gift guide: your adorkable and quirky bff.

your best friend loves sporting polka dots and critters. she's classic with a spin of peculiar. think jess day. even as her bff, you can't pinpoint her exactly, but these christmas gifts definitely won't miss the mark. 

1. "what happened" bandages

2. rating royalty iPhone case in sprinkles

3. measuring hedgies

4. paper straw mustaches and lips

5. dorthy perkins polka dot clutch

thoughts on sandy hook elementary.

it seems that all we ever hear about anymore are senseless tragedies. they seem to happen all the time now. every time i hear about one, i get sad and sick to my stomach... but when i heard about sandy hook elementary school on friday, i felt a different kind of grief. 

even though i'm not a teacher yet with my own classroom, as i am currently looking for jobs, i feel as if i am already a teacher. i went to school for it, have several practicum and student teaching experiences, and just love the students i had. the tragedy at sandy hook just hit home for me. 

and i cried for all those babies who were taken way too soon and for their parents who should never have to worry about whether a school is a safe place to send their children. i cried for the students who graciously lived, but who will have to live with this trauma for the rest of their lives. i cried for the teachers and principal who fought to protect their students and sacrificed their lives. i cried for everyone whose lives are forever changed. 

and today i am thinking and praying for all my friends who have classrooms of their own. i am thinking of them as they try to work through what happened and answer questions and offer counsel to their students. i am praying that school will not be a place of fear for any students, teachers, or parents, but that the perfect love of Christ will cast out all fear. i've always had an admiration and respect for teachers and educators, but now i do more than ever. 

via

quotable.

i am obsessed with quotes. i have a word document of 50+ pages of just quotes. i also used to keep a scrapbook of quotes. i have this tenacious need to share whatever i'm inspired by. here is like .005% of what i've saved. so if you love beautiful words & phrases like me, please be my guest and enjoy. maybe even grab a cup of coffee :)

It is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person, a situation, in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us, as profoundly as real people and things do.

— Jhumpa Lahiri

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.

— Jane Austen

There are moments in our lives when we are crying out for grace, not recognizing that we are getting it. We are not getting the grace of relief or the grace of release, because that is not the grace that we really need. No, what we are getting is something we desperately need, the uncomfortable grace of personal growth and change. With the love of a Father, your Lord is prying open your hands so that you will let go of things that have come to rule your heart but will never satisfy you.

— Paul David Tripp

Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy. Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.

— Francis Chan, Crazy Love (pg. 114)

Oh, me? I’m not 80% water. I’m 80% coffee, and a little bit of sass.

— Zooey Deschanel

hello toledo.

so our lives have changed drastically within the past few weeks. we recently moved from cincinnati to toledo. and it has been hard. sigh. 

first of all, i am really sentimental and it was hard to leave brian and i's first home together. there are lots of memories there and it was the place we spent the first two years of our marriage. it was also a place where the Holy Spirit showed up and ministered to us and a lot of high school students. it was a great (and not to mention, spacious) first home. 

secondly, my family lived about 15 minutes away from our home and i could go hang out whenever i wanted. dates with my mom, snuggling with some pretty sweet labrador retrievers, and family dinners were easy and accessible. not to mention, i had some pretty awesome girlfriends all around me. 

thirdly, i really took for granted everything there was to do in cincinnati. i have always loved cincinnati and having a coffee shop about every half mile to go chill in was normal. here, not so much. 

it's not that i'm not an adventurous person...i am...i've never been opposed to moving to a new place. but no offense, toledo, you're not exactly included in the hip cities that i dream of visiting or living in. 

that was my flesh just speaking. 

my spirit knows that God has brought us here for youth ministry. that He's going to do mighty things and that we will get to play a part in students flourishing in their relationships with the Lord. i'm really excited for that. but i won't pretend that i am the nice Christian girl who enthusiastically said "yes, Lord!" to coming here. it has been a struggle. and it will be. its going to be a season of choosing contentment when i can already find a million things i don't like about this area. and i pray for the grace to choose contentment and joy.... because wow, is it hard. and i can't do it by myself, but He promises that His grace is sufficient. 

i know the Lord has something great here... and i also know that His definition of "great" and my fleshly definition of "great" are probably a lot different... but i know that He is going to grow brian and i spiritually, and probably in a lot of other ways too. i am excited to grow, but also dread the process, as it can be painful. i am so torn! 

here are a few instagram pics of our apartment here... still lots of work to do, but it's looking homey, what with the christmas decorations and all. my mother in law and sis in law helped us unpack and my mom came up to help me organize and decorate...so thankful for them! 

thanks for reading/listening to my heart!