Category: real life

Logo Contest!

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I’m having a contest! I’d like a Kasia’s Kitchen logo that I can use for things. I’m good at making things on my phone with amazing apps, but not gifted in logo creating/branding. You  know what else I’m good at? Making cookies and cupcakes! So I decided, why not have a contest for people who are good at doodling/designing/branding to submit logos and I can reward the winner with what I’m good at, dessert! Logos can be submitted to me via email (kasialindsay@gmail.com) up until March 17th (I posted the original post on February 17th, so that’s one full month!). If I have a lot that I can’t decided between, I’ll post all the submissions for readers, friends, and family to vote on!

Again, not a designer and don’t know the lingo, but these are the things I’d like for a logo: Something I can use as a Facebook Page profile picture. Something I can upload to a website to order a custom stamp to stamp my food boxes. Something high resolution that I can send to people who request to use my recipes for something. As far as text it only needs to say Kasia’s Kitchen and my website link (kasiaskitchen.com). I’d like for it to have the look and feel of a hand sketched doodle. I’d like for it to incorporate cute hand written looking font, a rolling pin, and a cupcake. It can also include (but not as necessary) a whisk, an arrow, and apron, and/or an owl.

The winner will get TWO DOZEN custom sugar cookies or cupcakes. For cookies they’d get to decide the shape and colors. For cupcakes they’d get to decide the flavor. Note: If not in Slidell or Mississippi, cookies will probably be the best option because they ship better! For a list of flavors and shapes see this post. You can redeem the “win” at any time! Hello party that you are hosting soon! Or, party you haven’t planned yet. OR party for just you and a whole lot of Netflix.

If you have any questions for me or thoughts that you want to run  by me before creating your design, email me!

Giving Thanks – Part 1

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Yes, I’m aware that it’s not Thanksgiving anymore, I’m not that crazy, promise! However, during the Thanksgiving season my DNA (disciple – nurture – accountability) group challenged one another to come up with 50 things a week that we were thankful for. We also started reading 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Well, confession. They started reading it, I bought it. At the moment (and always) I was hooked on reading She Reads Truth and didn’t have time during the holiday season to add pleasure reading. Now I’m hooked on Love Does for pleasure reading. BUT, I am going to read 1000 Gifts, really! But despite my lack of reading, the act of giving thanks, being thankful, and living in a place where I look for ways to be thankful for everything sunk in deep with me. My “Type A” list loving self love this challenge. I’ve fallen back a bit, but still constantly looking for small, big, average, and spectacular things in my life to be thankful for. I decided why not share?! And we’ll just call it a series. Once a week I’m going to share 20 of the things I collected and will continue collecting. 50 seemed like a few too many for you guys to actually read. And I want you to read them! Because I want to brag or want you to know me better? No! But because I actually believe in this big time now. It’s helped change the way I see my days. Also, keep in mind I wrote many of the first 150-200 ish during the holiday season, sooo they might be seasonal (like pumpkin poptarts and peppermint mochas). So, I apologize in advance if I make you want something you can’t have until next fall/winter. Oops!

Two of my favorite synonyms for thankful are please and relieved. My favorite definition of thankfulness is warm friendly feelings of gratitude. These things please me. They make me feel relieved about life. They give me warm feelings. What does that for you? Will you join me in being thankful?

1. My DNA group*
2. Arise Church
3. Worship music
4. Starbucks tables
5. She Reads Truth
6. Pumpkin Pop-Tarts
7. Leopard print
8. Owl journals
9. Felt pens
10. Cooler days
11. Leaves to crunch
12. Unconditional love
13. The brick streets
14. The OWLs*
15. A God that heals
16. Glitter nail polish
17. Glitter
18. Coffee
19. The Starbucks morning regulars
20. Good Starbucks baristas

*DNA groups are small 3-5 accountability groups through Arise church, as stated above, stand for disciple – nurture – accountability.

*OWLs stands for Older Wiser Ladies. It’s a group of women who meet for dinner once a week who are single-ish, 28-31, and surrounded by college students who are 10 years younger than us.

2014: New Year, New Goals, New Resolve

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Last year I publicly declared that New Years Days was my new favorite holiday. I still agree with myself. Good job self! To borrow words from my year ago self – “It’s the second fifth (so I was a little slower this year) day of a new year. A year full of motivation, hope, and inspiration. Oh how I’m in desperate need of all those things and so excited about them. ” Last year when I wrote that, it was after an unintentional 3 month blog break because of the loss of my dad. I gave a somewhat sad update on the happenings up until that moment to catch you up, shared my reasons for restored hope, and share my goals for 2013. This year, surprise surprise, I took another unintentional break (just two-ish months this time). I’ll update you, but it won’t be sad this time!

Can we all just agree that November and December are insanely busy and a really hard time to make time for things you love doing like blogging? I now know November and December will always be hard for me to blog in. It’s just a busy season. In November I had two huge catering orders, two of my biggest, not to mention the things I had to bake and cook for holiday celebrations. I intentionally remembered the year mark of my dad no longer being on earth. I celebrated Thanksgiving three times. December was also just as full, baking, Christmas shopping, Christmas celebrations, visiting friends and family. All good updates!

Having a church family to celebrate this round of holidays with was more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. From the very first time we met in June, many of us strangers, especially me, our goal was to become a family, a group of people who are becoming disciples together, genuinely loving one another, who long to live on mission, genuinely loving our neighbors, so we can make disciples who make disciples. Most of these people, I’ve know for just 7 months, and I already can’t imagine my life without them. Last year I was terrified of three weeks off of work and wanted to get out of my town as quick as possible so I didn’t have to be alone. This year I wanted to be in my town because I knew I wouldn’t be alone. I wanted to share holidays with them. I still had sad moments where I missed my dad a lot, but it was survivable because I wasn’t alone. I had my Arise Church family. I had my loving, amazing friends. On my worst day of the year, the day I remember every moment of the day instead of random unexpected moments, that my dad isn’t here, I wanted to be with them. And they wanted to be with me. It was beautiful. Oh, and I had a wreck and am currently without a vehicle.

So to borrow words from my self again:  “And now it’s January. I have officially changed my favorite holiday to New Years. I reaffirm that New Years is my favorite holiday. It’s so full of hope, motivation, inspiration, and renewal. It truly is a breath of fresh air. Of course I know I’ll still have sad break down moments [and downs mixed in with the ups like being vehicle-less], but January and a new year feel like the sun coming out after a big scary tornado warning or hurricane landfall.”

I did look back at last year’s resolutions. Some of them were accomplished, some of them changed, some of them didn’t happen. BUT, that isn’t going to stop me from making a new set of goals for this year. Some synonyms of resolution are resolve, intent, intention, aim, and plan. My intent in resolving to make resolutions for 2014 is to be intentional and aim for my planned goals this year (like what I did there?). So without further blabbering ado (I wanted to say this but realized I didn’t know what it meant exactly, ado – hubbub, bustle, flurry, fuss), my goals for 2014.

  1. Take accountability deeper.
  2. Pay attention to food intake.
  3. Work out more.
  4. Read more – blogs and books.
  5. Connect more: A. In person, initiate hang outs with friends, text, call, respond more, and put away my phone when I’m with people. B. In the world wide web. Comment on blogs I read regularly. Be active in blog forums. Make blog friend connections.
  6. Write more – blogging and journal.
  7. Spend time with Jesus and don’t stop.
  8. Pray for my friends, family, and future (job, husband, calling, dreams, etc).
  9. Wear makeup more regularly.
  10. Buy less.
  11. Tithe more.
  12. Live UP so I can be thankful for the living IN that increases more and more and be more motivated and prepared to live OUT.
  13. I prefer even numbers, but if 13 is good enough for Taylor Swift, it’s good enough for me! Believe that I have enough of God’s grace and the ability to call on the Holy Spirit to make this (being trained to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live a more self-controlled, upright, and godly life) happen:

 

 

What are your goals? Share them with me! I’m a goal person, I love hearing about other people’s goals.

Calendar Journaling

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I briefly posted about this Calendar Journaling concept once on a Five Things Friday post. I didn’t go in depth, but now that I completed a whole year and bragged on the results, it seems like an appropriate time to talk a little more about it! On January 1st, I posted this picture with the following caption on Instagram and Facebook.

“A year ago today I started a calendar journal in an attempt to really pursue Jesus and feel connected to Him. I was committing to the smaller commitment of a tiny box vs daunting pages and pages of a journal. Today I finished it. Every box filled, all 365 of them. As a result of starting this practice, I also filled 1 and 1/2 regular sized journals with prayers. I’m hooked! Because of the calendar journal I’ve been able to discover so much about my patterns, sin and emotional. Knowing your patterns leads to planning for times you know will be harder. Which results in a more consistent walk with Jesus, less self condemnation, being motivated to seek purity and holiness by Jesus’ love for me and not being “motivated” by shame and “trying” not to sin because the Bible says not to. When we’re motivated by Jesus’ love, we want to sin less and less. Not just because we’re not supposed to sin, but because we don’t want to because of love! All that to say… If you want to feel closer to Jesus this year and wish you’d be more consistent, give this a try! Go buy a calendar right now.”

Last January, in a final cry out to cope with the grief of losing my dad right before the holidays and going through the holidays without him, I told Jesus I’d spend time with Him every day for two weeks, but that I didn’t believe that even He could make this better. Boy was I wrong. I am a OCD list-y type of person. I’m also an all or nothing type of person. I’ve attempted to journal many times before in my life, and always failed. Never consistent, no follow through. The daunting pages and pages of an empty journal both inspired and discouraged me. If I’d miss a day or a week, I’d want to go back and write for each one of those days, but know I couldn’t, so I just didn’t write at all. But, I also knew journaling had value. I knew especially now, if I was going to really give Jesus a chance, I needed to be able to write things down to see if He actually was changing things. I ran across a calendar journal idea on Pinterest. It was more complicated and beautiful than this, but I didn’t have time for crafty things, it was a new year and I wanted to start asap because I knew myself well enough to know if I didn’t start right then, I wouldn’t.

So basically, just go buy a journal! My first year I opted for a simple one. Notebook size for bigger squares, but no weekly schedule or days, each month took up two full size pages. This year I upgraded and am doing a monthly/weekly one. I’ll hit one word highlights in the month squares, and then write a little more on big squares. This isn’t your planner, it’s just a journal! Sure, you can use it as a planner too, it’s all up to you! It’s about you and what helps and works for you. Many things added up together helped transform my time with Jesus and my way more consistent relationship with him, but this by far was the biggest.

I’ll share what I do, but you can totally make it you and yours in any and every way possible! I like colors, so I write in a different color every day. I also get excited about a new month because I do a little monthly doodle at the top of each page that corresponds with the month’s theme. I write the significant things of the day. Example: “Starbucks Jesus time. Good work day. DNA group. Good convo with Britt.” Example: “Overslept. No Jesus time. Blah work. Sin struggles. Grief moment.” Example: “Arise. Love my church. Nap. Worked out.”  See, basic? I mean I fill up those squares, but it’s not a huge recap of each day. It’s hitting points and patterns I want to track and things I want to remember. I do miss days sometimes, at least one or two a week, but because of the format, it’s easy to remember the highlights of those days. This has helped me understand so much about my patterns! I know I struggle more with grief and sin on the weekends when I’m not around as many people. I know I have a horrible attitude about things when I miss spending time with Jesus in the mornings. I know that on Wednesdays when I have free afternoons and don’t make a plan for how I’ll use that free afternoon that I struggle with sin. I also was able to figure out some significant patterns to talk to my girl doctor about and realized I should be on medicine.

And guess what else? The sense of consistency and accomplishment calendaring journaling gave me, lead me to start writing prayers down in a real journal too. Never in my 30 years of life have a I finished a journal. Last year I finished a calendar journal, all 365 squares, and filled 1 and 1/2 regular journals with prayers. My Jesus time pattern is as follows: find a place (usually a table at Starbucks, but sometimes home), acquire coffee, pull out journals, Bible, pens, and/or book(s) and organize them, put in ear phones and play worship playlist on shuffle, fill out calendar journal for day before (and any missed days), start new day, pray by writing in prayer journal prayers of forgiveness and focus, read God’s word (usually along with She Reads Truth), pray for other things the Holy Spirit prompts.

So there you go, simple, nothing special, but life changing for me. If you are disappointed in your consistency and wish you spent more time with Jesus, give this a try.

How to Help Those Who Have Lost

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“You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” -Anne Lamott

When I first lost my dad, people asked me all the time how they could help me. When a little time had passed and people knew I was comfortable talking about it, they’d ask me how they could help others in their lives who were grieving. I actually did some research by asking many people I knew had lost people recently and not so recently. I don’t have heaps of wisdom or advice, but I’m going to share what I do know. I meant to write this a long time ago. A long, long time ago when my grief was still really fresh. Little did I know it would get “fresh” again the closer the year mark and holidays get and be a perfectly timed reminder and therapeutic thing for me to write.

The biggest thing to know and remember about grief is that every person grieves differently. Therefore, the number one thing you have to do is ASK. Yes, grieving people are fragile, but we’re not as fragile as you think we are. Asking us how you can help us is not going to make us break into a million pieces. We might cry when you ask, but you can handle it! Just hug us, or pat us comfortingly on the back, or just sit there. We’ll stop crying eventually and be able to tell you. And, we might not even cry in that moment! Asking a grieving person how you can help them, actually meaning it, and waiting for an answer, is the best first thing you can do.

Some people want to be alone. Some people want people there. Some people might want you there while they cry. Some people might want you there to do something that feels normal and gets their mind off things. Some people might need you to bring them a meal. Some people might need you to watch Netflix with them. Some people might need you to make them get up and fix their hair. It changes. It’s not a cut and dry cycle. In the first weeks, lots of people will be around. Lots of people will care. Lots of people will help. But as the time passes, the helping and caring people fade.

And grief, though it may change and go in and out of tougher cycles, it doesn’t fade as quickly as the helping and caring people do. If you have a friend that you genuinely care deeply about and want to walk with them through this hard time, I think the biggest thing you can do is to remember that it’s not over for them. All these suggestions are for expected grief moments. There are two different kinds of grief moments. The expected and the unexpected. Since the unexpected are, well, unexpected, it’s hard to plan for them! But I have a theory that if we plan for and have people who intentionally care about our expected moments, it will be easier to reach out to them when the unexpected, sometimes even harder, moments hit.

Get out your calendar and remember the important and more difficult days with and for them. Grief comes in moments and memories, but for a lot of people it also comes with dates. They might reach out to you when overwhelming moments come from unexpected moments and memories, but every person I asked, male, female, old, young, new loss, old loss, said they would never get angry or be annoyed if someone remembered their hard days. And, if you intentionally remember these expected grief times with them, they are more likely to reach out to you when the unexpected grief hits.

My dad died on November 18th. November to January was awful. For the first 6 – 8 months the 18th of every month was hard. I learned to expect it and know it would be hard. The 11th month was the first month that the 18th didn’t get to me. I’ve been told that after the first year, the monthly anniversaries aren’t hard, but the big expected ones continue to be difficult days. Do unexpected grief moments still come? Yes! And there simply isn’t anything any of us can do about those. But remembering the expected ones means a lot to someone who has lost.

Dates to remember: 

  • in the first year, the monthly date anniversary
  • the yearly anniversary
  • father’s days/mother’s day (if a parent)
  • the lost loved one’s birthday
  • when it’s a lost spouse, the wedding anniversary
  • holidays 

What can you do on those days? Nothing fancy is required! One of my best friends asked me early on how she could help and be there for me from afar (she lives in Georgia, I live in Mississippi). She added the 18th as a monthly reminder. On the 18th of every month faithfully this year she has text me and simply told me she knows what the day is, is praying for me, and asked me how I was. It meant the world to me! It wasn’t fancy, but it was perfect. Simply letting them know, “hey, I know what today is, I know it might and probably will be a rough day, and I’m thinking about you,” means so much.

On Father’s day my friend helped my other friend who lost her dad this year also and I host an intimate dinner party where we cooked our dad’s favorite things and invited “safe” people to remember them with us. Another person I asked questions to about her grief, said on her dad’s birthday she often asked friends to go out to eat to celebrate his memory.

For holidays, make sure they have places to go. Help them come up with a proactive plan to make it through the holiday season, especially in the first couple of years. Grief is magnified during the holidays because it was often the time you saw your loved one most.

Also help them proactively plan for the year anniversary and other years if it’s still hard. That’s not just from me either! It’s from multiple counselors. Being proactive is the wisest thing a grieving person can do. If they can’t be proactive on their own, help them come up with a plan. On the weeks and days leading up to the big hard days (especially the first year anniversary, feeling the effects of how hard that one is now), check on them. Pray for them and let them know you are praying for them. Be patient with them! They probably already feel like they are being a burden and that everyone else thinks they should be more okay than they feel. Let them know it’s okay! Make them feel like how they feel is normal. Don’t expect them to come to you. They might! But they also might not have the emotional strength. Go to them. Initiate.

And lastly, I can’t stress patience enough! I like words and quotes, so naturally I’ve googled “grief quotes” a lot. One quote that I didn’t quite agree with says the grief doesn’t change you, it reveals you… How I hope that isn’t true, haha. I’ve been a mess at many different moments throughout this year. I was mean to people. I forgot how to filter my thoughts and feelings and just spilled them all out to everyone, pushing many people away. I was destructive at different times. I’m not how I was before I lost, but I’ve figured out how to be balanced again. Be patient. If they are mean to you, they probably don’t mean to be. If they are making bad choices coping with their grief, help them find their way back to truth and non-destructive ways in love, not condemnation. Don’t give up on them. Be patient.

To summarize my rambly advice on how to love grieving people well:


Ask. Remember. Pray. Plan. Patience. Normalize. Initiate. 

And in case you need inspirational motivation or a reminder of why you should care and/or do this for the people in your life, scripture is full of them. God had a heart for orphans, widows, the fatherless  and the mourning, we should too. 

Romans 12: 15-16a
“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another.”

James 1: 27
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Deuteronomy 10:18
“He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow.”

Psalm 68: 4-6a
“Rejoice before him—his name is the Lord. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing;”

Psalm 149: 9
“The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow.”


Isaiah 1:17
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4
“There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”



And in an effort to be transparent and vulnerable, I do ask for your prayers. Today is November 14th, November 18th is in four days. I feel it. Every day closer is heavier. I am struggling with default defense mechanisms to be destructive and numb pain. Before noon today I had already had two of those unexpected grief moments and had to just let the tears fall like they needed to and then was fine. Not that death is ever or can ever be timed well, but my loss happens to bleed in to the holidays and most of my big hard days are all grouped together. Maybe it’s a blessing to have them so concentrated and not so spread out. Nonetheless, still pray for my brother, my step mom, me, and all the people in your life who have lost.

My upcoming expected grief dates:

  • yearly anniversary – November 18th
  • Thanksgiving – November 28th
  • Christmas – December 25th
  • dad’s birthday – December 26th 
 
If you have lost, please share your dates with me! I’d love to be able to pray for you and encourage you on your expected hard days. 


How the Church Loves

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I started to post this really long “status” on Facebook and then thought I might annoy some of my Facebook “friends” by being so wordy. I had the following conversation with myself inside my head (yes, I’m that crazy, love me anyway).

“Why don’t you post this on the blog you’ve been shamefully avoiding since you ‘quit’ that challenge? ”

“I can’t. I failed at something I said I’d try to do, I just can’t.”

“It’s okay you know. They don’t hate you. They might even miss you.”

“It is YOUR blog, a BLOG, a place meant for words and sharing.”

“You know you want to.”

“Okay fine!”

So, let’s get this part I’ve shamefully avoided out of the way. I didn’t finish the challenge! I was a dummy to think October was a good time to commit to something like that. I had Homecoming, events, Halloween, catering orders. Silly me. I’m sorry! I wanted to do it, I really did, but I didn’t. I hid from you for a while because I was ashamed, but I like and need writing too much to stay away. But, I do apologize from the bottom of my heart!

Now, back to my meant to be Facebook status that got too long, I was reading in She Reads Truth earlier this week:

“After Jesus tosses out those who would pervert the temple of God into a temple of wealth and greed and convenience, He does something revolutionary: He invites the Least inside.

The blind, the lame, the children all come in and Jesus welcomes them, heals them, confirms their place among Him. He cleared out those who profaned the temple and ushered in those who humbly sought after God.

When I picture the scene I can see myself in the wings, on the outside looking in. I am nervous, I am afraid, but I am drawn to this house of God and so I watch and wait. Those inside seem to have it together, bringing riches rather than sacrifice, doing religion like a business. All I have is this humble offering in my hands, carried the long journey from my home, over rocky roads and mistake-laden miles. Then I see Him. And right before my eyes I watch Him turn it on its side, all the pretension and injustice and darkness that kept me at bay. He sends out those who’ve come not for God but for gods. And then? He looks me in the eye. Me. Lame, frightened, filthy from days of travel, He looks at me and sees me. He motions for me to come in and then He tells me I belong.

Oh, Sisters, this is our Christ. He welcomes in the defenseless and He becomes their defense. He brings the weak to Himself and makes them strong. He desires not the shiny sacrifices our pride wishes to bring, but only a heart that is stayed on Him.”

I was reading these beautiful words while listening to these lyrics from All Sons and Daughters song, All Praise to You:

“Hear our cries, Lord. Come shake these walls. Oh and rattle the steeples Lord, we are Your people!”

Well, I was once again weeping in Starbucks! I’ve said it many times, and I’ll say it many more, but I’m so thankful for my church. I’m thankful for a body of believers who truly loves and longs for the the Least, the messy, and the far from perfect (like me). I hope for all churches that we’d cry out for shaken walls and rattled steeples, that we wouldn’t be comfortable in our “Christians who have it all together” Sunday services. That we’d long to have rattled steeples and shaken walls where the Least feel welcomed, drawn to, and loved.

I’ll try to be back more! And share things here even if I don’t think they are “fancy” enough.

Honesty

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I’m gonna be honest. I’m struggling right now. Not only with being consistent in posting and keeping my promises (obviously I didn’t post twice today like I promised to make up for yesterday), but also with having a negative, insecurity, and believing what I’m speaking for myself.

I’m choosing to fight through and believe that God loves me, even though I feel the most unlovable I’ve felt since starting this journey right now. I’m not going to write more, because I do want to “do everything without arguing or complaining,” but if I write right now, I’m going to be arguing with myself and complaining. Honesty. It’s gross sometimes.


For the month of October, I’m participating in The Nester’s #31Days blog writing challenge. My topic is Food for Thought. I’ll be writing about two main things. 1. Understanding and believing God’s love. 2. Making life in the kitchen more manageable. You can read all my #31Days posts here. 


Confession

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Tonight, I confess that I’m exhausted. I didn’t have a moment to sit down at my computer all day. I’ve been staying up too late posting these posts (and last night baking), and I need to go to sleep right now so I’ll get up and spend time with Jesus (and wash my hair!). Jesus makes me love writing and I need some quality time with him! Since today is a making the kitchen manageable day, I’ll throw in a kitchen tip…

Sometimes, it’s okay to need a break. Sometimes it’s okay to make hamburger helper. Sometimes it’s okay to order a pizza. Sometimes it’s okay to eat cereal for dinner. HEAR ME SUPER WOMEN EVERYWHERE… IT’S OKAY TO NEED A BREAK. And so, I’m going to bed, and taking a break. I’m even leaving those dirty dishes in the sink.


For the month of October, I’m participating in The Nester’s #31Days blog writing challenge. My topic is Food for Thought. I’ll be writing about two main things. 1. Understanding and believing God’s love. 2. Making life in the kitchen more manageable. You can read all my #31Days posts here. 


My Favorite Day

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The Preface

My favorite day… is not today. My favorite day is a week from today. But today, I want to write about my favorite day. And since I’m super in love with this day and feeling super cheesy, I’m even going to label each section with chapter titles! (Just love me and all my weirdness, okay? Okay!)

However, allow me to interject and say today was an incredible day! I can’t imagine my actual favorite day being better than today, but I know it will be just because of the memories and memorial-like meaning it has. The longer my celebration of my favorite day has gone on, the more the week leading up to it and days after it are just as lovely! I will return to my explanation of my favorite day and why it’s connected to my #31Days topic on daring to believe in God’s love for me, but for a brief-ish moment allow me to tell you about today!

Chapter 1: The Interjection

Today was just fabulous. I accidentally overslept because I dreamed someone told me to go back to sleep so I could go to the doctor later (what?!), which seems bad, but actually felt quite nice! I woke up in just enough time to get ready and be at work on time. It felt beautiful. I wore leggings and a cardigan and a bow in my hair. I had Boo Berry cereal for breakfast and drank Cheerwine for my morning caffeine since I didn’t have enough time to get or make coffee. If you are from the East coast, you might not get why Cheerwine would make me so happy, BUT I’ve never been able to find it in Mississippi. I discovered it the summer I spent in Charleston, South Carolina. And Sunday night I found it in a Dollar General in my town in Mississippi! The afternoon was good, door open, feeling the cool, crisp new air. Hung out with a friend. Washed clothes without having to wait on students to use the machine. And then I met with my accountability group, some of my favorite girls on the planet right now, at our local coffee shop, Cups. We opted to sit outside because it was a beautiful 59 degree night. As we sat there sipping our coffee, or pumpkin chai tea latte for me, talking about Jesus and our lives, a four person folk-ish band was practicing outside with us! At one point as we were all basking in the giddiness of the night I said, “Is this real life?!” IT. WAS. BEAUTIFUL. If I didn’t already have a favorite day, I would have officially made today my favorite day! End interjection.

Chapter 2: The Introduction

So, I have a favorite day. October 14th. Inevitably I will be counting down and chattering about my favorite day until it gets here and apparently having a favorite day is not super common/normal. Therefore, people always ask why I have a favorite day. Of course I will still happily tell them about it, but I thought I’d write about it since I gush about the favorite day countdown and details on social media and have many new followers and friends who are new to my life and may not know the story.

Chapter 3: The Story

Once upon a time, almost 11 years ago, on October 14th, 2002, the leaves fell from the trees, swirled through the air, and landed on the ground in an exceptionally beautiful way. In the way that makes your insides jump with giddiness and a huge cheesy grin form on your lips and stay there. In a way that makes you close your eyes and take in the moment, the wind on your cheeks, the coolness in the air, the feeling of life. Some people say everything feels alive in the spring, I happen to think it feels ironically most a live in the fall.

You see, fall is my favorite. I’ve come to realize not everyone has a favorite everything, but I am not one of those people. I have a favorite EVERYTHING! Multiple favorite everythings. Ask me simple question like, “what’s your favorite color?” Well I’d say my favorite color overall is pink, but my favorite color to wear is green and my favorite color to decorate with is red. I have a favorite cup, lipgloss, chapstick, nail polish, flour, flower, store, cardigan, dress, and I could go on and on. But fall, fall is a different kind of favorite. Fall has always made me ridiculously happy, giddy even. And on this lovely day when the leaves swirled in their exceptional sort of way, the 20 year old college sophomore version of me noticed.

I cancelled all my classes for the day (what I liked to call skipping), and stayed outside the entire day. I played in leaves, laid in leaves, crunched leaves, had a picnic outside, prayed, and decided to remember that October 14th was an exceptionally beautiful fall day. The next year my theory proved right about the day, it was just as beautiful. In college I was a lot better at believing God loved me. It wasn’t until some stuff from my childhood, the ways it manifested in my life as some sin struggles and chains, and the shame that came with it all a little later in life that I lost my ability to believe in God’s love for me. On the first October 14th, and even more so on the second when it was again a beautiful day, I vividly remember believing with all of my heart that October 14th was the day that God made for me. I remember knowing and believing that it was going to be our day, a day for me to remember Him and that He loved me enough to give me such a beautiful day.

In case you didn’t know or couldn’t tell, I’m quite the share-y type. So of course, October 14th caught on. It became a day that my friends and I celebrated! I even got presents (one year one of my friends even made me a t-shirt). I get almost as many calls, texts, and Facebook posts wishing me a happy favorite day as I do on my birthday. Somehow, even during the years that I was struggling with depression and completely taken over by unbelief, I still felt God’s love every October 14th. Even on the days when rain was predicted for October 14th, it usually didn’t rain, and if it did, it was short-lived. And the rain on those days? The most beautiful rain! Even on years when I thought God had forgotten me, somehow He always showed up to remind me He was there and loved me.

So, I always make plans to celebrate it. I do care about my birthday (more than most people), but I love October 14th even more. One year when I was living in New Orleans we drove to a beautiful part of town, brought drinks and picnic supplies, got crepes from a walk up place, and had a beautiful picnic in the middle of a beautiful park. Many years we’ve gone to dinner, always opting for places with outdoor seating. I could tell so many stories and list the gifts people have given me (totally unnecessary of all of my friends, but so sweet and loving!). And so of course, when someone reminded me today that my favorite day was a week away, I immediately jumped to action to come up with a plan (in addition to deciding in that moment that I’d write this post). I just so happen to not have to work that day because it’s a game week and I get Monday off instead of Friday off! See?? God knew. I’m convinced.

Chapter 4: The Plan

-Sleep until 9:00 am.

-Wear a pretty dress and a scarf, have cute hair, wear makeup (I rarely wear makeup, so it’s significant!).

-Start the day with an hour or so with Jesus at Starbucks with a pumpkin spice latte sitting at an outdoor table.

-Pack a lunch, a blanket, and book and eat, read, and rest outside under a tree.

-Have a BYO (bring your own) dinner picnic.

-Walk to Cups to meet with my accountability group, drink something fall-ish, walk home (or with them while we’re meeting) and take a detour to the Old Towne Clinton Courtyard and end the night by thanking God for using something silly like a favorite day to show His love for me and pray for my future husband (something I don’t do enough but want to do more!).

Chapter 5: Believing

I’m super convinced that this October 14th is going to be the best yet. Even if the temperature is a little too hot and something doesn’t go just right, I’ve never been as close and intimate with Jesus as I am right now or as aware of His love and redemption of my life, and for those reasons, it will be beautiful, new, and crisp.


For the month of October, I’m participating in The Nester’s #31Days blog writing challenge. My topic is Food for Thought. I’ll be writing about two main things. 1. Understanding and believing God’s love. 2. Making life in the kitchen more manageable. You can read all my #31Days posts here. 


Love Defined

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I now know that posting on the weekends for this #31Days challenge is going to be hardest! I’m a routine kind of person. I post and do everything best when life is routine. Weekends are meant to not be routine! It’s 11:31 pm on a Saturday night right after I just hosted a girls’ night and I’ve got nothing. NOTHING. Well, I have my outline, but not enough time to write about what I “planned” to write about. And so, I’m going to cop out and do two things. 1. Webster.com define love. And 2. Post a video.

1. Love: an intense feeling of deep affection; deep affection, fondness, tenderness, warmth, intimacy, attachment, endearment; devotion, adoration, doting, passion, ardor, desire, yearning, compassion, care, caring, regard, solicitude, concern, friendliness, friendship, kindness, charity, goodwill, sympathy, kindliness, altruism, unselfishness. 

What I want to do is write about all these words, I probably will come back to some of them. But… It’s 11:52 now. So what I’ll do is say let bask in these together. God loves me. He loves you.

2. This song always gets me. It always always always reminds me that God can handle my heart. With all it’s doubts and craziness and that he’s big enough to love me in all of my me-ness and because of it.

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/1xD-Wz6CWOw&source=uds
Sorry for the cop out! I’ll make up for it, I promise. I don’t promise, however, that a couple more posts like this won’t happen during my #31Days. 🙂 


For the month of October, I’m participating in The Nester’s #31Days blog writing challenge. My topic is Food for Thought. I’ll be writing about two main things. 1. Understanding and believing God’s love. 2. Making life in the kitchen more manageable. You can read all my #31Days posts here.