A Breath of Fresh Air

Today has been a lot stressful. Most of this stress is worry I have placed on myself because I’m an “overanalyzer” by nature. But a few things were actually legitimately stressful. You’d be stressed. I called someone I work with and they were stressed enough to call someone else to figure things out for them – something they never do. The person they called was so stressed they didn’t even call us back. (Are you stressed reading this paragraph because it makes no sense and it’s starting to overwhelm you? Good. I’m not proofreading that part because I want you to feel the depth of despair I felt at said stress.)

Thankfully, a bright sunbeam tore through the gloom of the day and brought a MUCH-NEEDED breath of fresh air. My sweet cousin Lindsay. She is seriously one of the most beautiful and talented girls you will ever meet. She’s never in your face about it, but she will quietly beat you at every sport you play her at (and board games, too). Lindsay’s 18 0r 19 – how sad I can’t remember?! – and we’ve never gotten to spend much time with just the two of us. So, when I was in Durham for work, I knew I had to get on her calendar.

She came to dinner with me tonight and talked about loving college life and all of the blessings God has been pouring on her this year. It was seriously the perfect medicine to a stressful day. Just to see the sheer joy and thankfulness she has was contagious. …I didn’t even think about my stressful situation again for about 30 minutes after we had dinner. That’s a big deal for me.

So please smile and share your joy with someone this week. You can actually change a person’s day for the better just by offering joy to those you interact with. Misery loves company, and when there’s no company to be found, it eventually disappears and gets replaced by a little happiness instead.

Interests of the Moment

So I am the queen of urging others to post to their blogs. I love hearing about their crazy antics and recent life occurrences. However, as others are quick to point out, I’m not the best about updating others via my blog. Much of this comes from an indecision about what to write about. For example, I sat here for about ten minutes pondering whether to talk about my new work from home situation, the weekend’s events in Toccoa, the movies I’ve seen lately, etc. None of them seem that exciting to me though.

Despite this indecision, I’m making a command decision to move forward – to plow through the uncertainty. Even if that means posting something mediocre at best.

Therefore, I will update you on my interests of the moment. A conglomeration of the items floating through my head right now; a medley of thoughts if you will…

• Honeymoon registries: Why did I not think of this? A friend of mine getting married shortly had a registry where people could buy them excursions, spa treatments, dinners, etc. This would have been a genius idea! I’m furious with myself for not thinking about it.
• Wedding albums: I hate the options that photo-book-creating websites are giving people right now. It’s like you have to choose between quality or control. I want both, dagnabit! So I finally found this wedding album creator that fit the bill: quality, control, good design, creativity. Then I looked at the price… albums begin at $5,000 for a custom piece. Um, no thank you! So I decided to make my own album. I’m creative, I can do quality work when forced, I’m really cheap! So I signed up for a 30 day trial of PhotoShop Elements and am literally creating my wedding album with a deadline. I have to say it’s going quite nicely. Along with photos, I’m including letters, pieces of advice received from wedding guests, vows, old photos, etc. When all is said and done, others may think it’s a little tacky or over-done, but I am going to love it. I’ll try and remember to post the PDFs here one day. Then you can tell me what you really think.
• Home Office Decor: So about a month ago, I found out I could work from home. All I can say is that there is a gracious Lord in heaven that truly cares about us on an intimate level. Otherwise, this situation never would have unfolded. Well since I never thought this situation would unfold, I didn’t really have any work done on a “home office.” All of a sudden, I’m realizing that the rooms you work in do affect your mood and productivity (read: this, this, that, or this). All this information solved the mystery of why my sanctuary of a living room wasn’t really stimulating me to do my work. So now I’m transforming our guest room into my home office and trying to figure out how to decorate it to inspire creativity and focused work. Some of the rooms I like so far are: eclectic office; memory board style; secret nook style; Santa Monica style; earthy office; oh how I long for a nook (though I’d make it cozier than this one); if my office were like this, I’d feel like I was in Pride and Prejudice; and this may be my favorite; although, if I could make this into an office it could be my favorite; ahh, they just keep getting BETTER!; all I want is books, books and more books. I’m all over the place. But I want books and flowers EVERYWHERE!
• Recipes: Finally, I’m falling in love with cooking. Who would have thought? I can’t find any recipe boxes and cards I like though. I think I’m looking in the wrong places. Maybe I’ll make my own.

That’s all. It may have been mediocre, but now you know what’s on my mind.

Catch-up

I am so thankful that my team is out of the office this week at a conference and I am here to hold down the fort. Basically, I have five days to get caught up on all of the housekeeping and sidework that I never have time for. My to-do list is shrinking for once, instead of getting bigger!!!