Jealous?

I was enjoying this Friday, off baking, crafting, reading, sermon listening and procrastinating showering and packing for a Ladies' Retreat. A morning like that isn't complete without hopping on Pintrest and Facebook. As I gaze at old acquaintance's status of returning from far off lands and pictures of them out  of a magazine, I wonder why my life it's like that. (BTW, why am I even fb friends with them?) Why is my life so normal? Why don't I wear the clothes on Pintrest? Why does my house not look like that? Why don't single girls pin pictures of my perfect wedding?

I look at my little "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" of a tomato plant that hopefully has produced 2.5 tomatoes, held up the stick that fell from the storm and a pink string. It's ordinarily spectacular. That's my life: perfectly beautiful. It may not make it into Martha Stewart Magazine, but it's alive. It has character, it is where it is by the Grace of God. It's cared for by a husband that got out of bed on a cold night to bring it inside, protecting it. It's held up by what we have, doing what it was make for.

I am blessed to not have the best moments of life on public record. Instead, they are personal, sacred, only known to those who are able to savior them.

A Pintersting Wedding

Most days when I hop on Pinterest I'm a bit ashamed that I wish I could have another wedding. I'm a girl who likes pretty things. I want to wear one of the fabulous gowns, take photos, or put together place settings. Every little girl dreams of her wedding (usually more than she dreams of her husband). Now every girl, single, engaged or marriage, can dream on their own personal board. I have not created a wedding board (that's stupid, I already had a great wedding). But I do waste time looking (for those who will be planning, ya, right). 

Today I opened up a link on "10 things to do as soon as you get engaged". At that moment I was thrilled; I do not have to have do a wedding again. I get to do a marriage everyday. (That is a sometimes painful, joy for another time.) No longer to I have to filter all the junk out there on making "my day" perfect through the truth about weddings. A wedding is a ceremony in which you make a covenant with your spouse, in front God and witnesses, where the image of God is reflected. It's about marriage. 

So, if you are out there wondering what the next step is after the man of your dreams give you a shiny ring and asks you to be his for the rest of your lives. Step one is not to get a manicure. (Your hands are your hands, anyone who should be checking out the rock should have seen your hands before.) Step one is to continue in the truth. Do not let your wedding detract from to beauty of life long marriage in anyway; finically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and every way put our marriage before your day. 

I gave up the wedding I thought I'd always have (actually all of them I dreamed of), for the wedding that was perfect for my husband and I at the time. The only time I have regrets is when I am fooled by the lies of comparison with fantasy. 

Diet Coke

The other night our new school played there rival: Mara-nasty in basketball. Our friends from our home town, Bemidji came to the game. She helps coach the girls basketball team; he came for the ride and to discuss Grecpolis the virtual means he, my husband and their alliance are using to take over the world. We watched mediocure basketball, visited, devoured the opposing team's pizza, and took home one of the 2 liters of soda.

It was good to see some familiar faces and be at a social event. I had been questioning if this place was civilized. In comparison, to the large american cities I prefer to be in, this collection of unincorporated towns are not quite up to my standards of civilization. But it would be an accurate of the small pockets of people living in the remoteness of northeast Wisconsin. Although technology, retail, business does not parallel my idea of modern civilizations, the kindness, and resilience merits respect.

Wednesday night my husband was rushing me into the car his usually way: volunteering to carry my purse, telling me the car is running and we are wasting gas, and proceeding out the door. We were off to church, which to my foolish, surprise was 40 minutes of windy roads away. Hurrying, I finished putting on my winter layers, I knew I need caffeine. I grabbed my empty smart water bottle, and filled it with the soda given to me earlier.

Bottling your own soda: ghetto or resourceful?

A Whole New World

Recently my husband and I moved from a small town in northern Minnesota to a yet smaller, more remote place in northern Wisconsin. We were a few years out of undergrad, looking to start a new life together in a larger city, pay down some debt, then start graduate school. God had other plans for our lives. I longed to move back San Diego, CA were I attended college with beaches, night life, ethnic and cultural diversity. Instead we moved to Dunbar, WI, my husband's previous Baptist, Fundamentalist school, over 30 miles from the Walmart and Piggly Wiggly. Jobs are more scarce then grocery stores, but thrift stores and curvy roads are in abundance.


My resourcefulness is being put to the test. Will I find myself being 'Ghetto', "shabby and of low quality" as explained in wikipedia or 'Resourceful' like the wife in Proverbs 31 who "perceives that her merchandise is profitable", makes and sells, providing for her family?


You tell me: Ghetto or Resourceful?