If you had to switch lives with a fictional character for a week, who would you choose?
I thought this question was going to be easy. But I’m actually struggling to pick a fictional character. Like ten years ago I probably would have had an answer. aim a different person now. But at this moment I’m at a loss. But I know for a non fictional person. A person from our past.
Non fictional. Truth: Any person who was around Jesus. Someone just in the crowds listening to His teachings, seeing His miracles, watching Him among the people. How amazing and awesome would that have been!?!
Fictional: I’m truly struggling to pick one. Because I’m happy with my life. And I don’t want to have anyone else’s life. I guess, I would say I could spend a week as a princess from the live action Cinderella, Belle, or Jasmine. But just for the clothes! Cinderella’s wedding dress was so beautiful. Belle’s yellow dress, classic. All of Jasmine’s clothes were beautiful. So maybe I’ll be a side character that sneaks into the princesses’ room and tries on their clothes. Haha!
But the idea to be among the people watching Jesus is more exciting! Life changing and life inspiring!
What’s one thing you wish you had started doing earlier in life?
I know it’s not great to look back into your life and wish you could’ve done things differently. It just makes you frustrated. But I’ll think of it as things to teach my kids so that they start out better.
But saving. I wish I had started saving money earlier. I started working when I was thirteen. It wasn’t a crazy amount of money, but I never had savings. If I had started at that time, saving half and spending half I would have been better off. Because let’s be honest a kid wants to spend money. This money was my fun money. If I wanted to go see a movie, buy a movie, buy extra clothes, etc. Self explanatory; anything extra.
Thinking back, it wasn’t a huge amount of money back then. I only worked Wednesday and Friday. But still.
When I was eighteen/nineteen I also didn’t save. All my money went to food, clothes, or dvds. Instead of bringing a lunch I would buy lunch at school. I was constantly eating out on my off days. Almost every Friday I was going shopping for clothes. I didn’t have a life. I did school, swam, and shopped. But again I never had savings.
I think it was halfway through my nineteenth year that my mom suggested I start saving. Starting late is better than never starting. I wished I had saved more. Because the action of saving, kickstarted my need and desire to save. Maybe just having savings.
Because these last few years we haven’t been able to save. We’ve made some bad purchases. $500 there, $1k here. Not huge amounts of money, but still we could have just saved it instead.
So I’ve started a new saving way. Each week we take out $20 and I’m hiding it away. I only started this five weeks ago. But my thought process is we will have a large amount of money by Christmas time. So it won’t be a sudden “ouch”. It will be an “okay, this is not too bad”. Because we have a birthday before Christmas, Christmas, and a birthday after Christmas. So December is an expensive month. So if we have $340 dollars set aside it won’t be so difficult to buy gifts.
Just an easy way to save. If you do the $20 for 52 weeks that’s $1040. So by Christmas time we would have a large chunk ready. depending on your paychecks you can decide to set aside more. But at least do $20. Like if you start out doing $50. And then in June you want to go on a trip, switch to $20 a week. Then September comes and you can save more, you set aside $50 again. And then when it becomes November you discover a perfect gift so you set aside $75 a week until December’s third week. That is =$2300 roughly. Having $2300 set aside already makes all holiday expenses easier.
Sorry. Didn’t mean to rant. Just I feel better when I have savings.
So save. No matter the age. Whether you are an adult or teenager. Save! And you can do it in a bank account instead. Make a savings account that you don’t look at, just start setting aside money each week. Even if all you can save is $15. It’s still something. Something is more than nothing.
I am reading the Bible. I’ve never actually read my Bible all the way through.
Listening to a pastor I really like; he said that he understands that trying to do the Bible in a year or a personal bible study can be difficult to keep at it. That people start the journey of reading the Bible and they stop, or get behind, or don’t make it a daily thing.
But his suggestion was, start at the beginning and just read one chapter a day. Yes, it will take a long time to finish. But it’s easy enough to take 5min of your day and just read one chapter.
And believe me. It is simple. Even more so that I occasionally read 2-3 chapters in my sitting time. It’s only about 10min of my morning. But some days I only have 5min so I read one, but I read at least that one.
I started reading August 1st. And I’ve read every day since. I’m currently on Book: Numbers chapter 19. I’m moving along. And I discovering that I actually have never learned the true actual stories from the Bible. That veggies tales or dreamworks movies are obviously made for kids, but that they left out a lot of details and information.
I knew that. But now reading the Bible I’m actually learning a lot. I’m remembering things. I can discuss things with my husband, or tell him about what I’m reading. Or tell my mom. It’s been good!
So if you have been feeling like you want to learn and read your Bible more, try what I’m doing. Read one chapter a day. Once I’m done reading, I’m going to try a Bible study that is free online, but I wanted to read through the Bible once before diving further.
So to answer the question…The Bible is the longest book I’m currently reading. And it’s going great! I’m excited for my journey.
Synonyms: simple, unadorned, spartan, spare, unfussy, stark, etc.
…
The stand guard,
In the yard.
Anything that dares to come in,
Will die for their sun.
No extra care needed,
They won’t get heated.
They just go about their day,
Maybe munching on hay.
You may not see them,
They are a true gem.
If you listen, you will hear,
That loud hee-ha in your ear.
The donkey is near!
…
I really wanted to write about an animal when I first read the word of the day. Minimalist. I didn’t really use the word, but it was my inspiration.
To me donkeys are so low maintenance. When we eventually get some land, we are getting a donkey. They take less work than a dog or geese. And geese are mean. But the donkey is a good alarm, but also they will trample animals that dare to trespass. So I want one.
I don’t know its name yet. But when we eventually get one I’ll know its name.
Haha!
My husband’s suggestion today for the word minimalist was, survival and death. Or his second suggestion was stupidity…I think he’s in a grumpy mood. He just had surgery and he is not recovering as fast as he wanted to. But I decided to not go with his idea. I wanted a more positive topic today.
Have a great Saturday!! Fall is here!! 🍁 Pumpkin foods are soon approaching.
My husband and I have already worked through many trials: depression of moving from family, postpartum depression, sadness of wonder about having another kid, financial stress, moving, downsizing, in-law stress, etc. we’ve dealt with it all in our first 9 years of marriage. And through lots of communication and hard work we are still together and strong. And we are happy.
He is venturing off into a career. He wants to be an airplane pilot. And I’m being his rock. I’ll hold the fort down while he does the hard grind. But we are happy. We talk through everything. I’ve gotten better to just speak my mind. I’m trying really hard to not let things fester. Just talk about it from the get go. But we are happy now, and we will only continue to grow.
I’ve not been to many airports. But the worst and the best have stood out.
The lesser airport has been Denver airport. For some reason whenever we would get a lay over at Denver, there would be some odd characters around. Odd characters that did not understand personal space or inside voices. Haha 😂 It’s not so much the airport, but the occasional characters. Like the woman who NEEDED! to show her hula hoop dance to anyone who came near her. Or the man who was crudely and passionately yelling at a pillar for about forty minutes. The prayer or dance or sharing circles that would start off quiet but eventually would become an unusual sight to behold. A man who stood against a window with his arms out and his hands gripping nothing; staring at you as you walked by, and occasionally would bark at people if they got too close.
Believe me. I wondered if any of these characters were staged, but this was before everything was recorded and put online. Like a woman who would fart, horrendous farts, and then look around glaring at people because she thought they were the cause of the smell. Her husband was the best part though. Every time she would fart, he would cover his face with his hand and begin to shake because he was hiding his laughter. Thankfully we were not sitting next to that couple.
On the other hand, my favorite airport is Cheyenne, WY airport. I don’t know if it’s different now, but that was the smallest airport I can remember. They had one security line. And the guard for it was asleep when we walked up. He did compliment my socks; he said, “they were rad!”
And the gate to wait at, was just around the corner, and it was one of those temporary office buildings. Only one gate. Haha!
I want to visit Cheyenne again. Even if just to go experience the airport again. That was about ten years ago; it’s probably different now.
I just finished another painting! And I actually have found a gallery that is willing to sell some of my smaller paintings. I’ll keep searching for a gallery that will accept larger scaled paintings.
So excited! I was talking with my husband about this, and he said I’ve been trying to get my paintings in a gallery for the last 10 years, but life kept happening. Being pregnant, moving, pregnant, moving, pregnant, moving, etc. Haha! Do you see a pattern?? But finally a dream of mine for the last twenty years, but truly ten years is finally being realized!
If you can’t tell I’m excited!
Have a great Friday!
1st day of my new painting.
Started another painting. Did the mapping out yesterday…I’ll post it when it is finished. I’m excited for this one too!
My now husband and I probably crossed paths throughout our lives. But never actually met.
We were both apart of the same swimming world. We actually went to several swim meets at the same time. We probably stood in the same space, because we swam the same events. So I would swim first, and he would be waiting his turn to swim. But never intersected. But to his defense, when I was behind the blocks I wasn’t focusing on anything but my race; and after the race I was dead. Haha!
Another, is his older sister was friends with one of my teammates. So he would often go over to her house. But I wasn’t friends with that teammate. She was four years older than me, and we didn’t get along well. But that teammate live a few blocks from my grandparents house.
My husband worked around the block from my mom’s house. So he drove by my mom’s house everyday. He actually had told me that he saw a strange girl painting a front window of a house. Me! He was also amazed at how much my mom’s front yard was changing, and wonder who the work was being done by. ME! Haha. But never met.
Then another was that, my now husband, grew up in a house up the street from my cousin. The year before meeting my husband, I would drive my brother out to that cousin’s home. I could see my husband’s childhood house from the driveway of my cousin’s home. It was that close! But never met.
So I went online to find someone. You had to be outgoing, back then. Meet someone in a social setting, and I preferred not social. Also I my friends, at the time, didn’t share the same values. The few times I spent time with them…I felt uncomfortable or conflicted with their behavior while being a Christian. My life consisted of family, art, work, church. So online was my only option.
I’ve written so many times about meeting my husband. I searched for him for a long time. My first date with him, was the last time I ever wanted to go on a first date. I was finished after that date. To get invested and to meet and be lied to, time and time again gets rid of the desire to meet someone.
But he wasn’t a lie. He looked just like his picture. Handsome. So handsome. Dressed the way I liked. He was the opposite of me. He was confident. Talkative. Enthusiastic about his life. I don’t know how to describe it, but I knew he was the one. Probably God telling me. On so many other dates, I got the feeling of “no, not this one.” But my husband I knew instantly. Actually after my first date with him, I told my mom he was the one. Nd turns out he called and told his buddy that he had met the one. ❤️
I didn’t think I had a type back then, but my husband is my only type. Like if someone was to ask me I would confidently say, “my husband!” A man who loves me unconditionally. A man who loves me even with all my faults. A man who is an amazing dad; you can see it in my kids faces that they love him. A man who is so very handsome, and still is. A man who loves God; and chooses the right path for us, so that we can have a better relationship with God. My husband is my type. Love him! ❤️
If your future self could send you one sentence, what do you hope it would say?
Be brave; be proud of who you are, and understand you don’t need other’s approval.
I know it’s a few sentences, but I wish I had knew this throughout my life.
Like in elementary school. When my first group of friends were the bullies of the school. I didn’t know that when I became their friends, because I was always swimming whenever there were social things to do.
But looking back now, I’m sure I knew subconsciously at the time. But I wasn’t confident enough in myself that I would find friends that would want me. I’m happy to say though that I stopped being their friends when they told me to bully someone else. Umm…no… I’m not one to make anyone an outsider; I like including everyone.
But I wish I had been braver to stand up and tell them they were wrong and that they should try and be better people. So first part: be brave.
In my teenage years, I was proud of who I was. I was a Christian trying to be strong in my faith, being around unbelievers. As a parent now, man that was rough. Trying to figure yourself out; and constantly being drowned by others trying to make you do wrong. It was tough. Really tough.
I wish I could have told myself to be strong. Be proud of who you are. Be proud to be a Christian. Be an example to those that might have needed one.
The other issue was that there was a girl who portrayed herself as a Christian. (And she might have been, but maybe was lost at the time) but her actions and lifestyle choices would suggest otherwise. And me wanting to be a proud Christian didn’t want to be put into the same category as her. Into the category of I’m using my faith to appear innocent and unattainable to guys, but date around. I didn’t want my faith to be tainted. But I wish I had been stronger. To stand tall and proud in my faith. No matter what. So second part: be proud.
My adult years. I wish I had known that I don’t need approval of others. Not always, but usually the people who need to anoint their approval on you, are not the people that you need in your life. That if you don’t do everything right and everything they say; that you will not be approved and you will probably be shunned.
I’ve had several people like this through my life. That I wish I could have told myself that you are great the way you are, and you don’t need their approval. I’ve recently come to grips with this, after my most recent encounter with someone. But now, my life is better! I don’t stress over acceptance. I don’t nitpick all my actions. I don’t be selective in my ideas. I am just me, and I’m assertive of who I am now. I’m pretty much at the point of, “this is me; if you don’t approve, then we will agree to disagree.” Life is only so long. I’m going to start filling my life with people who will help me thrive and grow. Especially in my faith. I want to surround myself with other Christians, and drench my kids in people who love the Lord. So that they grow up the way I hope they will.
That they will be brave. Be brave to do what is right, even if they are the only ones doing it.
Be proud. I want them to love the Lord. I want them to desire to know Him more. I hope they will be rich in God’s love. But also to be proud to be seen as a God fearing, loving person. That their actions show, even if they don’t speak.
And live knowing you don’t need and won’t get everyone’s approval. And that is perfectly fine. There really are only a few people in life you need to approve of you. God. As my kids keep telling me, they love Him most! My husband. I always want my husband’s approval. My mom. Yes, even if we don’t agree on some things I will still want my mom’s approval in my life. I ask her questions often, especially now as I’m diving into the Bible more. My kids. Not so much their approval, but I want them to respect me. That I can be a good role model for them. And maybe another is, if you’re lucky, your pastor. Some people can have a relationship with their pastor. Our church is probably too big. I’m just at least hoping to make some friends, who also love God.
I know being friends with non believers is good. It is good to be an example to them, to show that that everyone makes mistakes. Everyone struggles. Everyone sins. But the difference is we Christians get back up, ask for forgiveness, and try to live right again.
So after all that. I wish I could tell myself, Be brave! Be proud of who you are. And you don’t need other’s approval.
Even if I didn’t have this knowledge back then, I have kids now…
