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Bumpy Waters

November 21, 2016

waves

A swirling mess of ideas,

One turns into many more.

The first better than the next,

The next better than the first.

Inspired again and again,

Fear hides behind every door.

Planning out one thought,

Thinking about how to start.

Finding the purpose of it all,

With no answers to be found.

A reason nothing gets done,

Preventing all of it to stall.

A prayer of clarity may help,

Decide the right way to steer.

Beginning the hardest part,

A step of what’s to come.

Pushed aside the roadblock,

The journey made new and clear.

Avoidance was the easy way,

Remaining nervous and afraid.

A yearning desire remains ahead,

To live a dream and to succeed.

Not a victim of being unsure,

Seeking to achieve what was said.

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Filed Under: poems, UncategorizedTagged: bumps, clarity, ideas, journey, life, purpose, thoughts

Yes, It’s Sweetest Day

October 15, 2016

sweetestdayDid you celebrate Sweetest Day today with your spouse or significant other? Did you even know it was Sweetest Day?! If you aren’t from the Great Lakes region, mostly Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, you may have never heard of it! My husband and I are from the Cleveland, Ohio area, where the “holiday” originated, so we know it comes along every third Saturday in October. Does that mean we spend every Sweetest Day exchanging cards, chocolates, and having fancy dinners? Of course not, especially since we live in Virginia. We were surprised to find a very small selection of cards by accident recently, when looking for a birthday card at our local Kroger. We were pretty shocked to find such a thing in Richmond, since most often people here have never heard of the so-called holiday. According to Hallmark, Sweetest Day came into existence around 1922, when a Cleveland, Ohio candy company employee, Herbert Birch Kingston, wished to bring happiness to those who were sometimes forgotten. Hallmark began making Sweetest Day cards in the mid-1960s and now has more than seventy cards to choose from for your loved ones.

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I believe many take advantage of today to create a romantic day full of fanciness and grand gestures, but really it can just be another expense for a lot of couples. Some parents use it as a way to give their children more candy and toys. The gesture of giving a day of extra time could be a better way to spend today or any Saturday really. My husband and I didn’t remember Sweetest Day until this evening, when he saw something about it on social media. I simply responded “Oh yeah” and continued with what I was doing, content with the time we have been able to spend together today. We don’t always get Saturdays together, due to work or different commitments, so we take advantage of those we do. Today we filled our time with a free and local Harvest Festival, a late lunch at Chipotle (fairly inexpensive), a car wash and clean at Car Pool, and a few random errands, before returning home to finish watching the Cleveland Indians beat the Blue Jays in the American League Championship! As I finish this post, we will end the night with watching a few shows on the DVR, and I will no doubt fit in writing my lesson plans for school this week. Sundays for us typically consist of being filled at church prepping and running the youth night, so I have to squeeze my work in beforehand! If you didn’t know about Sweetest Day, you now know what kind of crazy things we northerners think up to celebrate love! Don’t be pressured to spend a fortune on love. Just show you care, and spend time with your family.

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Filed Under: blogTagged: cards, Cleveland, fall, great lakes, hallmark holiday, love, north, October, romance, sweetest day, time

Pumpkin Spice Please….Again?

October 11, 2016

obsessedwpumpkinspice

The other night when my husband and I walked into Kroger, I was overwhelmed at the display when we walked in the door. As soon as the calendar switched to October, everything pumpkin spice appeared, seemingly everywhere you turn! Now I know this topic comes to no surprise to probably anyone, but I wanted to talk about the obsession. Just look at the display in the picture! Years ago, when October came around, the only things pumpkin we talked about this much were actual pumpkins. Now it’s all about PSL’s (Pumpkin Spice Lattes if you still don’t know), pumpkin spice desserts, and even pumpkin spice waffles, cereal, chips, butter, soaps, décor, Halloween costumes, and even clothing! Change of seasons is one thing, but I can’t think of anything America obsesses over the rest of the year quite like Pumpkin Spice. What’s the big deal?

pumpkinspicelatte

This Pumpkin Spice Latte basically says it all. Whether it’s the typical Starbucks PSL or your own homemade creation, you’ve fallen into the annual fall obsession. Are you drinking this because you truly love the taste, or are you just trying to be another person drinking that infamous drink, probably wearing boots and an oversized cardigan. Many bloggers are now even posting outfit ideas and inspiration, based on the drink. Maybe by now you’ve seen the collages of outfit ideas, coordinating with the fall colors of a PSL….which are basically just your typical fall colors, with a picture of a PSL thrown in! I know some of the pictures I see are strictly for photos and Instagram goodness. I mean, really, do you often find yourself in a pumpkin patch with a perfectly matched fall outfit, cute skinny jeans, and nice boots on a work day? If so, you should probably be somewhere else! I don’t know about you, but when I go to a pumpkin patch or apple picking, I don’t wear my best fall look. Last time I went, I came home covered in mud and freezing! Please don’t feel like you must walk around with this obsessed-over drink down a picturesque town street, with colorful leaves all around! It’s not really what fall is all about, is it?

pumpkinspicecheerios Pumpkin Spice Cheerios….aren’t regular Cheerios good enough? Why, why’d you do it General Mills? I love Cheerios, and when I have time for breakfast, before rushing out the door, it’s usually my cereal of choice. I have not, however, caved to the trendy Pumpkin Spice Cheerios. My husband came home from the store recently excited and said, “Look what they had!” He held up this box before I had a chance to respond, quickly revealing none other than the Pumpkin Spice flavor. I’m not saying I definitely wouldn’t like them, but I have no desire to try them. He loves them and says they taste just like pumpkin spice. I think for me,  because they have become part of the annual fall trend, I have almost gone out of my way NOT to try them! Cheerios were good the way they were! I don’t need to add pumpkin spice to breakfast now too. I find it almost frustrating to see so many types of products now offering pumpkin spice!

pumpkinpatch

Instead….this is where we should be! The actual, real live pumpkin patch! Don’t be tempted to take that latte or put on an outfit to make you blend right in with nature. Just throw on a hoodie, grab your friends or family, and go to the pumpkin patch. Maybe you should even leave your cell phone at home! Pick out the biggest, roundest, brightest pumpkin they have. Take it home, spread out some bags or newspaper, and carve the best pumpkin ever this fall! While you’re there, take in the fact that you’re actually outside. Smell the air, look at nature, see the colors, and breathe the outdoors. The pumpkin patch is definitely where everyone should be in October. Maybe they’ll even have a corn maze, an apple orchard, or some….apple cider, not pumpkin spice lattes! If you’re local, go to Carter Mountain in Virginia, where you’ll find more apples than you can pick, a pumpkin patch, apple cider, beautiful nature, lots of families and friends spending time together, and their infamous apple cider donuts! Try something different this fall.

 

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Filed Under: blogTagged: baking, dessert, fall, obsessed, October, orange, psl, pumpkin, pumpkin spice

A Greater You

October 4, 2016

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Peering out of the darkness

Catching rays of light

It’s the hope, the sign, the first step

The image of starting new

Leading to a greater you

 

Open your heart, open your mind

Let God’s hands be the guide

Follow the passion, the dream

Which once was the drive inside

 

Make the choice, make it now

The one to change

A way to rearrange

Your adventure must begin somehow

 

It’s not too late

Don’t stop to think or hesitate

The great unknown

A journey and happiness to be grown

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Filed Under: poemsTagged: greatness faith, happiness, inspirational, poem, searching, self confidence

Officially a Catholic

October 4, 2016

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Officially? Yes, I’m now officially a Catholic. I considered myself an “unofficial” Catholic until April 5th, 2015. The journey started six years ago, and I can’t even believe it’s been that long. When I was in my last semester of college to become an elementary teacher, I began student teaching at a small, Catholic School near Cleveland, Ohio. I didn’t realize one experience would change my whole world. It just goes to prove how every step we take, no matter how small, will impact our future. Every person we meet and every situation we are put in, will somehow transform how we move forward with life. My road to Catholicism is proof.

I didn’t know much about the Catholic faith at all, but I wasn’t against spending three months in a kindergarten classroom in a Catholic School. When I discovered I’d be attending Mass once a week with the students, I remember being a little nervous, since I knew next to nothing about it. Week by week, I learned a little more, felt a little more comfortable, and found myself a little more interested and engaged. It helped to be surrounded by some of the best people I’d ever known and to have felt so welcomed into their school and church community. I grew really close to a group of people there, who still remain some of the closest in my life. I had felt a sense of transformation in those three months and had realized I really wanted to explore becoming Catholic. It was definitely a place where I felt a connection. That’s really all it takes in the beginning, a sense of connection and feeling of wanting more.

I took my time getting started. In fact, it took about five years to begin the process of becoming Catholic. During that time, I had been teaching second grade at the Catholic School where it all began. (No, being Catholic wasn’t a requirement to teach there.) I was often overwhelmed with work, as well as a two-year graduate degree I packed into a one-year advanced program. Sometimes I wondered if I was just making excuses for not starting sooner, but last year, I realized why it all happened the way it did. It was during my last year of teaching in Ohio when I met the person who would later become my husband. He was the music director for the church of the school where I worked. We met when he helped my students prepare songs for their First Communion. We had been dating almost a year when he got a job as a youth minister in Richmond, Virginia. I knew we were meant to be together so never thought twice about making the decision to move to Richmond. We had arranged for me to live with a couple from the church where he got the job. It was all a risk but one I knew would work in the end, especially when a week after I moved, Mike proposed to me in Virginia Beach, still one of the best days I can remember.

I was now engaged, living in a strange city with strangers, unemployed, and planned to begin my Catholic journey in two months. Interestingly enough, the couple I was living with ran the RCIA program at our church, the program for conversion to Catholicism. They were turning out to be some of the best people I had ever met, and things seemed to be happening in a particular order, one which I didn’t even realize until later in the year, was definitely meant to be. I started the program in August. I learned so much, changed in a variety of ways, and worked on changing my outlook in a difficult time. I was going through turmoil in my career search. During all of this, I was trying to plan a wedding with Mike, transition into a new city, meet new people, and balance a new life.

The journey to become Catholic had reached a peak, when I was confirmed at the Easter Vigil Mass this past April. It was amazing to feel like an “official” part of the Catholic community, although I’d been going to the Catholic Church and participating in Catholic events for years. I feel like it’s more real and meaningful at this point. With my Confirmation, also meant my husband and I were able to have a Catholic wedding with a Mass back home in Ohio. One of the most special parts of the Mass, besides exchanging vows of course, was both of us being able to give the Blood of Christ to our family and friends as Eucharistic Ministers during Communion. It was a first for me and something we got to do together. Many of the people at our wedding commented how they had never seen the bride and groom as Eucharistic Ministers at their wedding and what a beautiful Wedding Mass we had prepared.

So you might be wondering what all this means for the future. How is my life any better or different? Really it means the journey has only begun. I have so much to learn and always have questions about the Catholic faith. The road to becoming Catholic is never really over. Things are always changing. People are always changing. There’s so much to explore and understand. As for my day-to-day life, I am officially part of my husband’s Core team for Life Teen. I helped a lot last year, but now I have my own small group, go to the weekly Core meetings, and play a more integral part in the Sunday routine. I feel more invested, since I am now official, and Mike and I are now also official!

Every day and every week I am learning more about my faith and Catholicism. I am lucky enough to have a husband who knows almost all the answers to any questions I have, but I feel very lucky to also learn from my fellow Core team members at our meetings and on Life Nights. I may never feel like I know as much as they do, but it is a blessing to be able to gain a lot of knowledge from them. They probably aren’t even aware how much of an impact they have. The teens have had a bigger impact on my faith and growth than they could imagine. For someone who was actually scared to work with this age group, they have taught me a ton about my journey and myself. I have become close with a lot of them and can’t imagine Life Teen without them!

It should be an eventful and interesting year, as was last year. I plan to grow stronger in my faith, in my own personal life, in the professional and social world, and most importantly in my role as a wife. It doesn’t matter what stage of life or what age you are. If you have been involved or considered making the leap to become Catholic, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. Whether you have been helping with Life Teen, are a teen who has been to Life Nights, or have found yourself wondering about being Catholic because of an experience with a Catholic friend, ask someone more about RCIA and the options you have. There will be someone who can help you and a whole new world of faith and love awaiting you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: blogTagged: Catholic, changes, confirmation, faith, life, sacraments

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I'm a teacher and writer, who loves everything fashion, beauty, travel, inspiration, motivation, shopping, and education...to name some. I have a wide variety of interests and topics I'm excited to write about. Check out my main site for articles, poems, and how to hire me for freelancing!

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