Thoughts from today

Of course now that I have a paper due in 2 weeks and very little done on it, I have lots of time to blog! That is the way I work. I can only read and take notes for so long before I am incapable of continuing. Short breaks make it bearable.

ANYWAY.

My friend Abby was wonderful enough to share a verse with me this morning...

Philippians 3:12--"Not that I have already obtained this (righteousness) or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own."

What a wonderful thing to know--I am HIS OWN. He has made me HIS OWN. And so I press on. Even when it seems that I am doing nothing right. Even when it seems like circumstances are not what they should be. I press on. Because I am HIS.

I need to know that and live that everyday.

never a dull moment...

What does Corey decide to do this morning--

knowing I have a 25 page paper due in 2 weeks--

knowing that he works the next 3 days in a row--

PAINT THE KITCHEN CABINETS.

Cause that is the normal thing to do right? Well, in our house it kind of is. We aren't great at making life easy on ourselves :)

OH well, he has already de-greased, sanded, primed and painted the faces of the cabinets. Then it is on to the doors. He's a pretty awesome husband-despite his crazy timing of home-improvement projects ;)

Juice--it does a body good!

So one thing I learned when Corey and I subscribed to Netflix was that my husband is a bit of a documentary junkie. While I can watch and enjoy one or two, he has watched LOTS. His most recent find was this one...

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It chronicles a man who drinks nothing but juice for 60 days in an attempt to rid his body of toxins, shed unnecessary weight and get to a healthy place. (He also travels around the US and talks to people about food and nutrition etc). Corey asked me to watch and see what I thought. I admit I only watched a portion of it, but what I saw was compelling. In the last year, Corey and I have drastically reduced the amount of processed food we eat; however, we still eat a lot of carbs and a lot of dairy (I LOVE dairy).

So what did we do?

We went and bought a juicer.

And we drank juice for breakfast and lunch for 5 days. We tried dinner, but ditched it after almost strangling one another from hunger. We modified it to include a "sensible dinner." It was a really good experience. We made juice with all of the following in the course of the five days: carrots, celery, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, tomato, cucumber, beets, sweet potatoes, kiwi, grapes, apples, oranges, pineapple, watermelon, pears, peaches, ginger, lemons, limes and strawberries. My favorite? Orange, pear, apple, sweet potato! SO DELICIOUS!

For me, I am trying to be the healthiest that I can be. But I am recognizing baby steps. It started with exercise and a healthy diet. Then I realized that diet food was not a great option for me and started making more of my own foods and cut out the Diet Coke. My one big take-away from the experience is that I really want to learn to eat in moderation and stay healthy. The more kind of "kooky" things I try, the more I realize that I LOVE FOOD. I don't ever want to HAVE to drink juice for 60 days because of obesity. Some things cannot be avoided-all of you lactose intolerant people out there I get that it is not your fault that some of my favorite foods make you sick. But to the extent that I can avoid it, I want to.

SO ACTION STEPS POST JUICE??

• I think I will keep juicing/smoothie-ing for breakfast. It is great to incorporate veggie juice into the morning routine and maybe I will start adding some tofu for protein in my smoothies.


• Do a juice fast post finals--to detox from all the CRAP I put in my body when I am stressed out!


• JUICE MORE--it is SOOO fun! Next time we entertain I want to make fresh raspberry lemonade--YUMMY!!

Whoa...

It's July 20. What does that mean? In a few SHORT weeks, summer will be over-my last real summer as a student Then I will head into my last year of law school--study for the bar and *hopefully* (after a very long tropical vacation), I will start working. While it seems that summer just started, it has been jam-packed with so much! Just this last month, we have

thrown a stellar birthday party for three amazing kiddos...

created a new band (ok so a fictitious band) called Betty and the Sweetness...

this little trio (Corey, Brent and Stu) has actually been playing together at church for quite awhile, but at our friend Sam and Whitney's wedding, it all came together. The band set up in a room dedicated to (no joke) Betty Sweet Ness. And thus was born the Band--Betty and the Sweetness: We're the Sweetness...Betty Couldn't make it. (that's the long title).

took the whole family to see the hubs play in his REAL band Under Shelter when they performed at the Honi-Honi in Deep Creek Maryland (which btw, an encore presentation will be August 27 if you are interested!!)

went to an amazing crab dinner hosted by my friend and office neighbor-Josh. A buddy of his brought in two cooler fulls of fresh crab from Annapolis. He was kind enough to share the loot with a variety of friends.

And most recently, I got the opportunity to go to Summersville for a zip-lining adventure with the other BR clerks. (Hope to have photos of us bedecked in our gear and zipping along soon). The night before, we stayed in a cabin that was about the most rustic I have ever stayed in. 5 beds in the loft, a sink, a refrigerator. The only cooking could be done on the outdoor fire-pit. It was a growing experience for all of us--BUT as good future lawyers, we problem-solved. Rocks and sticks served as grilling utensils, various layers of aluminum foil aided our breakfast creation.

That doesn't include all the trips to the park...all the family date nights of watching movies...all the evenings of not doing anything at all...

It's been quite the month, and I am trying to savor every moment of it. Cause I know all of the sudden I will wake up and "Whoa" summer is over and the grind of school begins.

a lovely quote...

I found this quote on one of my new favorite sites--we <3 it. Lots of photos...tons of word art :) I like this quote because it is just another thing that I need to learn. I think of courage as bravery--fighting valiantly for the things that I believe in. But sometimes...sometimes it is harder to stop fighting, knowing that the battle begins again in the morning.

I have the tendency to think myself a failure if I set a goal and don't achieve it. I set a goal to have no snacks after 8 pm and fail after night 3. I set a goal to only have 2-3 cups of coffee a day and two pots later hate myself and the stupid goal. But really, I tried. I put forth effort. And while today I may not have achieved my goal, I can try again tomorrow. I need this mind set SO MUCH.

Every hiccup is not failure.

Every side-step is not the end of progress.

But it is so hard to get up and start over. Once I "fail", I generally don't get on the wagon again for awhile. So courage really is taking stock of the ways we disappoint ourselves and getting up the next day to start again.

Libby turns 5!!

I blogged about my pregnancy with Libby a few months back. It was certainly one of the biggest trials in my life. But man...July 11 is a day that we CELEBRATE!! All the crazy uncertainty took a pause when our baby girl cried for the first time.

For some reason, this birthday is really hitting me hard. I don't know if it is that Libby is school age, or just that 5 seems like such a big kid. It may be that her personality is so much more mature than before. She has opinions and can have awesome conversations. Whatever it is, every time I say that I have a five-year-old, I choke up. And she is SUCH AN AWESOME KID!

I love that she cracks up at her own jokes. I love that she tries new foods without blinking (yesterday she ate crab). I love that she doesn't fit into any box--she is all girl, but her favorite TV show is He-Man. And more than anything (so far) I love that nothing gets this kid down. She has had 3 surgeries, months of casts and before that, she walked on her knees cause her little legs just weren't straight. Yet she keeps going. She runs and "skips" and jumps. She rests when she needs to, but she just GOES. I'm so proud to be her momma.

I thought about writing a post about the day she was born, but honestly, I don't remember much. I remember she cried and that I was not great on drugs. SO, I have asked my other half to write about her BIRTHday. I will post it when he writes it. :)

Check out the family blog to see what we have been up to the last month!

my musical obsessions...

Lately I have been playing music in my office at work, and this song is one that has been on repeat for awhile...(have I ever mentioned that I am one of THOSE people that listen to the same song over and over without stopping--cause I am).

I really like The Civil Wars and HIGHLY recommend listening to the whole album available here on Noisetrade. Which--I am slightly obsessed with too. It is a really great site where one can listen to whole albums for FREE. I have downloaded Brooke Waggoner and Josh Rouse as well as Josh Garrels. All are pretty mellow, but I am a mellow music kind of gal (unless I'm running).

After our SUPER JAM PACKED BIRTHDAY WEEKEND, I needed a little mellow. I will certainly Blog about the CandyLand adventure party soon--and I am sure Danie will too. It was a blast!

Here is me and the birthday boy as things were winding up. He is a sweaty, dirty mess (and I am not much better. But we both had such a great time!

Book Worm

So remember when I said I was going to read a lot this summer and blog all about it?

I remember that too. Funny thing is, I am 6 weeks into the summer and have finished ONE book. ONE. that makes me sad. I was reading more during law school. But that said, the ONE book that I have read was quite good. I mentioned it a couple weeks ago. ROOM. It was wonderful because the situation was so bad (girl abducted, raped, gives birth, lives in a room), but you were reading it from the POV of a little boy who knew no other life. Kuddos to Emma Donoghue for a very well-written book.

I miss being lost in a book. Corey and I have recently invested a lot of time in watching The Wire-which is a GREAT show. But -man- books are my escape! I LOVE them!

Sooo...one of my action steps to kick my rear-end into gear in the book department was signing up for a GoodReads account. I found out about it from my friend and AVID book reader/lover Charity. You can check her blog out here. She reads-alot. And GoodReads is a great venue for me to see (stalk) her books-her reviews and to-read lists. I HIGHLY recommend signing up and cataloguing what you read. HOWEVER, please note that I accidentally linked it to my twitter/facebook so I really clogged up my accounts when I started rating books I had read. Whoops!

photo from here