Welp! Finished them!
Here is an awkward self-portrait photo shoot of me wearing the goods. (Do you smile? Teeth? No teeth? Eye contact? No eye contact? Too stressful.)
The red infinity scarf is for my mama. The purple headband is for another cold weather dweller. The recipient which I cannot yet announce because it’s a gift, and it is currently sitting in my closet, not in theirs.
For this guy…
Thanksgiving 2011
For our June Thanksgiving that we can both remember today since we can’t be together on the November Thanksgiving.
St. G June Thanksgiving
For these guys, who we’ve spent the last five Thanksgivings with and who will continue the tradition (just without J and me) this year. Can I also just tell you what a stinkin privilege it is to have parents/in-laws who are buddies and who hang out all the time? Even without us! 🙂
Cute couple on the left— J’s parents
Cute couple on the right– my parents
For new Thanksgiving memories that will be made around the table with dear friends today.
And mostly, for a God who whispers gently to me when I feel lonely, but Baby Girl, look at all I’ve given you.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Let me tell you a little something something. We are on the downward slope of this deployment y’all. Still way, way, way too many get ups to count but little things need to be celebrated so “whoo!” At this little-more-than-halfway phase I think it’s a perfect time to reflect, assess, and reevaluate. Wow, hi, I’m a teacher.
I need to remind myself that I prefaced these goals with the following: “I feel freedom to pursue these goals, not pressure to achieve them.” Let’s take a little looksee at the First Half Goals and see how I did (some of these goals I mentioned here, some of them I kept to myself).
Start each morning digging in the Word.
I’m proud of my progress on this goal. Largely in part to God being God and partly in part to working through Beth Moore’s Patriarch study, this semester I’ve had a season of really intentional, exciting personal Bible study. I’m super jazzed about that. And really thankful for it. And committed to committing to it. Know what I’m saying? A commitment sandwich, if you will. With a real thick layer of grace in the middle.
Record my days and my thoughts and my dreams using Project Life.
Here’s the thing. I bought the binder, and was all set to start but then I found out that one of my favorite bloggers, Elise Blaha Cripe, (we have the following in common: tangerine wedding colors, DIY passion, sorority presidents, military spouses, bloggers. We have the following differences: she is wildly successful and self-employed from her blog. I am not.), well I found out she designed the next Project Life kit and it is available mid-December. So I did a little pros and cons list in my head of starting Project Life and not using her design or waiting and using her design. The winner? I’m waiting and using her design.
Pray for Jeff’s platoon and their wives by name.
While I have more or less been in a continual praying posture covering Jeff and his platoon since the second he left, (Jesus, please, please, please, help, help, help, thank you, thank you, thank you.) I’d like to be more disciplined in praying specifically by name for soldiers and spouses in the second half.
Memorize Psalm 91
I’m just going to tell you straight up that this did not happen.
Have people over once a month.
I totally kicked this goal’s booty. Since moving on post I increased my goal to twice per week. It’s going swimmingly. Hosting is my happy.
Journal Daily
Nope. Not even close.
Blog four times per week.
Fail. But I did increase my postings pretty dramatically in the last few months and feel like I’m slowly turning a task into a habit. That would be ideal.
Invite platoon wives over.
Check. And check. Love them so much!
Facebook every other day and not on phone.
Not only fail, but epic fail. I like Facebook. I don’t know how to stop liking it.
Read up on financial planning.
Why, yes, yes, I did. In fact, I also just finished Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Revisited. Which reminds me, it’s due at the library today.
Learn a new skill every three months.
Well…. I didn’t learn to play the piano or speak a different language (so far… but we’ve still got time) BUT I learned:
So I’d say that goal went well.
Try two new recipes per week.
Pretty good progress on this when I’m home and not travelling. I’ve found some gems that I can’t wait to cook for J.
Improve in CrossFit and yoga.
My yoga routine drastically decreased since this summer. I miss it and my body is reverting to its unstretchy self. My Crossfit has been average; I need to be more brave in working on techniques that I’m not strong in rather than gravitating towards WODs that involve the things I’m good at.
See my body as God sees it. Hurt like He hurts every time I think poorly of it.
Ugh… not so much. I have good days and bad days with this but overall I still am consistently struggling with my self-image. Yuck. I have found it is especially challenging when I don’t have my super affirming, encouraging, gushy husband around. This goal will be a permanent fixture on my list.
Serve. Serve. Serve. Repeat
Loving this calling on my life right now. Grateful that I have time in my days to follow through with this goal.
Next post I’ll discuss my new (and overflow) goals for the second half. (Don’t forget the scoreboard is always 0-0 at the start of the 3rd quarter.)
I’ve been doing some growing up lately.
Quite literally today, as it is my birthday. It’s only 9am and I’ve achieved the stunning feat of turning a whole year older. So that was exhausting and I’ve already excused myself from all other chores today.
But before today, before I erased the 2 and replaced it with a 3 on the back end of my twenty-somethings, I was moving towards this grown up self. Don’t worry, there is much of the grown up world that I refuse to adapt or adopt. For example, I am vehemently opposed to ever being “too old” for certain literature, or Disney songs, or food fights, or talking in an accent, or hide and seek, or trampolines.
However, there are a few grown up things that are necessary for now.
So as of this month as a pseudo grown up,
1. I use sunscreen daily (and by that I mean I am trying to use 30 SPF instead of 8 SPF… baby steps).
2. I wear non-booty jean shorts that come from the Misses’ section instead of the Juniors’ section (and by that I mean I have a mental breakdown in the Target dressing room when I realize that I can no longer appropriately wear shorts from the Juniors’ section. Because I’m married, and I’m a teacher, and it just seems fundamentally wrong to show that much thigh skin).
3. I take vitamins. The hard kind, not the chewy kind (and by that I mean I take a fish oil capsule every morning and some women’s multivitamins that I realized yesterday expired on 12/31/09).
So if you see me and my skin isn’t sunburned, my bones look strong from the extra calcium, my hair is shiny from the fish oil and my shorts are appropriate length, feel free to contribute it to being 23.
I’m also trying to be better about being on time. Which was never ever a problem for me before and I just figured out why. In high school I was always on time because if I wasn’t my whole team had to run laps. In college I was always on time because I could roll out of bed 10 minutes before class and get there in three minutes on my bike. (Yes, that does mean I wore yogapants/workout clothes 5 days a week). After college I was always on time because all I had to do to “go to work” was walk upstairs from my basement bedroom (one of the million perks of being a live-in Nanny). At Fort Leonard Wood I was always on time because a.) there were three stoplights in the town and b.) everything was within a five minute radius. But here, for the first time I’ve been LATE (gasp!) A LOT! The reason is I still am of the mindset that I can get anywhere I need to go in ten minutes. And in Fayetteville, that. just. doesn’t. happen.
So yesterday, I’m getting ready to head out the door to Bible study when I realize I haven’t eaten dinner. Shoot! Ok, I have time to throw together a smoothie. I make them healthy and they are quick and easy right? haha. Yeah.
So I whip out the Magic Bullet that we may or may not have registered for at Target, and throw in spinach, broccoli, kale, strawberries, a banana, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, egg whites, the works. At this point I’m only running two minutes behind so I would have been fine, but the Magic Bullet (MB) is the most unmagical appliance ever invented. I can trace 75% of my stress back to moments where I’m counting on the MB and it fails me. And yet I still trust it, trust that it will do ANY JOB IN 10 SECONDS OR LESS!! (Call now and we’ll throw in a free one!). I assume (silly me) that a mere eight months of use isn’t too much for such an appliance. Soon I have a massive smoothie leakage coming from the “guaranteed” machine. [four minutes behind] At this point I’ve gotten verbal, speaking to it, trying to convince it to do its job. I’m quite the pep talker normally but the MB just stares at me. In frustration I reach for a rag to clean up the smoothie mess and knock over the entire carton of cottage cheese. Of course it hits the floor on its side and explodes little cottage cheese balls all over. I mean all over. Like up my leg, in the cabinets (What? They weren’t even open!) all over the floor, under the oven (and we all know that’s a scary place). [7 minutes behind] Instead of yelling at MB, I give it my best mom-disappointed-face, which is typically way more effective. Still nothing. I’m trying to clean up the cottage cheese and realize how late I am. I decide that I will clean it up when I get home, and then I think no then Jeff will come home and there will be cottage cheese everywhere, and then I think ok so he’ll clean it up, and then no no no that’s so rude, and then ok so we’ll leave it and I’ll clean it up tomorrow, and then no, I don’t want to have to clean this up on my birthday, and then.. No pause. I for real thought that. I didn’t want to clean up cottage cheese on my birthday. Excuse me? Unreal- and so I end up cleaning it up right away. For the sake of Jeff and my birthday of course. [15 minutes behind].
The natural thing to do when you’re late and mad at the MB is to look in the freezer for your hidden stash of thin mints. So I did that. [17 minutes behind]. But they were all frozen together so I had to eat five at a time, which kinda hurt my jaw. But I did that twice cuz I was mad and I deserved them, ok? So ten thin mints later [20 minutes behind] I stomp into the bathroom to brush all of the chocolate out of my teeth [22 minutes behind]. By this time my stomach hurts and I’m mad at myself for consuming half a row of cookies for no reason. [23 minutes behind) but I finally make it into my car and start sipping my healthy smoothie (which has lost its health glory in light of the ten cookies I just inhaled). It tastes like pureed broccoli. I end up being late. But I arrived and was the first one there. Of course.
So today on my big girl birthday, I will be using sunscreen, taking my vitamins, wearing longer shorts, leaving earlier than normal to meet my friends for lunch, and hoping that the big wrapped present in the living room is the new food processor that I am wishing for.
I have never observed Lent but this year it seemed like a natural time to examine practices and habits in my life that need a critical eye. (Not having a full time job/schedule does wonders for opening up time for deep thoughts like these.) I see Lent as a period of sacrifice, where followers of Christ mimic in an extremely small way what it means to give something up, in reflection of Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. It’s a chance to rid your spiritual closet, and replace the things you’ve removed with time or actions that bring you closer to the Lord.
It’s not just an excuse to go without brownies for 40 days. That’s called a diet.
I think that Lent, when done genuinely and purposefully, is a beautiful concept. It’s incredibly humbling to realize how utterly small the “sacrifices” are that we make for Jesus, in light of what He did for us.
This year as Lent rolled around I began to pray that the Lord would reveal to me practices in my life that I need to groom or remove. I didn’t have an intention of giving up something for forty days but was open to what a posture of humility and teachability would bring. [Humility= hard. Teachability= way hard.]
You know what I felt convicted to groom after that? My newfound obsession with Pinterest.
Trivial? Yeah, probably. But, guys, let me share with you why this actually did mean something to me.
I looove Pinterest. And I maybe don’t so much love the website as I love the idea of looking at ideas. I can spend as long as you’d dare me to on Pinterest because it really never ends and you’ve certainly never seen everything. When listing my favorite activities I would say: crafting, organizing, cooking, fitness, writing. Um hello? Those hobbies alone could host at least 37 full days of surfing the site.
I know I’m not the only one who enjoys Pinterest and I’m certainly, FOR REAL, not saying it’s a bad or ugly thing. The bad and ugly thing was my heart as I was “pinning.” Creative idea sharing hideously morphed my big ol’ heart into a covetous monster with a discontent spirit. I want that. Maybe I’ll go buy one of those today. I wish I could have that. I’m never going to have money for that. That couch is so much cuter than ours; maybe we should get a different one. That house is cuter than ours; maybe we should get a different one. I think [nameless friend] should start using some of her organization pins right about now. Oh cmon! Why did [nameless friend] steal my idea? [Nameless friend] doesn’t even like turquoise! Oh, really? [Nameless friend] suddenly cares about fitness? Yeah, right.
Gag. Puke. Vomit.
Ugly right? I’m embarrassed to even write that those were Lindsay thoughts. But they were, and they’re ugly. They didn’t all come at once in an italic meanie frenzy but I have had them amongst better, fluffier, nicer thoughts. They need both grooming and removing. Actually, pretty much just removing. So I’ve been on a hiatus from Pinterest. Instead of idly clicking on the Pinterest tab of my browser, I’m trying to use that time to be thankful. And content. Which is surprisingly hard after you’ve seen all of those fabulous DIY project ideas. Do I miss it? Every day. But I’m refreshed at the thought that all of my current ideas are my own, life is looking a little more original without pinning. How long will it last? I don’t know. Until I can approach idea sharing with a heart that is pleasing to the Lord. I have enough. I have more than enough. I’m done with spending my one precious life wishing for more.
I made five really great friends a few months ago. It was perfect because I got to see them every day. One was a strong leader who was always stepping in for justice, one was a bartender with a knack for getting in trouble but her fun sass made her the life of any party. One was a woman who gave up her dream career to support her husband’s, and one was a dedicated mother who would do anything for her family. The other was a husband who consistently put his wife’s dreams before his own and stayed home to watch their daughter.
I loved being with them because they were all familiar with the Army life. They understood this environment that is filled with foreign acronyms and heartbreaking goodbyes and trips to the Commissary. They knew what it was like to live in a brand new place where you don’t know a single person and your mom and best friends are in another time zone. They had experienced the agony of an unforeseen separation from the love of your life. I admired their incredible strength; the way they handled deployment after deployment and how they helped others instead of wallowing in their own despair. They juggled the constant unknowns and lack of control with just the right mixture of poise and sass. Mostly I just adored their friendship with each other. I’ll admit it made me extremely jealous. I desire that type of community, that type of open door policy among best friends, the meet-you-at-the-hospital-no-matter-what-time-of-day-it-is loyalty. I envy them because I know what that type of friendship is like.
The Army life, though honorable and good, is certainly not an easy one. It’s hard to be the only one of your college friends that doesn’t have a job, because you’ve had to move two times in the last six months. It’s hard to explain to someone unfamiliar with the military life what it’s like to never feel completely settled.
I had so much in common with those friends, but the biggest things were the pride we all felt for the sacrifices our spouses are making for freedom and the resolution we all made to make the best out of this crazy military adventure.
I didn’t blog about my friends earlier because frankly I was a little embarrassed by them. A lot of people judged them before they got to know them and had the wrong impression. I didn’t want to publicly admit that I spent so much “bonding” time with these friends.
Plus, it’s a little awkward to tell people that your newest best friends are characters from a TV show.
On the Lifetime channel no less.
Yes, my friends Claudia Joy (who names their kid that? Just go by one name!), Roxie, Pamela, Denise and Roland are the stars in Army Wives [insert eye roll and judgement here.. just get it out]. I’d always wanted to watch the show but felt like it was so cliche for an actual Army wife to do that. (Like, do you think polygamist wives spend a few hours of their day watching Sister Wives? I dunno. Maybe.) But once I started it I was completely hooked, for all of the reasons above.
I recently watched the final episode and oh man was I dreading pushing play on that. I just so sincerely did not want it to end. I felt like I had to say goodbye yet again to good friends this year. And quite honestly, and maybe pathetically, I really miss it. I think about them, well, a lot. Sometimes, I talk about them at dinner (Jeff and I refer to them as “the girls,” which makes me feel better about my obsession).
This fascination with the show and its characters just revealed to me what I’ve known about myself for a long time: I deeply and intensely desire community. And when I’m in a chapter where I don’t have that, I feel a little bit out of place and a lotta bit lonely . God has been taking a little longer than I had anticipated wrapping that chapter in my life up. (hint! hint! Lord!) I was under the impression that we (God and I) were just doing a four month stint at the no job, new place, few friends bit. But, apparently the chapter is in fact going to be a little longer.
But I’m forever comforted by this big, loving God that I serve, because he promises to give me the desires of my heart. Plus, I know that He too loves the idea of community for His people. I believe that He will provide my own group of Army Wives for me (they may not be as witty, or bad ass but that’s ok) and I cannnnn’t wait.
In the meantime, I may or may not be re-watching Season 5.
Well, this post is neither funny nor insightful. Is it ok if I just do a dull little paragraph and then upload some cute pics? Thanks for being gracious.
This week has been full of Jackson kisses and cuddles. And since I can’t really make that interesting to blog about each day, I’ll just do a wrap up of the week.
My mom and I have had some quality bonding time in between feedings and diaper changes. The weather hasn’t been too cooperative but we’re pretty captivated by a certain little one, so it hasn’t bothered us. It’s been so much fun to spend the days with my dear Momma.
More pictures to come, but here is a little peek into our week!
Making beef jerky to bring home to the Hubs
uh... not convinced about this bath thing
A little help here?
Fresh and clean!
Skyping with Uncle Jeff
Contemplating life's complexities
Mima & JJ
"Boots on the ground"-- lunch at a Japanese restaurant
The Dude.
Game night
Jax doing his lunges reps
Suit Up Party!
I love my siblings!
Beautiful sis
newlymissus 