom and her favorite hobby)

May: 

-Much busyness, last month of school, some ugly cries with the unknown of my future, so so so much rejoicing with clarity, did a spoken word at my youth group create night, finished high school. 

June:

-Was encouraged greatly, took a few mini road trips, reunited with a friend that moved away, oh AND GRADUATED and BROKE THE NEWS to my besties and family that im moving to AFRICA FOR 3 AND A HALF MONTHS to work/volunteer/have no idea what ill get myself into. and took family pictures (which won't upload :() 

good ol' lake george

Country Living Fair- super cool vendors but it poured buckets which sorta put a damper on it 

girlfriends

i babysit for a newbie photog so we did a service trade and gave my parents  family pictures (which we still have to print, maybe their next anniversary gift) for their silver anniversary that i would be out of the country for

gosh, i'm photogenic
pretty sure im grabbing my boob here, some of my nervous ticks

what im talking abouttttt
blood, sweat and tearssss-mostly sweat and tears

clearly, i was really devastated about graduating
also i look like an oompa loompa next to the kid next to me 

the reason i survived my senior year, and jesus a lottaaa jesus

my cheerleaders

July:

Where do i even begin with July?!!?

-here is independence day:

i lied i don't have any pics that are flattering. 

-my besties LIED TO ME FOR WEEKS and I went along with it in order to throw me a FABULOUS, umm undeserved, going away/wedoubtyou'llcomeback PARTAYYY. blahhhed about it.  

     -and boarded some planes. started out my african adventure in M A L A W I.   

ohhhhh snap, forgot to say i went to the kruger national park in south africa too, legit times had by all. 

malawi buddies

August:

-the start of my time in south africa working/loving/learning/pouring my self out/err so much at a children's home there. 

-in the beginning it was sorta a whole new set of a routine a lot of cleaning, a lot of working around the language barrier, a lot of prayer, a lot of a lot honestly, "africa" is not new to me but the "stuff" i encountered at the beginning of this felt alot like katie davis' story in her book kisses from katie, "like emptying the ocean with an eyedropper."

-i journaled lots of this and did a "sweet bits" of the day re cap my whole time there i just never got to blog it.

-i found my self in a new church family that is a sister church of my one back "home"

-near the end of the month i was asked my the manager (who do to maybe some of her own reservations never got to really enjoy me) of the children's home asked me to help teach at the montessori type school that they children's home had started for the kids with learning delays or some behavioral problems, it was a start to another unexpected, thrilling journey within a journey

-i was in a HABITUAL closeness with jesus that i've learned to still make happen or jesus made happen

-skypeing was always a delight

September:

-Watched from a far my friends or old class mates settle into their opaque dorms in college town, america making new friends, studying, and doing college etc. while i was over on the other side of the world doing something quite contrary. I had no reservations about doing what i did, i knew the whole time i was in the epicenter of God's outrageous plan. 

-(crying right now as a write this i miss everything about it so so much)

-The pastors from my church back "home" (who are from south africa) were coming to the church i was attending at the time for a conference so we got to have lunch and catch up, felt pretty good

-i got to make memories for the kids i was serving which was simply the best the boys liked pizza and the girls loved taco night

October:

-My last month in Africa 

-Thrived on times with the Lord in the morning, the hearty laughs from the babies, and texts and voxers from friends and family (well i do year round) 

-served my tail off!!

-i left johannesburg, south africa on october 28 (I was a HOT MESS walking all over that airport), owing the embassy 1000 rand for over staying my visit #YOLO and arriving at jfk international airport at 6:15 AM on october 29 and had a very decadent breakfast at max brenners chocolate restaurant and knocked out on the bus ride back to my town, my mom had the pictures i would email back all around the house and it felt okay, i knew in every season god is always god and he is good and this plan for whatever is next is always always better that what i could ever imagine or dream. im blessed to be his daughter. 

november:

- i had a two day rest and i was back to work

-i was like a celebrity my first sunday back at church, i guess i was missed for something  

-starting to give back to the ministry that makes me who i am today- youth ministry, i co-lead an 11th and 12th grade girls small group with one of my besties

-thanksgiving was spent with family friends and gaining back my pre-africa weight ;))

-took a short road trip to visit my friend erinn away at college 

-applied to community college

december: 

-so busy between working two jobs full time, youth ministry, and all the other things life brings.

-my church's youth ministry puts on their talent show called create night which is incredible, i was just a spectator this time 

-started my college career taking the winter break classes at a community college

-christmas was simple and nice. jesus, family food. 

-new years was rung in my my crew of besties laughing and chatting. 

2013 has been so beautiful its taken me like a week and some to write this post. I would live it again but the best is yet to come. lets DO this 2014!

xx 

jackie

listography- favorite things you own

I've always been a list-making aficionado. To-do lists, favorite name lists, books i want to read lists, etc. I just love the sensation of having a fully crossed of to-do list- almost too much!! I think I was 13 or 14 and on vacation in Lake Placid an amazing vacation hot spot in Upstate New York about 2 hours from me and i got My Listography, a super cute list making biography at one of my favorite mom and pop book stores. It has super cool and creative writing/listing prompts. I re-did my book shelf a week ago and rediscovered some things I wrote as a beyond quirky 13 year old. I though I would use some of the prompts from the book as blog posts. 

List your favorite things things you own:

- My passport

- childhood pictures, pictures from africa, pictures with my parents and girlfriends

- my africa pendant (I think its from here or at least looks the exact same)

- my bibles with notes and markings 

- my journals

- my feel good/ memory box- probably for another post but i have an old train case with all sorts of cards and notes from friends and fam, silly pics, and mementos 

- a journal my mom gave to me last christmas with all sorts of details about her life in it

- my iPhone, of course

- my laptop

- my camera- a nikon d60

any of the Listography books would make great Christmas gifts you can find them on Amazon for super cheap but its aways best to support your local book store. toodles!! 

tis' the season for EXCESS

it been a bit of a wild ride this year. i've seen and feeling big things, beautiful things and life changing things. ive traveled pretty far and and hauled my booty in school. i was all sorts of poverty, the poor in spirit, the field of the fatherless, the born into poverty, the cyclical poverty, inner city poverty and homelessness. i know there is a bible with that i choose to live my life by that has 20,000 verses in in about the poor, the orphan, the widow and the sojourner and there is something i have to do to aid them in their distress. ive been a follower of jesus for about 6 or 7 years now last year, believe it or not was nearly the first year i finally understood it, A THRILL OF HOPE A WEARY WORLD REJOICES, it brought utmost joy to people who needed a savior, a king simply born just to die, it was an unusual birth and a humble beginning. americans spend on average 700 billion dollars on christmas shopping. we are exchanging legal tender for things that will rust and ruin. where is the actual birthday boy's gift?! how to you get the savior of the world a birthday gift? you buy something that defends the cause that breaks his heart. i don't know if ill make this a tradition or something but all gifts this year will be a cause i strongly believe in and will help defend and support the 153 million orphans, a financial donation to the children's home i worked at a few months ago. this year give him a gift, a fragrant offering. this christmas is all about small blessings and giving to charities that need the support no excess of here. 

fall photography

seeing i got back from africa october 29 after my 5 month summer i didn't get to take in as much of the fall season which i don't really mind, i just drink my body weight in pumpkin spice lattes since i got back ;) and its pretty much been winter since october here in Upstate New York, with that said i thought i would reminisce of the last autumn i had. just a mini photo shoot with a little chickie i babysit for, the colors are STUNNING if i do say so myself ;)

   

happy fall!! 
xx

{malawi pictures}

to start off my african adventure/journey-ish i went on a two week mission trip to with a few members of my church- a 17 year-old, high school student, a 24 year old student/secretary, and a 28 year old family business partner. 3 out of the four of us had been on this same trip twice before and we love going and doing. we are sort of the pioneers of starting this organization in malawi a few trips ago by coming alongside The People's Foundation of Africa bought an old farmhouse with a bunch of other small farming utilities, and two years ago a scrawny group of teens and young adults came together to help assist schools and teach small business classes and help furnish an old farm house to turn it into an inn with a plot of land for men and women to help create a sustainable income by farming food for their family and selling the leftovers, go EMPOWERMENT! with out further ado...

                                                                    MALAWI 2013:

sustainability 

not ilegal substance- MUSHROOMS!

the inn

this is africa 

A F R I C A P A R T Y- in african time

So haven't been in the blogosphere in a while. this post is mega belated. in one of of my last posts i chronicled how i was fleeing the country to intern/volunteer at a children's home in south africa, for three and a half months, but my besties (who are seriously the best friends a girl could EVER have) threw me a W I L D (get it, africa party, wild, haha) surprise party since they thought they would never see me again, with lots of lies and deceit in the weeks and days prior. I pretty much HATE surprises in any form unless you're surprising me with a latte then I'll like you a lot or having a lot of attention on me, it just not my thing or ever has been. 

timeline of the surprise partaaaayyyy (don't you just enjoy the excess a's and y's)

`about three weeks before the whole ordeal happened my one of my besties texted me to get the date off of work so we could have a girls hang night before i left, totes normal, girls night yessss please- lie #1 

`about a two-ish weeks before the party my mom attempted to sneak into my room at around midnight while i was sleeping but woke me up on the way out she told me i was grinding my teeth and i was so confused how she could hear me down the hallway (funny bad lie #2) but was trying to steal my phone so she could get my boss' number to get the party date off work

`a few days before the party a woman i babysit for her asked me babysit her kids on the day i was planning to hang with my friends (the party), i told her i couldn't and i had plans so she asks again but asks me again a few days later so i obligee but i have to late  at X time- lie #3 my mom set her up to do this so my friends could set up the house for the party

`one of my sweet friends helping to plan the whole sha-bang sort-of gave me (on accident) an idea on that there was a surprise of some sort being planned for me and I totally freaked out because a surprise party is pretty much my worst fear but then i sort-a shook it off

     the day of:

`i woke up with bazillion things to do and was about to go running my new trend at the time but my coworker called me at about 6:30 and BEGGED me to work for her and because i'm crazy i said yes and worked a short shift for her 

`i go back home to get changed and procrastinate a bit mean while my friends we driving through my neighborhood waiting to see my car gone to start setting up

`while i'm babysitting my dear friend starts spazz texting and calling me begging me to help her with "something" but not telling me what that something is and begs me to help her once i finish babysitting 

`i got to help he the second i finish babysitting, i race to her house to help her and i go to find out she needs help frosting cupcakes for a party she is going, i love this friend but i just wanted to go home and get cleaned up to hang with my friends and i thought i was going to hurt her in that moment she says he also needs to buy a ballon for the party she is going to and begged me to come with her so i suggested the place about 3 minutes from my house so to stall me she takes me to the sketchiest dollar tree across town, she buys the darn ballon and a jet outta there

`my other bestie who was planing the party intercepts me and meets me at starbucks to stall me more and we catch up on life and God's goodness to us

`i propt her to have our girls night at my house and we leave once we got the text form the party setters saying everything was set
`i meet her in my driveway and point out my friends car there take note on how odd that is to her, erinn "oh presh's cat broke down last week she didn't tell ya" 
`we get inside to my dark house and there my kitchen table is covered in sweets and my tall friend jumps out at me and shouts "SURPRISE" i didn't know who is was at first i was so shocked and i pretty much thought someone was trying to rob my house and lure me in with sweets
`then i after my blood pressure went down i looked around the room to see pretty much all my favorite people all in one place. im so darn blessed i tell ya. 

they did the most amazing job on the decor and bought most of at a local thrift shop and my mom helped get the most amazing food

cutest table

"taste of an african sunset" punch- so clever!!

my girls made me this cake!! #gotTalentyo

more on my african adventure in a bit