Jen Amato Photography Blog

You ever have those days where you just wake up and have pep in your step and the world seems a little bit brighter? Today was one of those days, not because everything in my world makes sense right now and not because I have it all figured out. That is surely not the case. It’s because I felt God through other people today. He was just reaching out and waiting for me to listen to him. Sometimes you just need people to enter your life at the right time to put things in perspective, whether it be meeting a new friend or just having a conversation with someone you’ve known your entire life.

Over the past few months I’ve done alot of soul searching on what really matters in life and what brings happiness. Maybe it’s my age, maybe its being newly married? Is it money, material things, God, nice cars, clothes, a fancy house, success, having family, good friends, a lasting relationship? What makes people happy? What makes me happy? Having gone to church every Sunday for several years now I see that my only answer is that I owe any sort of happiness to God. He should be top priority – in doing so everything else will fall in place. I will be straight up honest- there are days when life gets in the way and my focus is off balanced. Those are the days when I’m stressed, blue and I can feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. Pray.

Since I was younger I’ve always had this desire to live my life to the fullest. I wanted to get the very most out of every single day. Which is why I somehow manage to cram as much as possible into the hours per day when I’m awake. There are days when I find it hard to just chill out. I would like to awake every day with a positive attitude and refreshed mind. The first thing that should hit my brain when my eyes open is to give thanks and not…….. let me see how fast I can brush my teeth and eat breakfast before I need to run out the door.

There are days when I feel like I just needa “get through this” in order to “do this” and feel happiness. I want to wake up everyday and just be in the present moment, enjoying it. It’s really funny to find myself thinking of these things lately because for some reason it’s always God’s way of telling me to “straighten’ up!” He seems to know when everything is all out of whack and my priorities aren’t in the right place.

Well since getting alot of this off my chest, I am brought back to putting God in the center. Some things need to change in order to feel love, to feel grace and all the wonderful things in my life. You ever look at someone and think wowww, that person has it all! Really? Do they? Personally, I feel like the ones who have it all are the ones with very little. Faith makes up for what money can’t buy. I’ve thought long and hard about just simplifying my life. I am content with where I am in life and with what I have. However, anyone that knows me well knows that I want larger house. This is my goal in working hard and I feel like that should be okay. Not even really about the house, just a kitchen and den that open up to each other :) For no other reason but to fit my big ole’ Italian family comfortably under our roof eating meatballs and spaghetti. I feel like I can picture that day in my head and what it looks like. Randy tells me all the time that I am a combination between Giada De Laurentiis from Food Network and Leah Remini from King of Queens. Seriously, he hit the nail on the head. God has a plan for us and I will be patient. It feels good to want to rip down all the walls of any sort of competition or negativity brought on by material possessions. I am working on this. It doesn’t happen over night. I am so looking forward to refocusing my energy. There is so much of my life to be LIVED!

I just hope I’ve reached one of you, someone, somewhere reading this. When things are bothering me, my first thought is how can I fix it or what can I do to make myself feel better? I’ve been putting in alot of effort towards eating well, excersise, and regaining control over whats most important. Remembering how important Randy, my family and friends are. This is a journey that starts today for me. I will continue to grow, change and mature as I age. Each day is a blessing and I need to remember that. I can’t wait to see what God has planned for Randy and I in the future. For us, our families and our friends. I just want everyone to be happy and to feel the power of God’s love. It just takes stopping long enough to listen to him!

These photos below are from several months back…. the first time I made meatballs and spaghetti in our renovated kitchen, we had about 15 of us in our house that night, it was so much fun :) Those are the kind of days that bring me happiness. Even all crammed up in our itty bitty house! I love spending time with our families.Meatballs! Randy’s are the ones with the toothpicks because he doesn’t like peppers and onions. This good little wife made some special for him.I had to borrow my moms Magnalite pot that night. Everything I had was too small. Needless to say, my wonderful Ma-Maw bought me my very own Italian Family sized Magnalite pot. It’s so big it stays on the floor of my pantry, it doesn’t fit in the cabinet. She thought I had earned it, haha. It is HUGE and I love it.