And... She's back!

Wow.  It's been a crazy 12 days.  Lots of snow days, furnace going out, work, and crazy busyness!  SHEESH!  But today, the kids are back in school, work is caught up (for the moment) and I've had tons of posts rattling around in my head so I'm ready to write!  LET'S GO!

Let's make this a Highlight of the Week/Thankful Tuesday post, shall we?

• Heat.  I'm so thankful for heat.  Our furnace went out last Thursday night and the temperature dropped 1 degree every hour overnight.  It was 42 when we woke up Friday morning.  It's no fun to get dressed when it's that cold, in case you were wondering. Thankfully, it was a quick and FREE repair (I still can't believe it!!!), but man... I have thanked God every time I've walked into our warm house over the past several days.  HEAT.  It's definitely a highlight of my week and something to be grateful for :).
• Jamie Grace's new album "Ready to Fly".  My daughter and I have listened to it on repeat since it came out a couple of weeks ago.  There are so many awesome songs, but my favorite for the moment is "To Love You Back":

• Gettin' my hair did. It had been a while and oh boy, the grays... they were bad. Highlights, low-lights, and a new cut and I feel like a new person!
• Urban Decay Naked 3... I have loved this palette since I got it for Christmas, but this week there have been a ton of great Valentine tutorials on you tube using the Naked 3 and I've been able to pull off several pretty rosey, pinky looks :).
• Worship.  I love to worship at our church, but I love blasting some music in my car, my house, while I'm washing dishes, and just praising my awesome God wherever or whenever the mood strikes me.  
• Netflix and how it recommends stupid shows to me that they know I'll love... like "The Lying Game"... Although, I'm not happy that I blasted through both seasons only to find out the show was canceled a year ago and there was NO ENDING.  Total cliffhanger at the end and no season 3... That's so mean.  

Have a fantastic Tuesday!  

Thankful Thursday #3

I've been thinking an awful lot lately about unanswered prayers... or rather, prayers that were answered, but not in my way.  I've prayed for God to do many, many things in my life.  And I don't mind being very specific with God, letting Him know exactly in detail how I think He should answer my prayer... Yah... I can be super selfish.

But thankfully, God doesn't always give me my way.  I was thinking this week about what if God had given me everything I'd ever prayed for... I would likely not have any of the blessings I currently have in my life.  Would I be married?  Maybe... but probably not to Brian.  Would I have children?  Yes... but likely not the two amazing ones I ended up with.  There's no telling what in the world I'd be doing for a living... I've prayed so many employment prayers it's not even funny :).  If God had answered one of those early prayers about what I wanted to be when I grew up I'd be a pretty crappy Astronaut or Neurosurgeon  (math and science are NOT my thing :)).

Is my life perfect?  No.  Not at all.  But, I love my life.  I love all the amazing people God's placed around me and the crazy, unbelievable opportunities He's given me.  I remember in college, when I'd changed my major for the 6th time in 4 years (yes, I'm one of those people), how I hated having to pick one thing and make that my career.  I don't think I ever verbalized what I wished for into a prayer, but I longed to be able to do all the things I enjoyed doing without having to pick just one.  Would you believe in the past year of my life, I've seen that wish come true?  I get to make graphics and tinker around with nerdy web stuff, I sell things on Ebay, I got to coordinate a wedding and had a BLAST doing it, I organized events for our church, I'm finally writing again (yay blog!)--something I've loved to do my whole life, and I've gotten to learn more about makeup artistry and test out my skills on some super sweet people. It's crazy.  And I have an amazing husband who is my biggest cheerleader and has always made it possible (financially, physically, and mentally :)) for me to do whatever I want to do. Man, I'm blessed.

So this week, I'm so thankful for all the times God's not let me have my way... His plan rules.  :)

Thankful Thursday #2

This T-shirt just about sums it up... I'm thankful for those people and moments in my life that just bring overwhelming, unicorn eating cake on a rainbow, joy. Is this shirt not hilarious?  It's my daughters and when she picked it out I said, "Yep!  That's you, alright!"  And she is.  That girl has been a bundle of joy since she entered this world 8 1/2 years ago.  She's so funny and just loves every second of life and the people in it.  Unless she's tired. Or hungry.  Then, she's a little scary :).  But other than that, she's the funniest, silliest goober God ever created :).  I love her :).

Her daddy is much the same way.  Both of them are "morning people"... ugh... Stupid morning people... but I am thankful for them.  Without their overwhelming cheeriness in the morning, my son and I (not-morning people) would likely be late in the morning and not be knocked out of our sleep-deprived funk before starting our day.  You can't be grumpy around those two... Well, to be fair, I totally have, but it's hard to stay grumpy when they are acting like goons :).

And I'm thankful for stomach-aching, coughing, head-pounding laughter... Oh man.  My husband, son, and I read something funny online last night and laughed and laughed for 30 mins.  This morning, my abs are so sore.  It was almost more than I could stand.  I love when I can find something my teenage son and I can "bond" over :).  The boy loves a good laugh.  And so do I.  When we talk about Star Wars and computer games, I can't always hang and act like I have a clue what he's talking about... but we can share a good laugh together.  He's so serious most the time... much like me... especially at his age.  So, when he laughs it brings me so much joy.  Man, I'm thankful for laughter.

Here's to all of us being "happier than a unicorn eating cake on a rainbow". Have an awesome Thursday!

Thankful Thursday #1

Gratitude... it's something I've been trying to have more of since I read Ann Voskamp's "One Thousand Gifts" last Summer.  Our family had a hard spring.  Lots of change.  Lots of hurt.  Lots of stress.  The last thing I wanted to do was be grateful, but once I started looking for the blessings, I realized they were all around me.  So, in 2014, I'm going to continue to work on my gratefulness and each Thursday, I'm going to blog about something I'm thankful for.

This week, I've been overwhelmed by some awesome music. The kids at church are working on a new song on Wednesday nights that is knocking my socks off ("Your Love For Me" Northpoint Kids).  And when their little voices shout during the song... I can't help but smile from ear to ear :). There's nothing quite like the sound of 50 kids worshiping God :).  I'm grateful to be a part of that.

And then, there's this song:

"Keep Making Me" Sidewalk Prophets

Lately, Sidewalk Prophets has been knocking it out of the park.  Their Christmas Album quickly became a family favorite and then I started hearing this song... It's so so awesome.  And makes me grateful for every struggle our family has ever faced...

So, this week, I'm grateful for music and how God can use a song to speak straight to my heart.

How about you?  What are you grateful for today?  Let's all strive to look for the blessings in every moment of every day and focus less on the things that rob our joy.