OfficeLyfffe!!!!

Working in a cubicle maze sometimes gets a bad rap, and although I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes the rows of cubicles and their inhabitants can be *ahem* stressful, sometimes it can also be downright funny.

One of my co-workers never wears shoes. I’m pretty sure she takes them off as soon as she gets inside the building. Me and another co-worker like to hum “Ain’t nobody got time fo’ shoes” to the tune of “ain’t nobody got time fo’ dat” every time she walks by.

I swear I heard one of my neighbors bark today. It was like a low growl followed by a “woof”. Promise.

The same barking coworker also wears an eye patch on random days. I sometimes wonder if he actually has eye problems, or if he just likes looking like a pirate. I don’t think that’s fair, because I want to dress up like a pirate too.

Woof!!!

“May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us-yes, establish the work of our hands.” ~Psalm 90:17

Caution: Husband in Training

I’m travelling a little bit today, so this post will be super short. I hope you all have a great weekend! :)

My Pastor’s wife once gave me some great advice: “If you can just try to not kill your husband until he turns 30, then I promise you things will get a lot better.” I think that is excellent advice, personally.

I must admit, I married a good one. He is romantic and kind and I rarely have any problems when it comes to helping out on housework and things like that. But you know, just as I am not perfect, he is not perfect, and sometimes I just have to smile and remind myself that if I can hold off on killing him until he reaches thirty, then we should be in pretty good shape, ya know??  ;)

I was reminded of this on Wednesday evening, when I realized that there were a couple of small holes developing around the pockets of my favorite jeans. Now, please understand this: the clothes I buy are generally cheap. I found this pair of jeans at the mall, they were an off-brand and they were on clearance, but they fit AMAZING. So I bought three pairs of them, two in a dark wash and one in a lighter wash, because all women know that good jeans are hard to find. For some reason, the lighter wash fits better than the two dark wash pairs, so I wear that pair A LOT. Like as in, at least two times a week. And I go horse-back riding in them. I even painted in them. I tell you this so that you will understand: I wear this pair of jeans a whole lot and even though I haven’t had them a year yet, I’ve already had Roman patch a hole in the back pocket area once. So when I noticed that there were a couple of small holes developing close to where Roman patched the first hole, I casually turned to him and said something like this: I need you to patch up a couple more holes in these jeans. I’ve got a few more holes developing close to that patch. And that is when I realized that he is still in training.

“Your butt must be getting bigger.”

……..thank you, Roman. Please hold while I go grab a steak knife. Must. Wait. Until. He’s. Thirty.

Men across America: never tell your wife her butt is getting bigger. Also, never follow up that statement by trying to explain yourself: “I mean, it’s getting rounder and more plump. I like it.” Because that also is not wise. I’m just trying to help y’all out here.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” ~Ephesians 5:25

Making Preparations

Five more days until my knee surgery. Is it okay to be excited about having surgery? Because I am. Ever since I scheduled this surgery, it’s like my knee somehow knows and has been trying to cause me as much pain as possible while it still can. So I’m pretty excited about the idea that after 4-6 weeks of recovery it *hopefully* will not hurt anymore. The only thing I’m nervous about is that 4-6 weeks of recovery….not the surgery itself.

Supposedly I will only be confined to my couch for 4-5 days before I can return to work, so here’s what I’m doing to get ready for that down-time, because even after those first few days I still will be limited in what I can do. And IF it turns out that my surgeon has to do a full ACL reconstruction (which I’ve authorized him to do if it needs it), I’ll be out for a whole lot longer. Although he doesn’t think he’ll need to do this, I’d rather be prepared, so:

1) My house is getting a really deep clean this weekend.

My bathroom is getting scrubbed, to include my shower and my tub. Everything in my house is getting dusted and vacuumed and wiped down because I don’t know how long it will be before I’m recovered enough to do another deep clean. And yes, I do have a husband who is fully capable of cleaning, but he’s going to have enough on his hands dealing with his whiny wife, so I’m going to try and make life a little bit easier for him.

2) I’ll be making some meals ahead of time.

I’m going to do some serious cooking this weekend too so that I can have stuff in the freezer to eat. Again, yes my husband is fully capable of cooking (he’s actually better at it than me), but I want to make this time period as easy as I can for the both of us. So I’ll be cooking some lasagna, soup, vegetable stew, and anything else I can think of that we can just thaw out and warm up for lunches and dinners.

3) A huge grocery run.

I’m going to take stock of everything in the house and make sure we have everything we need. Am I running low on shampoo? Grab a bottle. No more ice cream? Grab four cartons. Oh wait...

4) I’ve talked to my supervisors.

My boss knows everything about my surgery: what they plan to do and what I’ve authorized them to do. This way, if they do wind up doing a full ACL reconstruction, he won’t be surprised when I call in the next day and say “Um…..I’m going to be out for the next four weeks instead of the next four days.” He knows what’s going on and what I’m looking at as far as recovery goes. This just makes life so much easier for both me and my co-workers because they know what they can expect.

5) Lay out a few outfits.

This may be a little extreme, but depending on how bad I’m hurting, I may not really be able to spend any time in my closet wondering what I can put on to go over my bulky knee brace. And so I’ll probably have a few outfits grouped together for simplicity’s sake and to take any guesswork out of the equation.

6) The most important thing….

Make sure I’m stocked up on movies and chocolate. I know, I know “clean eating, Sarah.” But seriously, anyone who’s ever had surgery knows that ice cream and cookies and movies are a must…..right??  ;)

For real though, I appreciate all of the prayers and support I’ve gotten from my friends and family as I get ready to have this procedure done. It’s really not that big of an operation at all, but it is so wonderful to know that I have people praying for me. I’ve been at war with my right knee for the past five years, so hopefully after this surgery and recovery time I’ll finally win.

“If you say, ‘The Lord is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.”  ~Psalm 91:9-10

WFMW: Cleaning Solutions

I now introduce to you “Works for Me Wednesdays”. If you read other blogs than you may have seen this before, so please don’t think I’m super duper smart and came up with this idea all by myself. Because then you would be wrong-o. I discovered Works for Me Wednesdays through one of my all-time favorite blogs, “We are THAT Family” (link is to the right in my list of favorite blogs if you wanna check it out). BUT, I know through my survey that pretty much all of my readers are 17 and older, which means many of you are probably responsible for some sort of something around your home. Unless you are thirty and live in your mom’s basement and she still does everything for you, in which case I guess this post won’t concern you. And also, you should consider getting a job and maybe take up some of the cleaning workload.

ANYWAYS. Works for Me Wednesdays (WFMW) is just a cool way for me to share with you some fun little tips that make life easier.  Anything from easy recipes to cleaning tips to how to wash your cat without dying (I actually don’t know how to do that, help?), I’ll be sharing little tidbits with you that will hopefully make your life easier. And please feel free to share your own little tidbits in the comments section below OR post a link to your own blog if you also write WFMW posts. And for those of you who love my Weird Wednesday posts, do not fret: I still plan on mixing those in on Wednesdays too.

Alright, now that we got all of that out of the way, let’s get this thing started.

If you know me personally, than you know that I am a clean/organization freak. If you don’t know me personally, than you now know that I am a clean/organization freak. I have files for everything. I clean my house once a week. My desk at work stays spotless and everything in my drawers/filing cabinet has its own place. However, ever since Roman and I moved into a (much) bigger house than our double-wide trailer back in August, I’m finding it extremely difficult to fit in all of my cleaning. Since I work a full-time job, I usually try to clean on Saturdays. But in this bigger house, I can easily spend 8 hours cleaning and 0 hours relaxing. And no matter if you work a full-time job or a part-time job or if you have the opportunity to stay home with the kiddos, I’m sure the women across America can relate. So let me introduce you to a product that I have fallen in love with………..they’re called “disinfecting wipes”.

Maybe you already use them and you just rolled your eyes at me. I know, I know, sometimes I’m late to the party. Actually, I’m usually late for everything…..but seriously. I have fallen in love with the Great Value Lemon Scent Disinfecting Wipes from the mysterious land of Wal-Mart. First of all, they are bleach free, so I don’t have to worry about accidentally getting it on my clothes. Second of all, the lemon scent smells pretty good to me. And third of all, I haven’t found anything they couldn’t clean and they greatly cut down on the amount of time I spend cleaning. (I tried to find the price online for you, but Wal-Mart’s website is not playing nice. I think I spent $10 for a pack of three.)

Here’s the thing: my kitchen has a LOT of counter-space. And I have two cats who adore laying all over my countertops. So once a week I would get out my 409 (miracle cleaning solution) and scruuuuub my countertops/stove/microwave/fridge/sink/cats (just kidding about that last one). Now, I just take a couple of those wipes and run over everything (not the cats) before I go to bed at night. I wake up in the morning to a shiny, fresh-smelling kitchen and now I don’t have to worry about cleaning up a disaster-kitchen every Saturday. Last night we made tacos and somehow managed to get salsa all over the stove and the surrounding counters. Even though I didn’t clean up for a couple hours after dinner (because I’m lazy like that) I was able to take one disinfecting wipe and ba da bing, ba da boom, no more salsa splatters.

These things do a pretty good job in the bathroom as well. Of course, I will still need to periodically give my shower and bath tub a good scrubbing, but last Saturday I was able to quickly run over my sink/sink countertops and the toilet and then I was done. So much easier and faster than getting out all of that cleaning solution and rags and toilet cleaner and all that.

So there ya have it. Disinfecting wipes really work for me!

Psst: I was not paid or given any free products to write this post. I just have a love relationship with the products mentioned above. You can love them too….I’ll share.

Also pssst: I know I said I was going to close my survey this past Friday, but I have decided to leave it open for a little while longer. So if you haven’t had a chance to take it yet, click here. And if you have already taken it-thank you! I’m getting some really awesome feedback!

“Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.’ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”  ~Proverbs 31:28-31

Danger, Danger

Have you ever done something that was semi-dangerous, but then didn’t realize until afterwards that what you just did could have possibly killed you and you probably shouldn’t have done it?

For instance, I used to live in Atlanta until I was ten years old. Our neighborhood had a bunch of tall hills and my parents, my little brother and I used to go for walks in the evening. Sometimes my parents would let us roller skate or ride our bicycles as long as we stayed in sight. On one particular evening, I decided I wanted to test out my new roller skates. Only except I was wearing a tank-top and shorts. With no elbow pads. Or knee pads.  My little brother followed me around the house saying “I think this is a bad idea. You should at least put some long pants on.” But me being the stubborn 9 year-old that I was (and determined to prove him wrong), skated right down the drive-way and onto the road…..without waiting on my parents.

Our house was in the middle of a hill, so I had to go up an incline for a short distance before I got to the top of one of the steepest hills in the whole neighborhood. I reached the top right as my parents started up the incline and eagerly began my descent.

I quickly realized just how bad of a decision that was. About halfway down the hill I was going so fast that my feet were starting to wobble. Some of the neighborhood boys saw me and screamed for me to lean backwards and “apply the brakes.” I shook my head because in my mind, I was over halfway there and if I leaned backwards I would fall on my butt and that would be embarrassing. Good one, Sarah. Instead you fell on your face, which is more embarrassing. Actually my right knee hit first, and then I rolled a good distance before finally coming to a complete stop. My brother had witnessed the whole thing and had removed his skates so he could run down the hill towards me. Of course, the first words out of his mouth were “I told you so. You should’ve worn long pants.” I replied by crying as loud as I could while one of the older boys picked me up and ran me up the hill towards my dad.

Needless to say…..I never roller skated through my neighborhood again. In fact, I’ve never roller skated on asphalt again either. I’ve only ever gone to a skating ring since then and even there I skate verrrrry sloooowlyy. I also have a nice pretty scar on my right knee and I have to endure periodic reminders from my little brother that he was right and I was wrong. Shut up, Stephen.

Anyways, I am sad to admit that this past weekend was another one of those incidents. My close friend and I decided to go horse-back riding. If you remember, I have two horses. If you also remember, I am having knee surgery a week from today, so I wanted to go riding one more time before I spend two weeks on the couch. We left her house at about seven o’clock in the evening and set out down the road. We were having a good time exchanging stories and talking about all sorts of things. Then we realized that our horses were moving kind of slow and we could very well end up riding home in the dark, so we picked up the pace for a little while. Unfortunately, we weren’t fast enough and soon found ourselves riding down a dirt road as the sun went down. I was a slight bit nervous because my horse has never been ridden in the dark, and she already spooks somewhat easily. But she seems to be doing okay, so I stayed on her instead of getting off and walking her.

Eventually, we made it back to an actual road, and by then it was completely dark. It was actually pretty fun riding in the dark though…we just had to go slow so that the horses didn’t trip in any holes or anything like that. I contemplated getting off my horse as we road next to the for-real road because I didn’t know how she would react to the headlights, but I decided to stay on her because I usually have better control over her on her back instead of on the ground. She did pretty well as the first few cars zoomed by, and I was pretty excited over how calm she was.

We then had to go under a tree with a lot of low branches. That was “fun” because I couldn’t see the branches, so I just had to hold up my arm in front of my face and hope that there weren’t any snakes hanging off of the limbs (worst. nightmare. ever.) But my horse did not appreciate getting randomly smacked in the head with tree limbs, because as most of you well know, horses don’t have arms to block their heads, and she started tossing her head around. We made it out of the tree……just in time for a car to go zooming by. And that’s when my horse finally decided that enough was enough. She threw her head and promptly backed straight into the middle of the road before I had time to really realize what was going on and get her under control.

Thank GOD there were no other cars coming, so I was able to get off of her and lead her back to safety. I spent the last quarter-mile of our ride dismounting every time a car approached us and then re-mounting after it had passed….mainly because the grass was really tall and I didn’t want to walk through it. We made it back with no other incident and I left shortly after getting everyone put away. It was only AFTER I got in the car and started driving down the road that I realized just how bad that could have been. If there had been a car coming down the road in that moment, then we easily could have both been killed. I definitely spent a few minutes thanking God for watching over me in that moment and keeping us both safe.

But I will say this: riding for over two hours was a ton of fun. Riding in the dark was also a ton of fun. And if I had the opportunity to do an overnight-ride away from busy roads, I would totally be in. Just don’t ask me to go roller skating. Because that is totally NOT happening. Ever.

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise Him.”   ~Psalm 28:7

Through the Storm

Pssst, if you missed my post earlier this week, then you probably haven’t heard about the survey I created. So if you have a quick minute, please follow this link and take my short survey. I would really appreciate it!! Click here to take the survey!

It has been a rough week for America. Unless you live under a rock, then you know what I’m talking about. First, two bombs explode at the Boston Marathon, killing three, injuring over 180, and reminding all of us that there are people in this world who long to see America injured and broken. As I write this, the Boston police have killed one of the suspects associated with the bombing and have surrounded a home believed to hold the second suspect. Throughout the chase last night, one police officer lost his life and I believe another one was seriously injured.

As if that weren’t enough, a plant explodes in West, Texas, decimating everything within a four-block radius and killing an untold number of people….to include at least three firemen. My older brother used to be a fireman and my younger brother currently serves as a fireman, so the loss of three firemen in this tragedy hits awfully close to home.

I do not have any special words to give to you….no enlightened thoughts or explanations on why this has happened to our country. We can speculate and try to use logic to wrap our minds around all of this, but we will fail. Some things are just too big for our human minds to understand, and I believe this week is a perfect example of that. But rest assured, our God sees. And He knows what’s going on even as calamity takes place all around us.

There is very little we as the citizens of America can do in times like this. Some of us may help in the search and rescue efforts or in the clean up and rebuilding of communities, but the American people as a whole will not have an active role in these efforts. This often times leave us feeling a little bit useless and empty. So let me encourage you to do the one thing that means more than anything else: pray.

Pray for the victims and their families. Pray for healing for them and for our nation. Pray for guidance for our nation’s leaders as we navigate these uncertain times. Pray for God’s mercy and grace. Pray for our nation’s safety and well-being. Pray for comfort. Pray for peace.

Our prayers change things, whether we see a tangible difference right away or not. And in times like this, it is 100% necessary for us to fall to our knees in prayer. (Not that prayer is not necessary in the good times as well, because it absolutely is.)

So hold your family tight over the weekend, because as this week has demonstrated, life is so very short. Be slow to anger and quick to forgive, because there is no time to hold grudges. Show gratitude for what you have in this life, because we forget how truly blessed we are. But more than anything, spend some time in prayer for our country over the weekend.

I’ll close with one of my favorite songs. I think it is very relevant to what we as a nation have experience this week. It’s called “Cornerstone” by Hillsong.

-Verse 1-
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
but wholly trust in Jesus' name

-Chorus-
Christ alone, Cornerstone
Weak made strong, in the Savior's love
Through the storm
He is Lord, Lord of All

-Verse 2-
When darkness seems to hide His face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil
My anchor holds within the veil

-Verse 3-
Then He shall come with trumpets sound
Oh, may I then in Him be found
Dressed in His righteousness alone
faultless, stand before the throne

Lyrics copied from www.lyricsreg.com

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”  ~Psalm 34:18

Weird Wednesday: Technologically Challenged

I talk to inanimate objects. I’m told I get this from my grandmother, who used to talk to cars as she was driving down the road. But out of all of the inanimate objects, I talk to technology the most. I understand it is strange. And my co-workers look at me funny all the time, but they’ll just have to get over it.

Let’s just go ahead and get this out of the way: I am totally convinced that technology hates me.

Example: my phone freezes up. My current phone does not have a removable battery, so when it freezes I can’t just take out the battery to fix everything. I tried holding down the power button….no luck. I tried holding down the power button and the volume down button at the same time. My frozen phone screen just stared at me….I could almost hear it snickering. So I do what any other woman with bad technology luck does: I hand the phone to my husband and demand that he fix it. Ten seconds later and he hands the phone back to me as it is starting back up. This is how my life goes with technology.

It didn’t used to be this way. I used to be able to sweet talk any printer/fax machine/scanner/computer/phone into being cooperative. I used to be the one my co-workers called in order to alleviate their technology woes. A copier would break down and I would be able to come over there and talk real nice to it and open a couple of doors and it would get right back to bizness. But not anymore.

Currently, all of the technology at my desk is at war with me. My printer jams up for no reason. My scanner will randomly decide to grab three pieces of paper at the same time, and then refuse to give it back. And don’t get me started on my computer. It holds the biggest grudge against me out of all of them. If Internet Explorer tells me one more time that it cannot display the web page because the server is too busy, then I am going to draw all over it with a sharpie. Wait, that won’t fix anything.

Unfortunately, my technology issues have now carried over at home as well. My phone randomly restarts itself with no warning, and my laptop is stuck on the blue screen of death. I may get a good ten minutes out of it before it crashes again…and there is no amount of sweet talking to make it cooperate. Even the speakers in my car are going out.

I have tried making peace offerings with my technological enemies, but they aren’t accepting my attempts at this time. I think they are all just laughing at me. I’m not sure if this is a sign that I should move to the Amish community or what.

So don’t mind me…..I’m just going to be sitting over here talking to my printer. Maybe if I ask it nice enough it will decide to play nice. Perhaps if I shove some chocolate in my scanner it will stop eating my documents. And maybe if I dump a Diet Coke on my computer it will have enough energy to display that web page. MAYBE.

Seriously guys, it is getting so bad that I am capable of walking into someone else’s cubicle at work and break their stuff without even touching anything.

Coworker: Well, this website was working just a minute ago, but my Internet seems to have lost the connection.

Me: Hang on, let me step out into the hallway. I think I have a contagious technology virus and I’m probably breaking your computer just by standing next to it.

Coworker: *weird look*

Me: *stands in hallway and pretends to wave to someone who isn’t there*

Coworker: Hey! It’s working now! You must not be joking…hahahaha *awkward look*

Me: Yea….. I really wasn’t kidding. Ha. ….ha. *awkward look*

Hide yo’ cell phones, hide yo’ laptops and hide yo’ fax machines too cuz I be killing all yo’ technology…..

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”  ~1 Corinthians 15:20

The Big 1-0-0!!!!!

Holy moly. Today marks the 100^th blog post I’ve posted. I went to school for accounting, so I’m all about some numbers. So please excuse me as I throw myself a miniature 100-post-party real quick. Because the number 100 seems monumental for some reason. *Jumps in time machine and goes back to kindergarten.*

Me: I hope we learn how to count to 100 this year.

Matthew: You can’t count to 100. If you did it would take you one billion kajillion zillion years.

Me: That’s not even a number.

Matthew: Is too. No one can count to 100 because it would take too long.

Me: My sister said she can.

Matthew: She’s lying.

Me: Oh.  :(

Well, take that Matthew. I did learn how to count to 100. And now I know how to count to 100 in Spanish too. And it did NOT take me one billion kajillion zillion years. *haterz gonna hate* And now I’ve written 100 blog posts too. Shablam! GET OFF ME BRO’

Okay, I’m calm now.

So anyways, I’ve had lots of thoughts and ideas for this blog over the almost one-year I’ve had it. And I would love love LOVE to have some of your input. Which is why I’ve created a short little survey at the end of this post so that you can give me your feedback and not have to worry about me vandalizing your house with sporks because you said something I didn’t like. (Totally kidding, I would never do that. I would use spoons instead.)

But seriously, here are some of my thoughts before you take the survey. Or if you don’t want to know what I think, you can go ahead and scroll to the bottom and click on the link. That’s cool too.

1) I love writing.

I always have. Ever since I’ve learned how to read and write I’ve been a writer. I’ve never had any issue writing…..in school I could plop down a five page essay with no problem and then turn around and help my friend write his. (PS: you know who you are, and you still owe me for that essay. >:l ) I’m not saying everything I’ve ever written is good….in fact some of it is just downright strange, but I’ve always liked it. I’ve thought about writing a book, but now I’m kind of getting away from that because I really have no idea what in the world I could write about that someone else hasn’t already written about. Plus I’m entirely too ADD to stick with just one topic for that long.

For a little while I thought about stopping the blog. I was having a hard time coming up with topics to write about……but after I got quite a few messages from friends/family demanding that I continue this blog I changed my mind (okay, asking…not demanding. And none of them knew that I was thinking about stopping so I took it as a “word from the Lord” type thing.) But I do feel like it is important for me to have some sort of a general theme…..I’m just not quite sure what it should be yet. Que the survey because your answers will help me know what you enjoy the most and what direction I should take this. Which leads me to number two….

2) FACT: my serious/spiritual posts get the most page-views by a long shot.

Prime example is my “50 Shades of Danger” post that I wrote back in June of 2012. Right now that post has gotten 254 page views, which is three times more than my average posts get. To me, that speaks volumes because although it was a very sensitive topic, almost all of my serious/spiritual posts get more hits. My first ever post is almost up to 200. The post I wrote this past August about God doing some major work in our lives is up to 71. A post I wrote about requesting prayer has 60. More recently, the marriage post I wrote this past Friday is already up to 48 hits and it hasn’t even been up a week. Almost every single one of my serious/spiritual posts get at least 50 page views, if not more. Whereas my light and short posts generally get about 20-30 hits max. (I’m not going to call them funny because…..well, sometimes they aren’t. Ha.)    ;)

3) Dreaming big…..

So this is where it all ties together. This is also where my parents give me a really stern look and probably desire deep-down to shake me until my brain rattles back into a logical pattern of thinking.

I would love to be a writer full-time. Wanna know my for-real big time dream? No? Too bad. I’m going to tell you anyways. I would absolutely love to just be a stay at home mom/full-time blogger. I read a lot and several of the bloggers I follow do just that. They make their money from free-lance writing for magazines/websites/etc. and through the affiliates on their blogs. Some of them own their own website, others just use BlogSpot (like me) or wordpress. It does take a lot of work, especially when they are just starting, but for me it is something that I am very interested in doing one day. Being able to stay home and raise my kids while doing something I love (writing) and making money from that would be my absolute dream job.

BUT, it takes a lot of work to get to a point where you are actually making money. You have to have a certain amount of site hits before companies will even consider paying you for advertisement space. And I 100% understand that I sound like a crazy person for writing any of this at all. After all, I have a great-paying job with benefits and all of that great stuff that American people lurve. To  mom and dad: don’t worry, I’m not quitting my job. Calm down. Please understand, I would never in a million years just quit my job before everything fell into place. I would have to be making a certain amount of steady income before Roman and I would even think about it. And trust me, if you know anything about me then you know that decision would be coated in serious prayer.

However, when I was praying about all of this a few weeks ago, God spoke clearly to me. He basically said “Sarah, you are asking me to do all of this, but you’ve got to be the one to start heading in the right direction. Don’t be afraid to dream big…..but more than anything don’t be afraid to chase after those big dreams. I can’t make you a full-time mom/blogger if you’re not going to do anything to get there.” So basically, that is the direction I’m heading. And if it’s not going to work out then that’s okay. If full-time blogging and stay-at-home motherhood is not what God wants for me then He is going to let me know one way or another. But I’m never going to know if I don’t ever try.

Alright, that’s enough of that. If you love me, *wink* then please click the link below and complete the survey. I promise it will only take a few minutes of your time and it is 100% anonymous. I also promise that I will not spork your house if you don’t have nice things to say.

Click here to begin the survey!
 

OH, and I’m only going to leave this survey open until Friday afternoon, so please respond as soon as possible so I can enter you for the drawing of my 1,000,000,000 dollar prize. (Just kidding about the prize. Not kidding about the Friday deadline thing.)

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PARTICIPATING. Seriously, I should owe you all milkshakes. But I’m too broke for that.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” ~Jeremiah 29:11-13

Paint, Icing, and Jesus

This weekend was good.

Saturday we had a church-wide work day, and lots of hard work was done by all. I helped our youth pastor re-paint the entire youth room (which was not in the original plan for the day, but okay.) It was exhausting yet fulfilling at the same time. There is something to be said of blasting your favorite Christian music and then just going to town with some paint. Being surrounded by good friends is icing on the cake. And I *heart* icing.

Sunday was really good though. Really good. Our church service was one of those services that you just want to stay in for hours even though you’re hungry and you won’t be first in line at the restaurant.

I’ll be totally honest though: at the start of it, my heart was not really in the right place. I was tired from the day before, stressed about the rest of my day’s to-do list, and distracted from the millions of thoughts running wild through my mind. As the worship portion of our service began, I did not want to be leading worship that day. I did not feel like lifting my hands or singing loud or praying/speaking in front of everyone. I felt like going back home and going back to sleep. It’s not that I didn’t love God that morning; it’s just that I really didn’t feel like meeting with Him. I was “doing church” that day, not taking the time to actually slow down and worship and grow my relationship with Him.

That changed about half-way through the first song, when I saw how excited the congregation was to worship. There was an energetic buzz in the room and it was contagious. It snapped me out of my distractions and reminded me of all the reasons why I needed to push pause on my busy life and just be there. The Holy Spirit woke me up. So it was no real surprise to me when He laid something on my heart to speak to the congregation….and then He took over our whole service. We wound up spending the whole service singing and praying. There was no sermon, but that was okay. The weight of His presence was everywhere. It was beautiful and humbling and definitely more than I expected to experience when I walked into church that morning. But it was exactly what we needed. We needed to just take some time to rest in His presence and that is exactly what we did.  

Logical thinking would say that I would be the last person God would decide to use yesterday morning. To my shame, I don’t think I opened my Bible one time last week. I opened my mouth when I shouldn’t have and spoke harshly of a coworker. I was distracted and tired and in no spiritual shape to be of any use. But God is not logical in our sense of the word. And He is more than capable of taking a mess and molding it into something He can use….I think that’s one of the things that I love most about Him.

He can take a 22 year old girl who spent an entire year of her life running away from God and turn her into something more than she thought possible. He can take a girl who was afraid to speak up in high school….who was nerdy and funny-looking and made fun of by her peers and give her words to say and courage to speak them to an entire congregation. He can take a girl who once thought of herself as worthless and turn her into His princess. He does that. It’s not anything that I do, absolutely not! But all God needs from me is my love for Him and a willingness to obey….He does the rest.

If you looked at the staff of our church, okay really the whole church too, you wouldn’t see much. We are a motley crew who don’t have a whole lot of things together. I think the majority of us are ADD and the rest of us act like it. We are silly and young and sometimes completely immature. We sin and make a mess of things a whole lot of time. But we are 100% on fire for God and desperately want to see Him move. And for some crazy reason He has decided to use us to change our city. He has brought us through trials and tribulations and is using us to craft a story that is beyond belief.

Last night I couldn’t sleep, and I told God that I was largely incapable and inadequate to do much of anything. I am by no means the best singer or speaker or piano player or anything else that is of any use to Him. Sometimes I feel like my feeble attempts at doing good in this world are vastly overcome by my failures. Sometimes I feel like just calling it quits and walking away….this Christian life is just too hard. Yesterday as I graced the doorways of my church, that was honestly and truly what was running through my mind. “Why am I here today?” “What good am I going to do?” “I’m not prepared.” “I would be better off at home.” But I left with a revitalized spirit and a reminder that because I am so inadequate, He is able to move. Because I don’t have it all together, He is able to work in me and through me. So last night as I stared at myself in the mirror and told God all the reasons why I wasn’t of any use to Him, He reminded me of all the reasons why I was exactly what He wanted.

And so even though I’m surrounded by stacks of paper on my desk and I have a sticky note next to my computer that says I have a jillion things to work on today, my heart is still set on yesterday. Yesterday was good. His presence in our service was exactly what I needed…..and I could tell it was exactly what the rest of the church needed as well.

So if any of you are like me, and I’m sure you are whether you will admit it or not, it’s okay to not have it all together. It’s okay to fall apart sometimes….to feel unsure about yourself and wonder how in the world God could use somebody like you. But just know in your heart that He can use you. He desires to use you. And as long as we are giving Him our best and are willing to let Him work and move, well just hold onto your horses because He’s going to use us to do a whole lot more than we ever thought possible. Hang in there, my sweet brothers and sisters, because He is totally worth it.

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  ~Matthew 11:28-30

Goin’ to the Chapel….

As spring comes rolling around, so does wedding season. It’s hard to believe, but Roman and I are getting ready to celebrate three years of marriage. Holy moly time has flown! But as I look at all these young people getting ready to start their new lives together, I can’t help but wonder if they really know what they’re getting themselves into. (And yes, I realize that I got married at 19 and I’m still only 22 and so I may not be the best qualified to make a statement like that. But after all, three years of marriage will grow somebody up in a hurrrryyy.) And as I wonder all of these things, I realize that there are a few things that I wish someone had sat me down and really talked to me about. Don’t get me wrong, we got a lot of great advice, but we have learned a thing or two along the way. So here are five things that I’ve learned in almost three years of marriage….perhaps it will help some of my friends who are getting ready to tie the knot.  ;)

1) Marriage brings out the best in you, but it also brings out the worst.

I read somewhere the other day that marriage magnifies both the good and the bad in us. And the more I’ve thought about it, the more it makes sense. I’m not going to lie, marriage is awesome. Having someone love you for exactly who you are is great. Being able to look at your spouse and realize that he loves you despite your crazy morning hair and your (sometimes) awful cooking is such a blessing.  

But in the spirit of being honest, marriage is not always awesome. When you’re dating, you are putting your best foot forward. You do your best to show unselfish love in every situation so that your significant other will like you forever. But once you get married and move in and get settled into your new life together, your human nature really starts to rear its ugly head. You have petty arguments over stupid things like how to fold a towel. And why do those arguments occur? Because you’re being selfish. Think about it. The only reason why you’re having an argument is because you believe your way of folding the towel is better than his way, and he believes his way is better than your way, and both of you are too prideful/selfish to call it a truce. Which leads me to point two….

2) If you let it, marriage will shape you into a better person.

As you go through the high’s and low’s of marriage, you have two choices. You can either continue to be selfish and demand your own way, eventually pushing your spouse further and further away until the marriage dies completely….OR, you can allow the hard times to shape you into a better person which allows your marriage to grow stronger. Back to the towel example: you can continue to demand your own towel-folding ways and be bitter when he doesn’t conform. Then your heart starts to notice other ways in which he “disobeys” your demands. Then you start nagging him over every little thing that you notice he does wrong. Then you complain to your girlfriends about how he never listens and how unhappy you are. Then along comes Mr. Nice Man at your office who always does everything you ask him to and holy-cow-he’s-sort-of-cute-too……see where I’m going with this? If we refuse to allow conflicts to shape our thoughts and if we refuse to see our own shortfalls, than something as stupid as a towel can snowball into something much larger.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that because Roman and I have an argument over a towel that we’re heading down the road to an affair. But I am saying that we need to recognize our own imperfections. We need to understand that we’re not always going to see eye-to-eye on things. And we need to apply this knowledge to our relationship. We need to learn when it’s important to argue over something and when it isn’t. We need to learn how to forgive and move on. As we learn all of these things, we will become better all-around people. We’ll be able to apply these life-lessons in our work places and in our every-day lives.

Throw a male and a female in the same house together and there is bound to be conflict because God made us so differently. We joke about how God is crazy for making men and women so different and ask why he couldn’t have made our spouse to be more like us, but we fail to realize why He did design us the way we are. God makes men and women so different so that when we are joined together in marriage, we learn how to shed our selfish nature and how to love with His unselfish love. And we become better Christians as we grow in this unselfish love.

3) Your spouse isn’t God.

We know that in the front of our minds, but sometimes our hearts forget. Having a spouse won’t fill that God-sized hole in our hearts, and if we rely on them to fill our every desire then we are still going to feel empty inside. Roman is my husband. It is his job to support me and lead me in every way: physically, mentally, emotionally, and most importantly, spiritually. It is his role to be the leader of our household. But I can’t expect him to be perfect. I can’t expect him to never let me down. And although he is the leader of our household, his leader is God, which means that God is my leader as well. We cannot find complete fulfillment if we leave God out of the picture. On the flip side, I am Roman’s wife. I am to be there for him and support him. I am his helper and I am to show him my respect. But he can’t expect me to be perfect. He can’t expect me to keep his heart full and his mind calm…..only God can do that. Get the picture? Although our spouses are a big part of our lives, we have to remember that God is still more important. He’s still our rock and our fortress and our guide and He’s the glue that holds us together….and we still need Him more than air. If we can grasp that concept at the beginning of our marriages, then it will save us a lot of heartache and hurt feelings.

4) Don’t talk bad about your spouse. Ever.

To the wives: I don’t care what he did, your girlfriends don’t need to hear about it while you are having a girls’ night. (Note: I am not perfect in this area, so please don’t take it that way. This is just as much a reminder to me as it is to you.) There are times when you need to share with a select few…for example, if Roman had an affair then I would talk at great lengths with my Pastor’s wife and my best friend over how to move forward. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about how often I see women making fun of their husbands or talking about every little mistake he made…….sometimes while he’s standing right there! Ladies, our husbands deserve our respect. In fact, the Bible commands us to respect him at all times…whether he deserves it or not. So this means we need to constantly show him respect with our words and our actions. And let’s be honest, when our ears hear our mouths constantly speak bad about our husbands, we start to notice more of the bad and less of the good. But when our ears hear our mouths constantly speak good about our husbands, we notice more of the good and less of the bad.

To the husbands: Everything I just said applies to you as well. Don’t think that because the Bible tells the wife to respect the husband and not the husband to respect the wife that you are off the hook. Because in actuality, you are much more on the hook because you are commanded to love your wife as Christ loves the church. So you have a duty to always build up your wife and to show her love. And this includes what you say about her while you’re out with your friends. Build her up, don’t tear her down. Make her feel like a queen and she will treat you like a king.

5) Physical intimacy is much more important than what you think it is.

And all the husbands across America cheered. ;)  No but really, women don’t understand the male’s intense need for intimacy. Several of the bloggers I follow put it like this though, and it really makes sense to me: Women need to feel loved before we make love, men need to make love before they feel loved. In other words, if we women don’t feel like our man loves us, then we won’t feel like making love. If he didn’t take out the trash or help you with the kids or put gas in your car or talk to you for two hours about your feelings then he’s not going to get any affection from you because he obviously isn’t showing us love. But in his eyes, when you are constantly rejecting him and treating him like he’s a dog for wanting you like he does, then why should he talk to you about your feelings for two hours or take out the trash or help you with the kids or put gas in your car? When we reject him, we reject who he is as our husband and that hurts him deeply. And eventually the constant rejection is going to cause him to withdraw emotionally from the relationship. I’m not going to get too deep into this point, but ladies just remember: God created physical intimacy for marriage alone. It is a gift from God and it is 100% necessary for a successful marriage. So please don’t reject this important aspect of your marriage just because “you don’t feel like it.” If you would like to learn more about this topic, I would greatly encourage you to check out some of the links to the right of this post. Sheila at “To Love Honor and Vacuum” has a lot of great (Christian) information on this subject and can give you a whole lot more advice/guidance than I ever could.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” ~Proverbs 27:17

Weird Wednesday: Puppy Love and Cat Food

Weird Wednesday: Puppy Love and Cat Food

Our neighbor’s dog is a female. And it’s that time for her. Roman and I have quickly discovered two things: 1) Duke is apparently a stud muffin and 2) we are so glad we got him fixed. Y’all. This dog has been sleeping on our front porch waiting for Duke to come out….I’ve never seen a dog do that before. Needless to say, Duke has been a little bit beside himself these past few days because he thinks he still has something to *ahem* contribute….poor guy. We took your manhood a looooong time ago, buddy.

So what’s better than watching your neighbor’s dog pace back and forth on your front porch while your dog whines to go outside? A midnight run to Wal-Mart for cat food, that’s what. Because there is nothing I love more than running through the parking lot at 11:58 hoping they have not locked their doors yet because someone forgot to tell me we ran out of cat food that morning. **stares at Roman**

Also, I dreamed last night that elevators didn’t have walls and I was jumping from the elevator to the floor because I was too impatient to wait for the elevator to stop.

Also also, I may have killed the flowers already. Oops.

“For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you."  ~Proverbs 2:10-11

Stupid Things We Say

So first of all, surprise: Roman and I went on a cruise two weeks ago! I’m still sorting through pictures but hopefully I will finish that over the weekend and can start over-sharing our vacation adventures with all of you. But I thought it would be fun to have a super quick Friday afternoon post covering the stupid things we said/heard while on vacation. So without further ado…..

Roman: I also like the band name Roman and the Studmuffins.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

Me: I can do the alto harmony part just fine. But then the other day I was wondering if I could find the other harmony part. So I challenged myself to a dual and won!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

On trying escargot for the first time….

Me: It depends on how big it is.

Roman: It’s a snail, it can’t be that big.

Me: Unless that gave it steroids.

Roman: A snail? On steroids????

Me: ……yea.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

A little girl talking to her friend. They were on the balcony overlooking the atrium on the ship and were pointing to an overweight woman.

And that is why you can’t eat whatever you want. Because when you do, you end up looking like that. And that is not good for your heart!

I think that last one was my favorite. Thankfully I think they were way out of earshot of the woman with the “unhealthy heart”, but we were standing really close to the little girls and I almost died trying to contain my laughter.

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”  ~Romans 12:12

Weird Wednesday: They Know

Back In January, I posted about some of my irrational fears (to read, click here).

If you missed it, then I recommend you click on the link and read it…otherwise this post will not make a whole lot of sense to you. But if you’re feeling like being a rebel today and don’t want to read the post (or if you did read it and totally forgot what it said), here’s a quick play-by-play: I hate spiders. Roman won’t kill them for me because he says “they didn’t do anything wrong”. My dog loves eating bugs. I found a spider on the curtain in the living room. Roman would not kill the spider for me. So I shook the curtain to make the spider fall on the ground and then told Duke to eat it.

I think the spiders know…..and they’re out to get me.

Yesterday I come home from the doctor’s office and I stopped to check my mail. I opened the mailbox to find a big…fat…hairy…SPIDER sitting on top of the envelopes inside. Y’all. He was just sitting there like he was waiting for me all day to open that mailbox. He was at the very front edge of the envelope. Facing me. And when I opened the mailbox he just sat there glaring at me. I am almost positive that he also said “Boo.” Maybe not……but still. I’m sure he at least thought it.

He was about the size of a dime. But he was thick….like really fat. And he had orange on his butt. And his little biter thingies were green. None of that really matters though…..only the fact that the spiders are STALKING me!

Needless to say, I did NOT get the mail out of the mailbox….and I will probably never ever get the mail out of the mailbox for the rest of my life ever.

But the story gets worse.

When I got out of the car later that evening after I picked Roman up from work….there was another spider hanging from the garage door. He was about eye-level with me. And he was just, you know, hanging out. WAITING FOR ME.

My life has suddenly become a spider horror movie.

Dear Spiders of America,

I’m sorry I fed your brother/uncle/cousin/father/grandfather/whoever to my dog in January. Please accept my sincerest apologies as I am very sorry for your loss.

BUT IF YOU CONTINUE IN YOUR STALKING BEHAVIOR, I WILL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU.

*ahem*

That is all.

Sincerely,

Sarah

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” ~Matthew 10:28

#KneeProblems

If you missed my big announcement yesterday, I’m pregnant.

…..

Happy Day After April Fool’s Day!!!!  (In other words: I’m not pregnant. Calm down Mom).

Okay, for realz. If you missed it yesterday, I announced that I’m having surgery on my right knee at the end of this month. Literally at the end of this month….my date is April 30^th. After five long years of being in pain, numerous visits to the doctor and the physical therapist, and hundreds of dollars spent on going to the doctor and the physical therapist…..I’m giving up on the idea that my right knee still loves me and wants to turn its life around.

“Five years? Why have you waited so long?” you may be thinking. Or not. That’s okay too. But if you are thinking that question, here’s the answer: because in my first MRI in 2010 they didn’t see any tears. Only this past September did my second MRI show a small tear in my ACL and possibly a small tear in my meniscus. So somewhere in between the two MRIs my knee decided to go on strike. OR, the first MRI just wasn’t clear enough to show the tears (my doctor thinks this is the case, since he thinks it’s been torn since I fell on it waaaay back in September of 2008. Note: also, my doctor doesn’t believe that knees are capable of showing love or of going on strike. We have agreed to disagree.) Anywho, we tried physical therapy and Ibuprofen to see if I would be able to run and such without having the surgery, but apparently the tears are just too much and we are having to resort to (not so) drastic measures.

BUT, this is not major surgery. He is not going to re-construct or remove anything. He’s doing what is called a scope (not the mouthwash). He’ll go in with a tiny camera and have a look around first. Then he’ll go in and shave off the torn fibers of my ACL and (if it is torn) my meniscus as well. He believes that these torn fibers are aggravating the surrounding tissue in my knee and that is causing it to stay inflamed which causes me to whine a lot. As long as things are not worse than what they appeared to be in the MRI then it will only take about 20-30 minutes for the surgery and 4-6 weeks until I’m able to start jogging.

I’ll be honest, the day I scheduled the surgery I felt like an idiot because my knee wasn’t even hurting that day. But over the past four days my knee has been drinking Hater-ade again and now I’m glad I’m going to war with a surgeon. Okay, that sounds a little dramatic. Of course I know there is a possibility that I could end up in just as much pain (or more) as a result of the surgery, but I’m super excited that if all goes according to plan I will be able to resume my beloved sport of running in just a couple of months. (I’m also very much excited about the fact that I will be somewhat immobile for a few days so Roman will have to serve me ice cream and give me foot massages. *wink*)

On a much more serious note, I’m also believing that this is what I’m supposed to do and that God is going to guide my surgeon’s hands during the procedure so I can move on with my life. Because although my knee pain is not a sharp pain that totally prevents me from moving, it is an almost constant throbbing pain that keeps me from doing things that I love like running and cleaning the baseboards in my house. (I kid about that last one.) And of course, once we start having children (LATER) I’m going to want to get down on the floor and play with them and I’ll have to squat down to pick stuff up all the time…and that’s just not happening with my discriminating knee.

In actuality, this is an answer to Roman’s prayers because now I will stop complaining about my knee hurting. …..Instead, I will start complaining about how fast my toenails grow.  HA! TAKE THAT ROMAN.

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.”  ~Hebrews 12:11-13

Clean Eating: Revisited

Ten million years ago, I wrote a post about Roman and me switching to a “clean” diet. Fine. It was only 7 months ago, and if you missed the post (or need a refresher) and would like to go check it out right quick, then here is the link so you don’t have to scroll down for a trillion years five minutes: click here to read the post

So here’s a run-down of what happened with all of that:

1) Roman and I started the clean-eating thing at the beginning of August

2) At the end of August we all of a sudden found a new place to live and moved

3) Throughout the moving process, lots of fast-food cheeseburgers and pizza was eaten because we couldn’t use our actual cooking appliances/we were too exhausted to attempt cooking

4) After we finally got settled in, we had already returned to our bad habits and never went back to the good ones we were trying to create

Shablam. Attempt #1 at clean eating = FAILURE. Ouch.

Here we are….seven months later (and a few pounds heavier…) and we have decided we are going to try this again. Except this time, we are making a few changes:

1) I’m not going to buy “organic meats”, mainly because we can’t afford them. The only place that sells truly “clean” chicken is Publix. Not only is it almost three times more expensive than Wal-Mart, but it’s also 45 miles away from my house. And even when they do put it on sale, it’s still not cheap enough for me to buy it in bulk. We eat chicken more than any other meat and it’s just not feasible for us to spend that kind of money. And besides, if we stick to the rest of the plan then I think we’ll be doing pretty dang good and the chicken won’t kill us (I mean that literally). Who knows? Maybe once I get this thing hammered down I can save enough money in our budget to justify buying organic meats, but for now we are passing on that one.

2) I’m not going to totally quit chocolate/soft drinks…at least, for now. Okay, here’s the deal. Even if we hadn’t moved in August, I am convinced that eventually we would have failed. Why? Because I am a rebel. Tell me that I can’t have chocolate anymore and I might comply for a little bit, but eventually my brain is going to be like “DON’T TELL ME HOW TO RUN MY LIFE, GIVE ME ALL OF THE CHOCOLATE IN WAL-MART!!!!” And I will go on a chocolate binge-eating fest for the next two weeks. (Not a joke.) So I’m going to do my best to only eat dark chocolate (which is actually good for you in moderation) and then slowly cut back on how much of it I eat. I’m hoping to only eat it every few days eventually. Oh yea, and I’m still going to have my morning cup of coffee, but I’m only going to drink a diet coke if Roman and I go out to eat somewhere….which leads me to numero three-o

3) No more fast food, but eating a meal at a nice restaurant is okay. This is going to be our “reward”. We don’t go out to eat at a restaurant like Olive Garden very often, but when we do we are going to give ourselves the freedom to order whatever we want from the menu. This includes soft drinks and desserts…so we’re only going to go out to eat when we have the funds to pay for all that, otherwise I’ll leave feeling cheated and demand chocolate from Wal-Mart. (Still not a joke.)

So basically, we are being a lot more flexible this time around. Honestly, with our crazy schedule, we have to be flexible anyways. The biggest thing we are trying to avoid is fast food and anything you buy from the store in a box or a can because those are the un-healthiest foods you can eat (even the low-calorie ones because of all of the chemicals used in processing). Here’s a peek at today’s menu:

Breakfast: Coffee and a banana (meant to eat some oatmeal, but I forgot…)

Lunch: Leftover (clean) Chicken Noodle Soup

Dinner: Trying out a new recipe for (clean) Lasagna

Snack: Almonds and an Orange

What made us decide to try this again? Well, first off we both have gained a little bit of weight recently. It’s no big deal with Roman because he actually wants to gain some weight, but for me it goes something like this: “If I have to turn around and buy a bigger jean size ONE MORE TIME then I’m just going to wear sweatpants to work forever.” But that is really the smaller issue here. The much larger issue is the fact that I am sick. Again. And I’ve been sick for over a week now with no signs of getting better in the immediate future. I’ve lost count of how many sinus infections/colds I’ve had since the start of 2012, but I think I’m up to seven or eight. So I’m basically coming down with something every other month. So this clean eating thing is a three part effort to a (hopefully) healthier me and a stronger immune system. Part one: clean eating, which includes incorporating lots more fruits and veggies to my diet to give my immune system the ammunition it needs to fight off infections. Part two: get more sleep at night…because no matter how healthy you are, if you’re sleep-deprived your body still won’t function like it’s supposed to. Part three: exercise more. I can’t do too much until after I recover from my knee surgery at the end of this month (surprise! I’m having knee surgery…more on that tomorrow), but research has proven time and again that regular exercise helps your body stay in health, which in turn helps it to fight off infections.

So there ya have it folks. Probably way too much information about all of this, but now that I’ve put it all on the Internetz, I’m more accountable to actually following through, right? RIGHT?!??

Here’s my favorite motivational picture for your viewing pleasure:

(Yes I’m strange, love me anyways.)

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” ~1 Corinthians 10:31