Just Being Real

You know that one time when you drank too much, and you said you'd never do it again, and then you did? Well, I am super patient with you. You could do it a million times and I'd still love you the same. (But that's probably not a good idea). And that one time when you said harsh things to your friend about who he's chosen to love? It was upsetting to me, but I still want to be kind to you. And to your friend, as well. Remember that financial decision you made that put you and your family in a real crunch? I could have said "I told you so!" but instead I want to help you clean up the mess. Sometimes you argue with your brothers about what it takes to have a "righteous" relationship with me. That stuff wears me out. I'm not a proud God who insists on doing things by the rules. Seek me with your whole heart, even if it looks different than what your neighbor is doing. I remember one time, you had a hard time finding me. You said things abou...

I was going to write this post as a story from one of my friends, but I think you could figure out by the cupcake part that it's me, so I'm not going to hide it. If you are reading, please know I am recounting this experience because of the tremendous impact it had on me, and not to flaunt a good deed. I wish stories like this were a frequent occurrence in my life, but as of now they are a rarity. This was a gift that God gave me, a brief moment where He allowed the love in my heart to direct my actions. Yesterday I met Lyn. Today I call him my brother. I left work with a box of cupcakes, hoping to give them to some of my friends at the coffee shop when I met up with my husband. Come to find out, he had relocated to the bookstore (surprise!) and wanted to meet up for dinner. I was oddly upset that I couldn't give my cupcakes to anyone now, and I definitely didn't need to have a 5th cupcake that day. Oh well, I guess I'll just throw them out. So I headed ...

Life is real. Life is fast. But sometimes it seems too slow. And when it does we click it away Just to watch it GO. We want knowledge, we want it now. And tell me what's after that! We'll walk alone in the midst of a crowd, each underneath our own headphone hat. Unplug for a minute and what would you see? Colors all made anew, and a wonderful fellow once called a friend is waiting with a smile to be with You.

Did you know that Steve Jobs wanted Apple packaging to be so beautiful that no one would want to throw it away? I believe it! In fact, I have a few boxes from my various Apple gadgets lying around just because I feel like I should do something useful with it! That's pretty impressive. I think Steve Jobs was a genius, and I am very grateful for his work. It is inspiring. I am convicted, though, about how dependent I have become on his products. Scott and I walked in the Apple store today, and it took me about 1.3 seconds to determine that I NEEDED everything I saw - even the accessories I had never seen before. They were now essentials! I was convinced I needed a new computer and spent a while clicking every icon on the new MacBook. After my eyes started to glaze over, I kind of jolted back to reality and realized that the one I have works just fine. I read a statistic the other day that said if your family owns two cars, you are richer than 90% of the world. My comp...

I don't really like that phrase. When you meet someone new, the convo usually looks like this: New person: "How are you?" You: "Good!" (no matter how you really ARE doing) New person after a slightly awkward silence: "So... what do you do?" I don't really think it's the best question to ask when you are getting to know someone, because I don't think it's our profession that really defines us, but our passion. What are you passionate about?

My husband is really smart. He reads a lot of books. One of the most recent ones he read was called: Moonwalking with Einstein. It's by Joshua Foer. It's a book about the power of the mind, particularly in regards to memorization. One of the things he talks about in that book is memories. If someone were to ask me what I did this past year, I would think back to all of the memories I made. That's how my thoughts are organized. Well, this is where it gets interesting. Mr. Foer suggests that by creating more memories, we are lengthening our life as it is played out in our minds. So, the more memories you have, the longer your life seems. Pretty cool thought. Here's another cool thought: starting a memory journal. What??? That sounds so lame. I hate journaling. (I really do). BUT, what if it was the easiest way to journal EVER? Challenge: Every night before you go to bed, write down two memories from that day. Ex. August 21, 2012 1. Planned ...

Life is hard. God is good. How can these two things both be true? I don't know, but when you ask God about it, He can help you understand. Scott and I have been a little low on the monies lately. He's about to be an English teacher at Birdville High school (Go hawks!) but those paychecks don't start coming in for a little while longer. And although I have the best job ever, I'm not raking in the dough. We got a little stressed a few nights ago wondering how everything is going to work out. I threw up a quick prayer that went something like this, "God, would you please give us a little bit of hope?" After we had just decided to stay in for the evening and come up with an interesting meal made out of things we have in the pantry, my parents call and say, "Hey, we want you guys to go to the movies tonight on us. Go have fun and we'll pay you back later." SWEET DEAL! Let's go see The Campaign (though I cannot endorse this movie, it ...

Peter La Fleur: "I found that if you have a goal, that you might not reach it. But if you don't have one, then you are never disappointed. And I gotta tell ya... it feels phenomenal." This line made me laugh pretty hard while Scott and I were watching Dodgeball last week. And I realized that maybe, this has been a little too true of MY life lately. High school and college are all about setting goals, making deadlines, doing something to get towards where you wanna be, but after college, it's not quite as easy to find the motivation to work on yourself. Sometimes you're just trying to make ends meet.  So I decided to set a few goals for myself.  1. Learn how to use my camera. I've had it for a year and a half and I still shoot on automatic.  2. Write a song that I'm proud of. One that's deep but not cheesy.  3. Eat less than two cupcakes while I'm at work... or maybe 1 and a half... If you're reading, try setting three goals for your...

I've never really liked the idea of blogging. To me, it seems a little overdone. If you're looking for a cooking blog or a mommy blog or a newlywed blog, you have thousands to choose from. And which one do you choose? Who has the best information? And why do we care so much about what other people have to say? Bloggers tend to share really amazing things (especially us girls). The best recipes, the cutest crafts, thoughts after an amazing day. These are all great things! But sometimes it leaves us with the impression that other people's lives are way more perfect than ours - way more enjoyable, and perhaps more "right" than ours. We rarely hear about the crummy things from bloggers, and rightly so. It's harder to gain an audience when you write about complaints, frustrations, or bad days. There's nothing wrong with keeping this information from the web, but as a blog reader, I think it's important to understand that we are only seeing half of the...