Finishing What I Started: Revisted.

Image.

You may remember this post from March where I challenged myself (and some of you) to knock the dust off those books on your shelves and get around to reading them.  Many of you share my love of reading and maybe my love of books.  I have an ipad, a kindle, and a small library of physical books all of which I adore.  I can never have enough books in my possession, enough in my currently reading section of good reads, or enough on my excel sheet of books I've read.

But I wanted to revist my goal and so I went back and counted from my reading list for this year how many books I've read from my own shelves or eshelves.  Curious? 17!  So far in 2012 I have read 17 of the books I've been saving until I get around to them while constantly buying more.  But I pretty much paused the buying in order to dominate some of what I already have!

Better still, I've continued my love for passing them on!  Amber and I have been exchanging books like crazy this year but I've also passed on books to Mia, Jo, and Lindsey too!  It's clearing spots for the books people keep generously giving me and those I keep acquiring whether through purchase or trade.

The last post got a great response from many of you who thought you should try the same...how's it coming?

Love,

B

Book Club Friday.

I try not to over linkup, so I'm a little spotty with book club posts.  This is not to say that I haven't been reading as much as ever, and loving it.  I've actually had book after book that I've enjoyed which I know will shock Mia if/when she reads this because she says I'm stingy with my Goodreads stars! ; ]

This week I wanted to write about and highly recommend Crazy Love by Francis Chan.

My best friend, Candy, and I try to read one book the same.  We recently finished a book called 'Me and My Big Mouth' and I promptly started Crazy Love thinking it would give me a chance to get ahead. Since I'm always reading multiple books at once I sometimes read slower in one than the other.  However, this book gripped me from day one and within a week (about 3 months faster than I tackled our last book) I had this book dominated.

If you're connected with me in social media world you may have been catching bits and pieces of what I've been reading/loving in this book as I've been using quotes from it on facebook and twitter. This book really rocked my perspective and kept me wanting to read more.  If you're a believer, this is a must read on my list...and if you're not but you have an interest in religion, check it out.  Chan is a great writer and he makes convicting points.

Love,

B

It's Ok Thursday, with a Twist.

Welcome to It's Ok Thursday with a twist...ecards!  I'm borrowing all of these from pinterest to make today's it's ok Thursday extra special.  Here we go.  It's ok...

...to love Kim Kardash, even if she's a hot mess.  And to have totally been judging her marriage from the get go.

...to judge Jlo for that fiat commercial...you're not still Jenny from the block and you don't drive a fiat around one either.

...to love Target but have to be monitored on your trips there for budgeting purposes/to avoid bankruptcy.  Quick someone take my wallet, I've lost all sense of wants v. needs!

...if Pinterest makes you want to shop and eat constantly.  It happens to the best of us.

...if you have to be brutally honest with guys from time to time...having your personality mistaken for flirting makes life complicated!

...if you frequently want to delete people from high school or college years for being idiots, but not because you kind of enjoy feeling superior from time to time.  This is probably not really ok...but I do it.

 ...if you frequently indulge in busyness of the wrong kind.  This is when you know you should be doing one specific thing but you busy yourself with 100 other things that could wait. (and some of you thought I didn't need a time management book? HA!)

...if the above ecard describes you perfectly.  Most people consider me very social so it baffles them that I live alone.  I like time away from people as much as I like time with them, actually.  And though saying you get along better with guys than girls is considered a bad quality in a girl these days, it's true.  I like guys.  They're honest, they're low drama (usually), and they do not pretend or participate in BS nearly as often as girls.

...to be a rare gem, of the odd variety.

And most of all of this fabulous Thursdays, it's ok to be sarcastic, witty, and full of self mockery.

Love,
B

A Belated Weekend Recap.

I hope that each of you had a special Memorial Day weekend.  As I shared last week, I spent mine with 3 full days and 2 partial days with my sweet Mom.  I love love love having her down on my turf, which is a treat I've gotten for a long weekend each of the last two years and I hope a tradition in the making.  I love each of my family members and the time we all get together but there's something extra special about getting one-on-one time with them whether it's a date night with my Dad when I'm in Indy or Easter with my sisters in North Carolina.

She was waiting for me at home when I got there after work Friday night.  I had cooked chicken taco chili in the crockpot and made a fruit salad with dip so we ate in and caught up.  After which we did a little shopping for the house for some of our projects and then  I introduced her to my favorite fro yo joint, Yogurtology. I am sad to report that she went with NO TOPPINGS!  Tragic.  We rented a redbox and watched it in bed where we later passed out content to be together.

Saturday morning we woke up, drank whoopie pic coffee and read our bibles and books together.  We took our time getting moving but eventually headed to Bayshore to walk by the water.  My Mom walks way faster than I do so we had a hard time talking as she kept leaving me in the dust, crazy Oprah power walker that she is.  But we enjoyed it.

After which we went bargain hunting at furniture consignment shops, discount stores, etc.  I live for this kind of treasure hunting.  My Mom and my home styles are very different but she seems to appreciate my taste and she at least enjoys that I keep it clean and minimalistic.  So we had a blast working on little projects, shopping for the best deal, and working on my little batch pad.  We did take a late afternoon break for some pool time with books though.

We ended up ordering pizza and picking up giant sonic's for dinner that night and indulging in another redbox in bed where we passed out tired and content from a productive day.  We killed more than half of our to do list for my place on Saturday.  I should pause here to say that my neighbors are amazing and really pitched in when I needed them with their SUVs, tools, and man power.  I am grateful that I absolutely love my neighborhood and my block of neighbors.  We're more than a community, we're a family.

Sunday included church, brunch with long-time friends, more errands, more projects, and finally too much exhaustion to even stay awake for a movie!  The best part?  We still had Monday!  I love long weekends because when you feel like they're supposed to be ending you still have a whole 'nother day.  Mom and I both agreed this weekend was perfect, it felt long enough, for once.

Monday involved MORE projects, shopping, and dinner with Indy friends that just moved here to Tampa and are now practically my neighbors.  They were a welcomed break from snaking drains, replacing towels bars, and going through junk drawers!  They fed us delicious ribs and things.  I'm so excited to have some coaching buddies in my neck of the woods now...I hope this was the first of many meals we'll share together now that they're Tampa dwellers.

I realized this morning that I literally didn't take a single phone and sent less tweets, texts, or facebooks than I have in any weekend before, other than maybe while in Haiti when I didn't have my phone.  I'm working on being more present.  I want to live my life, not text about living it.  And I want the people I spend my time to feel like they're important and I value the time I get with them.  This is a huge step for the girl who receives an average of 25,000 texts a month...but a good step.  A very healthy step.  I'm not sure the number of texts that come in is going down but the ones going out?  That change may have verizon wondering if my phone has been stolen.

Happy Wednesday everyone, this week is already half over! Hope you're making the most of the short week.

Love,
B

Dreams Do Come True.

For as long as I can remember I've wanted my own library, in my home.  Something you may not know about me is learning to read did not come easily for me and I struggled through elementary school with reading comprehension.  I have a mild case of dyslexia which went without diagnosis and therefore untreated.  I made it painful for my Mom growing up who would force me to read and I would force to listen to my grumbling.

Finally in middle school my Mom allowed me to start picking my own books and I fell in love with reading.  Turns out the more I read, the better I got at it.  I continued to pick up speed and as you know now, I try'n read 50 books per year.  So for a girl with a hard time reading and bad comprehension scores through elementary school I sky rocketed to getting an A in college English when I was only 16.

I fell in love with reading and it changed my life.  I am not a passionate advocate for literacy and for the literature.  I am my friends cheerleader as many of them join the world of reading goals.  I am a book giver, a book recommend-er, and frequently a book reviewer.

Well, I didn't get my library this weekend BUT I got one giant step closer...I got a reading corner!  I found the perfect lamp for it on clearance but for some reason didn't get it so I'll be making a trip back there today to pick it up and complete it, for now.  But I wanted to show you that I finally have a reading corner, complete with a big comfy chair, a lamp, and a leather box/tote thing to hold the books I'm currently reading (which seems to always be 5-6).

(note: there's not a picture hanging behind it as well that spices up that corner a little better...my mom helped me actually hang things so it looks like someone lives in my house now!)

In addition to getting a reading corner I got a HUGE new assortment of books over the last week and a half.  Here's a few that got added to the Beach Condo Library in the month of May:

                          Thanks to Amber my most generous book exchanging friend for these!

Clearly, I need to step up my reading game.  I finished book 37 of the year this weekend and somehow I'm still drowning in books that have been given to me.  Oh the generosity of those I love.  I may need to live to be 300 to read all the books that interest me, but I guess by then there would be 300 more years worth of reading material. Whew.

If any of you would like to come borrow my reading corner, let me know.  I'm pretty stoked on it!

Hope you all had wonderful holiday weekends.  Memorial Day was extra special to me in light of my recent trip to DC where I learned so much more about the sacrifice of our armed forces.  How blessed we are to live in America!

My weekend with my Mom has been perfect and I'm so sad to take her to the airport this morning... : [

Love,
B

If I Die Young...

...don't bury me in satin because satin clings to all my imperfections.

Ok, this post is serious though.  When I determined I was going to Haiti I was surprised at how many responded, ' but, you could die there'.  At first I thought it was a little funny.  I live in Tampa where road rage is abundant.  I could die any day, really...especially here.  But then it got me thinking, what if I died in Haiti, at 26.  Well, if I'm going to die young I hope it's doing something bold, for the Lord or least for the people I love.

I don't say that lightly.  I have no fear of death.  It's not that I'm ready to die by any means.  I love my life and more than ever I've been living this year to the fullest.  The people I love, know it.  I desire to grow older being the cool aunt to my niece, an encouraging sister, an inspiring friend, and a passionate leader.  I hope the Lord continues to have big plans for me but I'm not afraid to die.

A coworker of mine lost a high school aged niece a few years back.  What I was struck by was that her reach increased in her death.  Her life didn't disappear, it spread like wildfire.

If I die young, I hope I do it leaving a legacy.  I hope that my parents, siblings, and friends would celebrate my life and my salvation in my absence.  I am less afraid of dying in fact, then in failing to really live.

We have one shot at this.  We get to live on earth one time.  And every single moment we have here is borrowed.  We don't know when it will end.  We can't predict our futures. We plan and plan but we don't really know that we'll live to carry out those plans.  What I fear is not taking chances, not being 'all in', and not having an impact so that my life and later my death are meaningless.

The more intangible I realize my life is the more motivated I feel to face my fears, to put it all on the line, and to live with every fiber of my being.  I don't mean this post to be morbid, I realize that the more I embrace that life is temporary the more I really live.

So if I die young, I'm going to do it fully living til the very last second.  And I hope to live my life in a way that keeps the devil a little uncomfortable. ; ]

Love,
B

Enter: The Confessional.

Ok, I'm going to make a bold and maybe shocking confession on the blog today.  Are you ready? I'm a closet messie.  No really.  If you've ever been to my house and seen that I keep it pretty much prestine these days this way come as a giant shock to you but I've ALWAYS been a mess! 

I got in trouble every day growing up for leaving my bed unmade, not getting dressed before school, and not picking up after myself.  This habit got worse in high school and was the bane of my roommates existence in college.  Every once in a blue moon I'd get the itch to clean and pick up my room, clean everything off, and carry on the way I always did until it was a mess again.

Worse yet? I wasn't JUST messy, I was dirty!  My freshman year of college I only changed my bedsheets twice (I know, this is getting really shameful now)...my bed was lofty and it was practically impossible for my 5'3 self to do it without much help from my taller, cleaner roommate and so I thought, why bother?  Eck ok not I'm disgusted with myself just talking about it.

After college when I suddenly had more time (I went to school fulltime and worked 32 hours a week my junior and senior years), I got better.  I was renting a house with two friends from middle school who still lived in Tampa and we all pitched in and kept the place pretty clean. I finally was doing my part to keep the place up and realizing that when the house was clean, it was easier to think straight!

At 24 I bought my young professionals version of a 'dream home'.  A two bedroom, two bath townhome in my favorite part of town.  When I pictured myself young, single, and working hard this is the place I pictured coming home too.  For the first two weeks I didn't even have furniture but I didn't know the difference.  I slept on that airmattress with a big goofy grin on my face because I finally had a home of my own. 

This is when I determined it was time to quit being a messy.  This was my place and I wanted it to look great.  I wanted to entertain guest after guest in my shiney new home and be proud of it. And so, I changed my habits which in fact, changed my life.

I'm always looking to improve which is when I started reading Sandra Felton. She wrote a book on time management that I was obsessed with (I've written a little about that recently) but she also funs a website called 'Messies Anonymous'.  As I was perusing her archives after reading her book I thought, this is me!  I basically had to 12 step myself from a messie to my current state!

She has some incredible resources and I highly recommend her books, mostly 'Organizing your Day' which is continuing to push me to use my time wisely and effeciently so I can spend more of it with the people I care about and with my nose in a book.  So, confession time is over and if you're living in the land of messies, check out Felton for a revamp. 

Love,
B