Enjoy Great Moments

Throwback: Great Moment #188389210 of my life.
First camping trip.
First viewing of the sunrise from on top of the world.
A huge hug to the one who encouraged me to climb that mountain, meet new friends and soak in great moments.

Confession: I tend to not enjoy great moments. Sounds ridiculous right? Let me explain.

Yesterday a coworker of mine told me about a great sermon she heard that she thought I would like just as much as her. The sermon is by Chip Ingram and is titled, Enjoy Great Moments. I have never heard a pastor preach so specifically on this topic. Here are some key points that struck me the most summarized by me with my thoughts:

• We live our whole lives being told, "Do your homework and THEN you can go outside and play. Eat your veggies, THEN you can have dessert..." You get the idea. All of these things aren't bad practices IF you are a 3rd grader. But we are adults now and that mentality is sometimes carried over into adulthood. I totally do this most of the time! I have this huge to do list that is constantly rotating in my head and I think that if I get this done, THEN I can relax. I really needed to hear that and be reminded that as adults we will always have a to do list so instead of that "if this, then that" lifestyle, just know that the Lord wants and loves for us to be joyful. 

• What if we are missing blessings that the Lord is revealing to us because we are stuck dwelling on everything else? This part seriously made me tear up. I sure don't want to miss anything from the Lord but yet I'm sure I have done this.

• Stop feeling guilty for having fun. Yup, I totally do this one too. In the midst of great moments, I catch myself thinking ahead, planning, etc. Such a terrible cycle to be in. 

This message was so liberating for me. Not all of us have this issue, but I just had to share in case anyone else ever feels the same way I do. Take 40 minutes of your day, listen and be blessed. You certainly want to hear part two where he discusses practical steps on how to enjoy great moments.

You can hear the message by clicking here and look for Enjoy Great Moments (Part 1 and 2). I'm looking forward to listening to the others in this series. Click on the message notes to get the scriptures and a sermon guide. If you listen, tell me what you think!

-S

Daydreamin'

First of all, anybody having blogger probs? I just had a post and within minutes it disappeared after publishing it! Weird. Because I don't want to write it all again, I will give you the cliff notes version. 

I miss summer.

I'm counting down to summer. 

I love the longer days, warmer weather, naked feet, and green trees.

This may surprise some since I went to a college where it snowed ALL winter. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change my choice of college and I'm grateful for all the beauty each season brings. Especially the spring since it makes me think of new life and growth.

Yesterday, we actually got some freezing rain. It was super cold. Enough ice that school was dismissed early. For that winter, I thank you. It was nice to start the weekend a few hours early. But when I got home, I couldn't help but to daydream about...summer & the beach. I found this quote on Pinterest and it is so true:

Yup, that sums up summer beach life quite well. It is the only week of the year that I actually make no plans whatsoever. But since we have a few many more months until summer, I'm excited about this movie coming out soon....

The book was great and it takes place in the exact beach location we visit each summer. The same one where Todd and I fell in love. The movie was filmed there too so I'm excited to kick these winter blues away for a few hours while I watch and dream of the beach. If you have not read the book, it's not too late to do so before it hits theaters February 14th. I've seriously never been so excited about Valentine's Day before!

What's your favorite season? I imagine many people love fall and I respect that. Good food and great scents. However, despite how I have felt in the past, I'm officially locking in summer as my favorite season. 

145 more days to go...

-S

A Dog's Life

Not a care in the world. Pure bliss.

Happy Wednesday!

-S

New Year, New Look

Notice some changes around here? How can you not?!

After totally messing up my original design that I made a year ago, I decided I'd rather just invest in a template. Let's face it: life is busy. We both work really hard and the last thing I want to do at night is work on html codes for a blog template. Now I can just relax and simply blog.

Our new template is completely different in style and colors than our old one. In deciding what I wanted, I examined my favorite blogs. I noticed that most of them had real simple templates and were easy to read. Then I searched Etsy for blog templates and came across Nudge Media Design. Kathy, the designer, was SO easy to work with and accommodating to some changes I wanted. The best part was that the template was super easy to install. I'm one happy gal!

More life updates to come! Stay tuned :)

-S

Oops

Well....I was messing around with our blog this evening and feeling some change. In the process of editing html with new codes and such, I lost our old template.

Did I back it up beforehand? No.
Did I learn a lesson? Yes.
Will we be getting a new template now? Yes.
Do you feel like messing with it anymore right now? No.

As I type this, it's almost midnight on Friday. Why I'm still up is unknown (I'm usually a granny) but I do know that the more I get frustrated with blogger the more I want to go to bed. So I'm embracing the simple look for tonight and calling it quits. Anybody have recommendations for sites with pre-made templates? I'm even considering paying to have one designed so I don't have to deal with it. Maybe that would inspire me to write more ;)


**update** I finally did it...bought a template. I've contemplated buying one for years and I'm so excited to finally see it once the designer finishes editing it with my requests. I'm a little nervous that I'll still like it in the end since I'm such an indecisive person but there is no turning back. So stay tuned and come back soon to see what I chose. I think you may be really surprised :) 

Hello 2013

Last night we enjoyed dinner out with some friends and hosted a party at our house. We had so much fun saying goodbye to 2012 and ringing in the new year complete with sparklers, poppers, Catan (a board game for all you non geeks out there) and Ryan Seacrest of course. It is moments like that in the midst of chaos and conversation where I just take a moment to quietly pause, look around the room and just thank God for so many precious friendships in our life.

I also took time to reflect on the year we were leaving behind. Todd and I had some big life changes in 2012. For instance, at the start of 2012 we were pretty certain the following would happen one way or another:

• complete our long journey of education and degrees
• move
• get a puppy
• find jobs

Those four listed did happen and they happened SO fast. They were certainly awesome changes. Yet as I have learned, the good changes can actually bring upon both good and bad stress. In the midst of all, I feel we have been such slackers at documenting our lives in pictures and our blog. I'm hoping that no matter what 2013 brings, we can at least take more photos and take more time to reflect.

Also, looking ahead we are praying that we I can aim to make 2013, less stressful. I'm excited about this year as we already are feeling more settled, loving our jobs and overall just feel incredibly blessed from the Lord. It's hard to say for certain what will come about this year but we are already awaiting one awesome miracle that will arrive in July and NO it is not me. Official post to come on that :) 

We hope this year is great to you and yours! The best is yet to come!

Cheers!
-S