The Lovely Little Introvert

     When I was little we watched Little House on the Prairie all the time. I used to want to live in the 1800s just like them-the clothes, the cooking, school, chores-I wanted to do it all. After that, I pretty much fell in love with that whole historical period. One Halloween my Nanny even made me and my American Girl doll dresses with bonnets. For the longest time that was all I would read and write, too. So much historical fiction! I always pictured myself as the heroine and could get lost among the tall grass for hours.      Deep in my heart I always had that desire to be a Laura Ingalls Wilder wife. You know, the really wifely, home-makery kind of wife. While I haven't tried my hand at making homemade bread yet and I don't have a spot for a vegetable garden, I try do what I can. Recently I've gotten into making my own cleaning supplies (thanks to Pinterest). Seriously, if not for Pinterest, probably none of these creative, homey, wifey things would h...

      Some of you cringed when you read the title of this blog post. "Christmas? Now? It's five months away! You can't seriously be talking about this!!" Well, I am and I have a good reason.       First off, I love Christmas. Always have. It could have to do with the fact that my birthday is thirteen days before Christmas or that I grew up with a mom who was a Christmas freak. Whatever the actual reason, I love it. I start listening to Christmas music in October and sometimes even watch Christmas movies mid-summer (Judge all you want, I won't change!). One of my most favorite things about the holiday season is being able to bless other people. There were a few times growing up when we couldn't afford presents and there were whole church groups that came alongside us and gave us Christmas! Ever since then, I wanted to do what I could within my power to make sure nobody went without.       One of my favorite ways to do this...

     I've been so excited to write this blog post for the past two weeks and now I can! Jacob and I are back from our honeymoon in the US Virgin Islands and we have so many stories to tell! (Although if I told them all, this would be the longest blog post in history. If you want to know more, just ask an we will be happy to share.) Going into this vacation, we did not expect to have our lives changed, but we did. There is something about this little corner of paradise that is almost magical. It's as if the rest of the world does not exist there.  (Borrowed this pic from Google...)      See what I mean? This is Honeymoon Beach (ironic, no?) where we spent most of our time. It is the favorite beach on Water Island where we stayed, just a fifteen minute ferry ride from St. Thomas. We made friends with locals and tourists alike and became regulars at a little beach bar called Dinghy's. We got sunburned, went kayaking, swam and soaked in the ...

     I've not been good about blogging here lately, so I'll give a quick life update before I get too far into the topic on my heart.      It has been a full year already and it's only April! January 27th I got hitched. Jacob is my best friend, my partner in crime, the one who never stops challenging me and loving me even when I can't love myself. He makes me a better version of myself and I could not have asked for more. Currently we are planning our honeymoon as we weren't able to go right after the wedding. Caribbean paradise is being much anticipated.      As for me, I'm trying to figure out this wife thing. Cooking is not exactly my strong point, so I've had some challenges there. The crockpot and pressure cooker have become good friends of mine. Thank God for those and easy recipes even I can follow without much trouble. Other than that, I'm just trying to finish school strong (3 more classes until graduation and all English lit) and st...

     It's been so long since I've blogged anything. I'm sorry! Life has been a little crazy. I'm busy with school and work and, oh yeah, I got married in January! I'm loving every second. Soon I'll write a post on that, but for now, I wanted to share a story I wrote a while back. I'm trying to get better about writing again, so here goes! Time to pick up the pen again. Enjoy and let me know what you think! The Last Letter             I just hold a few dates and some words. She holds a thousand memories and a love I could never imagine. I am cold, hard, unfeeling. She feels sadness, loneliness, desperation and everything in between. I mark a mound of dirt. She marks a life loved and lost.             Those in my line of work see a lot of people, but she’s my favorite. She spends hours sometimes looking at me and talking to the memory of the one whose name I b...

     Growing up, especially in those mid to late adolescent years, with our hormones all over the place, we fully believe a boyfriend will solve all our problems. Usually at that time of life, we are trying to figure out who we are and coping with a million and five changes. Often we don't like what we see in the mirror. We compare ourselves with friends or the society models on television or in magazines. We are unhappy with what we see and how we feel. We begin to point out everything we believe to be wrong with us and wallow in how horrible and ugly we are and how nobody could ever love us. Enter what I call the "Magic Boyfriend Duct Tape Belief". In other words, we convince ourselves that having a boyfriend will allow us to finally feel good about who we are. We will no longer struggle with insecurity issues and will live the rest of our days happy with rainbows over our heads and stars in our eyes. Okay maybe that's a little dramatic, but don't tell me you ha...

     All my life I've heard people say things like "God will bring you a man when you least expect it"or "Just stop looking. It'll happen." As much as I wanted a godly man in my life I was almost stubbornly determined it would never happen. I was always expecting, always looking. Singleness is something I wrestled with pretty heavily on and off for years. I was always haunted by the possibility that I would end up alone forever.      Over the past six months to a year, Jesus really worked on my heart. He showed me the importance of loving myself fully. We went on dates, me and Jesus. We talked about if I was willing to stay single if that was what He called me to. Hesitantly, at least at first, I said yes. Then something crazy started to happen. I was okay being single. In fact, I was actually starting to enjoy it! The desire to one day have a boyfriend and get married never went away, but it was no longer consuming me. This was where I was a month and a h...