Finish Year Update - June 2012

It's Friday! Are you surprised to see me here? Are you surprised that I spell "surprise" wrong every single time I type it? [Because I do. Every. Single. Time. Stupid in-cognito "r."] Anyway, I'm usually a Tuesday/Thursday blogger, mostly because I can't wrangle myself together enough on Sundays to have a post polished and ready to go by Monday at 8am.

But this week, get excited, because you get the exclusive privilege of reading an EXTRA post this week.

[This is the part where you get excited. I'll wait. If it helps, think about the fact that it's Friday. Or cupcakes. Ok, moving on.]

I haven't done a Finish Year update in a while, but I thought since I've made some progress I'd share what I've been up to.

So if you haven't read my previous posts on Finish Year, essentially it's a campaign of sorts started by Jon Acuff in which he challenged his readers (and anyone else who wanted to participate) to pick a handful of things they wanted to finish this year. Not start---finish. Because starting is the easy part. Finishing is the part everyone dreads.

It's a new take on New Year's Resolutions, but a much more practical approach. The idea is not to pick too many things. Pick a few. And to pick things you actually WANT to have finished. Not things you just feel like you should finish.

Anyway, I picked out five things to finish this year. Here they are, along with the progress I've made on each one:

Finish "The Empress" by the end of February 2012. ["The Empress" is a fictional short story I started as a contest entry.] I've totally failed on the "by the end of February" part of this goal. No excuse except for the fact that I'm kind of tired of doing it. But I know I need to finish it, if nothing else, for the discipline. I've finished a complete beginning-to-end draft (I think), but it still needs a ton of editing. The fact that I keep reading it over and editing along the way doesn't help. Anyway, it's coming along but I haven't been actively pursuing this goal much lately. Time to get on it, I suppose!

Write (and publish) an e-book. I succeeded at this one! Once I finally was able to get some feedback on my draft, I ended up moving forward pretty quickly. I formatted it, turned it into a PDF and made it available on my blog in about a week. I released it a couple weeks ago. I'm still excited about it, and if you're interested in reading it, all you have to do is sign up for my email subscription list over on the side bar or by clicking here. (You'll only get an email if I wrote a new post that day.) In the confirmation email there will be a link to download it for free. The ebook is called "What the Whole World Longs For: A Manifesto on Commitment." It's something I really believe in, and I hope you like it!

Finish reading the Harry Potter series. I am ALMOST done with this goal, which I'm proud of but also pretty sad about. By the time I reached the fifth book, they had finally become available in Kindle format which has been AWESOME. Lugging those books to and fro was getting to be a struggle. Kind of. Anyway, I am currently (according to my Kindle) about 40% through with Deathly Hallows. Yeah, I'm definitely going to have a mourning period. I'm not ready to talk about that yet.

Finish two other books besides HP. Still working on Harry Potter, so I haven't gotten to this yet. Although I have finished two books for our community group, so I've kind of already succeeded at this goal. But since they weren't really voluntary reads, I'm not counting them.

Write guest posts for other blogs or online publications. This goal has shifted into something I wasn't expecting, but it has been awesome. I have been writing for a website called TV Asylum (a safe place for the TV-obsessed), along with a host of other hilarious writers. It's been a lot of fun to find a group of people who like to run their own commentary on TV shows like I do and like discussing TV shows in-depth. If you haven't gotten a chance yet, check out TV Asylum. There are at least three new posts per day, filled with magic and laughter except without the magic. Click the link on my sidebar to view the posts I've written so far (my posts usually go up on Wednesdays). You can also follow TV asylum on Twitter or Facebook to get updates when new posts go up.

So that's where I am! If you set goals for this year or have been doing Finish Year, how are you doing?

We Rent A Zoo

We've become THOSE people. Like, the crazy feed-the-birds lady in Mary Poppins kind of people. (Those are a kind of people, right?)

To explain what I mean, we'll have to go back to last year, around this time (well, actually, that's not entirely true, since spring didn't come in January last year), when we noticed a small nest beginning to form on our rain gutter.

No matter, we thought, it's not doing any harm. Plus it would require a ladder to get to, which means we put it in the "someday we might fix that but probably never" category.

But as it began to take shape, we soon realized that whenever we opened our door to leave our house or approached our house, we caught a glimpse of a robin flying away from us into a nearby tree. Every. Time. So we officially had a new roommate.

This robin, whom I lovingly named Regina, ended up laying eggs in the nest which later hatched into baby birds. Real live baby birds. In our midst.

I told this tale (complete with baby bird picture) on my tumblr blog last year, which you can read here.

The baby birds quickly (by my standards) learned to take flight and we (read: I) were left with Regina-sized holes in our hearts. I was a little sad that I didn't get to know the babies a little better or get to see their first steps or teach them how to tweet the Final Countdown, but at least it put a stop to the minor heart attacks we were having upon hearing the rapid fluttering of wings every time we approached our doorway.

This brings us to March 2012.

The snow is melting... I mean, the frost is subsiding... I mean… Whatever, the weather's gone from "sort of chilly" to "pretty darn warm" now, so the robins have returned to our townhouse complex in droves.

We recently noticed the broken porch light outside our door had been gathering some...nature... over the last year or so, but, being the unmotivated twenty-somethings we are when it comes to minor home repairs (see: ladder issue), we ignored it. (Is a porch light really any use in a townhouse complex with street lamps?)

We also never got rid of the nest above our rain gutter. I mean, we couldn't now even if we wanted to, right? So many memories... (cue montage of Regina and me becoming unlikely best friends)

In recent days, that familiar, panicked flutter has come barreling back into our lives, and so have the minor heart attacks. Only this time, the bird has made its home in the porch light on the opposite side of the door, which means it cuts directly across the doorway to escape to the tree. Which means it narrowly misses my face. Every. Single. Time.

I've tried to explain to this new bird that if she would simply fly to the tree to the left of the house instead of the right, we could live in harmony. But she wouldn't listen. (I bet Regina would have listened to me.)

The saga continues…

Today when opening my door I saw not one, but TWO robins fly away from our house. So not only do we have a new nest, but the old nest has been re-inhabited by a robin apparently too lazy to build its own nest. Or either Regina just missed us and couldn't stay away.

So now too much time has passed to evict them. I mean, there might be EGGS in there. You can't evict a mom and her babies. No one is that heartless. Plus, I've already named the new porch light bird Rosita. Whenever you name something, there's no going back.

I suppose if Regina 2.0 is, in fact, a new bird, I should give her a name too, since she's obviously here to stay. But then again, if you're just going to hijack Regina's old nest and not put forth the effort to build a third nest on our porch, I'm not sure you deserve the honor of having me name you anyway.

Sigh. So now we're the crazy people who have bird families living on our porch. We live in a townhouse complex. Do you know how many of our neighbors I've seen with bird nests on their gutters? NONE, that's how many. Probably because when they see a mound of pine straw and leaves in their porch light, they don't look at it with a mixture of disgust and laziness and keep walking, they roll up their sleeves and get that gross junk outta there. But then they don't get to witness the miracle of life either, so, it's kind of a lose-lose in my eyes.

Have you ever allowed wildlife to dwell in or outside your house? What should I name Regina 2.0 (besides Regina 2.0)?

This Just In: They're Letting Me Write Other Places

Sometimes I feel bad that I watch so many T.V. shows. I've really cut down on the amount of mindless channel surfing [thank you, thank you], but I still have about 6-7 shows I watch regularly at any given time. Not to mention the fact that I have a queue of about 3 more that I want to catch up on and get into. I'm secretly afraid one day someone is going to respond to my abundant T.V. references with "oh yeah, T.V. I don't even own one of those. I find I don't even miss it," and make me feel like a lesser human being.

And yes, I probably should be doing something more intellectual like reading The Odyssey or contemplating what lies beyond the universe. But I'd really just rather watch Barney Stinson try to pick up a girl by pretending he's come back from the future and the fate of the world depends on it.

Unfortunately, filling my head with useless knowledge about Liz Lemon's eating habits and why Shawn and Angela just couldn't seem to work it out has never paid off in real life…until now.

Thanks to the minds of Knox McCoy and Tyler Stanton, there's finally a place for people like us: TV Asylum.

I was excited about this immediately. Finally, a place for us to share our varied and passionate opinions about fictional scenarios. A place for us to analyze and discuss the intricacies of characters. A place for us to make fun of people who go on a TV show and compete for the love of a caveman.

I found out they were looking for contributing writers and I knew I had to apply. In case you haven't noticed or you're new to my blog, I like T.V. And writing about it.

A couple days later and…[drumroll please] I am officially a contributing writer to TV Asylum!

You may remember one of my Finish Year goals is to do some guest posting. I'm totally counting this.

Check out TV Asylum here and stay tuned for some posts by me!

What's your favorite T.V. show? 

Finish Year Lap 2: Complete

Despite what the tree in full bloom on Wedgewood Ave. would suggest, February has just come to a close. Which I guess also signifies the official end of the winter season, so Nashville, I think we dodged a bullet on that one. I've never just skipped an entire season before. It's a strange feeling. Kind of like we've pulled one over on Mother Nature or something. Maybe she's just getting old. I mean, she's got to be a few thousand years old at least, right? Maybe she's just given up trying. Or maybe it's global warming. Guess we'll find out soon enough. Anyway, with the end of February also comes the [drumroll please]...

end of Lap 2* of Finish Year!

I know, I know. Everybody simmer down.

It also means progress report time! So start crafting your plan for how to stealthily forge your mom's signature (and practicing your speech about how progress reports don't really count for when your stealth inevitably isn't stealthy enough. Moms just know.)

Finish Year Progress Report:

Finish List Item 1: Finish "The Empress" by the end of February. Sigh. This is still in progress. So, technically I didn't meet this goal. But I've written another section that I'm actually pretty proud of and done some editing on the overall story. I need to write probably two, maybe three more sections to wrap it up. Totally fell behind on this one, but I'm getting there. Grade: C

Finish List Item 2: Write an ebook. This goal is still in progress. I have a working draft, but I feel kind of stuck. I need another couple pairs of eyes to give me some feedback. Until then I'm just editing my draft and rearranging things, only to put them back in the order I had to begin with. Grade: B

Finish List Item 3: Finish the Harry Potter Series. On my way! I just finished Goblet of Fire (#4 of 7). It was super long. I'm not gonna lie, 1) it was probably the longest book I've ever read and 2) I'm going to brag about finishing it. It was really good though--stuff got real. Order of the Phoenix is next! Grade: B+ (I probably should have read this faster.)

Finish List Item 4: Read two other books besides Harry Potter. Still working on Harry Potter so--free pass! Grade: A+++

Finish List Item 5: Write guest posts for other blogs (or online publications). I haven't done so well at this. I have a couple ideas and need to sit down and write them. I also need to look for more blogs that would be a good fit for me to guest post on. (If you have a blog you'd like me to guest post on, or know of a blog I might be a good fit for, please let me know in the comments!) Grade: C

Definitely didn't do as well as Lap 1, but that's to be expected, right? Everyone blasts out the gate, then slows down on the 2nd lap. Right? Right?? (I am not a runner by any stretch of the imagination, so I wouldn't really know.)

How's your finish list (or resolution list, or goals list) going so far?

*still a moniker made up entirely by yours truly and not, in fact, a real component of Finish Year

Elevator Wisdom

I usually don't hear a lot of wisdom in the elevator.

There's a group of almost all 20-somethings that occupy floors 2-6 of my building. I work on floor 12. Nearly every day at 5, the elevator stops on at least four out of five of these floors on the way down. Floors 7-20 have a collective dislike of those people. (Really? You're 24. Take the stairs two floors.)

They pour into the elevator, clad in Vineyard Vines t-shirts, earbuds, leggings-as-pants and Ugg boots, talking about mustache parties and whatnot, until we inevitably reach their last two floors and can't possibly squeeze anyone else on, so we stop for no reason.

And the fact that they consistently defy of the laws of physics by squishing approximately 219 bodies into 1 elevator in no way activates my slight chlostrophobia...

(Since I'm married and also a goody-goody, I sometimes talk about people who are more or less my own age as if I'm an old Jewish woman calling them things like "mashuganas" and "hoodlums." Or I could just be Liz Lemon.)

Anyway.

The other day I was a little later leaving work (the benefit to them all being around my age is that they are out the door as soon as the clock hits 5), so I rode down with 4 people instead of 25.

When I got in, a man wearing five-finger shoes (to work) was telling an older lady about how comfortable they were and how helpful they have been for his knees.

Admittedly, I thought it was a little strange to wear those to work, but hey, power to him.

After they discussed the shoes, the man said something about them being unusual, but he didn't care.

The woman responded with something that stuck with me:

"Life's short. Do what you wanna do."

As someone who is slowly learning that it matters little what other people think, this really struck a chord with me.

It was like this mantra was a gem of wisdom her probably-60-something years of living had taught her and she was imparting it to us. It probably wasn't that intentional, but it was encouraging to me nonetheless.

I loved it.

If you want to wear five-finger shoes to work, do it. (Y'know, as long as it doesn't get you fired.)

If you want to dance around with your iPod in the mall, do it.

If you want to be an artist, be an artist. No one ever said you had to do something 9-5 and get a paycheck for it in order for it to count (though that may be what we think). Maybe you can work on it nights and weekends until you can get a paycheck for it. But if you're an artist, be an artist.

If you want to pray over your lunch in public, do it.

Oftentimes it matters very little if something you do causes someone else a little tension.

If you're not hurting anyone, go for it.

Just because you're not doing what someone expects of you, or doing it a different way than they would, doesn't mean you're wrong. Maybe if it makes someone else uncomfortable, they can sit with their own tension, and you can let it go.

Life is short. Do what you wanna do.

Have you ever done anything a little unusual or unexpected without worrying what others thought?

Why I Need More Birthday Parties

Yep, that's me (the one with the American Girl in her lap). Roller skating joint birthday party. Ballin'.

I need more birthday parties in my life.

I know we're only supposed to get one per year, but allow me to explain myself.

It's not that I have an affinity for cakes with my name on them or doing the limbo on roller skates (I'm quite terrible at it). It's not even that I want more presents (though who would complain?).

It's that I'm tired of being safe.

That sounds like it makes no sense, but hear me out (what all good points start out with, right?).

This past weekend I went to the Quitter Conference, presented by Jon Acuff.

It probably only takes a 5-minute perusal of my blog to figure out I pretty much just want to steal all his ideas. He's someone I admire, not only as a writer, but as someone who continually presents concepts and approaches I've never thought of before (hence my desire to steal them all). Plus he's quite hilarious.

The conference was based on his book, Quitter, which is about "closing the gap between your day job and your dream job." (To learn more, you can read my post about it here.)

The conference was so encouraging, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to attend (and without even leaving my city, no less).

Back to birthday parties.

Something Jon said this weekend really stuck with me (paraphrased):

Chasing your dream can sometimes feel a lot like throwing a birthday party in the 7th grade. You invite everyone, then stand by the window and wait, just hoping and praying people are going to show up.

But the only way to fix that feeling of uncertainty and fear is to not throw birthday parties at all. And what kind of life is that to live?

If you don't know me, or you couldn't already tell from my blog, I am not a risk-taker. Let's just be honest. I'm a creature of habit, and I like it that way. It's cozy there.

And I struggle to put myself out on a limb without worrying about how I will be received. I struggle to not care what other people think.

I know Jon was talking about chasing dreams, but I think this can apply not only to my writing, but to the rest of my life.

I don't want a life without birthday parties.

I don't want my life to be a straight line--not too happy, not too sad. Reserved. Controlled.

I want dynamics, even if that means some rough stuff here and there. If you spend your whole life being cautious and protecting yourself from sorrow, you don't give yourself much room to experience joy and passion.

I want more hills. I'm tired of plains.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want bad things to happen.

But I want real.

I want relationship, passion and joy.

And you can't have those things with out letting go of a little control. Without a little risk.

Jon's thought challenged me not to play it so safe. I'm not sure exactly how this will practically play out in my day-to-day yet, but I don't think I'll forget it easily.

Are you ever afraid to "throw birthday parties?" When was a time when taking a risk paid off for you?

If I Seem Out of Breath, Here's Why.

I've been running for the last month. Well, metaphorically, that is.

Why? Because 2012 is Finish Year, and the beginning of February marks...[commence fanfare]

the end of Lap 1* of Finish Year!

I'll pause a moment for the warm applause and shouts of "you go girl" you're surely giving me as I cross the checkpoint, smiling and waving to you, still going strong. (Note: if this were an actual race, I would definitely not still be going strong and would surely have collapsed by now. Who said metaphors had to be plausible?)

Anyway, if you're just tuning in, Finish Year is a campaign Jon Acuff has initiated this year as a challenge for his readers to finish a handful of things this year. Not start them; finish them (the hard part).

So at the beginning of the year I posted my Finish List.

Since Lap 1 of 12 has now come and gone, and many of my goals are writing and/or blog-related, I thought I would do a quick progress report for you. But not the kind that's the report card's less-important cousin you received in middle school, which in actuality had no effect on your grade (and therefore you could not in good conscience be punished for.).

*this moniker refers to the first month of Finish Year and is 100% made up by yours truly.

Finish List Progress Report

Finish List Item 1: Finish "The Empress" by the end of February. I'm on my way to completing this. I posted a new installment here a few weeks ago, and plan on wrapping that up this month. My plan is to finish the rest without posting it online, go back and edit the whole thing for continuity's sake (there are already a few things I want to change), then post it in a PDF format after it's finished for anyone who would like to read it.

Finish List Item 2: Write an ebook. This goal is actually going pretty well. I've already got a first draft of something exciting I'm working on in conjunction with my blog, so stay tuned. I don't want to give away what the topic or setup will be just yet, but I'm looking forward to sharing it! Since this ebook is not initially what I had in mind when making it a goal, I'm sure I'll attempt another one after this is complete.

Finish List Item 3: Finish the Harry Potter Series. Since the last time I wrote about this, I've finished the third book, Prisoner of Azkaban, and I am about three-fourths of the way through the fourth book, Goblet of Fire (which is significantly longer, if anyone is doubting my already-pretty-slow-paced reading skills). Yes, I am a grown up and still openly carry this to work every day (so as to minimize shoulder injury from stashing it my purse).

Finish List Item 4: Read two other books besides Harry Potter. I'm trying to finish Harry Potter first before I start on any other books, so this one is in the queue. Though I have an increasingly long list of books calling my name.

New Finish List Item: Write guest posts for other blogs (or online publications). I'm not sure what a reasonable goal for the entire year would be on this one, since I have never written one before, but I'd love to do at least three by the time the year is over. Right now I am researching other blogs and learning about what it takes to write a killer guest post. (If you have a blog you'd like me to do a guest post for, or know someone whose blog you think I could contribute well to, feel free to let me know in the comments!)

Overall I feel like I'm doing pretty well, but I definitely have to start moving on the first one.

How's your finish list (or resolution list, or goals list) going so far?

Finish Year

I don't know about you, but for me, 2011 was a bit of a doozy. It definitely had its fair share of highs and lows.

But one of the best things that came out of 2011 for me was really starting to examine who I am and what I'm passionate about. I always kind of knew I liked writing and have chipped away at that over the years, but over the past 6 months or so I decided to go all in. Something I've learned by reading blogs like Jeff Goins' is that you don't have to wait for someone else to call you a writer to be one. I'm a writer because I can't not write. It's really given me something to pour into and given me a stronger sense of identity.

What really lit a fire under me was reading a book called Quitter by Jon Acuff back in August.

It helped me see how important priorities are and that if I want to write, or read, or even redo a bookshelf, I have to make time. And that it's possible to make time. For me that means saying no to 2 hours of House Hunters and brainstorming blog ideas or reading Harry Potter instead. Trade out things you like to do for things you love to do--even if they take more effort.

I've already learned so much about writing (and goals) from Jon and the community of people (particularly other writers) I've found through following his blog.

Which leads me to the point of this post.

Over the last few days, Jon has begun a campaign of sorts called Finish Year, challenging his readers to make a (short) list of things you want to finish this year. Not start; finish. Because starting is the easy part. Finishing is the unglamorous grind that we all sort of dread. But it's always worth it.

The goals can be anything, but they have to be tangible, even if it's something that seems unmeasurable, like Jon's---to have a more grateful heart. He's making it tangible by committing to hand-write 100 thank-you notes this year.

Everyone who is participating will also be tweeting (hashtag #finishyear) once a day about something they are working on to finish their goals. I may not tweet exactly once a day, but I love the idea of tracking your progress and keeping yourself accountable by publicly sharing your goals and the journey to accomplishing them.

So I wanted to share my Finish List with you this year.

1. Finish The Empress. This one will be hard for me because I already don't really want to figure out how to wrap that one up. But it will be good practice and discipline for me and I've already written three sections of it. I'd like to finish this by the end of February.

2. Write an ebook. Also a difficult goal, as I've never written a book before, but I think it's doable. Plus, ebooks can be short. First step: figuring out what the heck I want to write about.

3. Finish the Harry Potter series. I'm almost done the 3rd book. I'm determined to finish them all, even if some of them more resemble cinderblocks than novels. I'm hoping by the time I get to the last few they will be available on ebook so that I don't sustain shoulder injuries from carrying them around in my purse all the time.

4. Read two other books besides Harry Potter. You may recall my goal last year was to complete 2 books. Yep, 2.  I was terrible about starting books and not finishing them, so I made a bite-size goal. But because I started making time to read, I finished not 2, not 3, but almost 6 books this year! So I think it was a success. Anyway, because I nearly finished 6 in 2011 (I am so close to finishing HP3), my goal is to read at least 7 in 2012. For you avid readers out there, this may still seem like a travesty, but hey, I may even read eight.

That's all I have so far, but most of them are goals that will take close to the whole year to accomplish. I may add to it over the next couple days, but probably won't go over 6.

What's on your Finish List this year? Challenge yourself and make it happen.

Each day in January, Jon will be posting about Finish Year and practical ways to make your goals a reality. You can follow his blog here.

Three Things I Know to be True

This post was inspired by another post by Jeff Goins, which you can read here.

Truth is everywhere, but so are lies. I think it's getting easier every day to get tangled in the lies and harder to find the truth within. You may have read about my interest and passion for truth in my recent endeavor into a blog series called "The Truth Sessions."

I read the post mentioned above today and it resonated with me. It asked readers to share their "three things," so here are mine.

Three things I know to be true:

1. We can't do life without Jesus. Not really. I mean, we can meander through our days without any sort of direction. And that works for some people, maybe. But eventually I think we reach a point where we question why we even exist. What is the point to this thing? Just to be born, live and die? It has to be more than that. I think there's something deep down in our souls that tells us that, and, if we let it, points us to our Creator. Honestly, without Jesus, life would just be sorrow and brokenness---and stop there. With Jesus, there is still sorrow and brokenness in this world. But there's also redemption, rescue and beauty. There's hope. There's something bigger than our little lives and thoughts and aspirations. Without Jesus, this world is all we get. And I don't think any of us are satisfied with that. Which is why we try to find satisfaction in a myriad of things but can't find it. It's why people, advertising and entertainment all chase sex. Because for them, it's literally as good as it gets. With Jesus, there is purpose and hope and grace and love.
2. All people desire to be loved and known. I mentioned this in my introduction to The Truth Sessions, but I'm mentioning it again because I still think it's one of the truest statements I can come up with. Even people who say they don't need anyone---that it's them against the world---that they don't care if people like them or not---I think they're lying. I can't prove that, of course. But I think there's something in our souls that longs to be loved and known and cared for just as we are. Once again, I think this points to a desire the Lord has put in our souls for an everlasting, unconditional love that only he can provide. But I think a lot of times, the reason people do extreme things is driven by a desire for love or the lack of it. They decide they don't need it. Or they decide to chase it. Or they turn to things that make them not feel anything because it's too hard to face life without it. On the flip side, if they have found it, they have an overarching peace. They can be their truest selves because they are confident in who they are and that they are loved for it.
3. Words are powerful. Whether they encourage, inspire, cut down or wound. We've reached an interesting point in our culture where people can say everything and nothing all at the same time. By that I mean, the dawn of social media (and texting) has made it easier than ever to say hurtful, harsh or judgmental things with the click of a button, and we never have to actually see the other person's reaction to our words. Whether they initially cry, yell or laugh, we'll never really know. We can pretty much say whatever we want. On the other side, we can say nothing. Political correctness is king. This can be a good thing. It can. I don't want to make it okay to say hurtful things. But I think when even calmly vocalizing a personal belief can be seen as offensive, it can become a problem. All that to say---words are powerful. Be truthful yet kind. Be encouraging. Use the power for good. (I say this to myself as well.)

What are your three things? Feel free to share in the comments, tweet or write a post of your own!

If you tweet, use the hashtag #threethings to join in the conversation. 

This Time Last Year

This time last year, I was different. The basics, of course, were the same. I loved Jesus. I wore my ponytails on the side (long live the side-pony). I had the same job as I do now. I was of course still in a relationship with Craig (though it was about to become marriage!).

It's amazing how a year flies by, but as soon as you try to put your mind back where it was 365 days ago, you realize it wasn't as "just yesterday" as you thought. Even just now, trying to think of small things that were surely the same, I realized they, too, had changed. In my previous paragraph, I started to write, "My friends were the same." But that's not entirely true. I started to write "I watched Disney Channel." But even that has changed. (They are one-by-one canceling the shows I like, ok? Plus now we are now HGTV watchers.) It was even hard to come up with much to write in my previous paragraph.

Our 1-year anniversary coming up this weekend (yay) has made me think a lot these past couple days about "this time last year." I don't do this regularly, but I should. Without the milestone, I probably wouldn't have stopped to reflect on what God has done in my life.

This time last year, I was praying for completely different things than I am praying for now.

The things I was struggling with a year ago have almost all passed by, and God has been faithful through it all. It's comforting to know that this time next year, I may be saying the same thing. Gives the phrase "this too shall pass" a new resonance.

It's good for me to go look back at my prayers from this time last year (I get too distracted to pray without writing it down) and see how God has been faithful. Otherwise I just keep plugging along, one foot in front of the other, and never stop to wonder at God's goodness. I actually hadn't done at all recently that until I started thinking about what to write today.

Where were you this time last year? Have you seen God's faithfulness through the struggles you were facing then? What has changed?

Be Cheesy.

I love random text messages from friends. Why?

Because to me, it means that they thought about me that day. To me, it means we are walking through daily life together rather than living separate lives and coming together to talk about them every once and a while.

It’s such a temptation in this world to be cool, to sound busy and popular, to preserve self-image and self-comfort over inconveniencing oneself to support another person.

Something I have been learning lately is that true relationships don’t just happen. They are built. They are invested in.

It’s easy to dismiss an opportunity to reach out, especially when it’s just a regular weekday and nothing particularly earth-shattering has happened. “No, that’s cheesy. I’m not going to send her a text message just to ask how her day is going.” “No, that’s stupid, I don’t want to butt in.”

But it’s not stupid. Sometimes it makes more of a difference than you will ever know. We need each other, even when we’re not sitting at rock-bottom.

It’s worth breaking the social norms of “checking your schedge” and getting back to someone to instead just say “absolutely; I’ll be there,” and make it a priority.

It’s worth going above and beyond. It’s worth inviting someone over for dinner when their spouse is out of town, even if you’re on a tight budget as it is. It’s worth waking up early to take someone to the airport instead of hoping someone else will do it. It’s worth following up on something your friend told you they were worried about to see how it went.

And it’s worth being honest when your day (or week) has been terrible, and you’re struggling with a lot of doubt or pain or hardship.

Because life is meant to be lived together. Hand in hand. Day in and day out. We’re made for it.

Be cheesy. Be intentional. Be inconvenienced for the sake of real relationships.

No, it’s not normal. But who wants normal when “normal” is often lonely?

For Blake Lynn

This post is dedicated to Blake Lynn (far left) and the Springwood class of 2006.

For those of you who might be reading this and don’t know, I received the tragic news yesterday morning that one of my classmates from high school had passed away. Our graduating class was made up of only 34 people, and most of them I have known since I was 6 years old.

Blake was one of those 34 people. I wasn’t close friends with Blake, but when you go to school with someone for 12 years, you easily get to know them. He was an integral part of our class and was always making us laugh. I can honestly say I have only positive things to say about him. He was kind-hearted and full of personality. My heart sunk when I found out, and I can’t help but keep thinking about all the memories I have of him throughout our 12 years at Springwood.

Some of the first memories that come to mind when I think of Blake are all of the funny things he used to say, particularly in high school when I had two biology classes and an anatomy class with him.

Some of you may know that I used to keep a running word document of all the ridiculous/silly things our classmates said. Approximately half of these are from Blake. Just going back through them right now, I was amazed at how many of our funny class moments were because of Blake. Carlin suggested I put these together and share them with you. I hope they bring back happy memories of Blake and the life he lived.

“If I was a ciliated larva, I don’t think I’d make it, Mrs. Combs.” -Blake

“You gotta be more pacific.”- Blake

“Can we digest a worm?”- Blake “I guess so, they’re full of protein..”- Mrs. Combs “He meant dissect.”-Scott

“Mrs. Combs, they’re makin’ fun of me cuz I’m black.”- Blake (Note: Blake is not black.)

“If I was laughing, I’d be in trouble!”- Blake “And don’t you forget it!”- Mrs. Combs

“Scott! I moon-walked back to my desk!”- Blake

“Anson uh…started to hate himself ‘cuz he kept missin’ ‘em.” - Blake, in reference to frog digging

“I wanna be a frog, Mrs. Combs. That looks like a hi-potomous!” - Blake “There’s no such thing as a hi-potomous.”- Andrew

“I like turtles and I don’t own a turtleneck!”- Jason “That just means your not a true turtle- lover then!”- Blake

“Jason, you’re such a nice caboose.” - Blake

“Why is growth important?”- Mrs. Allyson “You’d stay short! You’d become a midget!”- Blake “That’d be fuh-ny…”-Slade

“If you didn’t digest, all your food would build up and you’d have like a combustion or something…”- Blake

“Did you say I was 50?”- Mrs. Allyson “No! I said you were 25! I would date you!” - Blake

“Why did they want to know how the body works?”- Mrs. Allyson “Because they had a body, and they were like, ‘how do I work?’”- Blake

“Couldn’t your whole hand become a callus?”- Blake

“I think it’s sexy for them to have hardened hands.”- Blake

We’ll miss you, Blake.

If anyone else has any great stories or quotes from Blake to add, feel free to add on in the comments.

A Love Letter to Fall

It seems all is right with the world when Fall rolls in. It’s a (very) short season, almost gone as soon as it begins (thanks for nothing, South.) but it’s easily my favorite. The temperature is perfect, the air is crisp and refreshing, and I echo my husband’s sentiments when I say that it seems like I can just feel God’s spirit renewing my soul when outside in the Fall.

Things I am looking forward to about Fall:

1) Pumpkin-flavored things. Pinterest has been no help in this area. Pumpkin-flavored treats abound. Bring it on. My bright red Kitchen-Aid mixer needs some things to mix.

2) Anniversary. I am so glad we decided to get married in the fall. What a perfect season to get married in. It just adds to all the joys fall already brings. I’m so excited to take a long weekend trip to Chattanooga to celebrate!

3) Clothes. Fall attire is the BEST. You can pretty much wear whatever you want because the temperature is so perfect, but I always welcome the shift from shorts (ugh) to jeans and boots (yay). Plus, I don’t have to sweat while wearing the unnecessary scarves that I use as an attempt to make an outfit out of a v-neck t-shirt and jeans (double-yay). Fun fact: I love scarves.

4) Caramel apples. ‘nough said.

5) Farm-related festivities. Is there anything better than reliving your childhood by going to a pumpkin farm to pick out the best pumpkin to carve and eating the aforementioned caramel apples, all the while taking in the smell of the leaves and hay bales (there is inevitably a hayride)? I submit that there is not.

6) Football. Now, if you know me, you may be surprised to even see that this made the list. But over the last couple years I have grown to understand (don’t judge) and actually enjoy watching football. It doesn’t hurt that last year Auburn was awesome. And that eating lots of chips and drinking lots of Diet Coke is totally acceptable while watching football. Seeing as I usually have nothing to do on Saturdays nowadays, I am excited to get to watch most of the Auburn games! War Eagle!

Can it be Fall all the time? Maybe we should eventually move to Vermont. I feel like it’s probably Fall the time there. What’s that? That would be meteorologically impossible? Fair enough. And high-five on using “meteorologically” in a sentence. (By the way, I googled “Fall in Vermont” and the picture above is what came up. Amazing.)

What’s your favorite thing about Fall?

Boxed In

Sometimes I wish I could dance like Justin Bieber.

It’s true.

But long, long ago I decided that I am not a dancer. This is in part due to my experiences at the Dance Team clinics I attended as an elementary schooler at my school in which I could never seem to remember the order of the steps (or probably execute them properly), and as a result I was always a half-step behind, watching the backs of the more talented girls in the front meticulously, pretty much just copying what they were doing. This decision could also be due to my small stint in the musical theater circuit (read: small town community theater) in which I played the role of a flapper-esque dancer and had to perform in front of a large group of people alongside girls who actually had some sort of experience. I made it through, but I still struggled at remembering what steps came next. I’m also confident that I was the only girl in my elementary school that had never taken any form of dance lessons. Not an exaggeration.

Every time I see really awesome dancers I secretly wish I could make my body do the same thing, but then resolve to believe that I could never do that, and that’s okay.

But how did I come to that conclusion as a default?

I mean, every dancer had to start somewhere. Sure, natural talent is always a factor, but it’s probably safe to say almost every professional dancer has undergone some sort of formal training to get to that point. Why couldn’t I do the same thing?

At what point in our lives do we start giving ourselves reality checks and just deciding we can no longer try something because we didn’t start early enough?

I’ve heard this story lately (it keeps coming up, though I don’t know where it originated) that someone did a study wherein they went to a kindergarten class and asked “Who here is a good singer?” and most of the kids raised their hands. When that person asked the same question to older kids, perhaps in elementary school, only some of the kids raised their hands. By the time they asked the Jr. High/High School students, very few of the kids raised their hands to the exact same question.

How does this happen? The world tells us that if we’re not “good” at something, we can’t do it. And you aren’t good at it now, you’re probably not going to become good at it, so just keep doing what you’re doing.

Who ever said you had be good at singing in order to sing? Why can’t you just sing because you like it?

Because I’ve now noticed that I think that way, as many of us probably do, I’m trying to box myself in less and less. Just because I’ve never done something or am not currently “good” at it doesn’t mean I’m going to completely count it out anymore.

Not that I’m going to seek out a hip-hop dance class any time soon. But I could be the next Beyonce. You don’t know. (Note: There are perhaps one million reasons why in all likelihood I am not the next Beyonce.)

Is there anything you’ve been wanting to try or learn but thought you couldn’t?

Quitter

Drumroll please… I have now completed my third book of the year. Third. You may recall my goal was to finish two. You may also recall that didn’t really seem like a legitimate goal. Well, for me it was, and I have now exceeded it!

The book I finished is Jon Acuff’s Quitter.

I learned a lot from this book. At first glance it may seem like a book that is going to tell you to “quit your day job!” and “live life to the fullest!” But this book is different. Yes, the point of the book is to follow your dream—but this is a different approach to how. Keep your day job. Let it fund and support your dream rather than keep you from it.

Jon is hilarious and a great writer. If you’ve ever read his blog Stuff Christians Like, you know that. He’s quickly becoming someone I look up to.  In fact, Jesus Juke is one of my new favorite terms.

I started to make a list of things I loved about this book, but I feel like it will make more sense if you just watch this quick trailer:

More than anything, it is encouraging. Whether you have a dream, would like to have a dream, or are currently living your dream, this is a great book to have by your side. It’s very practical and could almost serve as a manual to go back and reference as you move through the stages of pursuing a dream job.

If you are interested in ordering it, click here! I highly recommend it.

Speaking truth

We went to see two of our favorite singer/songwriters, Sandra McCracken and Derek Webb, this weekend at 3rd and Lindsley. It was a great show. I always end up feeling encouraged after hearing Sandra’s songs. In her set, Sandra said lightheartedly that sometimes you just have to confess truth even if you don’t believe it at the time, and your heart will catch up. Even though she was just talking about the highs and lows of raising a toddler, that statement resonated with me on a deeper level. I think lately I’ve been having to do that myself—confess things that I know to be true, even if my heart doesn’t necessarily feel it at the time. Just because I’m having trouble believing it at the time doesn’t make it any less true. So I continue to speak truths to myself in the hopes that my heart will catch up. So I thought I would share with you a song of Sandra’s that has been speaking to my heart over the last few days. When she performed it on Saturday I heard the lyrics in a new way and they were comforting to me. Hopefully it is encouraging to you as well [click here to listen as you read]:

I confess the things I am afraid of: thorns and danger just around the bend.

I pray for tongues of fire and bands of angels to come and circle ‘round me like a fence.

I lift my eyes to the hills, where comes my help?

I lift my hands—empty hands—I can’t help myself

I can’t help myself; no, I can’t help myself

My enemies surround me like an army; within, without, the battle’s raging on.

I pray the Spirit will be strong and mighty for courage through the night until the dawn.

I lift my eyes to the hills, where comes my help?

I lift my hands—empty hands—I can’t help myself

I can’t help myself; no, I can’t help myself

Oh, trust the Lord, my soul and all that is in me; oh trust the light to show your darkest parts.

With wounds of truth and love, a friend who has known me; a fool would keep his secrets in his heart.

I lift my eyes to the hills; here comes my help

I lift my hands—empty hands—I can’t help myself

I can’t help myself, can’t help myself

Can’t help myself; no, I can’t help myself; I can’t help myself.

Perspective

Over the last couple days, a cold has been brewing within me. I thought it was coming last week but I like to think I fought it off with my mind power since Carlin’s wedding was that weekend, and I refused to be hacking up a lung during the ceremony. But today I have hit the low point. I woke up feeling like…well…death. A recent development is that my throat is scratchy and therefore I have begun to lose my voice.

Who I wish I sounded like:

Who I actually sound like:

Death cold—be gone so I can sleep in peace.

Things that have happened.

Here are a list of things that have happened recently that I’d like to blog about, but now am too far behind to write individual posts about: 1. I went camping with three of my favorite people last weekend. I love camping. Sometimes I sleep well, but this was not one of those times. Other than that it was super fun! S’mores might be one of my love languages. Plus I got to wear my headlamp. And eat the only kind of hot dog worth eating: one roasted over a fire.

This picture serves as proof of why I like them. Self-timer for the win.

2. My plants are growwwinnngggg. I’m so proud.

Green Beans

Cherry Tomatoes

3. I finished another book! Bossypants by Tina Fey. Seriously, if you are a female and like Tina Fey, or SNL, or 30 Rock, or…sunshine…you should read this. Hilarious. Every other line is quotable.

Also just in my own defense for taking this long to read another book, I have started about three other books besides this one since finishing my last one. This is how bad I am at finishing books. But I have now finished two, which was my goal for 2011. (You read that right.) Bite-sized goals work.

Happy Friday!

6 Months of Marriage

Today Craig and I have been married for 6 months! Crazy. In honor of that fact, here are some things I love about Craig (in no particular order):

1. He will watch just about anything I want to watch (except Gilmore Girls. it stresses him out.). I think I may have converted him to a Wizards of Waverly Place fan, but that might be a secret.

2. He takes out the trash. Every time. (Score.)

3. He makes me dinner more often than I make it for him, even though no one said he had to. Which is great because now that I work a 9-5, I am pretty much starving by 5:30 (not sure how that happened), so we eat early like old people now.

4. He is super talented. He produces, he plays guitar, he writes songs, he does it all.

5. He loves kids. And he’s better at entertaining them than I am. He’s totally going to be the “fun” parent.

6. He’s a camp person.

7. He understands the concept of “The Valley” and life having gone to the same small school for 12 years, and the effect that has had on my life/personality/flaws (or should I call them quirks?).

8. He likes the corner brownies the best. (I like the innermost brownies the best.) Signs of a meant-to-be-relationship, I tell you.

9. He supports me and encourages me.

10. He doesn’t judge me for listening to Justin Bieber.

Well, there are other things, but those are the ones I just came up with. :) Happy 0.5 year anniversary, Craig! (That counts, ok guys?)

My husband, the rock star

I’d been trying to think of something to blog about, because I enjoy doing it and I haven’t posted anything in a while, but I spent some time yesterday afternoon wracking my brain and got nothin’. UNTIL yesterday evening!

Craig finally received a message from Hanson about the remix contest, and it said that he officially won! Whoo!!

It’s hard to believe that we just threw our (I use “we” and “our,” but really it’s “he” and “his”) hat in the ring for the fun of it, not thinking Craig’s would actually win the whole thing. And then he did! I’m so proud!

He did great work and his mix deserves to be heard. Thank you to everyone for voting, reposting, and reposting again. And for not getting annoyed with our incessant “keep voting!!” tweets and posts. It was really amazing to see people we knew (and didn’t know) rally together and support Craig!

Then we talked to Issac Hanson on the phone. Well, mostly Craig, but I got to talk to him for a few minutes.

Isn’t it weird how when I was 10 years old and I loved Hanson, I had no idea that one day I would be walking from Belmont to Vanderbilt with them barefoot or talking to Issac Hanson on the phone because my husband is having his remix featured on their UK single release? I think so. 10-year-old me, eat your heart out.

Anyway. I just wanted to take the time to brag on my super talented producer husband and say how excited we are that this is happening!

Oh, and for your amusement, via my friend Noelle, here is a lead paragraph from a real news story today in Florence, Alabama:

A naked man claiming to be Jesus Christ broke into a residence where a woman and her young children were home late Monday afternoon and took all of the photos off the walls before he was taken into custody.

…things we couldn’t make up if we tried.