new music, new year

Welcome to the very first Monday of 2013, y'all.  Are you ready to take on this day or did you wake up with that dragging feeling that you've got to start another week... again?  Can I encourage you?  Try jumping into today's routine with a grateful heart.  Think about all the gifts this weekend brought.  Rest, laughs, dinners out, morning in, dessert, smiles, reading, praying, time with friends, make-believe with your kids.  Reflect on those things and thank the Lord that you've been given another day to experience gifts like that.  Decide today that you'll live and love to the fullest.  Decide today that Monday is a great day.  Because the only thing that keeps us from ever believing that is our own attitudes.  Come on girls, you can do it!

If you caught my post on January 1st, you know that I've signed up to take the K-Love 30 day challenge.  Starting on January 1st I committed to listening to only Christian music for 30 consecutive days to see how my mindset and my attitude has changed.  Already, I can tell you that life is better.  Why?  Because I've chosen to put Jesus first in another aspect of my life.  Do I think that listening to secular music is sinful?  No, I don't.  Do I think that the more you put Jesus first in your life the more fruit you will see?  Yes, I do.  Now that we're almost to the one week mark, I'd love to know how YOU are doing with this challenge if you decided to take it with me.  Take a couple of seconds and tell me about it in the comments!

If you are like me, you enjoy different styles of music.  If I have to listen to one particular style for too long I'll get bored fast.  I love how in the past 10 years Christian music has grown leaps and bounds.  It's not just "stuffy" music that makes you cringe, but it is music with a beat!  You can find singers with soulful voices, artists who rap, and musicians that have that soft, jazzy sound.  And I love it all.  If you feel like you've gotten in a "rut" with Christian music, here are a few of my favorite pandora stations.  If you like to listen to pandora, I would encourage you to try one of these stations out!  Who knows, you may find out that you like Christian music after all. :)

All Sons and Daughters

I love All Sons and Daughters because their sound is very "soft".  Their lyrics are so, so good, too.  With this station comes other artists like Gungor and Phil Wickham.  All super good.

Hymns 4 Worship

I LOVE hymns.  There is just something about them.  If you like more traditional music, this station might be for you.  Most of the hymns on this station have been redone to "spice" it up a little bit.  If you're looking for a old school music minister and an organ this station is NOT going to be for you.  These hymns actually have some beat to them. ;)

Passion Worship Band

It's no secret that I LOVE Passion.  I was so sad that we didn't get to be in Atlanta last week, but that is a post for another day.  On this station you'll get a lot of music from past Passion conferences and you'll get other worship songs from other churches and groups like Hillsong and Jesus Culture.  I LOVE some good worship music so this station is one of my top favorites.

Jimmy Needham

Hands down, Jimmy Needham is my favorite Christian artist.  He definitely has a blues-y sound and I love it so, so much.  Not only does he have some really truthful lyrics about Christ, but he also writes some pretty melt-worthy songs about his wife.  A man who combines Jesus and his wife in a song?  What's better than that, y'all??

Now... pick one of those to listen to and let me know what you think!

Before I head out for the day, I'll share a couple of pictures from our NYE that I never got around to showing you last week!  We spent New Year's Eve at our wedding venue, Heartwood Hall, and we had such a good time.  It was really neat to get a little glimpse of what our venue would be like for our reception.  Let me just say... Heartwood Hall knows how to do it.  Maybe I'm biased, but I think we have the best wedding venue around.  :)

Before we left.  Don't y'all love our terribly bare mantle??

The gorgeous set up.  This will be very similar to our reception, except there will be no burlap topper and the decorations in the middle will be different.

Getting our champagne ready for the countdown!

About seven seconds before we yelled out a very excited, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"  It was such a different experience than anything we had ever been to.  It's not very often that we go to events like this and we've never been to an event where we didn't know a soul!  It was really fun though because we got to really enjoy each others company... and dance like fools "because we will never see these people again."  :)  I love that we were able to share our first kiss of 2013 at the same place we will share our first kiss as husband and wife!  So, so special to me.  

Alright, y'all.  I think I've said enough for today.  There are so many great things to come on this here blog very, very soon.  I want to spill it all right here and now, but then you wouldn't have all the anticipation, would you? ;)  

Love y'all!