About weddings...

Saturday will mark #3 of 5 from the end of October to the middle of December. #4 happens then too but i cant be two places at once. That's a lot of weddings. And a lot of gifts. And 3 bachelorette parties. And lots of wedding showers. I do feel blessed to have friends who want me to celebrate with them but I don't think I'll be volunteering to plan my own anytime soon until I recover from all of these. :) It's starting to feel like my own version of "27 Dresses" except it's the wedding guest version!

Mollie
Marla
Claire
Christina
Janel

Wordless Wednesday : Fallishness

It's Work.

The Life Group that I'm in right now is only women, and we're studying the book of Ruth. This week is an intro to chapter 2, right before she meets Boaz. I like this study (Ruth: Loss, Love & Legacy) because it breaks down the passages deeper than you would if you were just reading through the story, and there is a lot of personal reflection, but sometimes I struggle with that because I feel so ordinary that it's hard for me to pick out specific times of _______ (fill in the blank). This week the verse that really stood out to me was this one:

The overseer replied, "She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, 'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.' She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter."

(Ruth 2:6-7)

Ruth volunteered to work, did her work diligently, only took a short break, and worked hard enough for someone to notice. I was feeling convicted of my time management so I tried something new today. I wanted to have Ruth's work ethic and motivation. It's so easy to get distracted at work, and when I do, it's hard to get back to concentrating on what I'm doing. I'm not saying that I don't do anything all day, I just know that I could do better. My biggest "between tasks" distractions involve the internet. (It's really easy to turn into this Working Girl if you're not careful.) So I kept the browser closed and didn't check my personal email except for during lunch and after work, and I didn't even get on to Facebook until after work. It was a little bit hard at first to hear my phone buzz with a new email and not instantly check it, but at the end of the day I had a total of 8 emails. And only 2 of them really required me to reply.

I avoided so much distraction and I feel like I actually got did get a lot done today! It's amazing how much you can do when you're actually looking for the work and not waiting for it to come to you. I definitely felt more successful than I have in a while.

Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.

(Proverbs 22:29)

I think it's a great practical thing to do. The email can wait until lunch time, and Facebook is a TIME. SUCKER. I'm going to continue this tomorrow (while I'm praying for temptation to play on the internets stays away) and I have a feeling that it could turn into a modified Facebook fast like what I did for Lent last year. Yes, that's right, Facebook. Your days are numbered. Again.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

(Gen. 1:15)

Work began with God, when He created the earth. It has been around for all time, and he assigned Adam some work in the Garden. I think it's important to remember that we work out of reverence to God and should do it with that kind of heart attitude. It's sort of a disappointment to just waste the day to Mark Zuckerberg's creation instead of what God has asked of you.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

(Colossians 3:22)

(You can not deny that this verse relates to you if you're one of the "quick minimizers" who is really good at switching windows when you hear footsteps...)

My next project is to actually fill my evenings with "fun" work instead of being idle. It's so easy to turn on the TV, open the computer and put a dent in the couch cushions for a night. I know this because I did that exact thing tonight. oops! I have a long list of things to do that will only get done if I'm actually intentional about doing them.

 Sow your seed in the morning,
   and at evening let your hands not be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
   whether this or that,
   or whether both will do equally well.

(Eccl. 11:6)

30 minutes of impossible

I have a theory that we wouldn't have to mess with Daylight Savings Time if everyone just adjusted their clocks by 30 minutes. Getting the whole world to agree to that might be a little bit impossible, but it would do away with the hour of sleep that we "lose". But I really enjoyed that extra hour this weekend. I loved looking at the clock that I hadn't adjusted yet and realizing that I still had an hour longer!

The one thing that I will miss though is being outside to watch the sunsets instead of at work when it gets dark. I guess if I want to see the sun anywhere but high in the sky during lunch, I'll have to get up earlier.

I meant the title of this post to relate to Daylight Savings Time, but it could also relate to taking 30 minutes of your day to just sit and watch. It might seem a little bit impossible, but it's so worth it.

If you haven't watched the sky colors lately, take some time to do that. And then stay a little longer and watch the stars wake up. It's majestic. It blows me away that just like snowflakes, no sky is ever the same, and there are more stars than you could ever count or see.

Where can I go from your Spirit? 

Where can I flee from your presence? 

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea, 

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast. 

Psalm 139:7-10

Guess what's going on my Christmas list?

Every time I drive to Arkansas or KC (or anywhere else, but these are the two places I frequent the most), I borrow the KTAG from my mom's car. For non-Kansans, a KTAG is the toll booth short-cut, like a Pike Pass or ZipCash (which Karen and I drove through without paying many, many times on the George Bush Turnpike when I was in Texas). Inevitably, every time I borrow it, mom & dad end up going on a trip sans KTAG, unless they remember to remind me to put it back. Guess who didn't remember to put it in the car before their trip to KC?

I got a text from my dad this afternoon:

This might be a good story to write on MistakeReports. I would probably label it as "I intend to repeat it" (until Santa delivers or I buy my own, of course).

Doesn't everyone have a day like this occasionally?

Dear internet: plz fix yourself

Well this is an unintentional post from my iPhone (is there an app for this?) My wireless is having problems connecting to my computer. Or the other way around. And i'd rather do something else besides lay on the floor trying to fix it. I'd rather be cleaning, to be honest. :) I think it's because I got a swiffer and I really like using it.

Tomorrow I'll show you what my car looks like thanks to a load of wedding stuff. Like I told a friend today, the winter wedding weekend extravaganza has begun. Anybody know how many pounds of cranberries will fill 30 bowls??

P.S. Blogger disclosure. Swiffer didn't pay me to say good things about it.

Wordless Wednesday

When You Got a Good Thing

My current playlist:

All We'd Ever Need - Lady Antebellum
Long Gone - Lady Antebellum
I Run to You - Lady Antebellum
Love's Lookin' Good on You - Lady Antebellum
Home Is Where the Heart Is - Lady Antebellum
Things People Say - Lady Antebellum
Slow Down Sister - Lady Antebellum
Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You - Lady Antebellum
One Day You Will - Lady Antebellum
Love Don't Live Here - Lady Antebellum
Need You Now - Lady Antebellum
Our Kind of Love - Lady Antebellum
American Honey - Lady Antebellum
Hello World - Lady Antebellum
Perfect Day - Lady Antebellum
Love This Pain - Lady Antebellum
When You Got a Good Thing - Lady Antebellum
Stars Tonight - Lady Antebellum
If I Knew Then - Lady Antebellum
Something 'Bout a Woman - Lady Antebellum
Ready to Love Again - Lady Antebellum

Ok, so maybe Lady Antebellum is my current obsession. I've loved them for a long time, but I think this video got me back into the Lady A groove. I always laugh when I watch it! It's fun to see a band breaking out of stage mode and improvise on stage. And then I get flutters when Charles sings with passion starting at the 3:10 mark (even if he is in that ridiculous wig).


And after watching this video 5 billion times, I may have watched this classic a few more.

You can't see it very well in the video, but Hillary always wears stilettos. They are TALL shoes. And I love every pair that I've seen her wear. This won't turn into a fashion blog, I just had to mention the shoes. My friend Matt and I went to see them when they opened for Timmy McG this summer. GREAT SHOW, when I wasn't staring at her shoes. :)

Concert goodness.

I just wish that I'd known more of the words to the songs then. Ask me to go now and heck yes, totally there, singing every word. I even considered going to see them in KC at the end of this month but decided that Janel's bachelorette weekend only happens once, and Lady A can wait.

So are you countried out yet? Congratulations, if you made it this far past the twang and country. I really need to turn off the music and get to bed. :) But not before I vote for Lady A to win some ACA Awards and the AMA Awards. (And Easton Corbin too!)

What's been your favorite concert?

Something that Ctrl Z can't fix

Whew! I'm back! It's November and that means that it's nablopomo! I will try my best to post every day this month, but my track record hasn't been great lately. We'll see how it goes. :)

I just left the following message for my landlord. I got a note that they're coming tomorrow to turn on the furnace, which is already on (uhm.... it's cold in here. there's no way that I was going to wait until NOVEMBER for them to turn on the heat in this place!) Anyway, I wanted them to fix a busted lightbulb while they're in here, so here's my message:

"...and I just wanted to let you know that there is a lightbulb out in my bathroom, and it's ... really ... round -- really a big lightbulb. I'll just leave it by the sink and they can take it with them when they leave." 

A really round and really big lightbulb??? And "I'll leave it by the sink for them to take" instead of "I've thrown it away"??? AHHHH! I so desperately wanted to Ctrl Z that message and start over! Do you ever leave messages like that? I was wanting to describe it as the kind of lightbulbs that you see around the mirrors backstage at Dancing with the Stars. Ha. I'm sure that would have made them laugh as well!

What's the most embarrassing message that you've left for someone?