Licenses, Tournaments, Life, Crunch, and the Drawing Board

As has become my usual, I am linking up with the ladies of The Good Life, A. Liz Adventures, Carolina Charm, and Hello Happiness for "5 on Friday." Please join us!

One. Now that I finally got my teaching license figured out (It wasn't my error... needed to send in some additional paperwork that should have been taken care of when I first was contracted two years ago but I was given a five year license at the end of it all so I am good and happy!), I need to get my driver's license renewed. It's not like I didn't know exactly when I was going to expire four years ago when I last renewed it and it's not like I didn't have the ten months previous to renew it and it's not like I didn't talk about renewing it at least twenty times and it's not like I didn't try once because I did. But, my driver's license is now expired and, at this point, I won't be getting that baby renewed until basketball season is over. Here's to concientious and increasingly defensive driving.

Two. We officially start our post-season tournaments tonight. We are going into the tournament as the fourth seed after finishing in a three-way tie for second during the regular season. Plain and simple, our goal is to win the tournament. We certainly have the skill set to win the championship... We need to come into the games with our heads on straight and the team's interest as our first priority.

Three. Not that I am a non-procrastinator anyhow (see #1) but I feel like life has such a sense of uncertainty right now. I can attribute this uncertainty to a couple of big things as well as a number of smaller things. I'm looking forward to things panning out in the next couple of months... Whatever that will look like.

Four. Oh boy... I am really starting to feel the crunch of race day. February has completely kicked my tail and I haven't gotten a decent run in for awhile. I've still been attending my boot camp class and I've practiced as much with the high school team as possible, but I still feel so far behind. I will clearly be hitting the dreadmill hard once basketball season is over.

Five. I'm sorry if I'm a broken record at this point, but grad school is kicking my tail. I thought I would get a short reprieve from grad school after this week of madness, but after a talk with my professor tonight, it's back to the drawing board on Sunday to fix my research project. It's almost midterm... Almost midterm... Almost midterm...

What's in a Name?

Links updated effective September 7, 2015.

"Be. Do. Say. Go."
It's on the cover of my Bible. I started using this Bible eight summers ago after I received it at the Challenge '06 conference at Purdue. The title of the conference was "Beyond" and the tagline was "Be. Do. Say. Go." I have a ton of notes from that conference, but there is one thing that I really carry with my in my mind. It was a single comment made by Francis Chan about some t-shirts they were selling in the bookstore. The shirts were normal cotton tees, but they had only one word on the front: do. 

There were shirts also that each read "be," "say," and "go," but he commented specifically on the truth in the shirt which read "do." He talked about how we can "be" something without anybody else knowing, we can "say" something without anybody caring, and we can "go" anywhere we want, but those pieces of life can be nothing if we do not "do" anything. 


The best way to show the world you care is to "do" something.

I am a Christian.
I do my life for God.
I say to share the love of Christ.
I go where God leads me.

Be. Do. Say. Go. 

I want this to be my life's motto.

"Therefore go (go) and make (do) disciples of all nations, baptizing (do) them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching (say) them to obey everything I have commanded you (be)."  Matthew 28:19-20

I see the "Be. Do. Say. Go." principle right in the Bible, in words commanded spoken by Christ. I think that makes them legitimate words by which to live.

Please hold me accountable, but provide me grace. I am a sinful human, but I desire to serve God in all that I do. I want to live the words of Matthew 5:13-16:

"You are (be) the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are (be) the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives (do) light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine (do) before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

It is an inward choice, a decision, that leads to an outward influence of those around me. I must be the salt, be the light.

Be. Do. Say. Go.

How Much Is Too Much?

I was not ready for this school year in the least. 

The expectations at work have been taken up no less than twelve (unrealistic and inefficient) notches the year and, when combined with a coaching load I didn't really want at times, I have been torn. (However, please note that I have really come to enjoy my coaching duties... I've had the opportunity to talk away, but I haven't. I love coaching. And I love the kiddos with whom I work.)

Part of me doesn't mind putting in twelve hour days because I have nobody or nothing else in my life right now so I am blessed with time and nothing to do with it but give to other people. But, I don't always force myself to put in those twelve hour days when I need to. Thus, I am forever behind on grading and my lesson planning is not nearly as strong as it could be. 

On the other hand, I'd like to maybe meet some other people and maybe do something in my day that involves a peer group and is outside of the four walls of my workplace or my home. When I get the chance to go watch my sister play basketball and/or spend a weekend away with her and my friends, I choose to do so. I feel convicted because my days are to be spent being the hands and feet of Jesus, but here I am... Feeling frustrated. I tell myself that I am only going to do this teaching gig for a couple of years, but what if God has planned for me to do more? Someday I'd like to be a wife and a mom, but what if His plan is for me to be in this field for the rest of my life? I realize I'm only two and a half years into it, but I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. After this week, we have only three weeks remaining in the third quarter... This part of the year, in some ways, looks to be the busiest yet. You know what, though, it's not about me. It never can be.

From the outside looking in, my life looks pretty lame and (more than I'd like to admit), I get frustrated myself. Never did I think I'd be single and living with the parents at 26, but never did I expect that I'd have my dream job (not that I knew this would be it) or that I'd have found my niche like I have. I have an itch for an adventure, but what if the adventure God has planned for me is the not the adventure I have planned for myself? I know His ways are better than my ways... I don't want to miss a chance to "be" because I am too busy looking for a "go."

I don't know how much is too much. I saw a glimpse of the "too much" this last week, but through the pain comes growth-- as a person, as a professional, as a child of God.

Bring it on. I want to grow.

I just don't want to lose sight of everything else in life because I got caught up in some state-mandated, standards-based curriculum and forget what really matters.

30 Before 30, v. 26.0

This morning, I published my "30 Before 30" list. I'm one fifth into this little journey of randomness and ricidulousness, so I figured I was due for an update. This has been a fun little project so far... I'm excited to see what I get done this next year as well!

1. Finish my Master's degree. Currently in my first of four remaining semesters!
2. Knock out Baby Steps 2 & 3. Still working on Baby Step 2.
3. Visit at least 15 states. (0/15)
4. Serve at a soup kitchen in each of those visited states.
5. Take an international vacation... alone.
6. Coach in a state basketball tournament.
7. Buy a nice camera to document life's adventures. I've done my research and am looking to pull the trigger in the next month or two.
8. Read and notate through the Bible five different times, in four translations (NIV, NKJV, ESV, NASB). (0/5)
9. Run a marathon. I'm aiming for this year!
10. Hit my goal weight (160 pounds... Dream weight is 145 pounds). I'm making a much more concentrated effort on this one but it's coming along much more slowly than I'd like... Womp womp.)
11. Do something really nice for somebody... something I never thought I'd be able to do... somewhere, at sometime.
12. Send out snail mail Christmas cards one year. I just changed this goal to something I could look forward to more. It's my list and I'll change it if I want to.
13. Read 100 new (never before read) books. 1Fat Angie. 2Single Infertile Female: Adventures in Life, Love, and Infertility. 3Sparkly Green Earrings: Catching the Light at Every Turn. 4The Help. 5Monster. 6The Book Thief.7Eat, Pray, Love. 8Same Kind of Different as Me. 9Winning Balance.10Thirteen Reasons Why. 11Zack's Lie. 12Water for Elephants. 13The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 14The Girl Who Played With Fire. 15The Language of Flowers. 16The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. 17Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. 18Jack's Run. 19Gone Girl. 20My Sister's Voice. 21The Heavy: A Mother, A Daughter, A Diet-- A Memoir. 22Divergent. 23The Fault in Our Stars. 24Inferno.
14. Try at least 30 new recipes. (0/30)
15. Write 500 notes of encouragement to those around me. (0/500)
16. Go skydiving.
17. Crochet a baby afghan. I've started something like 10 patterns but I can't find one I like. So I look for lucky #11, I guess.
18. Have a photo shoot done of myself... Insecurities set aside.
19. Go on another missions trip.
20. Complete a semester of calculus.
21. Earn my permit to carry a concealed weapon.
22. Sleep a night under the stars.
23. Get three stamps in my passport. (1/3)
24. Make a kite and fly it.
25. Achieve complete financial independence.
26. Take a dance class.
27. Tear a phone book in half.
28. Solve a Rubik's cube.
29. Learn to swim.
30. Visit New York City... Perhaps for a 30th birthday celebration?

Start date: February 15, 2013
End date: February 15, 2018

Where Has February Gone?

I have no idea where the first part of February has gone. My goodness. I feel like we just started the month and tomorrow is already the half-way point of the same.

I wasn't exactly planning on taking a blogging break (I felt like I had hit something of a groove), but I wasn't exactly planning on getting sick and needing to sleep 10 hours each night. Nor was I planning on visiting my sister last weekend, but it was totally worth it. Nor was I planning on just generally falling behind on life for a week, but I'm working to get myself straightened out again.

(Maybe I should stop trying to fit so much into my days. But that's another matter for another day...)

I'm looking forward to getting caught up on life (and this blog) but I'm not sure that will ever happen.

I'm looking forward to getting out of town this weekend and hopefully taking a couple of pictures to show that I do have a life outside of school and of work.

I'm looking forward to getting a run in tonight (hopefully) because I am starting to feel the crunch of race day.

I'm looking forward to sitting down and pounding out some grad school. And I also really need to get my semester work calendar made. Since we're only a month into the semester and all. Oi.

I'm also looking forward to getting caught up on my new Bible study. I have really enjoyed the parts I have done so far and I am super bummed to have missed last night.

I'm really looking forward to getting back into some sort of pace and routine in life. Last week's cold wasn't terrible by any means, but it certainly threw me for a loop and set me behind schedule.

GF Is Not Just a City in North Dakota

I am very much an all or nothing kind of person... Moderation is not something that works well for me very often at all. This includes eating.

I like food. I have always enjoyed food and I really haven't found a food I'm not willing to try at least once. I used to be a pickier eater, but I really have gotten better. Cucumbers grossed me out for the longest time but now they are one of my go-to foods... So I know, from personal experience, that picky eaters really can recover.

Anyhow, about six years ago, I started a dairy-free diet per the recommendation of my mom who has been dairy intolerant for the last 20-some years. Going dairy-free made all of the difference in the world for me and, in search of finding dairy substitutes, I realized that my body does not handle soy well at all either. And then about three years ago, I went gluten-free (GF) in an effort to reslove some particularly annoying symptoms and my body responded so well. I now consider myself a recovering carboholic. (I am also allergic to walnuts, but that's another story for another day. It's a pretty boring story, though, so that day may never come.)

After a super stressful fall semester and then the holidays and just general laziness on my part, I have become super lax in my diet... I cheat way more than I should (which, really, I shouldn't cheat because I feel so much better when I don't...) and I'm feeling the effects of it. The scale isn't moving, my clothes don't fit well because I'm bloated, my joints are achy, and my skin is a mess.

I wrote last week about wanting to get my water consumption where it needed to be and I'm very grateful to say that I am definitely moving in the right direction. I finish four bottles of water most days... It's the fifth one that seems to get me the most. Anyhow, this week I am working to get my diet back under control. 

Because I feel like gluten affects me in the most adverse ways (although I'm more sensitive to dairy, if that makes sense) and I find gluten the hardest to abstain from, I am making it the first to go. My plan is to eliminate gluten this week and the eliminate dairy next week. Soy is not a huge issue for me because I really do limit my processed foods and it's usually when I cheat that I'm eating processed foods which also tend to contain soy, so when I eat wisely, the soy situation pretty much resolves itself.

I am always on the lookout for tasty gluten-free/dairy-free recipes that are as natural and whole foods oriented as possible, so please share if you know of any! I've been meaning to post some of my favorites, but I've come to realize that I really don't follow a recipe oftentimes and just throw together what I think looks and sounds good at the time.... Oops! But that being said, I really do hope to become more intentional in my cooking so when I have brain blocks for meals, I can look through my recipe box to find something instead of looking in the fridge and hoping for the best or (UGH!) having a cheat meal because I'm too lazy to do anything else!