42. books that speak to your soul
43. raindrops
44. truth
45. surrendering to Him
46. the freedom that comes with surrendering to Him
47. cozy blankets
48. time alone
49. espresso finishes on furniture
50. God using Dr. Hunter to restore my sight
51. humility
October 18, 2011
October 17, 2011
Love.
Tonight I started remembering the lives of those precious little ones that I so deeply loved while working in the hospital. I don't really know what made me think of them, but they come and go in my memory and I am grateful for that. I am grateful for the memories of the little ones who changed my life forever.
I am in a good place in life right now. I love my job and I am thankful for rest. I am thankful for time away from seeing death daily through the faces of kids. But, it's similar to war, those precious faces never leave me. I think of them often. I think of their families often. I shed tears for them and I can't imagine how difficult waking up each day without them must be.
One thing that I am deeply grateful for is the depth of the love that I experienced while I worked with these kids. I didn't know my heart could go that deep, but God provided me with strength and hope that was ever sustaining. As I look back now, I see sadness but mostly I see joy. I am thankful for those smiles that are pressed on my heart forever. They changed me. They made me a better woman. They allowed me to see God's face in them every day even when they were facing death. And knowing that they're in heaven makes heaven more real to me.
Today I am thankful for:
31. God's redemption
32. children's laughter
33. memories and the ability to recount moments as difficult or precious as they may have been
34. loving parents and families
35. heaven and God's promises
36. tears of joy
37. life here on earth
38. eternal life beyond
39. the resiliency of kids
40. God's healing (despite whether it's on our terms or His)
41. the gift of health
I am in a good place in life right now. I love my job and I am thankful for rest. I am thankful for time away from seeing death daily through the faces of kids. But, it's similar to war, those precious faces never leave me. I think of them often. I think of their families often. I shed tears for them and I can't imagine how difficult waking up each day without them must be.
One thing that I am deeply grateful for is the depth of the love that I experienced while I worked with these kids. I didn't know my heart could go that deep, but God provided me with strength and hope that was ever sustaining. As I look back now, I see sadness but mostly I see joy. I am thankful for those smiles that are pressed on my heart forever. They changed me. They made me a better woman. They allowed me to see God's face in them every day even when they were facing death. And knowing that they're in heaven makes heaven more real to me.
Today I am thankful for:
31. God's redemption
32. children's laughter
33. memories and the ability to recount moments as difficult or precious as they may have been
34. loving parents and families
35. heaven and God's promises
36. tears of joy
37. life here on earth
38. eternal life beyond
39. the resiliency of kids
40. God's healing (despite whether it's on our terms or His)
41. the gift of health
October 15, 2011
21-30.
21. the feeling of knowing i get to spend a week with my parents in TN
22. the perfect nail polish color
23. the smell of my house when chili is brewing in my crockpot
24. REAL fires in a fireplace.. not to be confused with gas fireplaces.
25. budgeting and living within our means
26. Target, target, and did I mention Target? (trying hard to live within our means AT target)
27. log cabins in the mountains
28. good smelling laundry
29. pictures that bring back great memories
30. Tennessee orange
22. the perfect nail polish color
23. the smell of my house when chili is brewing in my crockpot
24. REAL fires in a fireplace.. not to be confused with gas fireplaces.
25. budgeting and living within our means
26. Target, target, and did I mention Target? (trying hard to live within our means AT target)
27. log cabins in the mountains
28. good smelling laundry
29. pictures that bring back great memories
30. Tennessee orange
11-20.
My Count to 1000 gifts...
11. blueberry cobbler flavored coffee
12. fabulous coffee mugs
13. the smell of freshly cut grass
14. the tenderness of my sweet dog
15. college gameday on saturday mornings
16. sleeping in on saturday mornings with my husband
17. khaki pants
18. my baylor bears
19. birds chirping in the breeze
20. turkey bacon
11. blueberry cobbler flavored coffee
12. fabulous coffee mugs
13. the smell of freshly cut grass
14. the tenderness of my sweet dog
15. college gameday on saturday mornings
16. sleeping in on saturday mornings with my husband
17. khaki pants
18. my baylor bears
19. birds chirping in the breeze
20. turkey bacon
October 11, 2011
One Thousand Gifts
I have been reading the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. It is such a great book and I am going to start naming 1000 things that are gifts in life. It will take me a while and these will be random posts here and there with my additions to my 1000 gifts.
I'll just start with 10 today. (clearly these aren't the top 10, have to start somewhere though!)
1. laying in bed at night hearing nothing but silence knowing I have hours of sleep and solitude in front of me
2. diet coke with ice
3. hot, like scolding hot, showers
4. the perfect pillow
5. the moment my husband walks in the door from work and give me a hug and kiss
6. crisp breezes that make the trees sway and the leaves fall
7. fall colors
8. the Office
9. walking into a clean house
10. lotions that smell lovely
I'll just start with 10 today. (clearly these aren't the top 10, have to start somewhere though!)
1. laying in bed at night hearing nothing but silence knowing I have hours of sleep and solitude in front of me
2. diet coke with ice
3. hot, like scolding hot, showers
4. the perfect pillow
5. the moment my husband walks in the door from work and give me a hug and kiss
6. crisp breezes that make the trees sway and the leaves fall
7. fall colors
8. the Office
9. walking into a clean house
10. lotions that smell lovely
August 28, 2011
1 Year of Bliss
It is absolutely crazy to think that one year has passed since we said I do last July 24. It has been a wonderful first year. I have been asked the typical 1st anniversary question. "Was your first year harder than you thought or easier than you thought?" Honestly, it was not as hard as I anticipated it being. Jack and I put in a TON of work on the front end of our marriage. We were in counseling for a year both individually and together. We walked through all of the significant parts of our stories prior to even being engaged and then married.
I can tell you this about my first year married to Jack. I am daily amazed at how faithful our loving Savior has been to us. I look at him most days in awe that I get to be the one to walk through life with him. He is so good to me. I often find it hard to even express how grateful I am to be in a marriage with him. It is a joy. Yes, we have our moments. And those moments can be intense...but every single day I experience grace and love in ways that I often feel I don't deserve. And each day I am married to him I find him more handsome than the day before. Seriously, he is the most attractive man I know. And I get to be his wife. But more than his attractiveness...He is such a good husband. He works hard for us, he partners in life with me, he allows me to be me, and he leads our family in a way that I am forever grateful.
Thank you Father for blessing me with my husband. Life got significantly sweeter on April 28, 2008 when I met him. And my life changed forever on July 24, 2010 when he chose me to be his wife.
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I can tell you this about my first year married to Jack. I am daily amazed at how faithful our loving Savior has been to us. I look at him most days in awe that I get to be the one to walk through life with him. He is so good to me. I often find it hard to even express how grateful I am to be in a marriage with him. It is a joy. Yes, we have our moments. And those moments can be intense...but every single day I experience grace and love in ways that I often feel I don't deserve. And each day I am married to him I find him more handsome than the day before. Seriously, he is the most attractive man I know. And I get to be his wife. But more than his attractiveness...He is such a good husband. He works hard for us, he partners in life with me, he allows me to be me, and he leads our family in a way that I am forever grateful.
Thank you Father for blessing me with my husband. Life got significantly sweeter on April 28, 2008 when I met him. And my life changed forever on July 24, 2010 when he chose me to be his wife.
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The Act of Frugality
I'm back! I know, I am so utterly inconsistent with my blogging that it is almost pointless to even have a blog. But, the truth is that it makes me feel good to occasionally sit down and blog. So, here I am!
I am officially learning the act of frugality. Jack and I met with Candace Bloomley at her Nine12 Ministry workshop a few weeks ago. We are beginning to put together a budget that allows us to spend wisely and give generously. We made it through our first year of marriage with little to no financial disagreements, but figured it would be wise to learn how to honor God in our finances. When we met with Candace, we walked in thinking it was going to be a sad, depressing meeting where we inevitably would learn that we didn't have enough money for the things that we wanted. We knew we had enough to be able to provide for the things that are necessities in life. When we left the meeting it was super encouraging. She is straight up a blessing from the Father above. She encouraged us that we were in the best possible place we could be. We have our kinks to work out, but her point was that we're in the beginning of our marriage and we don't have kids yet. She was so excited for us to begin our road to spending wisely and giving generously. We left there encouraged and pumped to create our budget.
We are still figuring out the specifics, but one of the things that I feel God strongly convicting me of is the amount of pointless shopping that I do. Well, I'd beg to differ that it is "pointless" because I feel like I have a pretty good way of justifying almost every purchase I make whether that's at JCrew or Target. But, that's not the point. I have PLENTY of clothes. In fact, I am learning that I have more clothes than I actually know what to do with. I don't have an insane amount, but I am learning to mix and match things and that I really only need a small amount of necessities to create lots of fabulous outfits.
I feel that God is challenging me to stop, breathe, and remember that simplicity and frugality are two things in life that I want to strive for deep down in my heart. I know that when we give up all of our earthly possessions to him He blesses us in unexpected ways that we could never dream up in a million years. So, feeling this conviction I feel like God is challenging me to not buy clothes until December. It will be about 4 months of discipline that will challenge me... mainly because there are some extremely cute clothes out there. And Lord knows that I like to look cute. I want to give it up and learn to give generously instead of spending my money on numerous outfits that I wear 20 % of the time.
I am starting the cash system in a few weeks. I ordered this super cute cash fabric envelopes that will last me for a long time. I figured that if I wanted to start the cash spending system I might as well put the money in something that made me want to keep it in there because of how cute it looks.
Thanks for reading this time of mindless blogging. It feels good to get my convictions and challenges out there. God is going to do great things through me during this time.
I am officially learning the act of frugality. Jack and I met with Candace Bloomley at her Nine12 Ministry workshop a few weeks ago. We are beginning to put together a budget that allows us to spend wisely and give generously. We made it through our first year of marriage with little to no financial disagreements, but figured it would be wise to learn how to honor God in our finances. When we met with Candace, we walked in thinking it was going to be a sad, depressing meeting where we inevitably would learn that we didn't have enough money for the things that we wanted. We knew we had enough to be able to provide for the things that are necessities in life. When we left the meeting it was super encouraging. She is straight up a blessing from the Father above. She encouraged us that we were in the best possible place we could be. We have our kinks to work out, but her point was that we're in the beginning of our marriage and we don't have kids yet. She was so excited for us to begin our road to spending wisely and giving generously. We left there encouraged and pumped to create our budget.
We are still figuring out the specifics, but one of the things that I feel God strongly convicting me of is the amount of pointless shopping that I do. Well, I'd beg to differ that it is "pointless" because I feel like I have a pretty good way of justifying almost every purchase I make whether that's at JCrew or Target. But, that's not the point. I have PLENTY of clothes. In fact, I am learning that I have more clothes than I actually know what to do with. I don't have an insane amount, but I am learning to mix and match things and that I really only need a small amount of necessities to create lots of fabulous outfits.
I feel that God is challenging me to stop, breathe, and remember that simplicity and frugality are two things in life that I want to strive for deep down in my heart. I know that when we give up all of our earthly possessions to him He blesses us in unexpected ways that we could never dream up in a million years. So, feeling this conviction I feel like God is challenging me to not buy clothes until December. It will be about 4 months of discipline that will challenge me... mainly because there are some extremely cute clothes out there. And Lord knows that I like to look cute. I want to give it up and learn to give generously instead of spending my money on numerous outfits that I wear 20 % of the time.
I am starting the cash system in a few weeks. I ordered this super cute cash fabric envelopes that will last me for a long time. I figured that if I wanted to start the cash spending system I might as well put the money in something that made me want to keep it in there because of how cute it looks.
Thanks for reading this time of mindless blogging. It feels good to get my convictions and challenges out there. God is going to do great things through me during this time.
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