3 Rants and Rave: Round 2

Rant: When people ask the WORLD, usually via the Facebook, questions that they could just Google the answer on their own. 

Hey you:  be self-sufficient, I'm not the Google. 

Rant: When you are excited about something and someone tries to "one up" you. What is that? We call them One Uppers at our house. 

Hey you: Get off my cloud...wait, no, get on my cloud- there is room for everyone.  We can all be excited about something, this is NOT a competition.

One Uppers: 1. get self-aware, please. 2. I'm not telling you my good stuff to make you jealous, I want to hear your good stuff too- share away, but could you put your listening ears on first, please?  I promise to give you the same respect.

Rant: When people say The Facebook, The Google, The Interwebs...what?! Oh. That's me.
Hey Me: Acknowledged. And I blame Nate.

Rave: To the Mama at the grocery store today that actually told her children "No, you may not have that" - good job!  To the same Mama that when her child said, "Mama, when I was at Kaley's house we...." and the Mama ACTUALLY listened to her child and then ENGAGED her with questions and more conversation. The Mama did not pick up her iPhone or give her the brush off, she actually LISTENED and SPOKE to her child. There was no "Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama..." So refreshing. 

Yes, being a mom is exhausting and it's not always easy to engage...I'm not talking about that right now, I just want to give this one Mama a shout out for (at least) appearing to care what her daughter had to say. Again. So refreshing. Good job, Mama.

2014 Words to Pray On

One of our wise church elders, Dr. Schommer, asked a group of us three-ish years ago, to think about what word describes our current struggle or needed/wanted growth area in our faith.

At that time Nate chose Calm. I chose Joy. (I know, y’all are shocked…it was my first year of learning to Choose Joy, so it made sense).

The next year my word was Listen, Listen to God- what is He saying to me?  And Nate’s word was Calm. Yes again. He was really working on being, acting, remaining Calm.

In 2013 my word was Discipline and Nate’s were Courage and Wisdom.

2014 has arrived and I have my words chosen.

This year my personal word is Grace. My ego thought I was pretty great at being graceful, however it was pointed out to me that I have some work to do on that.  Therefore I, graciously, accept that constructive critique and will be working on giving Grace, to others and to myself.  The scripture I will use to guide and remind me is Colossians 4:6 (NLT).

Colossians 4:2-6

Context: this is from Paul’s letter to the city of Colosse.

² Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. ³ Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. ⁴ Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should. ⁵ Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity.⁶ Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.

I have a secondary word that I am sharing with a dear friend.  We are working being on Intentional, with our words and actions.

Nate is still deciding on his word. It might be Focus. I’ll update y’all when he decides.

So! What’s YOUR word to pray on this year?  I’d love to pray on it for (with) you. 

#20Bags20Days: Day 1

Choose 20 places (or 30 or 40, according to your family and home size) that need to be de-cluttered and/or transformed. Remove what you don't need/use/want and then toss it or donate it.

Apparently this project will be like confessing my hidden messy areas. I think I'll only show you a few, maybe more impressive transformations...I have a reputation to keep. Ha.

Day 1: The Linen Closet~ 

yes, this is our linen closet. yes, it is that small. yes, it is the only one we have.

BEFORE: here it is. for shame.

SIDE NOTE: I'd like to "blame" this hotttttt mess (below) on how high those shelves are.  In order to put anything in this closet above the middle section of band-aids, aloe vera and Advil I have to use a step stool. And yes, I occasionally just toss things up there and hope they stay.

AFTER: Ahhh.So.Much.Better.

Let's see how long I can keep this neat and tidy, step stool still required.

BAG COUNT: 2

1. one plastic regular-sized Target bag went into the garbage 

2. one large 13 gallon garbage bag ready for donation!

ALSO- why have I never bothered to paint the inside of that closet? It's hideous! 

Adding a paint job for the Linen Closet to our summer to-do list!