Weekend Checklist

This was the first weekend in a while that I've been able to take a deep breath and actually relax a bit!

My whole working career people have told me that I would get over being able to sleep in til noon on Saturdays and I didn't think that would ever happen. I think it has sadly. The past few weekends I've been up before 8! But I do enjoy all the extra time that afford and it really makes the weekend feel so much longer. I think that if I really needed to sleep that I could but I have been able to get quite a bit of rest these last few weeks so I must be caught up!

This weekend I had a few things on my list of things that I wanted to do.

1.   Take care of first of the month bills for March.
2.   File my taxes.
3.   Relax.
4.   Sleep.
5.   Exercise.
6.   Get some new running shoes.
7.   Organize, organize, organize.
8.   Spend some time in The Word.
9.   Catch up with a few friends.

It is 7:05 PM on Sunday night and I have been able to accomplish all of that this weekend and not feel rushed or overwhelmed with responsibilities. I'm still working on the organization part of my life. That's really more of an ongoing struggle for me anyway.

In the mean time, I've been enjoying these folks:

The Civil Wars, Poison & Wine

Dot's Ring

I had my grandmother Dot's engagement ring and was not wearing it the day our apartment was broken into and it was stolen. That is the one thing that I was the most upset about and I have been so sad to have lost such an irreplaceable item! Well, my aunt Dusty gave my Mom this ring to give to me as a replacement. It is the most beautiful ring I've ever seen and I just love it. I have hardly taken it off since I got it last weekend. My parents had it cleaned up and sized to fit me. I just love it and it is such a sweet reminder of my grandmother and the wonderful life that she lived.

Going It Alone

There are so many times when I feel alone. I know that I'm not alone but sometimes, when I'm feeling particularly pity-party-ish, I feel pretty alone. And I'm trying to live this life by myself. Alone. Thanks for this sweet reminder that I came across this week. I don't check this site a whole lot but I just decided to pop over there tonight and this is what I found.

Read this below from Jon Acuff at Stuff Christians Like:

God never said to do it alone.



God never ordered the Israelites to take the Promised Land with their power and their wisdom and their ability. Not at all. In fact he promises just the opposite in Exodus 6:6-8


‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’”


Look at what he says:
I will bring you out
I will free you
I will redeem you
I will take you as my own people
I will be your God
I will bring you to the land I swore
I will give it to you


Seven times, in three verses, God reminds the Israelites and us that he never calls us on adventures alone.


There’s a long list of things you can’t do. You can’t fight giants. You can’t find a new job. You can’t fix relationships. You can’t. You can’t. You can’t. But God can.


I’m a little scared of what’s ahead, but I’m excited too. I’m just going to take one step at a time. I’m not going to count giants. I’m not going to try to force God’s hand to make things happen the way I want them to. I’m going to take one step at a time and remember that I serve a God who never asks us to go on adventures alone.

This is exactly how I feel. What a great reminder of the God that loves us. Our American society, challenges us to do things alone but God doesn't want us to. He wants to free me, redeem me, take me as his own, and give me the things that he promises - more than I could ever ask or imagine.

My friend Whitney told me about the sermon at her church this past week and the pastor said something like, you know, sometimes, we get stuck in this rut of asking and asking and asking for things from God and we get disappointed when the things that we want don't pan out. Her suggestion was that when we're tired of praying that we turn and praise him. I love that. I love that when we get so wrapped up in demanding things from Jesus, that we can turn to praise and not get caught up in only asking for our desires. My desire is that I will be able to do this and be able to praise Him more and allow him to guide me through this life while following his will.

Nashville Weekend

I will just start by saying that I LOVE Nashville! It's in my top three favorite cities which include, in no particular order, Greenville, SC, Knoxville, TN, and Nashville, TN.

I just had a wonderful relaxing almost vacation on this long President's Day Weekend. The first exciting thing I did was attend the Roller Derby. I can't even begin to describe this place to you. There are no words to describe the people who go to these kinds of events. Fabulous people watching. One of my friends was a few minutes behind us getting there and I sent a text saying "You are not going to believe this place". It was insane. There were families, old, young, freaks, and geeks there. It was interesting. We stayed for the whole match and now I know the rules, thanks to Molly's friend Adam!

The next fun thing I did was go to the Vanderbilt/University of Kentucky women's basketball game. Nick is family friends with UK's head coach, so we got free tickets! It was a fun game. It was breast cancer awareness day and almost everyone had on pink. The Vandy players had on pink uniforms and all the players had on pink shoes! It wasn't super crowded but it was fun! Kentucky won and according to Nick that is the first time they've won at Vandy in 25 years or something crazy like that. It was a fun game.

I also ate at the Loveless Cafe. Quite the Nashville experience. It was SO good. We went at the perfect time for a late breakfast and didn't have to wait! It was nice to have a vacation day on Monday and be able to do those things and hang out with my friends!

SC Weekend

I spent this past weekend in South Carolina with my family. I didn't have a real reason to go home but just wanted to get away and see my fam. I haven't been home since New Years/Dot's Birthday. It was good to see everyone and I did cover some bases - my parents, several aunts and uncles, my siblings and their wives, my nieces and nephew, Momise, and a couple other friends.

I enjoyed seeing everyone and being out of town :)



Also Just another note from my amazingly talented cousin :)

Fear of change is the most human of emotions. But it's also the most limiting of emotions. It keeps us stuck.

Knowing that positive change is possible - that there is always, always, always The And Way - is your first step toward crafting a fulfilling and happy life.

Six on the Sixth

I am going to completely copy my friend Nellie and do something pretty similar on my blog!

6 Things I am loving about my life:

1. My new job. Friday, I actually had fun at work!
2. New friends that I'm making! Friends that I've known but am getting closer to.
3. My nieces and nephew in South Carolina. I MISS THEM! But love getting updated pictures!
4. Valentine's Day candy. Might be the only good thing that "holiday" is good for :)
5. Running! Never thought I'd say that. But I'm enjoying working toward the goal of my first 5K!
6. Losing weight! I'm down 2, yes 2, sizes in my pants/dresses since the summer!

I may have already mentioned this but this year is off to a pretty good start!

I am interested to see and excited about what this year has in store for me.

Treading Water

Every week my fabulous cousin, Michele, writes a blog post and sends out a newsletter. She is a Life Coach and if you've read my blog before, I've mentioned her several times. She is wonderful at her job and amazingly talented as a life coach, encourager, organizer and sounding board. I would encourage you to sign up for her newsletter and I believe you can do that from her website!

This past Sunday her blog/newsletter was entitled "Lessons from lifeguarding" . I found it strangely applicable to my life at this very moment. She's good like that and I am certain that I am not the only one to feel this way. Sometimes I feel like she writes her blog for me! One time, she even used my question as the topic of one of her blogs! I felt like a rock-star! Anyway....Her blog this week was about treading water. And how sometimes you just have to do that and WAIT. The dreaded word....WAIT. I hate it. I hate waiting. But you know what, I feel like right now while I'm treading water, that this is where I am supposed to be. I dont need to be anywhere other than where I am. This feels right for this moment. I know that eventually I will swim in the right direction (where ever that may be), but for now I'm treading water, I'm waiting. I'm waiting on Him to guide me in the right direction.

I've really been challeneged this past 6 months to change my prayer life. And while I have definitely changed the way I think about prayer, I haven't had much action to go with my thoughts. That's one of my goals for this year: To live a praying life. It's hard for me to see what that's supposed to look like but I'm not sure that it is supposed to look like anything. It's what I make it. I've been running a lot lately, or working on running a lot lately, and I think that I'm going to start using that 30+ minutes as prayer time. I'm going to turn off the iPod (this is going to be REALLY hard for me) and I'm going to use that time to talk to God. To talk about my day and also to pray for others. I saw pictures of this girl last year who ran a marathon and while she ran she prayed for 26 of her friends. One of each mile she ran. Well, I'm not really running that many miles YET, but I still am running for around 30 minutes several days a week and plan to use this time more wisely, in some way other than rockin' out to Justin Timberlake or Rhianna!!

Let me know if there is anyway that I can pray for you!