SO HAPPY

This morning, I'm back in the library. Maybe facing toward the coffee shop wasn't the best idea, but I think I'll manage.


Yesterday, I didn't cheat at all. Even though I ended up going to the church Fall Festival, which meant that I was around a lot of candy. For a while, I was the oldest person in costume, which was odd, but Sarah joined me after a while. And John certainly had fun. He went as Legolas from Lord of the Rings and I went as Snow White. Sarah was a flamenco dancer. It wasn't super fun, but it was better than staying home, doing nothing. Plus, I got some video to make a montage/music video with. Just for fun.

Andrew stopped by yesterday and gave me the ren fest tickets. Of course, there were also some complications with when we were going. Things happened, and now we're going on the 29th, which is the last weekend. But at least we still get to go. Anyway, it was nice to see Andrew again. Yesterday was the first time we've seen each other since we were both in high school. It was fun. I feel like I cheated him out of conversation though. I got nervous and shy and hardly spoke the entire time, I'm ridiculous. I need better social skills, big time. I'm horrible at talking to people, particularly those that I don't see all the time or that I'm rather fond of.

The other day, I got Taylor Swift's new album, 1989. I love it. My favorite song is probably "Blank Space". But I like all of the songs. I've been listening to nothing but that cd ever since I got it. I just love it too much.

Do you ever have one of those days where you just feel like you look amazing? I'm having one of those days. Maybe its the red lipstick and my favorite boots. And this makes me twice as happy as I already was.

ALSO, I got news this morning that the people from Old Town Spring (Not Kudos this time, but the actual OTS people, I think) want us to come back and be the face characters this year. We as in Hannah and me and a few others. It would be on Saturdays and/or Sundays from 1 to 4 and we'd get payed by the hour. SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! I haven't told my mom yet, but whatever.

I should probably get started with some homework. I'm trying to get ahead to make nanowrimo easier.

-EW

Hierarchy of Needs

Something that God has revealed to me recently makes a lot of sense. And I don't think it could have been understood at a different point in my life, because it involves stuff I've learned in college.

There's this thing that I learned about in psychology and in speech. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Basically, it says that a person's physical needs must be met before they can do anything with their life. They have to have food and shelter and stuff, then they can worry about safety, love, and self-actualization. Pretty simple, right? Here's a picture of it: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs.svg/450px-Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs.svg.png

Well, Seven by Jen Hatmaker talks a lot about serving others. She says that that is basically what her church does most of the week. They don't do tons of classes and stuff, they actually go out and serve. Well, in her book Interrupted, she talks about how there is a great physical and spiritual need among nonbelievers. But if we don't meet their physical needs, then we're not really helping them. I mean, are you more likely to believe the man talking about the gospel who has given you food and clothing, or the one who just tells you about this God who doesn't seem to care about you?

Jen quotes scripture at one part in the book, saying

"Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?"

This is found in James 2, and I love it. I grew up in a church, but very seldom have I gotten the chance to try and meet the physical needs of nonbelievers so that I could show them God's love. I think this is a huge place where the modern church and believers are lacking. We think that we can just spread God's word, but not really worry about the people that we're trying to get the message to.

I don't know why I didn't get this before.But just the other day it kind of clicked.

In other news, Seven makes breakfast difficult. Today, I had an apple and a wheat roll. I was going to have an english muffin, but apparently we're out of them. And I didn't cheat much yesterday. I had that same chicken salad because I was starving when I got home, but otherwise I did well. And this was after going through multiple stores with candy and stuff. I almost bought candy and stashed it until the 4 weeks are over.

Tonight is the fall festival at the church. They're not doing it on halloween this year. John is going as Legolas from LOTR and I'm recycling a princess costume. The original Snow White costume can easily be made halloween-ready, so I've got costume prep to do today. And I'm going to stash some halloween candy. And then try to convince someone to take me to the store the day after halloween so I can get discount halloween candy to stash.

-EW

Tswift, Seven, and Nanowrimo

Good morning world and all who inhabit it! How'd you like yesterday's blog? It wrote on it all day from my phone. I'm thinking that I'll do that more often.

I really don't have much to talk about this morning.

Sarah and I are going to Target after school today. Why, you ask? Because couponing earned me 2 $5 target gift cards, and I am in need of the awesome new album by Taylor Swift, 1989. I actually have only heard one song on it, but its tswift, so its going to be good. Even the songs of hers that I don't like that much are awesome.

Today is day 2 of Seven. I haven't had anything but water this morning and I'm kinda starving. But I'll get over it. I packed lunch meat chicken, a roll, an apple, spinach, and tiny tomatoes for lunch. So yummy. I'm just kinda waiting for it to be lunch time.

In other news, I'm reading a new book. Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker. Like 7, it started out kinda slow, plus I haven't had much chance to read. I'm only on page 7 (total coincidence). But I think its going to be good.

Nanowrimo is almost here and I'm not feeling so prepared. Like, I have some ideas, but I'm afraid of not being able to finish the ideas. 1667 words a day. Scary. I think my highest daily word count ever might be 2000. This is going to be hard. And I'm going to have to find time to write amidst the craziness of life. Homework and family and business and all that jazz.

I've got homework that I should probably work on. I need to get ahead for Nanowrimo.

-EW

Seven: Day 1

The first day of seven (see my previous posts if you don't know what that is) actually started a bit differently. My mom took the day off work to get some errands done. So, before we did anything productive, we had a breakfast of english muffins (bread), over easy eggs, and I had a half of a tiny tomato. It wasn't the best or most tasty meal, but it fit in seven and it was filling. I have a feeling I'm going to get sick of eggs though.

I then proceeded to spend like 3 hours doing homework before we left the house to run errands. First, we stopped by a store with a coinstar machine and I learned that pennies and nickels and dimes add up pretty fast. And my piggy bank of found change is now empty, although I plan on seeding it with some change I forgot.

Then, since the other places we were going to weren't open yet, we stopped at sonic for lunch. It was a bit of a break from seven, but not much. My mom and I aren't so obsessed with rules about this anyway. Its not the point of seven. Anyway, we had breaded chicken sandwiches on whole grain cibatta bread with light mayo, tomato, and lettuce. I've decided that oil doesn't count, so the mayo doesn't count. And we talked abour how lettuce is basically nothing. There is zero nutritional value. Like, its mostly water. WHY DO WE EVEN EAT THIS STUFF? Spinach is so much better for you, which is why its one of the seven.

After this, we stopped and bought a new pair of flats for each of us, since ours were dying. The ones I got were the same style as the ones I have been wearing since my senior year of high school. They look almost the same, but the new ones have tiny flowers on them. Mine were on sale, and $20 shoes (with a coupon too) were only $8.80. Pretty stinking awesome. And they might be one of the pairs of shoes I wear for the second month of seven. I haven't decided yet.

We then headed off to do some more errands. Mostly grown up paperwork type stuff. I hate lawyers offices and insurance places. I don't feel like I fit in. Everything is so fancy and leather and wood and polished stuff and all that jazz. Oh well.

After that, we went to Michael's and raided the 70% off bins. I love sale bins. Then, we stopped at Sam's club. Going to a store with lots of foods we couldn't have was like torture. And we did end up cheating a bit. We were starving, so we bought chicken salad (with cranberries, pineapple, and pecans) and had sandwiches on the way home. Not the biggest cheat ever. And even Jen allowed herself some cheat days. Its not like we ate Ethiopian food (book reference!).

Not a terrible first day. Now I have more homework to do, so I'll talk to you all again tomorrow. 

-EW

The Ever-So-Rare Saturday Blog

This morning started out rather pleasantly, so I decided to continue it that way. That means, I'm allowing myself a cup of coffee (decaf, since I've just gotten over caffeine headaches in preparation for seven) and a Saturday blog. This is happiness.

I also forgot to tell you about the wedding dress adventure that Sarah and I had on Thursday. Its a pretty good story.

Thursday, Sarah and I had 3 hours for lunch, as opposed to our normal hour. She made the suggestion to go out to eat, so we had some great Chinese food at a local restaurant that's decently priced. But after eating, we still had a good two hours to waste. So, we went to do something that we have been wanting to do for a while... Wedding dress shopping.

Now, the original plan was to actually go in and try on wedding dresses. We would make up some kind of story, get a real-looking but totally fake engagement ring, and one of us would try on wedding dresses. Then, we would change up the story and the other person would try on dresses. But, because of some crazy circumstances and lack of time to prepare a story, we didn't exactly do that.

We walked into this pretty high-price wedding dress shop and I immediately felt like I was way out of my depth. I'd never been in a wedding dress shop before. I'd been prom dress shopping, but that's different. A lady at the front desk greeted us and Sarah told her that we were just looking around and  "hadn't planned on shopping but had extra time and decided to drop in". So, we began looking around at all of the dresses, and there were a LOT to look at.

This is where the crazy part happened. I didn't tell Sarah about this. Have you ever had like a eureka moment? Just one moment where you get the perfect idea or something becomes perfectly clear? Well, I had one of those moments, but it wasn't a eureka moment, it was a moment of fear and panic. It was the instant that I touched the first wedding dress. I became instantly terrified. It lasted about 1.5 seconds and then I was able to move on like nothing had happened. But it was really weird and scary. And now I'm a bit less anxious to get married and wear a white dress and all of that jazz. It can wait. Its crazy, since my mom was engaged to be married at my age. I can't imagine that.

A little later on, the lady at the front desk walked over to where we were to check on us. She ended up asking Sarah when the wedding was. I'm not the fibber. I can't tell a lie to save my life. I can act, but telling lies is not my forte. So, Sarah told her that the wedding was May 26th of 2015. When we got back to the car later, we looked it up. That's a Tuesday. No one has a wedding on a Tuesday. Hopefully she didn't look up the date.

Looking at wedding dresses was fun though. I didn't really see anything that I liked there though. Not to mention, those were all $1500 to $2000 dresses. That's ridiculous. My mom payed about $150 for the material for her dress and a friend made it as her wedding gift. And it was a pretty dress for that time. It also wouldn't fit me. I've tried. Plus, its kinda yellowed now. Sarah likes dresses with lace, which are on the more expensive side. I like ones with lots of tule. I want to feel like a princess on my wedding day.

I have homework to do (on the weekend, ICK!) and a video to edit, so I should probably get to it.

-EW

Chinese food for brunch!

Its not even 11:00 and I'm already eating the leftovers from yesterday that I had planned on eating for lunch today. Oh well. Its still fantastic.

I have officially ordered my Elsa wig now. I did so this morning. I actually had planned on doing so at the beginning of the week. I just kept forgetting.

I have nothing interesting to talk about. I need to spend today doing homework and jamberry stuff and chores and nanowrimo prep. But instead I'm sitting here watching Mental Floss on youtube.

I should go get stuff done. Have a good weekend!

-EW

Seven!

I started this morning with a concern if Sarah was going to pick me up and go to school today. She wasn't feeling good yesterday and because of a google-ing of symptoms (never trust a google diagnosis) she ended up in the ER. But, turns out it wasn't as serious of a problem as she had feared, So, she's okay, although rather uncomfortable, and we made it to school ahead of time.

Now, I'm enjoying the Shakira pandora station and being left alone by the people in the room. So nice.

I can't recall if I have talked about seven before. Anyway, there's this book that I read (and that now my mother is reading) that is called "Seven" and its by Jen Hatmaker. Its about her 7 month (well, its technically 10 month) experimental fast. In the bible, seven is the number of perfection, which is why she chose that number. The whole thing is to try and learn how much excess we are living with and learn to live with less and care more about others and such. Read the book if you want a better explanation. My mother and I have decided to do our own version of seven. Seven months, seven areas of removing excess, just modified to fit our lives.

The first month of Seven, she only eats 7 foods (prepared various ways) with the exception of water, salt, pepper, and a couple of days where she eats other kinds of foods because of her circumstances. Her foods are Apples, Avocados, Bread, Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, Spinach, and eggs. Good for her. I don't really care for avocados, And I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes unless they're baked under a layer of marshmallows during the holidays. So, starting next week, I will be existing off of rice, eggs, chicken, spinach, bread, apples, and tomatoes.

Because of my ridiculous dependency on caffeine to keep me awake and thinking, I've decided to go ahead and get started on the only-drinking-water part. I've got this huge 32oz water bottle that I got at target the other day and I'm carrying it around most places with me. I managed to almost drink a whole 32 oz of water yesterday this way. I did have a pretty bad caffeine headache for most of the day though.

I'm also worried about nanowrimo. I mean, generally its fueled by caffeine and chocolate! What will
I do without these things for 3 of the weeks in November??? By the grace of God, maybe I can make those 50,000 words.

I've got homework to work on before I get interrupted. Gotta go.

-EW

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