A Daily Record

I'm not much of a journal girl.

Well, let's be more specific.

I LOVE the idea of journaling and as one would expect, I have about 5 or 6 cute little spiral journals in my possession on a shelf or in a drawer. BUT...Sister don't journal...I can't write fast enough to write down what I'm thinking. I even tried to type out my journal and that didn't work either.

I like to take notes in my journals. Notes from sermons, podcasts, and even notes from books I read. One would think highlighting would be the answer but I like to write down what sticks out so I can go back and read it later. I often check out books from the library and you can't highlight in those without getting in big fat trouble.

I have a friend who I've known for almost half my life. She's was my college roommate and truly is one of the most stinkin' hilarious people I know. I could never be as funny as her..even if I tried. And she's got these 4 hilarious kids too....4 GIRLS, y'all. Her man is funny too...If you don't need humor in that house, I don't know when you need it.

She actually likes to journal but as you can imagine, doesn't have an abundance of time. Her oldest is 11 and her youngest is almost 3....and that young one? Her middle name is Estel but I like to call her Stella. She single-handedly keeps B on her toes and her knees, for sure. But dang, they are all SO darlin'.

B introduced me to a very fun journal that is totally doable and quite fun.

Q & A a Day is a 5-year journal that asks you a different question every day. For example....Are you an original or a remix? Who would you trade places with for a day? What's your favorite piece of clothing?

Nothing too complicated. But the cool part is that it chronicles those same answers for 5 years...so you can see exactly how you answered the question each year. This journal is great for someone who is embarking on a new phase or maybe just a way to stop and think creatively each day.

365 questions, 5 years, 1, 825 answers.

How fun is that?

What's been fun is to answer some of the questions with Tray before we go to bed. Today's question/challenge is 'Write down a few lines from a song or poem that you identify with today'.

I guarantee his will be completely different from mine. Y'all know how much God speaks to me through music. How will I be able to pick a line or two? The space isn't very big, girls!

If you are in the market for a fun gift, this would be a great idea. They also have Mom's One Line a Day, a great way to capture what your kiddos are doing each day and My Quotable Kid.

I'll leave you with tomorrow's question: What invention could you not live without?

Ready..set...go!

And as a hint for a future post....I've acquired a new-to-me invention that I have the biggest crush on....love at first sight, I tell ya!

Ideas for Summer Fun 2011

Well, I'm a little over a week into this 40-day Facebook fast and I have to say I'm no worse for the wear. Sure, I wonder what I am missing a little bit but I am sure getting a lot of things done around here...namely updating my other blog In The Know Northwest.

Wait...hold the phone one minute.

Before I continue...did I mention that we got rodeo tickets offered to us tonight thinking they were Lady Antebellum only to JUST figure out they were for Alan Jackson? Yep..if I'd actually been on Facebook, I'd bet I'd figured that out a lot faster. For the love...

Back to the topic at hand...each summer I scour the internet for fun summer ideas and the start of that list can be found here. It takes a village, people. If you have 411, please share!

All joking aside....the removal of that one little distraction has been pretty amazing (that and a change of scenery to Scottsdale, AZ) and I hope to be able to put my thoughts to paper soon. He's still working on me, that is fo' 'sho.

Happy Friday!

Pages and Pages of Happiness

The Mr. and I are taking a trip soon and our two mullions, I mean precious angels from the Lord, are going to San Diego with the Mimi.

Yes, you read that right. Not their Mimi....THE Mimi.

She is the the bringer of all things fun and the inventor of their 3 favorite initials...WWW.

Whatever We Want.

Whatever we want to do and eat, whenever we want.

You can imagine the stories recounted when they come back from their adventures.

But I digress.

It's no secret I am a reader. I love me some books but I've noticed that I read more online these days than physical books and I miss holding a real book very much.

As our trip has gotten closer, I have been scouring Amazon for reviews of new books that I might like to take with me. (Yes, I read reviews. Who wants to waste their time reading a crummy book?) I almost did the happy dance right there in the middle of the Harris County Library when ALL of the books I requested were there for me to check out.

Does that make me a weirdo? Probably, but I don't care! I have 5 books to choose from and the ALL have the potential to be quite entertaining as I sit poolside getting some color on my pasty white legs. I'll have sunscreen everywhere else, but dang it...tan fat looks better than white fat and I need some color!

Speaking of sitting by the pool...when did I graduate into the swimsuit category of 'comfortable coverage'? I didn't know whether to laugh, be offended or sit in the dressing room floor and cry when I read the tag. Y'all, let's just say my very cute new suit is a Suck and Cover bathing suit. It sucks what needs to be sucked in and covers what needs to be covered. And it's a big fat bonus it happens to be stylish and not MeMaw, all tied up in a nice red blow.

Don't be that gal that needed to be covered more, supported more or just flat needed a bigger size. Employ the 3-way mirror, girls. It will save you serious regret when you happen to be in the background of a shot you never intended.

But back to my books. I can't say that any are authors I'm familiar with so here's crossing my fingers that my choices are PG-21....at least I got smart enough not to take a non-fiction book in hopes that I'd learn something on vacay. It was most definitely a mistake to take Wild At Heart to Cancun to learn more my man.

BIG mistake. Huge. No non-fiction should be aloud on the beach. 'Nuff Said.

Need some Spring Break reading? Check these out:

Second Time Around by Beth Kendrick
Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'Easter by Lisa Patton
Skipping a Beat by Sara Pekkanen
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
Alamo House by Sara Bird


Have any good books you've read lately?

It Ain't No Desert....yet, that is

After becoming quite a sporadic blogger, I'm hoping a few of you still stop by. Here goes..

Fat Tuesday brought brightly colored beads and mediocre cake with the hope of finding, but not choking on, the plastic baby buried deep within the white flour, butter and sugar...oh and crazy colored icing.

Then came Ash Wednesday, where Catholic churches..and a few others, were crammed full to signify the start of Lent, a time of sacrifice for Jesus.

The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, repentance, self-denial — as they prepare for Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

Although we might not be practicing 'Catholetics' as Weston refers, we do embrace the idea of shifting our focus from distractions to the Resurrection. And we do that by choosing something to remove for 40 days and often something to add in, to draw closer to the Lord during those 40 days.

According to the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured temptation by Satan.

If Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert, surely this Sister can give up something, right?

I would love to say my ultimate choice was the first...but sadly, no. I originally kicked around the idea of giving up sugar/desserts to loose a few lbs before my 20 year reunion in June. Don't judge. But ultimately, I knew the greater sacrifice was to give up a time-waster, distractor and procrastinator by the name of Facebook. Some questioned, a lot understood and I signed off right before midnight on Tuesday night. I even cleared my history on my computer and moved my app on my phone to the very end of the page as to not be tempted.

By Wednesday morning, I felt a little like Jerry Maquire after he wrote his infamous memo in the middle of the night, having to then live with his choice. Everyone clapped and cheered the next morning after reading a truly great perspective on a jaded industry. In reality, they really thought he had lost his mind. That one memo ultimately changed the entire scope of a career he had worked so hard to build.

I understand those of you who haven't drank the FB kool aid can't wrap your brain around why it would even be a big sacrifice to give up Facebook for a little over 5 weeks...and as I type this, I feel a bit foolish myself. There is something a little fun, and often brainless, about looking at pictures and hearing about friends' funny daily antics. I hid the annoying parts a long time ago....I don't care about the mafia, farm or anything else be collected. No offense.

So I logged off of the social network that has connected thousands, but in a way has made friendships one-dimensional. Face to face contact, with a lot of honesty and laughter (not LOL and ROFL), the opportunity to really see the facial expressions of my friend and the ability to give them a huge squeeze when I greet them is still the absolute best to me. That offers something logging on and reading cannot, plain and simple.

But if we are honest, there are bunches of little distractions around us that steal bits and pieces of our day and if piled all together, amount to quite a lot.

I bet I'm the only one.

At the end of the day, I want to be all there...wherever 'there' might be. Lots of things vie for my attention and divide my heart. That's not abundant living...not His plan for me.

Will I return to FaceBook in 40 days? Most likely. But I am sure looking forward to what He will teach me as I make a diligent effort to move my focus to things that last instead of things that distract.

And who knows? I might just find a few things to share on this little blog which has been neglected over the past month.

What's diving your heart or distracting you from His best for today?