This past week I went away for a couple of days on my staff retreat.

The theme was ‘Breathe’ , and it was a time to take a step back and reflect

over the past year, rest physically, and re-connect relationally. There were 90

of us there. I work at a large church and it seems as though we have a large staff,

but when you figure out the ratio of church members to staff members it really isn’t that big.

Thats me in the center front row rockin the sunglasses..

Would you expect any less?

This is such an amazing group of people and I feel so blessed to work with them!

While we were there, in the midst of the crazy board games, the life threatening

game of spoons, eating, volleyball, and yes – dancing along with Michael Jackson on the PS3,

we were able to catch our breath and think about the coming year.

We were encouraged to spend some time in John chapter 15, where it talks about

Jesus being the vine, and us remaining rooted in Him. We also talked about how relationship

with God and with others is what Jesus gave as the most important commandments.

I began to look at my life and how I use my time and energy, and if I

reflect those things Jesus tells us should be first priority.

I am afraid I haven’t been doing a very good job with that lately.

As I looked over the different things I am doing, this blog came to mind..

I love blogging. I enjoy it immensely.

But it becomes a problem when I put it in front of other things, like relationships.

I have developed a habit of switching my mind from work to blog as soon as

I get home in the evening. Even if I am not actually writing a post, I am usually planning

one, taking pictures, doing crafts  - recipes – home improvement projects.

I want to stress that there is nothing inherently wrong with any of those things.

The problem lies with me.

I will skip activities with people in order to work on my blog.

I won’t plan things for the weekend so I have time to work on projects for a blog post.

I had my granddaughter over to spend the night this past week.

It has been a year since she has done that. We used to do it every other month.

I feel tears in my eyes even writing those words…

I am not saying it is the blogs fault – it is me. I have a hard time doing things in moderation.

And because I can’t seem to do things halfway,

I am afraid just cutting back on posts may not work for me.

So.. I am going to stop blogging for now.

I believe God is telling me to be intentionally, fully engaged with the people around me.

And because I have a full time job, my extra time is limited.

This blog is, in some ways, a very selfish thing I do for me..

I have been thinking about this for a week, and I have shed many tears over it..

I believe it is the right thing to do – but that doesn’t make it the easy thing to do..

This blog is my creation – my baby. And I have put alot of work and effort into

getting it to the point of making money and developing a following.

And I really do feel a connection to all of

you that read it. That has been the very best part of it for me.

I am going to keep the blog up and running, but do not plan on posting for awhile.

It may be that I am able to put things on here occasionally,

I just don’t know yet. I plan to keep my Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest accounts going.

I think I can put pictures and status up without taking too many hours out of my week

I want to thank all of you that have been such faithful readers -

you have been so uplifting, fun, and encouraging to me!

It means the world to me that you have stuck by me and put up

with my strange ways of looking at life..

I have felt as though you understand my quirkiness and like me in spite of it -

or at the very least you give me grace and put up with it

Thank you for sharing life with me..

Welcome to this weeks NYGW!

I had some fun this past week – I took the rest of my Birthday money/gift cards

and did myself some wardrobe shopping..it’s so much more fun when

you don’t have to worry about how much you are spending!!

I seem to have really focused on yellow and grey and brown.

Of course there are a lot of things in the stores right now in those trending colors.

I ended up really happy with my purchases- and so enjoyed picking things out

Sometimes a girl just needs to shop!

This grey shirt is from Kohls, I thought it went well with this striped sweater I already had.

I love the way this shirt is longer in the back, it works well to throw over

another shirt or tank. The jeans are an older pair, I am not sure where I got

them but it was probably at TJMaxx, Kohls, or Ross – since those are my faves!

This sweater is one of my favorite purchases.

I picked it up at Kohls, which is one of the places I had a gift card for.

In addition to the card I had a 30% off coupon…. this made my heart sing…

The front of this is sweater material while

the back is made of  shirt/cotton fabric.

Once again the back is slightly longer than the front.

Which makes me wonder if the fashion

people are finally clueing in to the fact that some of us like to cover

that area of our bodies…. I know that sitting at a desk all day

has given my backside quite the attractive shape…….

Anyway..

I really love this shade of yellow – which is surprising to me.

I haven’t always been fond of yellow, but I seem to love it now -

I especially enjoy it paired with white or grey. It looks really good with blue too.

I am thinking about spray painting my legs with it…you know – just to give them some color.

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I bought another sweater that goes with this one -

But after I tried it on again at home I decided I didn’t like it that well.

So I returned it today, I was afraid I wouldn’t wear it that often if I

wasn’t head over heels in love with it. And it turned out I wasn’t.

I think I was just in a grey-yellow-white buying frenzy…it happens.

Here is the sweater again with a skirt I bought at Ross – $12.99

I love this skirt..

It is all ruffle-y in my favorite neutrals, and the straight line is flattering.

Every thing a girl wants in a piece of clothing!

And lastly – just to top off the whole yellow spree thing -

I bought some yellow jeans.

I really like them, but I didn’t like the way they looked with this top.

Because of that – this is the only picture you get of them!

So, in closing, I guess we know what my spring color palette is don’t we?

You may have noticed I was wearing a little more bling this week,

I re-discovered a lot of my over looked jewelry this weekend..

I wrote about it in my Sunday post – here is a little teaser picture:

Hope you are having a great week – thanks for coming by!!