The Lowcountry Ruby

     Patience. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it best, in my opinion. According to this English dictionary, patience is "the ability to wait, or continue doing something despite difficulties, or to suffer without complaining or becoming annoyed." The Bible says that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will demonstrate patience. Yikes. I know and have always known that patience is not my forte, but I also have always been scared to pray for patience. When you pray for patience, God will definitely give it to you, often through allowing you to go through plenty of patience-testing situations to help you practice. My sister and I often joke when we're stuck behind a slow driver or have every single stoplight turn red when we approach it that one of us must have prayed for patience. And I know it wasn't me.      Because of my obvious lack of patience, I chose this quality to be my word of the year for 2024. I need to grow in this area. I should not im...

     Tomorrow is the last day of 2023, so recently I've been reflecting on my spiritual growth this year, especially in the area of surrender, as that was my word of the year. Here is what I learned:     1. Surrender is one thing I never should stop working on. I will never be perfect at giving my desires to God and opening myself to His will. Every single day I need to remind myself that the temptation to be a control-freak is real and strong, but I need to combat it diligently.      2. I definitely grew in the area of surrender. God has shown me His will in several different areas in my life, and I learned that when I obey Him, He fills me with His perfect peace.      I'm so thankful for the past year and the growth I've experienced. I pray that He will continue to grow me in the area of surrender.  With His Love,  Alyssa Wells If this post was encouraging, please follow, comment, and share! 

     Merry Christmas, y'all! I cannot believe we're nearing my favorite holiday! My family has more traditions for this season than we do any other time of year, and I have a hard time picking a a favorite! I will say that making Christmas crafts as gifts for family, friends, and neighbors is pretty fun. Today I'm gonna share three of my favorite crafts from this year: Christmas Spice Potpourri, Snowman Candle Holders, and Christmas Cards.     1. Christmas Spice Potpourri     For this super easy project, all you need is a handful of cranberries, three cinnamon sticks, two whole nutmeg, a palmful of whole cloves, three oranges, pine needles, and a plastic gift bag with a tie. Alternatively, you can buy these ingredients in bulk and make several gift bags instead of just one. You can even make cute gift tags like the ones I designed!      If you're making them as gifts (or if you want to make some for yourself), you'll want to give instruc...

My favorite picture of Hannah, Caeden, and myself!     It isn't every day that an actress has the opportunity to play her favorite role in one of her favorite musicals! That's why I'm so thankful for the privilege to have played Liesl von Trapp in the Beaufort Theatre Company's production of "The Sound of Music!" The show closed yesterday, and I cried when the curtains closed for the final time. I've never cried after a show before, but this one was so special and dear to my heart. I've dreamed of being in it ever since I watched the movie for the first time. Some friends invited us to a Christmas party to watch the movie, and I immediately fell in love with it. The rest of that month I locked myself in our kitchen and sang and danced to "Sixteen Going On Seventeen," imagining my crush (who so happnes to be my boyfriend now) as Rolf. Though my boyfriend did not play Rolf in our production (his friend did, actually), it was still a dreamy and ...

I was still sixteen when I took this photo, but not anymore!😄            Good afternoon! I cannot believe that summer is almost over. Though I already did a week of school just because I had too much free time on my hands, school officially started today! Which means I'm officially a high school senior! It's crazy and exciting all at the same time! As I look back on this summer, I'm so thankful my final summer as a high schooler was so amazing! I thought I'd take a moment and share some fun summer highlights.     Firstly, I'm so thankful for the opportunity I have to perform in our local community theatre's production of 'The Sound of Music' this September. I will playing Liesl von Trapp! Auditions were held in May and June, and rehearsals began in July. As a committed theatre kid, this is such an honor and a privilege. I'm beyond excited, and come September I will be posting plenty and plenty of pictures!      Secondly, I had...

       Hello everyone! It's been a while since I last posted, but it's because I have been so busy this summer. I'm sure many of you have as well, and I'd love to hear your summer stories! I'll write about my summer in a few weeks, so stay posted!      Speaking of stories, I realized a few weeks ago how long it had been since I last wrote a book, and I really miss it. Writing is a wonderful pastime, especially for people who need a creative outlet. I've started several potential stories over the past year, but I never seemed to get past the first chapter for any of them. Simply put, I didn't feel any inspiration.  Instead of writing, then, I read books of every genre for school and for fun.       One genre I've particularly enjoyed is fantasy fiction (not sure what fantasy fiction means? Think 'The Chronicles of Narnia,' 'The Hobbit,' 'The Underland Chronicles,' and the Harry Potter series). As I read some books in this categor...