random things from the week

 

Happy Thursday, friends! I thought I'd talk about some random things on my blog today; I hope you enjoy today's post.

My house has been a bit of a mess this week. I decided to sell the bookshelf that I had in the living room last weekend; it was the last thing in the house that was tied to a memory of my past. It felt great to get rid of that heavy piece of furniture! I know it sounds weird that I would do such a thing, but it's honestly hard to understand unless you've walked through divorce; I hope that's something none of you ever have to do! It was terrible to go through, but now that I'm on the other side, it's great. 

All that being said, I bought a new piece of furniture to replace the old! I found a great deal on Amazon, and it's supposed to arrive today. Hopefully it'll be a part of tomorrow's Friday Favorites post. Stay tuned! But this mess started to drive me a little crazy on Wednesday. Another thing that is driving me crazy is the dog hair! Noah's dog Rocket is sweet and beautiful, but his hair is horrible and he's the worst shedding dog ever to have lived in this house. 

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I listened to an interesting podcast yesterday; it's one by Lysa Terkeurst, called Therapy & Theology. The episode I listened to was called Prayer Framework--Does Praying For Our Family Make a Difference? My answer to that question is a resounding yes, by the way, and that was the sum of their talk as well. Anyway, that led me to thinking about prayer and how I've had times where I've had a rich prayer life and in other times I've had a very dry and sparse prayer life. I'm just being real here, friends. They talked about how the enemy works in us to keep us from praying, and I believe that to be true. He works in the way of distracting us; please tell me I am not the only one in this! I am often distracted due to several things: my phone, a computer screen before me, in mismanaging my time...I could go on. 

I mentioned in a blog comment to someone yesterday that I tend to overcomplicate things, and I think I do that with prayer. As I've gotten older and my life has changed so drastically, I no longer have the time that I used to have. When I do have the time, my mind very easily wanders. Prayer doesn't have to be the book, so to speak. I've been taught certain ways to pray, and while there's nothing wrong with that, prayer just doesn't have be so long and drawn out. It doesn't have to be in a certain order. I don't have that in me most days, if I'm being honest. I'm more likely to pray when I've learned something hard. I think it's important to thank God and to offer Him praise for who He is, but it's okay if you don't always do that. These are things I'm learning more and more as time goes on...

Does any of this resound with you? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

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I'm excited to go sit at a pool again today! I'm starting to dog sit for my friend Heather today; they left early this morning, so I'm going to pack up my lunch and pool bag and head over there around ten thirty. I hope to sit out there for at least three hours! I need to run to the Dollar Tree first, though...I love to use pool noodles to float on while I'm in a pool, and I need to replace mine. 

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I have two days of in-service next week. I am excited to be working with my friends for four weeks of summer school this summer! It's a more relaxed version of school, so the days are Monday-Thursday and I'll be off by 3;30. It's four weeks in a row, so I'll have two weeks off at the end before going back to work full time at the end of July like I did last year. That's not too bad, in my opinion! I'm already a little bored with staying home, if you want to know the truth. It's nice, don't get me wrong, but I just can't take too much of it. 

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This is my friend, Heather. She and I will be roommates this year at work! I can't wait to move my stuff into her room and to be in a different hallway. I made this decision when my friend Karen got a new position at school staring August. I decided that since she was my home base, that instead of being with someone I don't know as well, that I'd much rather be with someone I'm already familiar with. I reached out to Heather about this, and she was super excited for me to share her room. 

She and I have been talking recently, and made plans to attend an Indigo Girls concert together in September! We're the same age and love all the same things, which we've talked about before. We wanted to go see them in Nashville last year, but it would have been over fall break, when I was already  traveling. When she saw that they were coming here, she immediately bought two tickets and promptly invited me to join her. Of course I said yes! 

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I went on a little shopping spree this week! I met Mom and Trish for lunch, then I went over to Old Navy afterward to see if I could find anything. I've been wanting to replace some things in my closet lately, since I've worn it all for several summers in a row by now. Amy and I had been talking about this, and she is the one who encouraged me to go over to ON to try on some things in store. 

So I did, and I hit the jackpot. I had some money put aside for this, and am super excited about all the new things I've added to my closet. I'll give you a more detailed post about this next week for Fashion Files, so stay tuned! I even went back for two other things that I put down on the first day. I needed some clothes! 

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What's random in your life right now? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for being here today to read, friends. Love to all! 

Jenn