Anticipation

How many more days until Disney??????

Happy Halloween! I hope you and your family have fun tonight Trick or Treating together!

I get a little cynical about Halloween because of two things.

1) We avoid death at all costs and then make light of it one month out of the year. I think Halloween is fun to a certain extent. I like dressing up in a costume and carving pumpkins and having parties. But when you have the whole Halloween store on your front yard and bloody handprints on the windows, I think that's a bit too far.

2) The minute the clock chimes midnight and it's November, everyone instantly goes into Christmas mode. Never mind Thanksgiving. We just want to go straight to the holiday where we ask for things to be given of us. This isn't going to be a post ranting about the importance of Thanksgiving (I'll do that post later) but rather, a pontification about why we anticipate Christmas so much. In fact, why do we anticipate things in the first place?

I am definitely in a state of anticipation right now as I count down the days until we get to go to Disney. I'm listening to Disney music, Disney podcasts, watching old Disney videos from past trips (mine as well as others on youtube), making costumes, and my suitcase has been open with all the things I need for the trip resting nicely inside. One minute I'm on a Disney cloud. Next minute, I'm sad because the trip seems so far away still. The push and the pull of emotions brought on by anticipation seems to be killing me, as the saying goes.

So what is it about Disney that gets me all excited and anxious about going? It's the fact that it's a vacation in a place I find joy and I get to share it with some favorite people of mine. It's a guarantee that no matter what we end up enjoying our time together and make memories for a lifetime.

I think this is what the draw is for Christmas too. Although Christmas brings some baggage with family dynamics and those who have experienced loss, it's a time where society seems to be at least trying to be better. We smile at each other. We give gifts. We sing songs about hope and joy. We think about how terrible Mr. Scrooge was and thank goodness those ghosts taught him a lesson! We have random flash mobs in the mall singing Christmas music and bringing magic to normal everyday life. We eat good food and spend time with those we love most.

Let's zoom out even further. What are other things we anticipate besides Disney trips and Christmas? I know for our family, we anticipate when Jared's job will allow him to gain seniority. We anticipate our small business growing. Some might anticipate a certain team winning the Super Bowl (*cough...Cowboys*). Others might anticipate that special someone coming into their lives. Some might be anticipating the new life coming into their family. I know some are anticipating loved ones coming back home.

Anticipation allows us to see what we desire. What is that thing that we are most eagerly awaiting to happen? Point to that, and that is what your heart is chasing after. It's not bad. But if you are not careful, it can lead to bad things. If you allow your emotions then to go like mine waiting for my Disney trip, then your going to be swinging back and forth between cloud nine and hopelessness, wondering if it will ever happen.

Now, the church answer to what we should actually be anticipating is "We should be eagerly awaiting when Jesus is coming back." And yes, while that sounds nice, many of us would go, "Well, sure. But people keep guessing the date wrong and in the meantime..."

So the question is, why is it so hard to get excited about Jesus coming back?

I don't have the answer to that.

I have theories. They range from the fact that I don't have a date for Jesus' return. I'm also pretty sure I will die before that happens. But, again, I don't know that for sure. I also think that part of me is like, "I talk to God every day. It's not like he's in another country and I'm waiting for him to come home." Life doesn't seem so bad that I want him to come and take me away from it. So what's the rush?

This the line of thinking that makes it hard to anticipate Jesus returning like I anticipate Disney. So I'm going to let this question marinate in my own brain. While I already have a passionate love for God and wanting to bring him glory, why is it hard for me to find the emotions to get excited about God coming back? I know it's possible. I've experienced it before. And when I do, how do I integrate my life with that passion for his return?

Oils for Running

I recently posted on my social media that I had a very involved recovery to do list after my 14 mile run which included some essential oils. I got a couple of questions asking what I used and what to use for recovery in running. So I thought I would share in more detail!

My first thing to go when running long distances is my immune system. It tanks after long runs and it's when I'm most vulnerable to get sick. I have been boosting my immune system after long runs by putting a drop or two of the Citrus Fresh blend in my water and so far, so good!

The other thing that I have been dealing with is the humidity...which causes chafing! Besides my copious amounts of body glide that I use, I get really bad chafing under my arms. I've also been getting blisters from my shoes that I just had to retire. Best thing for both of these? Lavender and Tea Tree! Both of these oils have anti septic and an anti-inflammatory properties as well as helps the skin heal faster. I apply them twice daily until my skin has healed. Between chafing and blisters, I heal way faster than without them! Which means next run, I'm not wincing in pain.

My favorite, PanAway! It's a blend that helps with pain. It works a little like aspirin in helping reduce pain and it also works as an anti-inflammatory. Like Lavender and Tea Tree, it promotes healing so that your injury gets better faster. This is perfect for my leg muscles after a long run. I am not nearly as sore after each run like I was last time I trained for a marathon.

Last but not least, I've been dealing with an ankle issue. I won't call it an injury yet, because I can still run on it. But I have had to cut back my mileage a bit. I'm getting tendonitis on the inside of my right ankle. As much as I'm rolling out my muscles after runs, I'm just super tight and it's causing a stress point on this part of my ankle. I'm using a blend of Valor II and RC in conjunction with PanAway in order to help heal it. RC has Marjoram, Lavender and Peppermint which all help with the healing. Valor helps with the pain along with PanAway. After two weeks of putting a few drops on my tendon  twice a day, I was able to do a 12 mile run without any real significant pain the following day. I'm a believer!

So if you are a runner or any other athlete, I hope some of these uses can help you! Happy running!

Date: Day Trip to Waco!

Jared got an unexpected week off of work last month. We took advantage of the time together and we decided to make a day trip to Waco!

We started off by visiting the Magnolia Farms store. We were wandering around looking at some of the stuff, but honestly, were a little disappointed. Maybe it's just us having ridiculous expectations. Maybe it's just because many of the decorations were not our style. But we enjoyed our time non-the-less.

We then moved on to lunch followed by the Dr. Pepper museum!

Cheesin'

Jared picked up the "scavenger hunt" of things to look for while we were going around the small museum. It was so cool to check out the history of this place, not to mention the Dr. Pepper float that we got to share at the end!

They used to make deliveries in this thing!

Another highlight of the trip was getting to do some geocaching! We picked some of the most favorited caches in Waco and got our smiley faces all over the city!

Looking over the Brazos.

My Captain America :)

It was a nice day trip we got to share together. We are finding it hard these days to naturally spend quality time together and we are making an effort to make it it happen! Highly suggest you go visit Waco if you get a chance!

Camping at Enchanted Rock State Park!

A couple of weekends ago I got to go on a fantastic trip with two of my very best friends, Ashley and Amy! We backpacked around Enchanted Rock State Park and had a blast!

Up at the top of Enchanted Rock!

We hiked, had great girl talk, had to take a trip to Fredericksburg for a stove malfunction, and also did some geocaching!

GPS was vital as we didn't have cell service for a lot of the weekend.

Found a benchmark at the top of the rock!

This tree looks like a Toucan! 

For the full scoop (and to see my friend Amy's fantastic doodles) you can check out the electronic scrapbook here!

Geocaching - Geocaching Road Trip and our First Event Cache

This past summer we got to participate in the Geocaching Road Trip Challenge! You had to complete five challenges over the summer to earn your road tip hero award! We are always excited when Geocaching.com does these challenges and this summer was no different!

First was our fun with favorites cache! We found GC4KMTF - Simply Amazed. we won't give away any secrets, but there's a reason this one had a bunch of favorite points!

One of my favorite ones was Let's Get Extreme!

Each geocache has a difficulty rating and a terrain rating. Difficulty tells you how well it's hidden. Terrain tells you how hard it is to get to it. You had to find a geocache with a highest rating of 5 in either of these categories in order to get this souvenir! We went after GC4BVWW - 50/50. We had to climb a tree to find this one!

My husband, flyingag11, up in the tree going after the cache. I would go up after him to put it back!

What was fun about this cache is we made a day of it. We were out at the lake and found many caches along the way which made for a fun filled day all around.

Next up was a double for us, High Five for the Earth where we found an Earth Cache! And we decided to host our first event in order to earn our event cache!

We headed down to the lake again to go after GC1G6F1 - Waterfalls of Lake Worth. What's so great about Earth caches is you learn so many interesting things about the Earth, it's geology, and you see some pretty cool places you didn't know existed! We also had an interesting time learning the in's and out's of hosting our first event. We first figured out that instead of hoping someone would host an event that would coincide with work schedules, we should just pick a date that we know will work and invite others to come along. We also realized some people don't even look at the description and freak out about the terrain (even when we warned them about it). But we got to meet some pretty awesome people which was fun! We had a great time hiking and getting to know each other!

Our geocaching crew!

Last on our list was a puzzle cache. We are not the greatest at these, but we were excited when we solved GCYJNW - Price Check On Register 5 pretty fast. After a few times around the block to figure out where to park, we picked this one up pretty quick to finally earn our...

ROAD TRIP HERO!

We had a ton of fun doing these challenges. It keeps the game fun and gives us specific goals to achieve. We hope you got to participate and we look forward to next year's challenge!

Giveaway at Love Life Design Co!

We are so excited about our first giveaway! You can enter to win a 24" Customizable Reclaimed Wood Texas from Love Life Design Co! Enter below!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

It's starting to feel like Fall!

One of the joys if home ownership is I get to finally put all those Pinterest ideas to use in decorating it! I've always admired how Disney managed to make a whimsical yet slightly spooky haunted mansion and I took inspiration from that and mixed it with fall to make this fun fireplace decoration-scape (is that what we call it these days?).

All finished!

A couple of frames from the Dollar Store and some points at Walgreens provided a way for me to share my favorite fall photos for cheap!

Inspired by the haunted mansion, we used some black lace to wrap mason jars that will hold our little tea lights.

Walmart had these adorable pumpkins for cheap!

We found this candelabra that matched the haunted mansion theme perfectly. This raven was made to go on a wreath but we thought he could look out over a mason jar too! And our little decor set up wouldn't be complete without one of our homemade signs from our shop!

I finally have a spot to show off some of my favorite shots from our Disney trips! Costumes + Tower of Terror goes great with the whimsical Halloween theme!

My favorite? Hard to pick but these little burlap ghosts are high on the list!

Best part of the set up? It looks awesome at night!

So happy for the fall season. While I will miss the warm sun, it sure is fun to decorate for the season! Now excuse me while I go make me some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

Universal Encouragement

One of the many "fun" administrative jobs of mine is to send out our newsletter for our ministry every month. I always begin by dreading it. By the end I get excited by all I get to share about what's going on with our team!

I wrote this as an encouragement to our volunteers, but thought some of you could use it and apply it in our daily lives. Community is being slowly replaced by technology and it is crucial to God working in our lives!

"October is such a fun month. We have cooler temperatures, pumpkins are coming out. Everyone
seems to be on board with October being super fantastic.

What is also super fantastic is the teams we are building within Redeemed in Dallas. We have some
incredible people stepping up and answering the call God has put on their hearts to serve the women
who are being exploited within our city.

With all the awesome activity, the thing that has been on my heart has been the word "sustainability."
These women are used to people coming in and out of their life, never sticking around long term for
them. The question most people ask of them is "what can I get out of you?" We are working to have
them ask the question, "What does God think about you?"

We all know the answer to that is God hold us in high value. We are his most prized creation. He
knows our thoughts. He knows our hurts. He knows our dreams. He loves us unconditionally, which is a concept that is hard for us to wrap our heads around. But once these women know God is for them and not against them, we know it can turn their whole situation around.

So the question I ask of myself and our teams is how are we going to sustain these efforts to reach
these women? When burn out comes, when we experience fear, when life seems too complicated to
continue, how are we going to continue reaching out to these women who are desperately looking for
God's love? The answer is two fold: 1) continuing our personal walk with Christ, asking for him to
stretch time and energy so that we can obey the call and 2) reaching out to those we work with for
support and help with the things Satan is throwing at us to try to stop us.

Redeemed is unique in that we are not just a non-profit that you check in and out of in order to get
service hours or experience. Rather, we are a community of believers from all over the metroplex
gathering together in Christ to reach out to those in the darkest of situations and offer them a light of
hope. On top of that, God isn't just using us to change the lives of the women we minister to, but he's
using our community and those we volunteer with to change us to become more like Christ as well.

So I encourage you to not just check in and out and add this work to the list of things you do to be a
"good Christian." Rather I encourage you to really plug in and build community with the people doing this work alongside you. I know the people that have stepped up and volunteered for a while have already changed my life. I pray that God does the same in your life."

Time Travel

http://quotesfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Doctor-Who-Quotes-David-Tennant-Timey-Wimey-1.jpg

Jared and I have found a new favorite nerdy TV show. It's not so new...but more new to us. It is none other than

Dr. Who

When it comes to cheesy British TV shows I have found that I'm a sucker. I absolutely know there are some jokes that just go way over my American head. But it's funny, witty and like any good sic-fy show, helps us to clarify our values as humans.

With Dr. Who on Netflix streaming in our house much more these days, it really does have me thinking about the past, present and future more. More specifically, what's on loop is the old adage that sometimes you have to look back at where you have been to determine where you should go next. With time continuums and alternate dimensions constantly being created by our choices no matter how small, I've been evaluating my own life in the scope of human history...which can get a bit overwhelming at times!

What I have boiled it down to is three things.

1. Dr. Who LOVES humans and sees the best in them.
Whenever he comes across some crisis that humans are about to overcome or they are on the verge of some scientific breakthrough, he is the human race's biggest fan. He doesn't let individual humans give in to defeatism. He praises humans for spanning time and space with their courage and bravery. When someone holds the human race back from their potential, he defeats them with a vengeance.

This is something that I feel like is missing in our culture today. I hear much in the political talk about how many talk show host don't have faith in the American public today to make good decisions. They begin to talk down to people who are low information voters and become just like the elitists you find on the progressive side of policies. Conservative or liberal, you cannot hold yourself higher in position than any other fellow human and be effective at bringing about change.

Imagine if we did believe in ourselves. Imagine if we kept believing that we really could make changes for the better and actively made them happen right now. Imagine if we didn't give in and acquiesce to a challenge just because it got hard. Disney didn't let that stop him from making Snow White or Disneyland. Reagan effected great change politically because he believed in the American public. Dr. Who doesn't dismiss the defects humans have but rather encourages humans to work past them.

2. Dr. Who just simply loves to explore new places.
I think this is lost on many of us as human beings. Even myself who loves to travel likes having a home and a schedule. It's hard for me to wrap my brain around how Dr. Who literally never has a normal day. He never has a schedule or relationships (other than the revolving door of girls that come in and out of his life). But his thirst for knowledge drives him to see and explore so many new places.

Sometimes as humans we tend to lose that sense of adventure and prefer our couches in front of the TV instead of experiencing the world around us. I hope that we never lose that desire to travel and learn from other people that we meet...even if the relationships only last for a short time.

3. Dr. Who is always regenerating.
Usually he regenerates after something catastrophic has happened. Literally, his cells reorganize and he becomes as completely new human being. He has to rediscover his own personality and his own likes and dislikes. While biologically we as humans may not regenerate I believe we spiritually and emotionally regenerate. Usually, if you think about it, after a very traumatic and trying time. It's that moment when you realize that you don't have that job you wanted and so you rethink everything you wanted to do in your career. It's that moment a relationship breaks down. It's that time when you have to overcome a physical ailment. People relate it to life breaking down your old walls and you having to rebuild them all over again.

But what's cool is those are the moments you get to discover a whole new self. You can discover that you really can overcome your fear of heights or can run further. You might discover you actually like escargot after years of avoiding it. Or that person you thought didn't like you can actually become a good friend. Your little stone shack just got knocked down but a beautiful castle is being built up in it's place.

And if you want to bring it full circle, the times when you feel like you have to regenerate are those times when it is most critical to see the best in your future. To believe the future can be greater than before.

Thankfully, I'm not at a point where I feel like I have a cataclysmic regeneration going on right now. But I am still growing and changing and learning about myself and where I'm going. I believe Dr. Who is so popular because he is the one who gives us hope. While the future may be daunting and scary and unknown it is also our untapped potential. If we hold on to that adventurous spirit and believe that we can always be improving individually, we will be able to really do all the amazing things that we see on the Dr. Who show!

“We’re all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?”

— The Doctor, Season 5, Episode 13

Essential Oils: Allergy Season!

I've got another great use for essential oils!

Jared and I have long suffered from allergies. Even with medication, I sneeze all the time during the fall season due to the Ragweed and Cedar blooming. Jared doesn't use medication, and this essential oil blend is fantastic for him!

It's simple:
1 part Lavender
1 part Lemon
1 part Peppermint

Put it in a roller bottle, dilute it with some carrier oil (we use Grapeseed) and apply it to the sides of your nose and front of your forehead (where your forehead meets your nose) for all day relief!

This has been such a blessing to us and we hope it can help you too!

Date Ideas: The Vintage Flying Museum!

Jared and I have been in a slump on the dates over the summer. But now that it's fall we have had a resurgence to try to be intentional about spending time together. We found a really great place to visit on a recent date...the Vintage Flying Museum!

vintageflyingmuseum.org

This museum was so cool with the old planes that they are preserving and restoring right in the hangar at Meacham Airport. We got to talk to a Vietnam Vet at the desk and his "young lackey" that ended up giving us a personal tour of the hanger. He was a walking encyclopedia of plane history that we throughly enjoyed talking to.

We got to see the A26 "Special Kay" being restored up close! It was so awesome to see all the hard work and amazing engineering that goes into these incredible aircraft!

Did I mention that we got to see the other A-26 Invader based at Meacham in action?

This was such a fun date PLUS we got to learn so much more about something we both love!

Giving Up Control

Control is a weird word. It also bring up some interesting emotional responses in people.

But, let's face it, we all like to have control over things. We like to control what we watch and when we watch it...so we invented the DVR. We like to control traffic and our commute to work so the app Waze was created. We like to control our news feed on Facebook, our news stories, our podcasts...we have phones that allow us to customize it exactly how we want it!

I'm sure it's just me. But maybe someone else might try to control other people around them sometimes...

We like to be able to predict what is going to happen around us and make sure that it comes out in our favor. It's human nature. We try to control others but don't like to be controlled by other people. But many times, when we try to gain control of our situation, we end up losing control of the situation. It's a mix-mashed bag of crazy.

We need to learn how to give up control.

I deal with having to learn to give up control on a daily basis. I'm pretty sure God had me marry a pilot just to break me of my planning habit. I like to plan YEARS in advance when it comes to events and trips. He's been on reserve for way longer than expected and I can never plan for 100% until the month before. It drives me NUTS.

Not to mention, I get to deal with Jared on a daily basis. I'm sure I get frustrated over his decisions sometimes just as much as he gets frustrated over mine. :)

Then, God gave me in interns at work. I know that I need to let them work on their own projects so that they can learn and grow, even from mistakes. Micromanaging won't help. But it's my instinct to make sure every detail is in place!

Then, God gave me the women I work with. Emergencies happen without any warning. You can't plan for emergencies in your schedule and you have to just go with the flow when the needs arise.

Then, God gave me Obama. Everything seems to be going down the drain. I shake my head as I see other people in my generation not caring about politics or the ways in which our government affects our daily lives. Yet, I can't control how people think, vote, or pay attention.

The good news is, I have plenty of opportunity to practice giving up control. What's awesome is that this last weekend in FC Kids, we learned that God is so powerful that he controls everything in the universe. He controls the stars, the blood moon we just got to witness, the things in the ocean, the storms, EVERYTHING! And yet, the one thing he gave up control on was us. He gave up the control to make us worship him. He gave us a choice. His biggest act of love for us was to give us free will. To choose to accept him as Christ or not.

Our biggest act of love sometimes is to give up control of certain situations where we try to control everyone else. My biggest act of love to Jared is to not try to control his likes, habits, schedule, etc. I can really help my interns by not micromanaging. I can't make my sparrows choose wisely...I have to love them enough to know God's going to work all things in their life for his glory. I can't control what happens in my government or what people think. In fact, I think many of our problems would be solved if people just stopped trying to control one another.

What we don't realize though, is that while we are anxious about giving up control, this is the very thing that will help release us from anxiety. When we pray and give up control over something to God, it's a peaceful, calming feeling knowing that he is going to take it over. It only gets stronger the more and more we experience God coming through for us. If we know that God is all powerful and has control over everything, why don't we trust him with it?

So as you go about your weekend today, I hope that this little bit of musing can help you trust God with whatever is going on in your life. After all...we know that we are supposed to be just...

LETTING IT GO!

New Stuff in the LLDC Store!

We have been working hard in the shop to develop some great stuff! Here's what's new!

Inspired by our love for adventure and the movie UP! we designed this fantastic sign to add happiness and whimsy to your home! No matter your age or where you come from, there is always a new adventure waiting for you!

It's football season! We are celebrating by making school pride Texas'! We started with our home roots, the Coppell Cowboys! Be sure to stay tuned for all the other fantastic schools we have in the works!