I really don’t wear dresses and aprons all the time! But this site is my new favorite place to browse:

http://www.shabbyapple.com/

They have a 3-question survey to help you find the most flattering dress for your body type. Cool. And their fitness stuff is pretty. And they have the most adorable little girl dresses!

I only have like one dress. Mostly because when we were first overseas (yeah, we were overseas Internet. Maybe I forgot to tell you) we were required to wear skirts out in public in an effort to identify with the Muslim women of our culture. Unfortunately, requiring me to do anything is a recipe for rebellion. I’ve only recently got back out my skirts.

Enjoy, the tens of people who read this every day 🙂

People are often unreasonable,
illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you
of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win
some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway

– “Anyway”
(Attributed to Mother Teresa)

Ah, lazy family Saturdays. Today we went to a Fall Craft Fair. I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to the crafty part of it (except for my super-creative, amazingly trendy friend and her booth) but I was so wrong about what it would be like. There were all these 20-somethings (I can say that now as a mature 30-year-old) with funky jewelry, vintage aprons with sick material (I like how I think I can pull that off) and diaper bags, burp rags and blankets fit for any young family. I love that about our generation. We’re exposed to so so so many things that no one tells us what’s cool and what’s not. There’s too much out there to choose from in our interconnected world, so we just pick what suits us and put our own twist on it. It’s refreshing.

I wear aprons sometimes. If you asked me in high school if I would be an apron-wearing cookie baker I would’ve laughed at you. But now I wear this fun, bright, daisy-print number when I’m cooking something messy. And I feel so feminine. I like it. I don’t always wear it. And I get made fun of by my neighbor. But that’s why I like it. Cause when he teases me about it there’s a look in his eyes like, “Right on. You rock that Suzy Homemaker vibe” as he drives off on his Harley.

I think that’s what I most like about our generation. We seem to coexist pretty well.

I promise I don’t go looking for other people’s words to put on my blog. But sometimes I can’t help it. If I don’t link to it, the rocks will cry out 🙂

I don’t just heart Beth Moore. I “love” her whole family. Love is in quotations because we’ve never met. But I think if they just got to know me, they’d like me. Especially Melissa. I think we could be BFF’s.

Here’s her thoughts yesterday:

http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/2009/10/coffee-shop-hop.html

Don’t you just love His Word?

“Open up before God, keep nothing back;
he’ll do whatever needs to be done:
He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day
and stamp you with approval at high noon.

Quiet down before God,
be prayerful before him.
Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder,
who elbow their way to the top

Bridle your anger, trash your wrath,
cool your pipes—it only makes things worse

Before you know it, the wicked will have had it;
you’ll stare at his once famous place and—nothing!
Down-to-earth people will move in and take over,
relishing a huge bonanza.

Bad guys have it in for the good guys,
obsessed with doing them in.
But God isn’t losing any sleep; to him
they’re a joke with no punch line.

Less is more and more is less.
One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,
For the wicked are moral weaklings
but the righteous are God-strong.

God keeps track of the decent folk;
what they do won’t soon be forgotten.
In hard times, they’ll hold their heads high;
when the shelves are bare, they’ll be full.

Wicked borrows and never returns;
Righteous gives and gives.
Generous gets it all in the end;
Stingy is cut off at the pass.

Stalwart walks in step with God;
his path blazed by God, he’s happy.
If he stumbles, he’s not down for long;
God has a grip on his hand.

I once was young, now I’m a graybeard—
not once have I seen an abandoned believer,
or his kids out roaming the streets.
Every day he’s out giving and lending,
his children making him proud.

Turn your back on evil,
work for the good and don’t quit.
God loves this kind of thing,
never turns away from his friends.

Live this way and you’ve got it made,
Righteous chews on wisdom like a dog on a bone,
rolls virtue around on his tongue.
His heart pumps God’s Word like blood through his veins;
his feet are as sure as a cat’s.

Wicked sets a watch for Righteous,
he’s out for the kill.
God, alert, is also on watch—
Wicked won’t hurt a hair of his head.

Wait passionately for God,
don’t leave the path.
He’ll give you your place in the sun
while you watch the wicked lose it.

Keep your eye on the healthy soul,
scrutinize the straight life;
There’s a future
in strenuous wholeness.

But the willful will soon be discarded;
insolent souls are on a dead-end street.
The spacious, free life is from God,
it’s also protected and safe.

God-strengthened, we’re delivered from evil—
when we run to him, he saves us.”

I don’t sew. My mom tried a few times to teach us. (Remember Jill?) I suppose I’ll use my creativity in other ways. But it doesn’t matter that I don’t sew. This site still makes me haaaaapy:

http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/

I’m in counseling. Have I mentioned that, Internet? I am. But as my best friend would say, I would go to counseling even if I didn’t need to just because it’s so incredibly interesting.

But yeah. Hard stuff with hard stuff. But as our pastor says, “Hard doesn’t mean impossible. It just means hard.”

Anywho, I learned the most fascinating (to me) thing the other week. So. In all families there are roles that have to be played: nurturer, provider, person with problems, person with solutions, helper, one who needs help, etc. And it’s as if those roles are written on pieces of paper and each are placed on a chair. In a functional family everyone plays musical chairs. One day someone is the nurturer. The next day they have a crappy day and they need nurturing. One day someone causes problems. The next day they help someone solve their problems, etc.

In a dysfunctional family it’s as if there’s a nail on each person’s ass and they sit down on one role and no matter what else happens to them, they still have that role stuck to them. So even if they need nurturing, they still nurture. If someone else acts out, they still play the “black sheep” role, etc.

Whoa. That explains a lot. Normal people just get to be normal people going through the crappy and happy parts of life. Not as a certain type. Just as them.

Nice.

My 2 year old is punishing me today. But the weekend away from him was soooo worth it!

Grandpa & Grandma picked him up on Friday night and I didn’t miss him until Sunday. We’ve never been apart that long and it was time. Good for everyone.

My man’s love language is definitely gifts. We’re super frugal cause we have all kinds of goals with our money…so we can use it for Good Stuff. But he knows when it’s a good idea to splurge. Like on me, for example.

Saturday I had a full day at the spa. A full day. Everything. Massage, facial, manicure, pedicure, lunch, hair cut and highlights. Oh yes I did!

Then we spent like 4 hours in Barnes & Noble. If you don’t know, that is like one of my favorite ways to spend 4 hours. And something I don’t do with a toddler very often. It’s a fun, cheap date night too.

We went to an awesome coffee shop downtown and had a ridiculously fun dinner with four of our favorite couple friends. Good food, good wine, good attention all on me. What a great birthday!

Thanks, hon. You spoil me and I’ll let you.

Year number 30 – I refuse to let you suck. It’s gonna be a good one.

To inoculate me from the praise of man

He baptized me in the criticism of man

So I would die to the control of man

– Unknown, but I’ll never forget it

Isaiah 6:1 “In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on the throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.”

“Our soul’s history with God is frequently the history of the “passing of the hero.” Over and over again God has to remove our friends in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is where we faint and fail and get discouraged. Take it personally: In the year that the one who stood to me for all that God was, died – I gave up everything? I became ill? I got disheartened? Or – I saw the Lord?

It must be God first, God second, and God third, until the life is faced steadily with God and no one else is of any account whatever. ‘In all the world there is none but thee, my God, there is none but thee.’

Keep paying the price. Let God see that you are willing to live up to the vision.”

– Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest