life

true confessions of quitting my job

As you can tell from the title, I have resigned from my job.  This happened about three weeks ago and it was a little scary but also a relief!  Sometimes it is just time that you know you need to move on.  You may have grown all you can in a position or you are moving in a different direction personally.  Honestly, I could not have chosen a better time!  The following week, it was forecast to rain every day, but the rain never came!  As I'm writing this, I think maybe God was blessing Kevin and me to have a much needed week together that was beautiful for us to have fun!  We spent all week outside doing things around the yard and played in the swamp a couple of times.

Although I was not expecting to leave my job, I had been thinking for a while what I would do if I did not have a job again.  Although I am not completely jobless, I have big plans that I can accomplish even while I am working.  So previously, I have put up goals/plans on the blog in order to keep me accountable to getting them accomplished, (ahem, like just three weeks ago!) but I realize that does not work for me as much as I thought it would have.  In fact, doing so actually made me not want to do what I had originally wanted to do!  I have seen other people do this on their blogs and even though it worked for them, I believe it is just not something that works for me.

I just believe the last time I was unemployed I completely wasted the majority of my time off and I don't want to do that again.  God has blessed Kevin and me and I feel like I failed him last time.  This time I have spent time in prayer and plan to spend more time talking with God to ask him to lead me to his will and show Christ to all that I meet.  I hope I've gotten off to a good start and look forward to this new part of our life!  Maybe I will meet some new people and get to know some people a lot better!  

Until then :)


Thinking Outside the Box

All of my life I've heard the phrase "think outside the box." And for the most part I was always like, yeah! let's do that! But looking back, I realize that I hardly ever thought outside the box like I thought I was doing.  I had these expectations for how I was supposed to be during my school years: play softball, be in band, get good grades, etc.  I strove to please everyone and keep them happy with me.  I remember being stressed out when things didn't go how I thought they should go.  I had a plan and I had a schedule to go along with that plan.  The ironic thing to me is that I thought I was more easy going than I actually was.  But really, isn't that how it is with everyone, we criticize and compare to others what is actually a characteristic we fail to see in ourselves.

A few weeks ago I read somewhere to have a set goal but keep a fluid plan.  Reading that statement was a total eye opener to me.  Kevin has always seemed to follow this saying and I have been trying to adjust to his ways for several years now.  Like, when we go to the coast this is usually how it goes in my head: "Oh, we're going to the coast!  But wait, we aren't going to take 98 and then 49 south?  Oh ok...then how?  What? We're going to just head south on back roads?  Well, okay then..."  And you know what?  It always works out. It took some getting used to, but not only do I know accept it, I embrace it!  It doesn't matter that we don't go the same way everyone else goes, I'm having a grand time with the love of my life! Plus, how else would we find beautiful fields or magical looking roads??

I am very glad that I have been introduced to "letting things go" and rolling with it.  I can't say it started out with me embracing doing this, but really, it makes life so much easier!  Sometimes I forget and it hits me that I can actually do things a different way than I imagined.  I don't know why, but it still surprises me when this happens, haha.  Now I know that some people may have this all figured out already but this was a huge revelation to me when I realized all of this.  Thinking it out this way has really cause me to understand more what it means to think outside the box.

I've been trying to apply this reasoning to more aspects of my life.  Which is sometimes hard because I am really a person who loves routine, so rolling with it can be difficult for me to do.  But remembering to keep my goal firm with my plan fluid really helps!


Weekend in Starkville!

This past weekend I took a quick trip up to Starkville to see my brother and my bestie!  It was a nice trip, I was able to take both of the dogs with me since they have a little bit more space for all of us.  I was not sure how the dogs would handle a long road trip but it turns out they are great travel companions!

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I made it to Starkville late (for me) Friday night and we spent the rest of the night just hanging out and talking.  Saturday morning was spent drinking coffee and letting the dogs play together in the yard.  

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Later Katherine and I went to town to go to a few shops.  There are several new places that were not there when I went to school there and it was exciting to go to those.  There is this place called Sprout that had a pretty neat entrance and front yard.  First of all, it's my favorite style of shop because it used to be a house and was transformed into a business.  But the best part was the rosemary bushes growing in the front! Katherine and I just ran our hands through the shoots.  Which resulted in our hands smelling like rosemary all afternoon.  There were also these raised garden beds that are going to be so beautiful when spring finally arrives!  That day they only had broccoli and kale planted.

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We also went downtown to the coffee shop where Katherine works and to a neat store called Aspen.  They had a lot of cute knick knacks along with a lot of candles.  I found a couple of things that I wanted but held off.  I'm trying to be more deliberate about where my spending money is going.  Probably one of the coolest things I saw was at the coffee shop.  The entire back wall was covered in industrial baking sheets!  I love finding little creative aspects that add  to the overall feel of a place without being really obvious.

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I was a little sad to leave my friends so soon but was very glad to be in my own bed on Sunday night!  Me and the dogs had a quiet trip back home.  They took turns napping and chewing on the bones I got them for the trip while I listened to the Creative Start Podcast.  I am looking forward to when I get to go back, but definitely not that drive!

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home alone goals 2/24

Well y'all, it's that time again.  Time for my two weeks without the hubby being home.  It's always hard for us to part and I don't really know how long two weeks feels to other people, but it feels long and short all at the same time.  I look back at the last two weeks and realize that a lot actually happened and wonder how it all fit into those two weeks when they seem like they went by so quickly.  So maybe that's how days work, the days are long but the weeks seem short.  

I don't know why I feel this way, but every time he leaves, I make mental plans for things that I want to accomplish before Kevin gets back home.  Maybe it is because there is more of a time restraint and that way there is more of a deadline for me to aim for.  Who knows!  Anyway here are my home alone goals for this hitch:

- Clean out pink room.

- Redo open cabinet decorations.

- Bathroom closet and shelves.

- Meal Prep.

- Etsy shop opening.

- A lot of knitting and exercising!!!

I'll try to check back in as I do these things, what do y'all think? :)


Baby Steps

A lot of times, I've discovered that when I get unhappy with my house, it's because I'm feeling weighed down.  When I've let things drag on and just continue to be messy and cluttered.  When this happens, I feel myself being bummed out and unmotivated because of all of my stuff.  This begins a vicious cycle of my productivity slowing down until I am just barely doing what I need to get by.  This is definitely not a good cycle to get drawn into and after I get to this point I am anxious to clean up and sometimes clean out something.

I don't know if it's because I'm a woman and I have these mothering tendencies or feel the need to take care of everything myself, but when my house is a total mess, I just feel like I can't do anything until I've taken care of the messy parts.  Welllllll when my house is full of stuff that is just strewn everywhere it is kind of hard to do what I really want to do.  I have decided that the way to beat this cycle is by taking baby steps to build a good routine.  

When I am at work, I clean off my desk at the end o the day.  I usually make a list of what needs to be done for the next day and I put up my unfinished work in a tray so I can pick back up where I am the following day.  It makes a difference in my productivity coming into the office the next day when my desk is all clean versus when it is covered in papers and work.  Plus it looks so much better than when it is covered in paperwork.

So...baby steps.  I've been (trying) to really do this in my kitchen daily.  But it is so much easier to let the dishes continue to pile up and I know I am guilty of letting the pots "soak" overnight.  My mother always, always cleaned the kitchen every night.  This was not something that stuck with m and I really wish it had.  So I try to do this, but it doesn't always happen.  

One thing that I have successfully done is keeping my bathroom counter straight!  Because I use the bathroom ever day to fix my hair and make up, it is easy to just leave it all out on the counter.  It is especially easy since I basically live by myself for half the year and rarely have people over.  So yeah, I consider it an accomplishment that I have put all my makeup and hair dryer in the bathroom closet daily.  Just please. No one look in the closet!

By doing just these small things where I pick up after myself when I'm done, I can feel my spirit lifting up and my heart being lighter when I look around my house.  It's still a little hard.  Like, my dining table chairs are still on top of the table from when I ran my roomba.  And the clean towels are still in the dryer.  But that's why they're called baby steps. :)


Bible Study Week

This week we are having bible study at church with Brother Brent Long.  Last night was our first night and he introduced the topic that had been set on his heart: God's design for the family.  He asked us to keep a question on our minds throughout the week: "Is our home built and functioning based on God's design?"  This can be a really convicting thought because it is easy to lose our tempers or isolate ourselves when in the privacy of our homes.  It is also a good question to ask myself to make sure that I am following God's will for acting as a wife.  I am definitely looking forward to the rest of the week!  Join us at 7:00 every evening. Genesis 2.18
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Ecclesiastes 4.9-12

 


comfort from above.

I am very much a routine person.  When things start changing, I begin to feel something within me start to stress out.  I know this and as much as a try to stay calm, I still become anxious and worry about what is happening.  

This past few weeks there have been a good bit of changes.  At the time, it was very stressful and I was worried about what was going to happen.  I've talked about this before with this post and I tried to keep this in mind.  But still, I can't control myself!

Looking back, I see that God had it all in his hands this whole time. I'm grateful to Kevin and Jessica for keeping me grounded and helping me to keep my head.  But I know there was a plan all along and now that we are over that hump, everything has worked out! 

6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 has come to my mind this week and really, I love the beautiful words contained in the letters in the New Testament.  When you read them you can't help but hear the truth and power of the Word.  God wants us to go to him with everything and he will provide.  He doesn't want us to worry about life, it only takes away from him.  But when we let God take care of everything we move closer to him and he is glorified.


an evening together :]

so...I have a bad habit of watching tv.  I hate that I watch so much of it.  It is truly a brain rotter.  I could just sit there and just mindlessly watch it for a whole day.  And then I feel horrible afterwards.  I began knitting again in the process of seeking a better way to spend my time. Then I discovered podcasts, which began my love affair, but I can discus that some other time.

Then one evening after Kevin and I had eaten supper, we were just sitting on the couch together in the quiet.  He was looking on his cell phone at cars and trucks, I was knitting.  I had read somewhere that week about a couple who had sort of a date night where they picked out like a playlist and they just kind of hung out together.  So for something that was different from watching tv, which is what we would normally do, I suggested doing something similar.  

So he created a Pandora radio station for us to listen to and I kept on with my knitting.  We occasionally talked with each other but not constantly.  It was really nice to just sit and not have the constant mind-numbing noise of the tv going.  Then I got to thinking and somehow came to the realization that Kevin probably does this more than I do.  When I asked him, he told me that, yes, when he is at work he often sits in his room listening to music and looking at the Internet.  

After I found that out, I felt kind of silly for thinking of how great an idea I had for us to do that!  But he said he liked that we were doing it so that made me feel better.  I can't wait for him to be home again so we can have another evening together.


2015.

Happy New Year Y'all!

I know New Years' was last week but I had taken a break from spending a lot of time on social media during the Christmas holidays.  I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year! I know I did :)

This year I did not officially set any new years resolutions, but I do have a couple of goals in mind that I want to do!  In fact on January 1st, I had plans to a) move the furniture around in my pink room, and b) make cinnamon rolls from scratch!  Aaaaand I did both.  I got a Pioneer Woman cookbook for Christmas and there is a recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls in it. Plus I wanted to cook them in my cast iron skillets, which I totally love! haha.  I thought they turned out delicious and everyone else who tried them really liked them as well.  I feel like this could turn into a new obsession, making bread and dough! 

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Don't those look delicious?? I think so :)

Even though I did not set an official "New Years' Resolution," I read a lot of blogs where people did have resolutions and they were so inspiring!  Like I said, I didn't set any of my own but really, aren't we all continually setting new goals as a way of our own personal growth?  I know that for myself I try to push myself to be better with my spiritual life and fitness and house keeping and cooking.  Looking back on 2014 I can see where I learned what I like to do and things that I need to work on. 

Kevin and I have a lot to look forward to in this year and I am excited to get it started!