8th Blog-iversary!

Happy June!

Last month’s Simplify In May challenge pushed my habits in new ways so I decided to create part two to share with you. If you played along, what did you think? I’ll put together a post with my images soon. For now, I’m jumping in again. 

If you’ve followed my blog since day one or completed a creative 365 day project of your own, then you understand how a daily habit helps improve your life. Routine habits are a sure-fire way to hold yourself accountable. Scrap booking plays a big role in my journaling and photography. I studied English and communication in nursing school and apply a strong authentic simplicity to the life I’m creating.

Stories connect us to moments and to each other. Using simple techniques in photography creates meaningful strong images. If you follow me here, then you’ve heard mention of the possibility of doing another marathon, it's been 9 years since my last one. The 26.2 mile course teaches you how to overcome obstacles and do something hard.

I can’t wait until a marathon is signed up and ready to train for. Until then, I thought it would be fun to create a second simply-inspired Instagram challenge. Capture a story snippet of your favorite summertime activities. Feel free to interpret the prompts literally or figuratively. Complete all 30 or only 1, it’s up to you. Of course there will be a lot to choose from. Make this challenge your own. If you play along, and I hope you do, use the #summer2k16 hashtag so we can find and follow along on Instagram.

Once In A Blue Moon

Once in a blue moon you have the last day of nursing school! I received this email yesterday from my High Acuity professor. I took her final in the morning and got 100%. We took this photo after our last lab and just like that, we were done. I've been thinking about the journey throughout the day today at work and decided without a doubt it is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done - nursing school, working two jobs and doing the best I could at co-parenting my boys. The challenge made me stronger and for that I'm grateful. Now let's go celebrate?!  

I want to tell you how proud I am of each and every one of you. I am grateful and humbled to have had the opportunity to be part of your learning experience. I am honored to know such wonderful, decent, smart, funny, friendly, accepting, determined, and amazing people. Each of you worked beyond hard to achieve this day. Each of you juggled school, work, family, and all the other zillion obligations that demanded your attention everyday. I see you only for a short time once a week, but believe me I know that the work, studying, and effort went far beyond the walls of the school. You have the right to be proud, you should. You have the right to rest, screw off, eat, drink, sleep, cry, curse, and jump for joy- you should. You have the right to happy, have successful lives, you have the ability to write your own ticket.... you have earned it. Please know that you have also ruined my life as an instructor because you have set the bar so high, no other class will compare to all of you... so that makes me sad. I will think of you often , I am sending good thoughts, vibes, peace, and prayers your way. Thank you for making me want to be a better teacher, for making want to stay when all I wanted to do was run away. Thank you for teaching me some very important lessons. Because of all of you, I will continue to teach and hopefully inspire , but you guys made it so easy for me and Shane. We love you and are honored beyond words to share your pinning celebration with you, to bask in the glow of your happiness, and to have at least a couple of more times to smart off with you. Good luck and God speed to all of you, go nurse away.. keep your sense of humor it really is the most important skill you can have as a nurse. Continue being kind, sometimes its really hard. I am proud to now call you colleagues.. but more so to call you friends. Thank you all for the generous, thoughtful gift, and more so for the sweet, kind words, yes I got a little teared up. You all rock, love you like crazy, and will miss the monkey out of you. Sincerely, sincerely and with love, 

Karen