Grace

Tonight I attended my first High School Youth Group meeting.  I was told at one point that I looked like “a deer in headlights” and to be honest that is how I felt.  I am not the type of person that instantly feels comfortable in a new situation.  I have to assess the people and my surroundings for quite a bit of time before I am comfortable enough to speak freely.  Tonight’s topic of discussion was that You Tube video entitled “Why I hate Religion, but love Jesus.” 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY

I must say there are a lot of insightful teenagers at my church.  We broke down the poem as a group and talked about the parts that we liked and disliked. There are a many valid points made in this poem with which I agree.  There are a lot of hypocrites in this world that claim to be Christian, but only practice the lifestyle for an hour on Sundays.  They attend church, going through the motions, but ignore the message.  In no way do I claim to be perfect and I myself don’t always understand what I am hearing when I attend mass nor do I always take it to heart.  Deacon Mark reminded me tonight though that I don’t have to be perfect, He is going to love me anyway J. 

We asked the kids to define religion and the difference between religion and spirituality.  I had never really given it much though, but that is a difficult question.  It is easy to define your religion (Catholic, Baptist, Protestant, Methodist, etc.), but how do you define your spirituality?  When we broke into small groups I asked the kids what it was liked to be a Catholic in the “Bible Belt” as I have had some interesting experiences since I moved here – mostly on Ash Wednesday.  For the last three years I have attended mass in the morning and then spent all day responding to the question “You have something on your forehead.”  The kids expressed that it is hard for them, assumptions are made about them and their beliefs and it can be a struggle at times.  I think I am going to enjoy working with the Youth Group over the next months and getting to know them better.  I just hope I am able to teach them something in the process.
 

For the record my favorite part of the poem follows:

“Because if grace is water, then the church should be an ocean.
It’s not a museum for good people, it is a hospital for the broken
Which means I don’t have to hide my failure, I don’t have to hide my sin”

It's sleeting!

In honor of Valentine’s Day… The Hubby and I have been together for six years and there was one thing he never bought for me – a flower! He is just not the “romantical” type in the poems, candy, and chocolate kind of way.  He does however, take the garbage out (most of the time), pick up around the house, make sure I have everything I need/want, and he hugs me.  If you have not read “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman, I would highly recommend you pick that book up.  It taught me a lot about our relationship and it gave me a better understanding that EVERYONE shows their love in a different way.  It is hard to “categorize” the Hubby though as he tends to fall into all five groups at some point or another, but overall I think he is “Physical Affection.”  Not to gross you out, but he will reach for my hand (even in public), hugs me whenever possible, and just generally stays near me.  So, on the big day he got me a cute card and a single red rose – so I got my flower. J

I ran 3.5 miles on Saturday. I am going to repeat that because I have never been able to make that statement before- I ran 3.5 miles on Saturday.  It took me 43 minutes so by no means am I going to be breaking any speed records anytime soon, but I finished it.  I have been following an 8 week training course that bumps up .5 miles on Saturdays, so next Saturday is 4 miles.  I am pretty proud of my accomplishment.  I used to be afraid of running, afraid of 1 mile, and now that just feels like a warm up.  Someday I may even run for an hour without slowing down to a walk!

I am really trying to reduce the stress in my life, but it does not seem to be going away.  All I can do is change how I handle my stress and what I do to deal with it.  This week has been especially busy at work.  To make a long story short, there was a lot thrown onto my plate at one time and I had a short amount of time to do it in – story of my life right?!?!? The next few weeks are not going to be any easier, but all I can do is just keep knocking it out one task at a time.  I have some giant “TO DO” lists!  I hate that I am using work as an excuse for not getting much else done right now, but I just get overwhelmed by it at times.  I have been getting better at taking time for myself, usually when I am running.  I am making a general effort to be in a better mood – yes, it does take effort to be in a good mood at times.  Let's just hope I don't turn into this guy... :)

363 days.

I ran tonight.  It actually felt pretty good.  I have been attempting an 8 week training schedule that I found online for the 10K.  Today was 2.5 miles of pure joy. :) Well, not exactly joy – I basically have a love/hate relationship with running.  It is the only time of day that I really don’t think about anything, other than the act of running and the time I have left.  Lately I have had A LOT on my mind so it has been a relief to have thirty minutes or so of “mindless time.”  I do have to convince myself to go to the gym because it means taking a break from work, which has been a difficult task for the last few weeks, but once I am there I am happy I made the decision.  The Hubby has been pushing me to spend more time on me and ironically, my staff at work have as well.  They banned together and purchased me a Groupon for THREE 60 minute massages.  I am super excited! I plan on taking a mental health day away from my job in mental health next Monday and getting a massage.  I might even spend some time with the Hubby since he I home from work that day as well… maybe.

 I officially have 363 days to complete my 30 before 30 list.  I celebrated my 29^th birthday last Thursday.  I arrived at work to see that my staff had worked hard to ensure that everyone in the building knew it was my birthday by hanging signs all over the building and decorating my office.  They also gave me a tower of Swiss Rolls (my favorite).  We went to one of my favorite restaurants for lunch, Yamatos, and then it was back to the office to work the rest of the day away.  At the end of the day I came home to some packages I got in the mail from my parents.  My mom made me a wreath using the flowers from our wedding centerpieces and my sister made me a blanket.  The Hubby and I went out for dinner and then we had to go buy dog food at Target – birthdays can’t get in the way of the regular life and the dogs were hungry.  We did have some friends over this Saturday night and we made some homemade pizzas and played Kinect.  Well, the guys made the pizzas while the ladies chatted in the living room – and they made some really good pizzas! It was a good time, I enjoy being able to spend time with friends. 

I continue to work on my List.  I have been running three times in the past week to prepare for the 10K.  Still not anywhere near the goal of a 10 minute mile, well the first mile tonight was 12:30 so actually closer than it has been in the past to that 10 minute goal.  The Hubby has been slowly teaching me to play chess.  We are in the middle of a very intense game that is taking place at the rate of one move a day.  I am sill learning what direction each piece can move, so it is going to be awhile before it becomes a productive game.  For some reason, I have an overwhelming urge to watch Saved by the Bell – you know the one where Screech plays Chess against the Russian exchange student? I will let you think about that…

8 weeks

It’s Saturday night and I am home alone drinking a glass of wine.  At some point in my life I became okay with that.   Now don’t go thinking that I never want to leave my house again on the weekend and I have become “old”! I have just been busy. I work two jobs so I am sometimes at work on the weekend when the group is hanging out.  Geographically we are now the only couple left in Charlotte so that can pose an issue at times with transportation, travel, and convenience.  Never fear though – I will have the opportunity to socialize tomorrow at BLee’s Superbowl Par-tay! I have spent the entire last week in a hotel room by myself so I am sure that I talked the Hubby’s ear off when I got here yesterday.  I felt like I had a million things to say and most of it was trivial and did not matter – I just needed to talk to someone. Ha ha! J

The Hubby and I did go shopping today and he bought me my Birthday present.  I am now the proud owner of a Coach purse- a Soho Signature.  Not that I know what that means exactly, but I like it and that is all that matters. Thank you to my Hubby for being so thoughtful! We continued our shopping trip and I got some shoes, some new shirts, and some new running pants.  It was a big day for me as I very rarely spend money on myself! We did make one other purchase.  We bought a picture frame.  I had decided that I wanted to create our last name, much like that from alphabetphotography.com, but I wanted to take the pictures ourselves (#22).  We were on a mission last weekend on our trip to Knoxville, TN to find some “letters.”  We found a few good options; it is harder than it looks! We are on our way to spelling our name with this “E” – a streetlight.

As for the rest of the list, there has not been a whole lot of progress.  I did run a few times while staying at the hotel.  The 10K (#17) is officially 8 weeks away as of today, so I need to get some better motivation! I am going to start my volunteer program (#20) at the end of the month – more about that later as I don’t even really know what I am getting into at this point.  I am however well on my way to becoming a regular at church (#28) and my volunteer activity will only help that along as well. J I have been diligent about sending cards/letters to the various and wonderful people in my life for their birthdays, but I know that I want to expand on that. (#30)  I know that I love getting a piece of mail that is not a bill and I want to make others feel special as well.