Long Weekend

I feel like I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off lately, and I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling like this either. Spring always makes me a little crazy around my house, ‘spring cleaning’ everything (which drives Curtis nuts, especially when I try and do it all at once instead of room by room) as well as trying to get assignments and requirements done so I can graduate in precisely 45 days and 1 hour.

While it has been crazy for me lately, we just had the loveliest long weekend that was wonderfully rejuvenating because I decided to do nothing. I didn’t do laundry. I loaded the dishwasher one time. I avoided homework on Sunday. It was glorious!

Naturally, I spent my downtime reading for pleasure and watching the Harry Potter marathon that was on all weekend (I’m an admitted Harry Potter nerd, it’s why I have a Pinterest account). Again, glorious!

Anways, that was my weekend. I want to pass on a little phrase that caught my eye last week:

“Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.”

This really struck home with me because kindness is something I struggle with while working in customer service. Oftentimes I am on the receiving end of rude behavior from others, and I often find myself holding a grudge against that person and then passing along the rudeness unintentionally to someone else. I am not trying to excuse rude behavior by saying there is always a reason for it, but on the chance that the person in question is having a terrible day, I think that returning unkindness with kindness may change that person’s day for the better…and in the process it might just change the way I walk away from the situation. That whole, ‘Do unto others’ thing- 🙂 It really changed my attitude, which can get pretty crummy at work sometimes.

Anyways, have a wonderful week-

Read a book.

Relax a bit.

And be kind, even when you don’t want to be, and see what it does.

~K

 

 

 

 

The Non-Vegetarian Sister

Major thanks to my wonderful sister for keeping you all going with reading material the last few months. Im sorry for having been away so long, I take a break and she goes vegetarian on me!? Although these meals look delicious and I truly do trust M’s talent in the kitchen, I’m not sure I could do tofu.
I really like meat.
Now that school is back in session and my internship has started, I plan on being much more diligent in my efforts to share my goings-on with you all. Because I am having some truly awesome experiences!
Because the nature of my job has a huge element of confidentiality, I hope my shortened version of experiences will still be able to show how much I am loving social work.
I’ve got a great group of supervisors both at school and my agency, but so far my relationship and dependency on God has blossomed in a way I didn’t expect. I wrestle a lot with being a follower of Jesus and being a person who advocates for others especially when the two vocations don’t mix. Or cant mix.

(From A Voice in the Wind, by Francine Rivers)
It’s an awesome learning thing for me, and I am repeating to myself daily that God’s plan for me is greater than my plan for myself. Self-care has been underlined from the beginning as something that is necessary to my health and ability to do my job, so posts like M’s last week (even though I have no moppets yet!) made a big impact on my day.
Did anyone else gain from M’s post last week? I love how God uses so many different people with so many different talents to reveal Himself to us.

~K

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

Between having a new niece, a new second cousin (!! It’s baby season, ya’ll!!), friends, school, work, and housework, I am getting to be one cranky lady by about Wednesday afternoon. I simply cannot stretch myself thinly enough to do everything I want to do, and it can drive me batty. I’m sure you understand. We all do this in some way- say yes to everything, because ‘everything’ is stuff we want to do, and end up going crazy because there’s not enough hours in the day.

It’s all about- I’m gonna be cliche- taking time to stop and smell the roses. Or, in my case, wiggling my toes in freshly mown grass.

**pedicure courtesy of M, who treated me to a ‘me’ day, cuz she’s psychic or something

Also, I’ve been listening to K-Love on the radio lately and trying to make it more of a habit- and I love what it’s doing for my attitude. I’m sure some of you understand- the ‘on-the-go’ nature of  life can suck you dry, but having a radio station dedicated to awesome worship music and talk on how to live a God-centered life in a self-centered world has made a huge difference for me….I highly suggest turning your radio channel if you haven’t already.

And I started reading Blue Like Jazz again. If none of you have read it- make the time to do it. It’s by Donald Miller, and it is a phenomenal book on how to be a Christian today…

It’s so crazy how much more calm I feel when I take more (nonexistent) time out of my day to focus on what’s important (God and family), time suddenly seems to slow just a bit, life seems a little brighter, and graduation doesn’t seem quite so far away.

Coffee dates with my momma also help.

🙂

~K

 

 

 

 

11 Minute Meal

I have totally gotten out of the habit of cooking nightly for Curtis, my oh-so-understanding hubby. I go to work at 4:30 in the morning most mornings (I work at a certain popular coffeehouse) and then go to work at a drycleaners right after that, until about 5:30 in the evening. Thank goodness I work at a coffeehouse though, because Lord knows I couldn’t do it without caffeine. You’d think with two nurses in the family they could figure out a way to hook me up to an IV for a constant drip.

My iced Chai Tea Latte!

Needless to say by the time I get home, I am not in the mood to cook or do laundry. Mostly I’m in the mood to craft or read….or sleep. Anyways, I was not in the mood to cook, but Curtis was all ready to make mac and cheese (which I cannot stand) so I volunteered to make dinner quick before I had to leave for my yoga class. I like to call this a ‘pantry meal’. I happened to have some tilapia in the freezer- I prefer fresh fish, but it’s not always an option-, some corn, and a bag o’ salad in the fridge so I figured that’d be far better than Velveeta mac and cheese. No offense to half of my family 🙂

I set the oven to broil while I defrosted the tilapia and covered a baking dish with tin foil. Then I got the corn on the stove. While that got cooking, I drizzled a little olive oil on the tin foil and set the fish in the pan. Then I put garlic, dried basil, lemon juice, and pepper all over the fish.

I like garlic.

Curtis likes cheese on his fish, so I shredded a little mozzarella on there (cuz it’s all I had handy) and popped it in the oven til it was crispy which was about 7 minutes.

Makin me hungry all over again!

I love it when the cheese gets all toasty like that….Delicious. By this time, the corn was done and all I had to do was throw the salad on the plate with the best dressing ever:

It is always in my fridge!

Summer dinners!

That’s pretty much it! Home-cooked meal completed and still got to yoga on time. Although I did realize halfway through plank pose that there is a reason I usually eat dinner after yoga…

-K