I Swear I Remember How to Blog and Other Dreams

I was debating on how to jump back on the blogging train {link-up? book review? a post pretending I've been blogging regularly for the past three weeks??}, and then Natalie posted/hosted a Quick Just Because Not So Serious Takes link-up, and it was fate. This is a perfect way to give y'all some updates and share some odds and ends without being weird...although this is me, so it may still end up weird. But you knew that when you clicked this link, so I don't feel too bad.

Item 1: I spent the first week of this month in the beautiful Bluegrass State with some of my dearest friends. AJ and I got to spend lots of quality time together, some of which involved the following:

• crack popcorn - I've never made that much crack popcorn in one sitting, but I'm proud to say there was nothing left the next morning. 
• wedding video - you know you're bosom friends when you spend a Friday night watching her wedding on the small screen. So cool.
• steak nachos with beer cheese - this is becoming a tradition for me to celebrate AJ's birthday. Saul Good's steak nachos with beer cheese is basically heaven on earth. We took a picture that night, but as good as that waiter was, photography wasn't his forte. 
•  Ale-8 - I had one for breakfast every day, and I regret nothing. 
• a surprise pregnancy announcement - AJ had her youngest son announce to me that "mommy has a baby in her tummy" and I put forth a great effort and did not scream with joy and delight.

I also got to visit my good friends Carla and Victoria, as well as attend a baseball game with my friend Rae. Rachel and I got to hang out {and eat the world's most delicious cheesecake}, and I learned two new games with some friends from church. I got to hold new babies and hug old friends. 

Basically, my trip was wonderful and I'm already planning my return trip. 

Item 2: Whilst reading the book I thought was the last on my doula list, I realized that a medical book published in 1987 wasn't going to cut it. So I emailed my director and she emailed back that I should find a different book. It just came in from the library, and much to my delight, it's only about 100 pages long {as opposed to the 400 page beast I was struggling through}. So I should be finished with this little book very, very soon!

Item 3: Speaking of doula stuff, Victoria and I started a FB group for all things birthing related. We want to be able to share articles and pictures and discussions that include words like "placenta" and "dilation" without frightening away half of our FB friends. If you'd like to join, let me know and I'll send you the link. 

this little girl is us

Item 4: My roommate moved out this weekend and my sister moved in! Words cannot describe my joy. Our home is clean and cozy and beautiful, and I'm trying to convince my sis to go with a black-and-white art theme in the living room. We'll see how that goes. 

Item 5: I'm reading The Book Thief as a part of Dahlia's book club, and we're meeting to discuss and to watch the movie next weekend. I'm a bit of a late start on this book, so here's hoping I can finish it in time!

That's it - all the Just Because Not So Serious Takes I've got. Enjoy your Tuesday, friends!

Not Alone Series: Back In the Saddle Again

{Not that I didn't love Labor Day's three-day-weekend, but did missing Monday throw off anyone else's game? Whew! Sorry to be late, ladies!}

We are back! As we get back into the swing of things with NAS, what other ways can we be more involved at church or in our communities? Is there a parish ministry you have been wanting to help with or start up? What about that after school program for homeless kids? Has something been preventing you from getting involved? How do you think this will help you personally, spiritually, and emotionally?

First off, I am so excited that NAS is back! Ladies, I've missed you each week! The FB page is wonderful, but these prompts and the unity that comes from the weekly topics... mmmm, nothing like it! So glad we're all back!

The past year has seen some severe ups and downs to my church. LOTS of changes have been made, and while not all of them have been easy, they've all been for the better, I think. As it frequently happens, changes in structure resulted in changes of population. My church family has shrunk a bit, and while I'm still in community with people, the number of "legs on the ground" part of church ministry has dramatically decreased.

While I serve in the church's nursery, what I really want to do is continue to host Jesus Feminist Book Club meetings. We met twice over the summer {the first time was when my neighbor caught his car on fire}, and both times the conversation has been so, so rich and good. The atmosphere at my church is changing, and I want to continue to be a part of the change, both with Book Club and in other conversations.

The "supplement" church, my other church body, has several great ministry opportunities, and while I can't be as involved as I'd like {thank you, rush hour traffic}, I'm looking for ways to join with them. This church has a fantastic Post-College & Early Career group, and I'm excited to start participating as I'm able.

Outside of my church body, I'm volunteering every week at CareNet Pregnancy and Family Services. I love my center! The ladies who work/volunteer there are awesome. Our little community is fantastic.

This Sunday, I will start volunteering as a baby cuddler in the NICU. I'm really excited about this, because even though I started the training process in April, the NICU cuddling only started September 1st. I'm looking forward to serving families who are going through a rough time, and of course I'm excited to hold babies!

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Thanks for joining! Be sure to visit Jen at Jumping in Puddles and Morgan at Follow and Believe for the link-up and for future prompts. 

7 Quick Takes: Jealousy, Weekend Plans, and Rwanda

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary for 7 Quick Takes!

1. In case you missed it, my neighbor got mad that he wasn't invited to Book Club, so he set his car on fire. Ok, that may not have been his exact motivation, but it certainly seemed accurate since the flames started approximately 40 minutes before Book Club started. #jealous?

2. Speaking of Book Club, I've barely started a post about Sarah Bessey's Jesus Feminist. But it is coming, I promise. And while you wait for my thoughts, you could read the book yourself. It really is awesome.

3. So it's a three-day weekend! Woot! I have grand plans of...cleaning my washing machine. The idea of cleaning my oven crossed my mind, but then I realized that I have nail polish on and it looks good and I'm going to keep my nails looking good for as long as possible, so I absolutely cannot do any scrubbing of ovens this weekend. Another time, maybe. But these directions for cleaning a washing machine do not involve any scrubbing {unless you want the outside to look clean, too, but I think that's overrated} so I will be partaking in this fun activity.

4. Since cleaning a washing machine is just so much fun, I decided to make my three-day weekend a four-day weekend and head down the coast with a couple friends. We are going to the beach!!!! Our days will look like this:

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5. Since we are wise women and don't want to spend allllll our weekend moolah on eating out, I'm going to be making Mexican lasagna for us. This will be the third time I've made it, and you know that the third time is the charm. Excitement abounds. 

6. In case you missed it, Natalie and I "interviewed" each other yesterday! It was totes fun, and if this is something you want to try, let me know! 

7. Finally, Rwanda. Noonday Collection and International Justice Mission are teaming up for a trip to Rwanda with a bunch of amazing women, and they've saved a spot on this trip for me. Well, almost. There is an extra spot on this trip and the person filling it will be determined by vote. I applied and you can read my entry here when you vote or here in my initial post. 

Voting is only open until Wednesday, May 29th, and you can vote every day from your device{S!}. If you would take just a moment and vote for me, I'd be so grateful. This is a blogging trip, so I'm asking for you, fellow bloggers, to vote, pray, and vote again for me and this trip. 

As of the halfway point, I was in the top third of votes, and things have changed even in the past two days. To be considered, I need to be one of seven entries with the most votes, and it's going to be close. Thank you in advance for your votes!

A Few Favorite Things

On the days that it's hard to regain consciousness wake up get out of bed, thinking of favorite things is necessary. And no more introduction is possible necessary because favorite things speaks for itself...and sings for itself. Sound of Music anyone??

moving on to this mystical list...

• Book Club tonight {we're reading Lady in Waiting and discussing it & it's FANTASTIC! a bit cheesy, but our discussions more than make up for that}
• good hair days...currently styling a ballet bun, which was surprisingly easy to put in {thanks, Mom, for those hundred years stabbing my head with bobby pins-4 is totes not a lot to this scarred scalp}
• birth stories...this is sorta weird, but I love reading or hearing birth stories, and last week I found a few good ones! Don't read if a) this weirds you out or b) you're in a quiet place like a library, because you will be LOL-ing for real on a couple of these. Camp Patton- Theo & Hysterical-Prepare to tinkle your pants
• trip planning! Dahlia and I are going to Prince Edward Island in August, and the other night we had a 2-hours-long conversation regarding this. Dahls is a champ and made an itinerary of our trip, and then we reviewed the things that needed finalizing and purchased things that needed purchasing, like tickets to these wonderful shows: Anne of Green Gables the Musical and Anne and Gilbert: the Musical. You can be jealous at any time now :)
• Introducing Sister E to Doctor Who...definitely a good thing! Gotta say, for being filmed in 2005, the first episode definitely has a 90s feel to it. Good ol' Britain! :)
• phone dates with AJ! Heck to the yeah, we're going to talk tonight! Maybe even use technology to see each other's faces...depends on how nice my technologically-advanced sisters are tonight...

And that, friends, are a few of my favorite things at this moment. Oh, add Taylor Swift to this list. She's totes adorbs, too. 

Happy Wednesday!

So Many Thoughts

Well, here goes. It feels like I've been thinking I should blog about that for too long, so I'm going to try and get a few thoughts out. Brace yourselves.

1. Dahlia and I have made it official: we are going to Prince Edward Island in August!!!
   
   Woot! We are super excited because a) we got tickets at a GREAT price and b) we found an adorable little inn {Sherwood Inn and Motel-how perfectly quaint and Island-ish!} for a magnificent price AND that has a shuttle to and from the airport! Oh, and yeah, because we found an Anne of Green Gables itinerary. We are totes going. It's ok- you can be jealous. I would be, too!
   
2. Update on the job thingy: I interviewed for 2 Saturday positions, and one I knew wouldn't work out and the other didn't call me back, which was fine because I realized I don't want to be tied to a consistent weekend schedule. So God knew what He was doing {as per usual!}, and actually I interviewed with two different families to babysit and so that will be fabulous. One family will call me eventually {the dad is going to China for a month, so no date nights for a while!}, and I'll be babysitting for the other family for the second time tomorrow. Totes perfect. Thank You Jesus!
   
3. Grandma is getting settled. I think we're all getting more used to each other, and things have been working out pretty well these past few weeks. Again, thank You, Jesus.
   
4. I would really like to blog every day in May like Jen is doing, but May is like the craziest month for me! I leave Saturday to go to the Great Nation of Texas for 5 days, then I'm home for less than a week before I go to the Bluegrass State for work {and play!} for a week. Blogging is highly unlikely this month, let alone every day, so I will do my best to do something fun in June. :)
   
5. This week was my second time volunteering at Care Net. I'm really enjoying it. Technically, I'm still in training, so my 4 hours consist of watching videos that we show clients and reading the volunteer handbook. Still, it's been amazing. The clinic has such an atmosphere of peace and honor and service; I feel God's peace when I'm there. Oh, and crazy thing! The other volunteer who is there for the Thursday afternoon shift -Brandi- is a cousin of one of my friends from Berea! Small world.
   
6. Speaking of this afternoon, I almost passed out today. Yeah... So I don't do needles... or blood or guts or anything that is yucky...as in, I don't like to see them. And I really don't like to hear about any of that.

   

   These lovely Crate and Barrel sheets perfectly matched the color of my face.

   The first time I passed out was in the 4th grade when I found out that my wrist was broken. The pain didn't do it; it was looking at the x-ray {which looked pretty normal, bee tee dubs} and hearing the doctor say, "Here's where the fracture is..." Boom. Down I went.
   So today I was shadowing Brandi's parenting class client, and the video we watched was about the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and then it went into labor and delivery. Now, I've known about the birthing "activities" since I was probably in 2nd grade, but it has always been one of the aforementioned topics that give me the heebie jeebies. I was doing alright with this video, until the narrator started talking about this little surgery-like cut the doctor can make during labor...and so I went into the kitchen and put my head down and waited for blood to return to the upper half of my body. Yep. Second day volunteering, and I have to go lie down in the other counseling room. Awesome.
   
7. I'm excited to go down to Texas next week {technically this week} because I get to see my friend Laurie without having to visit the Frozen Tundra! :) And also because we are planning on watching Season 2 of "Call the Midwife," yet another BBC show that has captured my attention. If you have not seen it, finish what you're doing and go watch it. SO well done. Not like steak. Like a dozen roses...perfection.
   

Well, 7 seems like a good number to end on. I hope that this brings us up-to-date on most items of late... oh, and as for the last post, I think that writing things out and then going to Book Club {a group of us are reading and discussing Lady In Waiting} and talking with the bestie for a good hour afterwards helped me move forward in my thinking. I'm still thinking and praying about things with my parents, and I think God and I are getting closer and I'm comfortable thinking more openly about the future. So, thanks for listening. :) Happy May!