When my husband proposed and we started searching for our first place together, we knew we’d need a new bed. Hayden, being the saver that he is, decided he’d find a mattress online. He spent hours on websites reading countless reviews and finally landed on one. We ordered it, it shipped to our new town home, and ta-da! We opened the box to find a huge king sized foam mattress. I was pretty excited. For the first few months leading up to our wedding, I got to sleep in this thing all on my own! Only problem was…it sucked.

I mean, really, how can a foam mattress be that uncomfortable? It was too firm. The pillows it came with wrecked my neck. “Please can we get a new one, please!” I’d beg to my hubby. Fast forward 10 months, we still have the dang thing. Hayden doesn’t mind it but I think finally my aches and pains were starting to make him feel guilty. We called up the company (they offer a full year to test it out before returning) and set our return date.

So what did we do this weekend? Mattress shopping! I never knew how much joy came from trying out mattress after mattress. Kind of awkward having some sales man watching you and your husband pretend you’re sleeping on every bed in the store; but we went with it. We found one we LOVED and it gets delivered today!

Tonight will be the first night in a long while I’ll get to sleep in a comfortable bed! Stay tuned for the verdict.

Zzzzzz…

Sunday mornings are my favorite but by the time 2:00pm hits I’m ready for a very long nap. My husband is a worship pastor who’s currently interviewing at a new church in our area. He led worship for the first time today at all three services; 8:30, 10:00, and 11:30. After that, we had lunch with a couple from the church and by the time we got home we were zonked. Three hour nap later we wake to realize “shoot it’s 7:00 and we haven’t had dinner.”

I go into the kitchen to begin prepping the meal I was planning to make – chicken tetrazzini. Unfortunately my grocery shopping skills this past week were subpar as I realized I didn’t get the two cans of soup that were needed for the recipe. Guess that’s dinner tomorrow after a trip to Jewel. Hmm. What else could I make?

Pancakes! Simple. Fast. Sweet. And best of all, Hayden makes the pancakes in our family. I called him downstairs and, get this, he was so excited he got to work right away. We sat down enjoying our pancakes for dinner, looking forward to the week ahead, feeling grateful for a Sunday like this one.

I love the pitter-patter of rain. I love the roaring thunder. I love being inside during rain storms – watching drops cluster together and fall in perfect precision on the windows of my home.

I love curling up with my puppy under a blanket. I love listening to her sweet snores and the faint sound of my husband playing guitar upstairs. I love lighting a candle that reminds me of homemade cookies and sitting in the dark while I listen to the wind and strength of the rain hitting my rooftop.

Though my head is pounding (yes, I’m getting sick) I love it here in my home. I love today. Saturday. Rest day. Rainy day.

Last night my stomach started hurting. Like, lots of pain. Not a normal stomach ache. I went to bed early after an evening of being sick hoping that sleep would help and ease my pain.

I woke up this morning like all others and showered, took my dog out, and started the car. My stomach was still in pain so I skipped the coffee and decided water was a better choice. I bundled up because it snowed again (ugh) and got in my car. Cringing in pain, I decided I could make it through one more day. It’s Friday, after all.

Well, my tummy had other plans for me. To spare as many details as possible, about 10 minutes into my drive I got sick again. Welp. I turned my car around and climbed back into bed. Guess I wasn’t going to make it through another day. And boy am I glad yesterday was such a productive day for me because there was absolutely no way I was getting any work done today!

I slept 5 more hours which is crazy but I guess my body needed it. I’m thankful for the day of rest, and more thankful my stomach has calmed down a little bit. Grateful for this weekend ahead and the fact that my hubby and I have no plans whatsoever.

Netflix, cup of tea, comfy PJ’s…here I come.

I may be a bit nerdy and slightly type A but WOW does it feel good to have a productive day. Granted, I woke up late this morning so my routine was thrown off just a tick. But I made it to work and seriously feel like I haven’t stopped moving since 8:00 this morning.

I had an IEP meeting this morning for a student of mine, then left the meeting to fill out all of my kiddos’ IEP progress reports. I typed those up, printed them off, highlighted the important stuff parents need to see (let’s be real…too many words means no one looks unless it’s highlighted in a pretty orange), stuffed those into envelopes and sealed them shut. After that I inputted all of the progress information into a data sheet we use in special education world. Once that was finished, I quickly downed my lunch and went straight back to work. Another spreadsheet. Woo-hoo! When that was over I made some parent phone calls to schedule more annual reviews, gasped at the fact that it’s March and May is SO CLOSE, and finally then sat down. To type all of this.

Whew. Now I’m sitting at my desk kind of proud of myself. Yesterday was a stressful day with so many post-its full of things I absolutely needed to get done before the sun set tonight and here I am! The sun isn’t even close to setting!

Do any of you ever feel a surge of energy from the feeling of productivity? I can’t help it! I feel like I could run a marathon! But I super duper won’t do that because I’m way too out of shape. Darn it. There’s the next item on my to-do list.

I drive an hour to work every morning. Sounds exhausting, I know, and some days it really is! But honestly, I enjoy my time in the car in the mornings. It gives me time to listen to music, drink my coffee, pray, and center myself before a long day. It’s the drives home after those long days that STINK. But enough about that.

Today on the radio I heard a story about a woman who read her entire insurance policy. You know, those policies with too many pages and print that is way too fine. Well, as she was reading she discovered a section that read “If you’ve read this far, then you are one of the very few Tin Leg customers to review all of their policy documentation.” It then went on to give an e-mail address and the first person to respond won, you guessed it, $10,000.

I want to think that because I’ve heard this story I will change my ways and read all the fine print on any documents I ever have to sign my name to but let’s be real…that isn’t gonna happen. Good for this lady though! Bet she’s having a pretty awesome Hump Day.

This post is more serious. You’ve been warned.

About seven months ago my husband lost his job. Mind you, we’d only been married for about a month – yes, 30 days – and what I thought our life was to be totally changed in an instant. I’ll never forget the phone call.

Me: Babe? You there?

Him: Yes. (long pause) They let me go.

Me: Okay. This is okay. God knows what He’s doing, right?

Right? I have known that to be true my whole life, even when I was young watching my parents fight and scream at each other for hours on end. Even when two of my role-model aunts passed away so unexpectedly I can still feel the raw emotion sting inside my chest. Even when my heart broke after a year long relationship I dreamed would end in a happily-ever-after. SURELY the Lord had something good planned with this. With this shock, this hurt, this confusion. Oh, I should mention he worked for our church. The very church we clung to in times of shock, hurt, and confusion. Now what? Now where do we go?

I am thankful that my anxious personality miraculously faded the weeks following my husband’s termination. He was weak; I was strong. He was angry; I was thankful. Sounds weird to admit that but truly I was! I believe in a God who sees and knows the big picture, who is far more gracious and loving than I could ever imagine. However, the strength and thankfulness also faded as we’re going on month eight of unemployment. I started to doubt whether the Lord’s plans really were good. It made no sense to me. Why would he bless me so much in one year and follow our honeymoon with this smack in the face? Where was the goodness? But I kept trusting.

And here I am. Month eight. Stronger, happier, more sure than ever that I am seen and heard. More sure than ever that His plans really ARE what’s best. I wouldn’t have chosen this path for my life, but I promise you I wouldn’t go back. This was exactly what was to happen. To avoid too many details, my husband and I have seen firsthand the faithfulness of our Creator in this whole thing. In fact, he’s been interviewing with another church this past month and looks like his start date is April 1! (Let’s hope it’s not an April Fools joke, huh?) Here’s the phone call from today, March 5, 2019.

Me: How did it go today at the church?

Him: It went super well! They have a great team. I loved it!

It’s in this new church we hope to find real community with people who also walk through the junk life brings, are honest about its pain, and move forward. I’ve learned more than I’ve wanted to about trust this year…but it was worth every single second. I believe this next season of life will be a great one!

Last night I spent the night at my parent’s house because I was puppy sitting, so I had packed clothes for work today. I woke up to a negative temperature outside and looked down at the capris I was sporting…hmm, something’s not right here.

Where is the sun and warmth? Isn’t March the month of Spring Break?! I’m dreading walking outside after I leave work this afternoon. All I’m dreaming of is a warm cup of tea waiting for me at home and snuggles with my dog.

It’s a Monday, okay?

Okay, let’s be real. Is there anything better in this world than puppy cuddles? One day I hope to be a Mama to a little baby but until that day, I’ll forever favorite my status as a puppy parent.

My husband and I got our little pup back in September 2018 and she’s forever changed our world. My parents, who were so totally against us even getting a dog in the first place, fell in love with our Camper girl and when they found out the family that bred my sweet baby girl was breeding again they jumped at the opportunity to get one of their own!

Enter: Cooper. We picked this little guy up just a week ago!!!! He’s so stinking tiny. Today I’ve been puppy sitting because both my parents are working and nine hours is a long time for a little pup to be alone. He’s very laid back but equally as stubborn. Why poop outside in the cold when you can poop in the comfort of your own family room, right? (Rolls eyes).

Monday, don’t come too quick okay? I’m perfectly content over here with this little one.

Tonight my husband and I had a group of friends over for a movie night. We’ve been indulging in chips, pizza rolls, and this insanely tasty Guinness beer bread. But tonight’s movie choice…spot on.

Bohemian Rhapsody. Man oh man. A great film, I honestly learned so much about Queen, about Freddie, wow! Music is a deep passion of mine and it was pretty cool watching the story of Queen unfold. Beyond that, I loved how a huge theme was family. This band was a family. It’s amazing how music can do that. It bonds people in a special way when you get creative juices flowing together.

It’s pretty neat watching the humility of Freddie Mercury as he owns up to his conceitedness at a part in the movie. He did his own thing and still there was a problem – it wasn’t his family. At the end of the day, that’s what is most important. His story was sad. But beautiful.

Anyways. If you’re wondering why I’m listening to Queen a lot more these days, now you know.