Everything Else

Happy Saturday!  I have a bit of homework to finish, but first things first: catching up on the blogging!

This afternoon was Week 1 of the Good Boundaries and Goodbyes study with my women's lifegroup.  This = Me, Ashley, Haley, Katie, Josie, Christi, Natalie, and her son.  

(Very funny to me that this Moore group also has a Natalie Reed and a Jennie Curran.)

Anyway, this illustration was on point... Lysa said there is always tension when we give people a high level of access to our heart, energy, and inner world who do not handle those things responsibly.  She said we often try to fix and control things by asking them to be more responsible/kind/compassionate, but we cannot change other people.  The thing we can control is our own boundaries and the amount of access we give them, making it match the level of effort and care they put into the relationship.

Pretty much condensed my 7-year former friendship into one little screenshot. lol

It was a fantastic reminder, and we had a good group discussion about that!

The presh mini-Miss K has been a volleyball star for five years already, with her entire junior high and high school years to come!  What a little preshface on her first team back in 2020!

Feeling this, but also just fully embracing it as hoodie season even if it's hot outside. lol

Aww, memories of when I had this much hair!  The hair loss post-weight loss surgery is very real.  Still worth it, and I believe it's coming back now, but thank the Lord for Halo Couture (aka Vivian) in the meantime!

Okay, stick with me on this one...

You know how people who have lost a good amount of weight sometimes talk about how they still see themselves as larger - the whole body dysmorphia thing where your brain tells you you are bigger than you really are.  Habit-wise, I totally get feeling pulled toward the old identity.  Image-wise, I kinda feel like I had that in reverse. lol  Like, I was interested in losing weight, but I genuinely felt cute and happy with my looks pretty regularly as a woman who weighed 250+ in all these pictures.  And it's only now that I sometimes think, "Wow, I honestly never realized I was that big" as I look back at certain photos.  Even now, I'm not skinny by any definition, but I feel good about the weight I've lost.  I'm a little more self-conscious about my looks sometimes now, but for the great most part, then and now, I think I tend to view myself as smaller and cuter than I might actually be, so I'm gonna just take that as a freaking win. lol

On a somewhat related note, I've spent my entire life being a single woman without much male interest or attention, but I have spent less time worrying about that dynamic than people probably imagine.  When I think about the vast unknown future, I don't like the idea of "being alone" as I age - but that's more about a mild fear of aging than being un-coupled.  On a day-by-day basis, I am usually aware of the company of Jesus.  I'm an introvert who has good quality relationships, and I very much enjoy living on my own and very rarely feel deeply lonely.  Maybe all of this is the Ennegram 9 in me finding ways to be unaffected by hard things?  Whatever it is, I'll take it.  Having zero experience to speak from, I'm still firmly convinced I would be an excellent supportive wife, so I may venture back into the dating world eventually, and I will absolutely continue to work on my health goals, but in the meantime, I am truly grateful that, as an admittedly overweight and long-term single woman, I mostly feel cute and loved! lol

Mmkay, back to present-day pics... thanks to Carter's game being rescheduled, we made a last-minute family dinner plan last night!

Friday night dinner at Ted's... Dad, me, and the Miss K, and all of our unused and unappreciated salsa! lol

This ice cream place is new to the shopping center with Ted's, so we ventured over for dessert, and I was delighted to see they had Cookie Butter ice cream!

Yay for the Jaceman's colorful Nike shoes! =)

Group pic on our way out + photobomb by the customer behind us! =)

Here's a cute pic of Teresa with her grandkids at her Hideaway bday dinner! ❤

Mmkay, I'll focus on finishing my homework now!  After all, the homoscedasticity and skewness and kurtosis and multiple regression analyses and scatterplots and Q-Q plots and collinearity statistics can't wait forever.  Persevering through it for now, but gracious, quantitative research is NOT my strong suit!!!

It's been just lovely to catch up with you here, and I hope you have a fantastic and relaxing Sunday ahead!

❤ ❤ ❤