no.167 131014 Thank you for thanksgiving day

From Saturday's date with dad.

It's starting to get pretty chilly. I could feel the change in temperature in the breeze. I love fall just up until all the leaves hit the ground. What I don't like is the in between season - when the trees are bare and the sky is grey but it has yet to snow. What keeps me excited during that season is to look forward to the first snowfall. Looking at the brown leaves on the ground make it seem like autumn is over soon. I think I'm already looking forward to the first snowfall. In the mean time, I want to soak in as much vitamin D as I can.

no.166 131013 Thank you for the thankful heart

Wrapped the cookies nicely and shared them with my friends:)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm pretty sure many pastors talked about thankfulness in their sermon today. The message I heard from my pastor was about giving thanks too: how everything we have and everything that we're thankful for stems out from one thing - Jesus, the ultimate gift of God for us.

I do think that, in fact, that’s the reason why I started my blog. Anyways, the message made me think about the genuineness of my heart when I express my gratefulness to God. Since I started my blog, I'm able to tangibly see what I'm thankful for. There are days when I am so excited to write my post because I have so much joy in me that I can’t wait to share it with you. On the other hand, there are days when I kind of force myself to come up with an idea on the title of my post, or what to even write about. It's not that I'm not grateful that day. It's just that I don't know what to choose to write about because something special didn't happen that day. However, my focus shouldn't be about extraordinary things that occur in my life. Most of the things I do are on a regular basis, which involves a lot of repetition. I guess what I learned today is that it doesn't matter what you're thankful for - whether they may be special things that happen a few times in your life, or mundane things that you do every day, I should have the same genuine heart for each because I wouldn't have them if it wasn’t for God.

I pray that I can be truly grateful every time I give thanks to God.

no.165 131012 Thank you for an awesome date with my daddy

Driving and listening to "Cavatina" on repeat.

I had an awesome date with my dad today! I thought it'd be a hassle to take my bike in the car and etc, but my dad convinced me to bring it to the park. And guess what, I was really glad that I listened to my dad. I think I would’ve regretted it if I left my bike at home.

I loved biking along the trail as I saw the yellow leaves dancing in the wind. It was a beautiful sight. I felt the warmth in the perfect fall breeze, and the smell of the dry leaves on the ground was pleasant too. Words can't describe how I felt! It was time of pure joy.

The park we went today used to be my family’s go-to park in the fall. We’ve been going there around Thanksgiving or my birthday to see the autumn leaves, and do a barbeque. Some years, we would go with our family friends. I think everyone kind of stopped doing it because we all got caught up in life. This year, it was just me and my dad. My sister is away for school and she didn’t come back for Thanksgiving, and my mom is in Korea. Although it was just the two of us, I still wanted to go somewhere for Thanksgiving, as a way of keeping our family tradition I guess.

I realized that the fall report online was wrong. It wasn’t even close to 70%! There were a lot of greens along the road, which was a little disappointing. I’m not sure if it’s related to pollution, but for some reason, it seems like the colours of the leaves are less beautiful each year… it makes me sad. I always have an image in my mind of how beautiful the park will look like, but in reality, it never meets my expectation. Maybe I need to go farther up north.

At the lake, I was able to have some time on my own for a bit. Since it's Thanksgiving and since my birthday is approaching, I thought about things I'm thankful for this year. I was amazed at how much God has done in my life this year. I’ll be sharing more about this later!

Driving into and out of the park I played something that both my dad and I can enjoy - John Williams' Cavatina. If it was just me driving, I probably played jazz. You see, jazz isn't my dad's thing… My dad drove all the way to the park for me and I thought playing his favourite music was the least I could do for him. The song was on repeat until we left the park – that’s how much he liked it.

Oh, I want to share one more song with you. While I was overlooking the lake, I kept singing one song. It's called "I Stand Amazed" sung by Chris Tomlin. I guess this song summarizes where I stand with God at the moment, looking back at my life.

no.164 131011 Thank you for motivating me to get back to photography

Didn't have enough white chocolate chips, so I threw in some walnuts.

Hello!

The long weekend is here! Not just any long weekend, it's Thanksgiving weekend! I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I am finally driving up north to see the beautiful autumn leaves! According to the Ontario provincial park website, about 70% of the leaves have changed their clothes into fall colours, and about 20% are already falling. The last report was updated a week ago, so I hope at least the 70% of the leaves are still remaining! It's sad to see a bare tree.

After talking to a friend the other day, I took out my camera from my closet. I realized that I haven't been taking much photos in a while. Although I was the photographer in Mexico, but that was just with a digital camera. I want to get back at learning photography again. I have photographer's eye - or so I think, haha. I mean, I don't think I'm bad at it. In fact, if I put more effort, I know I will be good! I'm so excited to learn again! As you can see, I'm constantly changing the look of my blog. I'm playing with HTML codes and other stuff, so please bear with me until I get everything organized. To be honest, it will take some time to get the look I want.

I'll be bringing my camera to the park tomorrow. I'm also thinking about bringing my bike... haven't decided yet though. But I know I'll have lots of fun!