Friday's Here!

I had a really solid week. I'm 98% recovered from being sick and I'm pretty much back into my normal routine. And it feels so great. I'm linking up with Oh Hey, Friday to share five things about my week. A couple of favourites, a comical predicament and some inspiration. 

{one}

Gold. I've never been a lover of gold. I have always preferred silver jewellery and was of the mindset gold stuff made things look tacky not classy. Except I bought a t-shirt at Target a few weeks ago that had some gold in it and I saw a blanket at Winners and some canvas prints with gold writing. I have to admit gold is growing on me.

{two}

Pinterest

Donuts. I have a specific craving for a vanilla dipped sprinkle donut like the one pictured above. Except that every time I go into Tim Horton's to get one they don't have what I'm looking for. Sure there are sprinkle donuts but the past two weeks they've been heart sprinkles or the rectangle type of sprinkles. And by golly I want round rainbow sprinkles on my donut. I would also like a good cup of black tea along with my sprinkle donut to balance out the sweetness.

{three}

I'm waiting on some prints I ordered from Etsy and I was just matched with my Galentine's Day swap partner from the Blogging Elite. Which means I've got so much fun mail to receive and send in the next few weeks! It makes me so excited. Mail makes me so very happy!

{four}

Pinterest

This quote. It speaks to me in a big way. I'm a pack rat, a borderline hoarder and have a lot of difficulty getting rid of anything that has any sort of emotional attachment. Whenever I attempt to declutter I always justify keeping things by saying one of two things: "I might need this someday" or "I can't get rid of that because...*insert random memory*". Which, for some things is crazy, I am definitely going to make it a goal to be more intentional and serious about decluttering in the coming months. 

{five}

Thursday we had a potluck at work. I made honey garlic chicken and was pleased with the outcome and nervous about I was going to transport the chicken to work. I put the chicken laying flat on the floor of the passenger side of my car and it made it safely into town without problem. Parking at work is a bit of a nightmare. It's all on street parking and with the snowbanks piled as high as they are it takes some manoeuvring to get close to the curb (snowbank) so that you don't get a mirror taken off by a passing car and also not so close that you get stuck in a snowbank. So I parked...and then I realized I had to get the chicken out.  I was optimistic at first and thought maybe I could squeeze between the snow bank enough to open the passenger door but upon further inspection there was no way that was happening. I knew what I had to do. Somehow I needed to get the chicken across the seats without tipping the foil pan and spilling sauce all over my seats. I think we all know where this story is going...made it safely over the passenger seat...did not make it over the drivers seat. Honey Garlic sauce puddle right in the middle of the driver's seat. Of course I didn't have time to clean it because I was standing on the side of the street and I had to go to work. Eight hours later I drove home sitting on a grocery bag but turned my heated seats on out of habit. 

If anyone has any advice on getting honey garlic sauce out of upholstery and/or get the smell of garlic out of my car I am all ears.  

Show Love

Long before I started blogging myself I read blogs so I know that this time of year it's pretty common for bloggers to choose a word for the upcoming year. Focus on that word and make it a theme for the 12 months ahead. I knew it was something I wanted to do in 2014 and I've been thinking about which word to choose for over a month now. I narrowed it down to five and carefully considered each one before making a decision. 

Humility 

Grace

Joy

Love

Peace

Humility. For awhile this was the word I was stuck on, but then I also wanted to be more confident. That led me down a very confusing train of thought about balancing being confident and being humble. For a few days I thought that I'd made a decision and in 2014 I would spend time discerning how to improve my humility and also improve my confidence. Then I thought about it some more and decided that challenge may be a little advanced so I moved on to the next option.

Grace. It's part of my blog name, it's one of my favourite words, I would totally use it as a name for if it wasn't for every third kid being named Grace/Gracie. It seemed like a good choice, until it seemed too easy. Not challenging enough. Still one of my favourite words and concepts but I wasn't sure how to really make it into a theme for the whole year.

Joy. Focus on finding joy in the little things, being joyful in all situations and circumstances. It's pretty straight forward. I wasn't feeling it though, it seemed like a word I had to consider because it "make sense" but when I really thought about it I couldn't get myself excited about making it my word.

Love. There aren't many things in this world that are better than love. God's love, romantic love, love between friends, family, loving the little things. Lots of options for love. But again, it just didn't feel right. Somehow declaring that my word of the year would be Love felt flat and boring. 

Peace. I'm a worrier by nature. Anxiety is something I am extremely familiar with. I could use some more peace in my life. I couldn't sell myself on it though, like love, it felt like a word I was only considering because it I should be, so I moved on.

Which left me with all the words on my list crossed off for one reason or another. So I looked at all the words I had originally written down and tried to find a commonality between everything. After a few minutes something jumped out at me and I knew almost instantly without having to spend days mulling it over that my 'word' for 2014 would be a (short) phrase.

What I like about this phrase is that it's short enough to be easily remembered, vague enough that it can apply to all situations and yet specific enough that there's no questions about the focus. Show Love. I think it does a good job of encompassing a lot of the aspects I was trying to focus on with each of the words I was originally considering. I can show love by bringing joy to others, by being gracious, by being peaceful, praising God, by being humble, there are so many ways to show love. To myself, God, friends, strangers, the planet. I'm really looking forward to challenging myself to showing love over the next twelve months. 

How will you 'Show Love' in 2014? I'd love to know what word you chose for this year!

'Twas The Day After Christmas

I had such a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. God is good. 

Christmas Eve we had supper at my aunt & uncle's before church then we went to church where my cousin's baby was baptized. Afterwards we all went back to my aunt & uncle's and just enjoyed each other's company. Watching the excitement of my three year old cousin A. was the absolute best. We had given baby M. a present for her baptism and didn't want A. to feel left out so we brought a little something for her too. (And by little something I mean a single Christmas ornament that we found at Wal-Mart for under $5.) When she found out she was allowed to open it then she carefully but enthusiastically tore off the pink paper and squealed with delight and yelled "A decoration!" then she ran around the room to show everyone her new "decornation" and simultaneously offering up a "sank you". I also loved watching her in church as she proudly stood up on the pew, hymn book in hand and sang her heart out. I am so thankful for her and pray with every fibre of my being someday it's my little girl keeping everyone entertained Christmas.

Christmas Day we opened presents and I was seriously blessed. My biggest surprise present was a Magic Bullet Deluxe set with a bunch of different blades and attachments for the cups! I haven't gotten a change to try it out yet but I see A LOT of smoothies in my future. And homemade salsa. And iced coffee. I may even attempt to recreate Second Cup's Frozen Hot Chocolate! 

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I also got an amazing gift from my friend who I met through church back when I was in university. We send each other a Christmas package and I was so excited when I opened this on Christmas morning. At this point you all know how much I love words of affirmation and I love how much thought went into this gift. I'm using a lot of willpower not to read all those little notes right away but I really do want to save them and read one each day in 2014. I've also been thinking about how I need to get back into journalling with a real pen & paper. The next time I'm in town I'm going to pick up a notebook and for each day of 2014 I will glue in the quote I pick from the jar each day and scribble down a few words about the day, draw a few doodles, and by the end of the year I'll have an amazing scrapbook. I think I even have a blank Smash* Book that might be perfect for this project. That's a post for another time though...back to Christmas!

I got some great new clothes including this hoodie that has been on my wish list for months! 

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I also got some new make up, a supply of body washes & lotions to last well into the new year and a few gift cards to spend once things quiet down a little. 

And of course the kitties got some new toys too. 

We enjoyed Christmas dinner with my Dad's side of the family and then spent the evening with my mom's side. I can't put into words how thankful I am to have so many aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. And that family really is a priority. I can't imagine growing up without cousins and aunts and grandparents, but I know that for so many it's hard to imagine growing up with that kind of extended family. Mine certainly isn't perfect and there was the usual arguments about how many chairs we need and the uncles probably had one too many glasses of homemade wine but that's life. 

I'm off to spend the rest of the day enjoying the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives marathon on the Food Network making homemade pizzas for supper and visiting with a family friend this evening. I hope everyone is enjoying time with family & friends! 

Your Story

I know I'm not the only one who loves TED Talks. I've watched a lot of them over the years, but this one remains my favourite. And I think it's pretty relevant to share with the blogging world. There are so many blogs out there it can be hard to sit down and write a post, especially when you feel like you have nothing worth saying or nothing to say that hasn't already been said. The thing is, nobody has told your story. Everyone has their own unique perspective about the world around them. It's true there might be 1000 other blogs about "life as a 20 something" but they're not your blogs. You might come across someone experiencing the same situation, but even then your perspective and circumstances will certainly alter the way you handle these situations and just maybe your perspective can help someone else. Or you will find encouragement and inspiration in the way someone else has dealt with an obstacle. 

So keep writing and sharing your story because nobody else can do it for you. 

Motivation Affirmation

I find inspiration and motivation in all the usual places; friends, family, Pinterest. The thing that motivates me the most though is words of affirmation. I love getting handwritten notes, sweet texts, blog comments, e-mails...words are my love language. 

We have a tradition at camp called "Warm Fuzzies", each staff member has a 'mailbox' that hangs on the wall as you go up the stairs to the counsellors' sleeping quarters. During the summer everyone writes encouraging notes to each other and drops them in the mailbox resulting in little pick me ups and acknowledgment of jobs well done randomly throughout the summer. Warm Fuzzies is one of my favourite camp traditions, I save everyone I've ever gotten. At the camp I grew up at we did Warm Fuzzies even as campers and even those are tucked away neatly in my closet. I fully admit to dumping out my envelope from time to time during the year and reading through the notes to give myself a bit of a pick me up. 

Everyday we do something called Cabin Inspection, an intense friendly competition between the cabins to keep their space neat & tidy and earn points towards Cabin of the Week. Occasionally Cabin Inspection also includes some bribery in the form of chocolate & "love notes". I proudly display most of those on the bulletin board behind my desk in the office and then they come home with me to be added to the summer's scrapbook. The note above is from one of the sweetest campers who comes to our camp for adults with intellectual disabilities. The list below was made by an entire cabin of adult campers with a physical disabilities and is a Top 10 List of reasons why the director and myself are awesome. My favourite is #7, because matching clothes are fun!

I'm so thankful for my job and the opportunity to work with so many wonderful staff and campers. And for these reminders to keep me motivated and inspired to work hard and help make camp a magical place. 

I'm linking up today with Christina who? and I Have A Messy Bun!

Friday Five

 

{one}

I am super excited for this weekend! I'm the one doing the traveling but it is well worth ever second of the drive to spend the weekend with one of my best camp friends!

{two}

The only thing I love more than a good love story is a love story that invovles camp. Which is probably why this story in the NY Times this week made me smile so much. 

 {three}

I seriously love Luke Bryan's new album. I've been cycling through which song is my favourite, currently it's this one.

{four}

Still no word on grant money to make my job full-time...I was really hoping there would be some news by the end of this week but no such luck! I am doing my very best to have patience and trust in God's timing.

{five} 
I've been thinking a lot about this quote recently. I don't necessarily agree with it 100% but it reminds me of someone and there's just something in my head that keeps coming back to it.
 

Goals!

I've spent this morning drinking my coffee and catching up with all of the blogs I haven't been reading while at camp. I will fully confess that I was relieved to see so many posts about other people feeling a little uninspired and stuck in a bit of a blogging rut. I've been feeling the same way. There are so many stories I want to shareI but I can never seem to find time to write them all down. And when I do set aside some time for blogging I end up staring at a blank screen for 15 minutes, making myself write something down, deleting it and finding something else to do. 

A blogger I've followed since I started this blog, Erica Ashley is hosting a Monthly Goal Link-Up which I am super excited about joining! I'm really going to commit to following through with some things this month and do my best to make August wonderful!

Blog 3x A Week

I may have a hectic and unpredictable schedule during the week but I know that if I really make it a priority I can find the time to post three times during the week! 

Be in the Moment

I'm going to break the rules and be a little vague about this one. I will say that September and the end of camp shouldn't be a big dark grey cloud looming over every moment of August. I need to enjoy the present and not worry about September. I can be realistic and manage my expectations but just because something is going to end doesn't mean I can't appreciate it now while it's happening.

Food for Thought

Today's Every Day in May Challenge topic is favourite quotes!

I love quotes, there's just something about the perfect words strung together to form something bigger that makes me really happy! 

I have so many favourites, but for the sake of just choosing one I've chosen the one below.

I've always been a really big believer that "God is in the details" and I always make a point when I'm doing children/youth ministry to teach that not only is God BIG, but He is also in all of the little things too. I think this quote does a good job of pointing out all the details and the vastness.