Her Heritage

Hello, friends!

Goodness, it’s been a while. I sincerely hope all of you are doing well–please know that before I published this post, I prayed for all of you, and I’m still praying that whoever stumbles upon this post leaves feeling validated, refreshed, and loved, though I may not know you personally.

So, allow me to give you a quick life recap–the same day I published our last post here on the blog, I transferred from an online school to a real, physical college–and I was scared. Absolutely petrified. I’m always one for being real, so I’ll go ahead and put it out there–I’m not great at making friends. I try my very hardest to be friendly, but I’m terrible about being a loner and not actively pursuing friendships, as extroverted as I am. I think it’s that doubtful part of me that assumes no one ever actually wants to hang out with me that stops me from pursuing friendships beyond that initial “reaching out” phase. Well, I had a feeling as I moved into my dorm for the first time that God was going to push me out of that cozy little loner comfort zone…

…and I was right.

Continue reading “The 21st Century Princess: A COVID-19 Challenge”

Hello, dear friends!

A new video is up on the Her Heritage Facebook page today, called “Life Lessons from a Part-Time Princess”! We hope you enjoy, and be sure to like us while you’re over there!

Hello, dear friends!

I hope you’re having a wonderful fall and transition into the colder months! Here at Her Heritage HQ, we are absolutely stoked for Christmas…in fact, this weekend yours truly appeared in a Christmas Parade as Sleeping Beauty, along with an amazing princess squad and my mum as the Elf on the Shelf!

Here’s a peek at my Sleeping Beauty dress, which I made to be inspired by the make-it-pink-make-it-blue scene in the movie…it has pink on top but when you move or twirl, the colors shift to show the blue underneath! 🙂

But anyway, on to the topic at hand. Recently, I was traveling in the far reaches of the land (aka Los Angeles), and in my favorite store ever, the Daiso Store (which is actually a Japanese dollar store), I found something that got me thinking. Have a gander.

Continue reading “Words are Mightier than the Pen is Mightier than the Sword–of Blades and Verbosity”

Hello, dearest friends!

Goodness gracious, it has been a whirlwind lately! What with school starting and some other fun projects (story for a later time, but I’m working on writing a historic novel), I’ve barely had time to catch my breath…but I guess six online classes will do that to you! 😉

Last weekend, I finally had time to take a break from discussion boards and quizzes, and my family went to see Toy Story 4 at our local historic movie theater. They get movies in a little later than most theaters, but it’s well worth the wait, in my opinion. The old Hollywood atmosphere is to die for, and free popcorn refills are just the icing on the moving-picture cake. 😉

Toy Story has always been a huge favorite for me, partially because one of my siblings is named Andy, and his life timeline lined up pretty closely with Andy in the movies. He went to college the same year Toy Story Andy did, and I distinctly remember my mom and I watching Toy Story 3 and bawling our eyes out in the scene where he give his toys away. Honestly, though, I think that the movie helped me process my emotions at the time. As a little sister who was super close to her brothers, having both of them move to different states—suddenly making me a virtual only child—was kind of crazy at first.

Needless to say, I had a high mental bar set when I went in to see Toy Story 4, and although there were definitely aspects I didn’t think were perfect, one character in particular had me thinking long after I went home…

 

…Forky.

Continue reading “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away: of Sporks, Body Image, and Boyfriends”

Eighteen years ago, I sat on the bench you see here for the first time, as an nine month-old baby.

Earlier this summer, I sat on it again as a new high school graduate.

You know, we humans are funny. We go about our busy lives and never stop to think about how God is connecting a bigger picture for us, and how relatively little things can impact us in enormous, positive ways.

This bench, and the place it is located, did that for me. My name is Grace, and this is the story of how Colonial Williamsburg changed my life.

Continue reading “How Colonial Williamsburg Changed My Life: the Tale of a Redhead Patriot”

Dearest readers,

I’m sorry it’s been so long since I last posted! I’ve been away from the internet for about two months now due to a summer camp job, and today I’d like to talk about some things I learned through this job.

Up until this week, I had been on top of the world with this job. I was getting to serve children with chronic medical conditions, I was making friends (which meant a lot after my crazy moving process over the last year), and I really felt like I was making an impact.

This summer, I have seen countless beautiful and pure things that felt like gifts straight from God. I watched a six year-old girl with no mobility below her shoulders catch two fish while operating a fishing pole with her mouth. I watched two eight year-olds perform on stage for their peers in an act that they self-named “The Wheelchair Sisters”–their physical variance suddenly becoming a sisterly bond and something to be celebrated rather than something to be ashamed of. I watched eight diabetic tweenage girls artfully arrange their glucose meters in a heart shape for an Instagram picture and debate which filter to use. I got to hold the hand of a nine year-old girl with cerebral palsy while she belted out “a Million Dreams” on stage with more emotion and feeling than I can put into words. Perhaps best of all, I had eight little girls gathered around me before bedtime one night while I told them a fairytale story, and I saw eight pairs of bright eyes drawn into the beauty of pure, sweet imagination, completely forgetting their medical conditions for a few precious minutes while they giggled uncontrollably.

Well, this week, I had to quit that job.

Continue reading “When Things Fall Apart: a Guide to Walking Away Gracefully”

Do the right thing.

We hear it in different forms our entire lives. From childhood on, this message seems to be at the core of everything we’re taught. For Christians like myself, it’s often said more to the tune of “do the right thing because it’s what God would want you to do.” Personally, I fully believe that this is correct, and should be at the heart of our Christian beliefs. After all, if we profess our faith but don’t show it in our everyday lives by doing this proverbial “right thing”, then we’re hypocrites, plain and simple. 

However, I also believe that in our society, the concept of “doing the right thing” is highly romanticized, especially through literature, plays, movies, and the like.

In The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, we all cheer when Peter decides to fight a duel to the death with Miraz for the throne. In Newsies, we all rally behind Jack Kelly when he gives the bribe back to Pulitzer and joins the strike again. In the Little House on the Prairie books, we all admire Laura for vowing to become a teacher in order to make enough money to send Mary to a college for the blind. In The Princess Bride, we all root for Westley when he puts his life on the line time after time in the name of true love (or, “twu wuv”, if you’re the Impressive Clergyman). In fact, you can find a “do the right thing” moment in pretty much every book and movie.

Although I love all of these stories dearly, I think that because of them, we tend to go out into our lives imagining that there will be people applauding us when we do the right thing, and that our instrumental movie score will build up to a triumphant crescendo while sparkles float down around us.

As someone who recently had to do the right thing, I can tell you that unfortunately, this ain’t the case.

To put it simply, doing the right thing is hard. Really hard.

Continue reading “To the One Trying to Do the Right Thing”