So Long for Now

Well, this looks like it's going to be my last post here. Thank you for the most amazing summer of my life. Thank you for the support and donations. I love all of you and God bless.

You can now keep up with me at www.chasingvelvetskies.blogspot.com :)

The site goes public today. 

Lots of love,

Haley

**Announcement**

Just thought I'd give a little teaser or something for my new blog. The title is going to be Chasing Velvet Skies! I'm working on a few more things and it will be up soon, so keep your eyes peeled! :)

~Haley

Big News (Sort Of)

Guess who's back?!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I actually have some news: I will not be blogging here anymore. I created this blog to be a supplement for the Miles & Miles Project, but now the project is over and I am going to branch out a little. I feel a little confined on material because of the nature in which I designed this blog, and so I am about to publish a new one that will be more of a miscellaneous kind.

It will be a faith-based blog. I will be posting about anything from biblical things to everyday stuff. There will be reviews on things like books, movies, TV shows, etc. Maybe someday I'll channel my inner cook and post some recipes or something. I also want to work on some photography skills so I might have random photo posts. Sometimes I'll just ramble about some interesting thing that happened that day. But the content is not going to be centralized as much as it was here.

My posting schedule will be a little more constant over there than it has been here. I have decided to set aside certain days when I can write and be a little more focused on content.

As for this website, it will stay up. I am going to have a tab on my new blog that links directly back to here, that way if anyone wants to look back over the project they can do that. I also still want people to donate to OneLife if they want. And please note: I encourage you to donate! But your donation will not  be featured in the total here on this site because I am no longer receiving updates from the organization. Our final total that we raised as a result of the project is $1,320. (And thank you guys SO MUCH for that, I'm so blessed for you all's amazing support.)

Oh and another thing about this website staying up: Sometime in the next five or six months or so, the site will revert back to a .blogspot domain. I don't really see the point in paying yearly to renew a .com domain for a site that I don't blog on anymore. So just be aware of that.

The new blog is not up yet; it is still in the works. I do have the name chosen and I'll release that sometime in the next few weeks. :) I plan on the blog being up by New Year's or earlier. When I am ready to release it I will post on here one last time with a link. So keep your eyes peeled for those upcoming announcements.

Thank you once again for your support and Happy late Thanksgiving! :)
~Haley

Friday Favorites

Hey there!

Hope everyone had a great week! Here are some things for you to check out this weekend:

If you are a girl, you need to check out Duck Dynasty's Sadie Robertson and Preachers Daughters' Kolby Koloff on Monday nights for their video devotional. Their channel is here.

My favorite song right now is Sea of Faces by Kutless. I heard it on the radio and it brought back some memories. I really listened to the lyrics and its really a song I sympathize with right now.

I found this cool prayer app the other day. I highly recommend it if you have a smartphone.

Okay, I'm not sure many others besides me can really fully appreciate this, but awhile back Adam Young (if you know you me, you know I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE Owl City fan) released a cover of an old song on his blog. This song just so happens to be 99 Red Balloons, which just so happens to be my favorite oldies song. So this cover is just perfection and I almost cried when I heard it. Unfortunately, it's not the whole song-just a few verses-but I am willing to overlook that. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a full length cover that I can buy!! Listen here.

And last but not least, my most favorite verse at the moment!

I'd love to give photo credit, but I have no idea whose this is...

Have a great weekend! And donations are still being taken!

~Haley

Quick Slow Slow

 

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, (James 1:19 NIV)

Quick to listen

Slow to speak. 

Slow to become angry.

I'd like to run away from all of those, please. I don't think I have ever come across a verse so convicting to me personally. It's these small things that trip me up. I absolutely love to talk. I would assume most bloggers do, blogging is our way to get our whole point across without being interrupted cnstantly.

But I could talk for hours, filling the air with meaningless words. 

And listening? I guess I listen when I need to, but I don't listen. I'm merely staying quiet thinking of what I have to say next. I mean, I hear what they have to say and give my attention, but I am SO far away from good listening skills. Don't even get me started on anger-I have a horrible temper. When I get mad I just want to rant and rage and I don't particularly feel like calming down. It's so hard for me to just let it go. 

These are the things I have to work on. My goal is to start being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. I would encourage you to do the same. Write it everywhere, and always have it in the back of your head. Pray about it. Don't merely listen to the Word, act on it!

~Haley

P.S. Sorry I haven't posted in over a month! I didn't even realize that until a few days ago! School has been kind of busy lately but I'm settling into it so I'm going to try to go back to my usual blogging schedule. Thanks for your patience :)

Good News!

Well I have some exciting news! I got an email today with an update on the total. And guess what?

We have raised $1,320 :)

I'm seriously so excited about this. We hit the $1,000 mark, and went over! Thank you guys so so much.

I know the running part is over, but you can still donate! I'm still going to blog from time to time. So I encourage you to keep telling others about the cause, etc.

Random verse so this post has a picture:

Image Credit: Air 1 Radio 

~Haley

5 Things I Learned in July

Well one of the blogs I read every so often has a thing where she encourages everyone to share what they learned the previous month, and she links back to our blogs where we wrote about it. I decided to jump in, and I'm posting early this morning since its only open a few more hours and I am gone all day. Haha. Her site is www.chattingatthesky.com. Emily P. Freeman authors it, and she happens to be the author of one of my favorite books: "Graceful for young women: Letting Go of Your Try Hard Life." Every girl needs to read it.

Basically I'm just supposed to share any random things I learned, meaningful or nor, so here goes!

1.  Gungor is becoming my new favorite Christian band

Beautiful Things is so...beautiful. There's no other way to describe it. The band is unique and full of so much praise. It is quietly infectious. My favorite song is a 3 way tie between that one, Crags and Clay, and This is Not The End. I listen to Crags and Clay to help me fall asleep at night, it's like a lullaby. And This Is Not The End is just so encouraging and happy. Lisa Gungor's vocals are incredible.

"All praises to the One who made it all and finds it beautiful"

Made with recitethis.com

2. Blessings can come in the weirdest ways.

Namely, a miserable cold and a cancelled camp. As some of you know, I went through a period during my summer where I was gone nonstop for almost a month. I went to camp, a mission trip, my grandparent's house...and they were all fun but I was so worn out. I was really excited for a volleyball camp that my team was going to, but my the time I had returned from everything else I didn't feel like I even had the energy to participate. But when I got back from church camp, our coach called us in and informed us that she had accidentally messed up the dates. It was a huge relief. Next thing you know, I'm in bed with a miserable chest cold. But it gave me an excuse to lay around and catch up on sleep and turned out to be a huge blessing in itself.

3. I realized why specifically I always felt a little uneasy about today's swimsuit trends:

http://www.liesyoungwomenbelieve.com/index.php?id=2059

 (Everyone watch the video, girls specifically!!)

4. Community is important, breathing room is too.

That whole 3-4 weeks that I was barely home, I was with people. All the time. 24/7. And it was nice, of course, to actually be doing something. Especially with the mission trip, where we were reaching out to people. But we also need to be able to take a step back and evaluate our lives and just spend some deep one-on-one time with God. We can only spend so much time trying to teach others before we need to come back and ensure everything we teach is biblically based. It's like coming back to home base to check in and make sure you're on track. 

5. I've learned to come to terms with the natural state of my hair.

I can't say I really did all that much with my hair this summer, excluding church related activities. So I sort if jut let my hair do whatever it wanted. I went shopping and all sorts of places, never straightening my hair. And doing that so much I realized its not so bad that I can't go in public like that occasionally. It actually sort of straightens itself out..

So there you have it, my top 5! Feel free to share anything random you learned in the comments! And make sure to check out Emily's blog!

Donations are still being taken! The running may be over, but the projects is far from it.

~Haley