Snapshot of My Life

Oh hey, almost-over month of April. I'm sorry I haven't been around as much. Life has gotten... sort of busy, mostly to the extent that I haven't been able to sit and just write. Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't write here unless I have something really great to share. But let's be real, who regularly has something really great to share, say once a week? Sometimes you just need to write about regular old life.

Nick and me at church on Easter Sunday.

My April has looked something like this...

My hours at work have been picking up. Sometimes this is a mixed blessing. More money is always good, but more nights/weekends spent away from Nick, not so good. I enjoy most things about my job, my coworkers, our clients, the cute clothes, the constant activity, the discount. But I struggle to focus on the good when the schedule reads that I'll be sitting at home while Nick's at work, then going to work when he's at home. (Hate that.)

I got to thinking the other day that the childhood me would be in love with my job, especially the part that involves using the register to ring up purchases. I always loved things like cash registers and adding machines as a kid. Something about pushing the buttons was like crack to my kid brain. One of the best gifts I got as a kid was a decommissioned adding machine. Boy was that the coolest thing ever. I could push buttons and pretend to run a shop to my heart's content. So the childhood me has a little party in the back corner of my brain every time I start a transaction.

The start of April also brought back the Whole30 into our house, or I should say, a modified Whole30. We decided not to be quite as strict this time, allowing things like beans, a little corn, some peanuts, and possibly some chocolate. But otherwise, no dairy, no grains/breads, no sweets, and definitely no soft drinks (though I had cut those out months ago). The biggest hurdle for me is the no grains rule. I love me some bread. Bagels, toast, rolls, crackers, homemade biscuits... mmm mmm! But because I love bread so much, I know I lack the self control to moderate my intake. Most nights when I would get off work, on my drive home I'd start thinking about food and all I'd want to make was cinnamon and sugar toast, slathered in butter. Bad news.

The good news is, I've already been achieving some weight loss, thanks to the diet and my very active job. I realized that it's mostly the job contributing to the weight loss because how else would I be able to walk for four to six hours a day with a desk job? Add to that less crap in my system and I've already been feeling healthier, happier, and slimmer. One of my coworkers noticed the other day, which prompted me to pull out the Wii and weigh myself. Back in January I had set a weight loss goal for myself and last week when I stepped on the Wii Fit board, I was happy to discover that I had met the goal. (A little late, but met nonetheless.) I set a new goal and plan to keep up with this modified Whole30 diet.

On the family side of things, April brought Nick's and my nine month anniversary! (I think that's the one where you say "Happy nine months!" and throw confetti.) Being married has been awesome. It really just feels like hanging out with my best friend and tackling life's challenges together. Some days bring difficult circumstances while other days bring nothing at all, but we always enjoy doing whatever it is together. The main project we're tackling currently is clearing the last few moving boxes out of the spare bedroom so it actually looks like a bedroom and not a storage closet. In the process we've been unearthing some interesting things (mostly my things), like notes from friends in college and old art projects. It's kind of like an archaeological dig into my past.

Also, we had my family over for Easter, which was really fun. We started off by exchanging Easter presents (my mom was so thoughtful and gave us non-edible gifts since we're avoiding sugar), then we had an Easter egg hunt around the condo. I had hidden all the eggs, so I had the pleasure of watching everyone scramble (ha!) around to find the most. I think hiding eggs can almost be as much fun as searching for them. After that, we sat down to a late lunch of ham steaks, potatoes and rolls for those non-Whole30ers, cauliflower puree, green beans, and apple sauce. Nick did most of the cooking, and everything was delicious. We talked for a while, then took a walk down to our local cupcakery (again, for the benefit of those not on a diet). We finished the day with a movie before my parents and brother headed back home.

Besides all that, life has been pretty normal. I'm still working on building up my freelance portfolio, ELM Creative, by writing guest blog posts and book reviews, and doing the occasional blog re-design. I haven't been aggressively pursuing opportunities just yet because I'm enjoying where I'm at currently and I want to build up a collection of work samples first. I love that it gives me a creative outlet and place to start up new projects and partnerships.

I hope that you're having a fantastic April and start to this lovely spring we've been so ready for! :)

Book Review: Captive Trail

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

"Captive Trail" is the second book in the "Texas Trails" series, following "Lone Star Trail." In "Lone Star Trail" readers are introduced to the Morgan family, which was robbed of its youngest member--a little girl named Billie--by a band of Comanche Indians. "Captive Trail" tells her story.

Billie becomes Taabe Waipu as she is forced to forget her name, language, and culture over 12 years in captivity. We are given a glimpse of her first days with the Comanche, but do not meet her again until she escapes to try to find her family that she barely remembers.

During her escape, Taabe is injured and discovered by a stagecoach driver and a group of nuns on their way to start a mission and school in central Texas. The nuns take Taabe in to care for her and teach her English while the stagecoach driver, Ned, tries to uncover her real identity with the hope of reuniting her with her family. Meanwhile, the Comanche have other ideas, hoping to bring Taabe back to their tribe.

I was excited to read "Captive Trail" because of my interest in and love of Native American history and culture. I was a little disappointed that the book didn't focus more on Billie's time with the Comanche, but it did provide a heart-warming, engrossing story with moments of love, sacrifice, and excitement. In that way, it did not disappoint. I would recommend "Captive Trail" to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, Texas history, Christian fiction, or romance.

A New Home for ELM Creative

If you're a regular on this blog, you may have noticed this thing called ELM Creative. ELM Creative is a home for all of my freelance offerings, a collection point where I can showcase my work--what I've done and what I offer.

ELM Creative evolved out of two prior projects I had, my photography "freelance business" (Elise Loyola Photography, which started in 2008) and The Fix, a one-stop shop for writing and editing offerings that I and a friend created back in 2010. Unfortunately, The Fix never really took off, but I always liked the idea of offering creative services to businesses/organizations that just needed a professional edge to their written content.

In the summer of 2013, I decided that Elise Loyola Photography needed to expand because the truth was, I loved more than just photography. I wanted to increase my freelance offerings and showcase my work in other areas like writing, blogging, social media management, and marketing/public relations. This change was really only manifested on Facebook as I changed the Elise Loyola Photography page to ELM Creative--a reflection of the change in my name as I got married and the expansion of my offerings.

Since then, ELM Creative has been slowly gaining speed as my life and work-life have been changing. The biggest difference is now that I'm working a part time job, I have more time to dedicate to freelance work. It's so important to be to be able to have the time I need to make my offerings the best that they can be.

ELM Creative is driven by my professional experience in journalism--writing, editing, photography--and social media management/PR--managing the digital presence of newspapers and also the marketing for a healthcare office. It's also driven by my personal work--writing for school assignments and personal reasons, teaching writing classes, practicing my photography, and keeping this blog and other websites over the years. With all that behind me, I know I bring a lot of varied experience and insight to the table and can offer fresh content and perspectives to those who seek out my services.

Now I'm excited to finally showcase my first projects under ELM Creative, and have decided to create a separate site on which to do that. The goal in making a new site was to simply make it easier to navigate the information. I previously had everything written out on one page on my blog and it became a lot to scroll through. The new site has everything broken down by tabs and individual pages so the content is sorted and streamlined.

I'd love it if you checked out the new site, and recommended it to anyone you know who may be interested in or looking for freelance work. (You can also direct people to ELM Creative on Facebook and Twitter.) I appreciate all the support I've gotten over the years, for this and other projects I've undertaken. I couldn't do it without the encouraging words, shares, comments, and feedback. So thank you!

P.S. I had a conversation with my author friend, Ben, yesterday about whether the name ELM Creative is pronounced "elm" like the tree or "e-l-m" like my initials. I most often think of it as "elm" and so that's the pronunciation I'm going for, but it does stand for my initials. :)

Contributing to The Dead Church Movement

I'm excited to tell you all about another opportunity I have been given to be a guest writer! This time, I'm teaming up as a contributor with my friend Jordan Santos and his site, The Dead Church Movement.

The site is an excellent resource for churches and Christian believers as it seeks to wake up the sleepers in our generation--those who call and believe themselves to be Christians, but are not. There are lots of great blog posts covering important topics from the church and legalism to tolerance and discipline.

My first post, Beauty in the Body, was published today! It is a church-centric spin-off article from my last blog post, Life Lessons and Confessions of an Ugly Girl. It takes the themes of that post--appearance, beauty, worth, and value--and dissects them under a biblical view for the church. It may seem like a post just for women, but I wrote it broadly for all church members and leaders. I'd urge everyone to read it as it may encourage you, and provide a glimpse into the needs and desires of others.

I'm looking forward to continuing to contribute to The Dead Church Movement and I would love to hear your thoughts/feedback. If you read the piece, what struck you about it? Did you learn something or consider something you hadn't before? What do you think could be added? What types of things would you like me to write about? I value your opinions and love to hear from you!