Guest Post by Hannah

Hello everyone!  My name is Hannah and I am a fifteen-year-old Christian.  I blog over at The Writings of Hannah.

I love riding horses, writing letters to my pen pals, and emailing my friends.

I also love reading.  My favorite series are Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Warriors.   

I love writing stories.  I actually recently was able to self publish a story of mine on Amazon, called Keeping Faith. :) I was so happy to be able to do that. 

Thank you Kristin for letting me guest post!

On Being Genuine.

Gen-u-ine:

(1) Not counterfeit, authentic, real  

(2) Free from pretense, affectation or hypocrisy; sincere.

I know that this is not a new topic, and I am far from the first blogger to attempt a post such as this one. I'm not trying to write the definitive definition of the word "genuine" and I'm only sharing my opinion, my personal take on the topic. 

Genuine is one thing that I strive to be, above pretty much all else. Some of the people that get under my skin the most are the ones that feel the need to be fake. Everyone likes a genuine person; someone who is fully themselves and completely unabashed. A genuine person is one who has come completely to terms with who they are, someone who has accepted their flaws and learned to embrace them. No one said it would be easy, but all the hard work will be worth it in the end. Others tend to more readily accept those who accept themselves. Being genuine is the key to forming solid relationships of any kind. There's no feeling quite like knowing someone inside and out, from their deepest fears and insecurities to their headiest joys and most proud accomplishments. If you let someone in and they do the same for you, that knowledge can be the strong foundation of a lifelong friendship or marriage.So go, live, be genuine, be yourself. In the end, you will be glad you did.
♥♥Kristin

Photography Challenge // Day 2

**see challenge here**

***An edit: I'm only going to be doing the "get-to-know-me" challenge for now and then maybe I will do the second challenge after that is completed. Also, I will not necessarily be doing them on consecutive days. There may be a few days in between each "day" of the challenge, if ya know what I mean. I guess I'm busier than I thought!***

Day 2: What I wore:

 Please, excuse the messiness in the top picture. I need to get a full length mirror. Anyhoo, this is one of my favorite outfits!

T-shirt :: Walmart

Belt :: Target

Skirt :: I made it! (first and last sewing venture.)

♥♥Kristin

Photography Challenge // Day 1

**see challenge here**

Today's two challenges are (1) a self portrait with ten facts about yourself and (2) clouds.

A self portrait of sorts:

This one's just my feet. I was swinging, so the blurriness is explainable. Now, ten facts. This could be challenging:

1. Flip-flops are my favorite footwear (followed closely by moccasins. If I could wear flip-flops all summer and moccasins all winter I'd be in heaven.)

2. I'm told I eat surprisingly much for my size.

3. I hate cicadas. They're just creepy.

4. I hate the color purple.

5. I love roller coasters, but I'm not a fan of the ferris wheel. Go figure.

6. My favorite movie (at the moment) is Pride and Prejudice (2005 version I think) and I love period dramas in general.
7. I'm reading To Kill A Mockingbird  for the first time. I know, shame shame, I can't believe I've never read it before! It's a staple at some point in most people's high school english careers. I'm not sure how I missed it. I'm looking for suggestions for some other good classics if you have any!
8. My summer to-do list is coming along nicely.
9. My handwriting changes according to my mood.
10.I find it difficult to come up with ten original facts about myself that you haven't heard before! (I may have even mentioned a few before.)

Part two, clouds:
Unfortunately, there weren't really any clouds to photograph today and I didn't want to put off starting the challenge another day just because of weather, so here is a picture of a "cloud" of fire. (and yes, it's corny. Just go with it.)

♥♥Kristin

Words and Their Shortcomings.

**Just FYI, I'm postponing starting the photography challenge until tomorrow or possibly Saturday. I've just been so busy lately!**

Stuck in my head: Mountaintop by City Harmonic and 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman

 Quoted: "The quietest people have the loudest minds" - Stephen Hawking

Words are one of my favorite things, as you all have easily discovered if you've read even one of my posts. I firmly believe in the power they can hold in both written and spoken form as well as set to music. Still, there are times that I believe words can be a hindrance rather than a help. How can you possibly describe using mere words the depth of love that your grandfather has for your grandmother, a mother has for her newborn child, or that a groom has for his new bride? How can words even begin to describe the heartwrenching pain of losing a close family member, the despair of losing everything that one has worked so hard to accomplish or the intensity of fear in the heart of a child watching his world crumble around him? Sometimes I feel that words undermine emotion, with futile attempts to wrap it up in a consumable package when it was never meant to be so easily brushed aside in the first place. Words can create emotion, but emotion can never quite become something so constricting as words. Words have their place, but there is also much to be said about silence.

♥♥Kristin

A Photography Challenge.

I found a 15 day photography challenge that I'd love to try. I guess it's not so much about my skill as  a photographer but more like a get-to-know-me type of thing:

For internet safety/ permission reasons, I will modify numbers 7, 10, 11 and 15.

Because I also want to practice my photography, I am going to do this challenge simultaneously:

I will only do 15 days so that it matches up with the first challenge. The days I will complete are 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 18, 20, 23, 26, 28 and 29. I hope that I can keep up! I'm really looking forward to doing this. If you'd like to join me, that would be fun! I will begin tomorrow.
♥♥Kristin

Oh, Hey July.

**First of all, I would just like to apologize for my absence from this blog. I've been busy as well as having a bit of writer's block. This is somewhat of an experiment with a new monthly thing. At the beginning of the month, I want to write what I look forward to for that month (big things and little ones.)

- Hiking with my cousins
- Going to the cabin with my family
- Eating ice cream from the Ice Shack with my bestfriend
- Catching lightning bugs
- Sparklers
- Soaking up summer♥

♥♥ Kristin