Monday Musings

Grateful for a sunset prayer walk this weekend.

The fall weather was perfect, and being by the water is always good for my soul.  I put on some classical music and talked to God, doing my best to listen for His voice... I eventually turned the music off altogether hoping to feel more focused.  

Tuning into God's voice feels more difficult than usual in the midst of big decisions.  The memes I've saved lately reflect the inner conflict I've been feeling... decidedly unhelpful when you see them all together. lol

I've had a couple of helpful talks with Mom and Chet lately, and I had a 7:30am Zoom meeting with Dr. Ku today.  Getting his perspective and some extra information was helpful and more encouraging than I had expected.  He compared the fibroid to an iceberg, which is an analogy I understood well, and he said my odds of success are 60% if I have the surgery and then move forward.  I don't have perfect clarity or any sort of guarantee of motherhood, but I feel a peace from God that He will be with me and I will be okay if pregnancy does not happen for me.  On some level, I think that's what I was missing before - imagining myself alone receiving that news as crushing and devastating.  I am reminding myself even now that God's grace is with us moment to moment -- it is not there for our imagined future fears or losses - so our pre-grief can feel sharper and more painful, but in any real and present loss, His grace is sufficient to meet our daily needs.  So I am leaning into that with more faith that He has a good and hopeful plan for my future.  No firm decision yet, but processing all of this with more peace.

I think we all want clarity on God's will - as Erwin McManus put it, "We want a detailed road map, but we are handed a compass."  I want to honor God and do what is best for my future, but I am also very motivated to avoid/escape pain, whereas God is very motivated to transform me through it.

"WE DON’T KNOW what God wants us to pray for.  But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.  And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers IN HARMONY WITH GOD’S OWN WILL.  And we know that God causes EVERYTHING to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.”  ~Romans 8:26-28

These verses feel helpful right now.  I hear Romans 8:28 on its own so often that I had forgotten this comes right before it - the Holy Spirit is praying for me in harmony with God's will - what a comforting  and powerful thought!  The members of the trinity are working together on my behalf, so I can feel the dark stress cloud lifting even before I make this decision.

Okay, back to fun photos:  An adorable pic of the Lock/Whitaker cousins!

Charlene, Al, and Hilary went to the OSU game on Friday while Kristin and Frankie kept Amelia and Clara!  This picture made me happy!

Here's Perry and Caroline Shankle + Ellie Faye in her cute new pom uniform + Lindsay and her kids on Phoenix's birthday!  (Happy Birthday in Heaven to Sharon today!!) ❤

A beautiful pic of AFD -- her Instagram stories this weekend included a fantastic mini-sermon reminding us of the intensifying spiritual warfare surrounding us, to pray the armor of God and pray for our spiritual leaders!

Fun fact: 13 years ago today, Chettles closed on his first home!!  Lots of fun memories from that day.

Spent most of the weekend lounging in my Let Them hoodie and the Yale PJ pants I bought at Yale in 2005!  They were a little small for me back then, and I'm grateful they fit now.  I had a pretty healthy weekend, and I'm planning to continue that streak this week!

After finishing allllll the homework last night, I watched Tower Heist.  It holds a special place in my heart since it was being filmed while we were in NYC in 2010!  I remember several streets being shut down, and we asked around and someone told us they were filming a movie with Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy, then this came out in 2011!

Okay, I'm not devoting a full post to it, but Friends in Low Places, Two Pina Coladas, Much Too Young, Callin' Baton Rouge, Standing Outside the Fire, Rodeo, The Thunder Rolls, Beer Run, The Dance, and The River... it's a travesty in my book that so many people will never hear these great songs because Garth is over-protective and won't embrace Apple Music or YouTube.  I have seen him in concert twice now (Tulsa and Vegas), and both were fantastic!

"Now I gotta say that the wind and the waves 

and the moon winkin' down at me*

Eases my mind by leaving behind

The heartaches love often brings.

Now I've got a smile that goes on for miles

With no inclination to roam,

And I gotta say that I thank God I stayed,

'Cause this is feelin' more and more like home!"

*The five-syllable "me" at the end of that first sentence just floors me - it brings me so much joy the way he sings it, and the "smile that goes on for miles" line feels fitting! lol  Also, apparently the real lyric is "I think I've gotta stay," but I've always heard it as "I thank God I stayed," so I'm sticking with my version!  Leave it to me to spiritualize the joy he feels being in a bar. lol  Love Garth.  Really need him to come to the 2000s and hop on Apple Music!

Okay, that's all for this Monday morning.

Thanks for stopping by, and hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

❤ ❤ ❤

Football Fun & More

 Hey, friends and fam!  I have a tiny minute at the end of this day where I am ALL CAUGHT UP on transcripts, so I'm writing a quick blog.  'Twas a fun family gathering at Jace's first Junior High football game last night!  (Their official first game was cancelled due to a muddy field after all the rain a couple weeks ago, so game one was an away game at Casady, which is pretty close to JB's house, so she joined us!)

Team huddle + fierce team pic (the lack of smiles cracks me up!)

Amanda (TJ's mom) and Jace + Jace on the sidelines (for a brief minute - he played the great majority of the game) + Mom and I with our Chet Wilson fans!  The sun hit hard on the vistor's side of the Casady field, so I was happy I had those with me.  I mentioned that I'd have had a 3rd one, but I had to use it to kill a bug in my car.  JoBug laughed at me for throwing it away rather than washing it off (which never for one second occurred to me) and said, "Gah, I'm glad y'all aren't poor." lol  Rach:  "We are too, JoBug!!" lol

Team huddle (love that he is #77 this year!!) + me and Kyndal!
(Mom and I switched sunglasses for a bit.)

They won 28-8, and Jace got a tackle, so he was thrilled and making sure everyone saw it. lol
Here's the proud grandparents + a selfie with a K-Faith photobomb! =)

Jace with Axel, TJ, Fielder, and their Coach!

With his mom, and with his Aunt Lindsey!

Yesteryear and yesterday... Jace Michael and his friend, Fielder!

Jace had trouble removing his jersey, which was fairly entertaining. lol

A post-game dinner with TJ and his family at CFA! =)

From Mel's latest podcast... something I hope to come back to and spend time really writing about later.  Just sharing it in case you want to do the same.  The idea is to write down your highest possible hopes, then share them with someone you trust... then save it to look back on years later!

Often accurate. lol

A cute collage of Sarah and Lyndsay (my former classmates) on day one of 3rd grade and day one of sending their kids to CHA this year! =)

Totes legit.

I'm caught up on The Gilded Age.  In spite of her flaws, Bertha Russell is one of my favorite characters ever - I am so cheering for her success and joy!

My big accomplishment for the Labor Day break week was a closet clean-out and taking a few bags and some old boots to Goodwill - huzzah! =)

This idea... has merit.  I'd be buying a vinyl album ASAP if T-Swift made this announcement. lol

I ran right over to meet this fluffy white dog on my latest walk with Kristin... her name is MoMo... she is a prancy 3.5-month-old puppy, and she looks like the freaking adorable dog (Kevin) from The Proposal!!

Yesterday was Jill's birthday, so HBD to her!  Love the Lemieux fam, and I'm grateful for their loyal friendship and loads of fun memories with them!!

That's all for today.  And now I'm off to family dinner.
Tomorrow will be all about homework!!

Thanks for being here.  I love you and believe in you, and I want to remind you that God is always with you and for you...  strengthening you with the right desires and all the grace and power you need to live a life that is pleasing to Him!!

❤ ❤ ❤

Protego Maxima

Hello, and hope you're having a great weekend!  What a gift to have the day off work tomorrow and to have the coming week off from school - our last break week until Thanksgiving!

Saved this one because I can feel myself asking a lot of "what if" questions lately, and it was a timely reminder to push into a faith mindset!!  "Even if (insert worst case scenario here), God is still good and faithful, and I will still love and serve Him."

The Harry Potter marathon continues at Warren Theaters - I caught my top favorite movie last week (Order of the Phoenix), and the very close second late yesterday (Deathly Hallows, Part 2).  I was thrilled to be there clapping with everyone at the defeat of Voldemort just after midnight last night. lol  Every time I see this movie, I ADORE this scene (among many others).  I often picture this one when I am praying for God's protection in some area where I feel real fear or know the enemy is attacking - it's a fantastic visual for our role in praying for and applying God's protection.  Voldemort is readying his army to attack, so they mobilize the guardians of Hogwarts to defend it (us praying for angelic protection), then the professors and parents surround the school and individually use "Protego Maxima," the advanced Shield Charm for maximum protection, creating a large-scale defensive barrier/invisible bubble that surrounds the school and keeps their enemy out.  They acknowledge that they cannot hold him off forever, but initially, the shots of Voldemort and co. bounce off of the barrier they set and give everyone more time to prepare for battle.  It's SO. GOOD.

In other TV and movie-related news, I've started The Gilded Age on HBO Max.  Julian Fellowes is at it again with this show about New York in the late 1800s, and I'm here for it!  I love seeing the characters at landmarks that are actually familiar to me, like the Bethesda Fountain at Central Park.  And this caught my attention and led to a Google search, and it's real.  For a while, the arm and torch of the statue of liberty were displayed in NYC as they raised money to build the pedestal. lol

I know the green is iconic now, but this made me wish I could see the original true copper-colored version of the Statue of Liberty.  But alas, no color photographs of it exist (only colorized versions like the one below).  Personally, I would prefer that to the green, but no one asked me. lol

Fun news: Breese Campbell, my fav local-ish baker on Instagram -- (and no, I don't really know her in person, but she's Ashley's daughter, so I know she's awesome) -- she is now an employee of Laurannae, my newly-discovered favorite bakery!!

This Broken Arrow gem has THE. BEST. CUPCAKES. around.  Having sampled their top 7 flavors (Strawberries & Cream, Snickerdoodle, Brown Butter Vanilla, Blackout Chocolate, Bride's Cake, Cookie Dough, and Cookies & Cream), I can decidedly vouch for them all being delicious!!  (Mom, Dad, and Rach agree.) ❤  They do a fun sprinkle-infused icing with a colorful drip cake decor, so we wish we had known about this place before Kyndal's bday, buuut there's always next year! =)

Mom's home is already filling up with Christmas decor - seeing this red made me happy.  I'm just a fan of red in general, and this candy cane combo is classic Christmas cuteness and cheer!!

Love this reminder.  I tried exceptionally hard to regulate my emotions in certain friendships, but that won't solve things when the relationship itself is out of alignment with what we know to be right and healthy.  I've felt out of sync in certain areas lately, and I don't want to minimize that or just focus on trying to stay calm/regulated.  So my September focus will be pursuing mind, body, soul, and spirit alignment!

Happy last day of August, friends and fam.  Overall, it's been a good month!

Hope you enjoy your Labor Day break tomorrow,
and I hope September will be our best month of 2025 so far!

❤ ❤ ❤

Phoning It In #27

Pure-Bread Corgis. lol  Somewhere between T-Swift's coded sourdough talk (Super Bowl 60 Half-Time!?) and my consistent love of cute Corgi puppies, this is the kind of nonsense FB has decided to show me, and I'm totally here for it. lol

I wish I were making this per session! lol  No, but really, I'm doing better with counseling lately, and I'm more concerned with getting direct hours than making a living in that field right now.  It's become clear to me that this candidacy season is the most difficult part of the journey for all therapists, so that really helps normalize it!  I feel calmer about the whole timeline at this point, more okay with getting hours on the side rather than full-time, confident that the LPC path is part of my journey to being a CCU professor and maybe a Supervisor down the road... so I'm willing to stay the course whilst keeping my CR job with good pay and benefits!

Lynette and Harry accidentally matching last week. lol  They're cute and fun.  She was the first person to really befriend me at Evergreen, then I was in their Sunday School class for a while, and I'm grateful for that!

Jeffrey's 3rd trip to Vegas inspired a group text about the Glamour Shots spot... which he reminded me is at The Venetian Grand Canal Shoppes! 
P.S.  I miss Vegas.  We need to make that trip happen, Kristin!

Speaking of Kristin, here's a lovely pic of her fam in this new school season! ❤

Laughed out loud at this one... but also kinda loved the idea of  "A good mom" being the main thing I'm remembered for! =)

Watched this gem on Tubi last weekend... still so much fun!!
"Brrr, it's cold in here!!  There must be some Clovers in the atmosphere!"

I'm in a group text with my CCU roomies, two of whom have college daughters at the University of Arkansas.  There were multiple reports of active shooters on that campus, and for 2-3 hours on Monday afternoon, we were all praying for them and getting chaotic text updates as they tried to confirm that their daughters were safe, hearing varied news reports and updates.  Eventually, they learned it was a false report - thank God.  Mom said those have been happening a lot lately, and it causes real panic and trauma for a lot of students and their families, and I hate everything about that!  Since then, there has been another very real school shooting, followed by more social media debates about gun laws and the criminal mindset...  There's a lot of brokenness in the world, and sometimes I feel that very deeply.  Praying for God to empower wise leaders who will inspire a resurgence of character and integrity - and for myself and other believers in the church to be genuinely repentant and prayerful, because that is the actual key to God healing our nation (2 Chron. 7:14).  It's up to us - and our choices matter to God and others.

Yes to this.

Hoping to finish my homework early so I can go see Deathly Hallows in theaters this weekend. lol

Love this!  The best illustration I've found for this concept - Scriptural truth and scientific evidence are never in conflict; the only conflict arises through human error and misinterpretation.  (Reason #707 that I'm grateful to be at CCU, where this article about integrating Christianity was part of our first discussion post in my statistics class!)

Speaking of CCU, I think the leadership class has permanently upgraded my mental programming. Unlike math or other subjects I learn for the exam then quickly forget, this really matters to me, and it has updated the way I process life.  I mentioned that I'm watching a documentary on the 1990s Dallas Cowboys.   Not sure if I'll finish it, as there is really no one to root for.  It's a lot of big egos, bravado, and mindless partying... and the broken relationships, broken laws, and other consequences that come along with that.  They made a lot of money and won a few Super Bowls, but with a near-complete lack of integrity, wisdom, and accountability across the board.  It's more of a lesson in how *not* to lead and manage a team.  So I'll stick with Ted Lasso!

Cute. =)

Aunt Lindsey and Parker E. random fun collage from Google Photos! =)

Anxiety is not my major struggle, but I like the idea that my job as a counselor is to help clients shift their perspective and see their strengths more clearly.

I had two sessions after work yesterday, then I was up late with homework, but I got it done and submitted on time.  It's another very rainy morning here in Cleveland County.  I spent part of it on the phone with US Bank cancelling my SF card due to another fraudulent charge issue... ugh!  In spite of that, I'm grateful to be feeling more on top of things in most areas of life, and I'm confident/hopeful this will be a good day ahead! ❤

I love you and believe in you, and I hope you focus on your God-given resilience
and ability to grow more than your weaknesses today!

❤ ❤ ❤