Month: August 2022

Prayer

My mom told me the other night, ‘I just listened to Mark Wahlberg say the rosary.’

Uhm… What?????

It’s this prayer app called “Hallow”. I immediately downloaded it and did the daily rosary with narrator Mark, who happens to be the Mark Wahlberg. Super cool.

But it gets a bit better.

The app tracks your use in terms of streaks… ‘Congrats! You’re on a one-day streak!’ We all know that I’m a fan of streaks, what with an 808-day streak on Duolingo right now. So, where I’ve already been wanting to pray more, and I find this app with lots of really cool prayer options – the organization and usability could use some definite improvement, and having the paid options listed all mixed in with the free ones (with no filter) is a bit of a big hassle, though – that not only has Mark Wahlberg for the rosaries, but that also makes it like a game of sorts. I’m in!

Check it out, y’all, and have fun with prayer and meditations and learning all those prayers we hear so rarely but to which everyone else always seems to know the words! (Yes, those are all on there for free, too!)

Post-a-day 2022

Hair care

‘What’s with the Natty Light in the living room??’

‘… It’s for my hair…’

‘….’

‘Beer is a good conditioner.’

‘…’

‘It was the cheapest they had at the time, and the cans were bigger, so I could use one at least twice.’

‘….’

Yeah, well, it isn’t the first conversation I’ve had like this. And not the first time I’d heard the ridiculous nickname for the cheap beer either. Not a good sign, hunny, that you refer to that stuff with that nickname… Not a good sign…

(As though my having the beer isn’t bizarre enough on its own, right?? 😛 )

::facepalm

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Hard Times

It can become extremely difficult to handle tough situations with grace, when our bodies and minds are suffering from a lack or excess of any kind, be it too little nourishing food and too much junk, or too little sleep or too much lazing, too much negative talk and too little kindness and generosity… Life just is harder when we don’t take true care of our bodies and our minds.

And it is a circle of positive feedback – the more we give ourselves the lacks and the excesses, the harder things become.

It is certainly time for me to take a stand and start caring for myself fully again. I cannot care for another or others to any degree truly, if I have not taken care of myself first. If I am not at my best, it will be immensely harder to help others be at theirs.

God, grant me the courage and the certainty that I am worth the efforts of caring for myself fully. Please, that I may do your will wholly. In your name, I pray. Amen.

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Text messages

We were going to a vehicle meet-up tonight, right? On the way home from the gym, I pass this Italian-named mechanic shop and see a gathering of Porches, mostly 911s. My man is meeting his family to play golf at his brother’s somewhat snooty golf club, in celebration of my man’s birthday. So, I send my man a message and tell him there’s a Porsche meet-up at the mechanic place. He replies, ‘Might say the same thing out here at my brother’s club with just the members’ cars.’ 😛

Great start to the day, being silly and all. But it gets better.

As I’m arriving to his house this afternoon, after golf for him and work for me, I receive these messages:

Oh, the joys of Siri and Auto-correct… 😛

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Belly…

And sometimes you have three cones of soft serve with dinner… each, of course: two as an appetizer and one as dessert on the way out.

Ah, the blessings of Mexican restaurants with self-serve soft serve… the fact that it is by the door still cracks me up. We actually went one evening just to see if we could have some soft serve. My man went inside to ask if he could buy the soft serve. He didn’t quite manage the question, but he still ended up with permission to take some ice cream for us both, even though we weren’t dining, and so was just waiting in the car! Score, for sure!

So, having three cones tonight was another bonding event for the both of us. I feel best eating paleo, yet, here we were, scarfing down ice cream on cones and chips with salsa and chile con queso… some Friday nights, it seems, just call for Mexican food and ice cream, it seems.

Afterward, as we walked to the car, eating our third cones, we detoured to the stadium across the way, because there was a game happening. We ended up getting a perfect picture of me with the stadium’s scoreboard, which happens to have my family name on it in big letters (though I’ve no idea why). We’d gone by on the bikes one day, but couldn’t get inside the fence without breaking laws. Tonight, however, the freshman or JV football game inside was free of charge to attend, and you got to walk on the track (only way for visitors to get to the other side) on the scoreboard side(!). Thus the awesome photo! Yippee!

Also, my man, naturally, spilled some ice cream on the bottom hem of his shorts while walking to the stadium. Good thing I grabbed napkins on the way out (specifically with him in mind, mind you)! But, when we were waiting for a play to end, so we wouldn’t be so ridiculously obvious taking photos by the field – keep in mind that we already stood out, our being the only white people in a stadium of mostly black and some Hispanic people – I started helping him identify spills and cleans himself up. Fortunately, the only one on his clothes was the shorts hem spill. It was a small drop. So, I figured a little moisture could go a long way to help out the chocolate spill on the khaki shorts.

However, let’s think about this for a second. We’re standing under the edge of the bleachers, down at the far end where no one is sitting anyway. I lean down and suck on the hem of his shorts a few seconds… meaning that I have my head down quite near his groin, though actually well below it… how bad does that look from a distance?!?!?! So it goes, I suppose… w broth cracked up as we both realized it at about the same time, and I said it allowed. 😛

Anyway… it was a great time, and it, surprisingly, wasn’t too hot. I even had on long sleeves still, and a scarf, from the restaurant. Very decent weather tonight.

Thank you, God, for such a lovely and silly evening and night. Help us to sleep well, please, that we have the energy and attitudes to pursue your will and share your love tomorrow. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Just try it!

“Can we use this one now?”

“Yeah, sure… No WONder I couldn’t find yours. You’ve been using mine!”

“Hehehehe.”

“Mmhmm…. Well, that black one is in there already.”

“Huh? Where?”

“Where I always keep mine…”

“This stuff?!”

[…]

“Try it.”

“Uh-uh.”

“Just try it.”

“Nope.”

“Try it at least once. Just do it tonight.”

“… Too late.”

“Ugh!”

Now, would anyone have guessed this was a conversation about charcoal tooth powder? (Think toothpaste, but in powder form.) We have the greatest conversations sometimes, my man and I… 😛

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Birthday

Today went well, I think. I gave my man his awesome birthday present I had made for rhim, as well as the awesome miniature pancake layer cake (paleo pancakes layered with Nutella and fresh bacon crumbles) I had made. I cooked a filling breakfast, and it was paleo, then headed in to school. Taught classes and did grading. Fast forward to the end of the school day? And so got to go home early by a bit and nap briefly before my mom showed up to decorate.

My man was on a call, so we had everything mostly set up but he time he came out of his office and phone call.

We ate cupcakes and played with a styrofoam airplane, then he and my mom and I went to Topgolf. My mom and so had never been. I think we all had a good time, though. It was fun. Especially considering I’ve had a real lesson, and so could hit the balls somewhat decently every time.

That you, God, for this day, and thank you for this amazing man with whom I get the honor of spending my life. I love you both. In the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Tuesday

You know, I think I might end up really liking this golf thing. Not sure I’ll love playing golf, but I think I might always enjoy going to the driving range and just hitting golf balls. We had a parent night at school tonight, so we had to be at school for roughly 5:30-8:15pm. Therefore, since I didn’t work out today anyway, and couldn’t unless I’d done the morning, due to timing, I went to the driving range for an hour and hit balls.

And I had a great time.

When I got there, I asked a nice older man about the number of balls for each size of the buckets – we had to pick between M, L, and XL, I believe, but with no numbers or estimates listed for each size. He asked me how many I wanted. I said that I wasn’t sure, but that I only could stay an hour, and I only just had my first lesson the other day, so maybe around 50 would be plenty. As I was saying this, he scanned a fob and selected the XL button, telling me that XL would fill the buckets all the way. He asked with whom I had had my lesson. I told him. He said the guy was a great guy. Typical older man talk style, if you know what I mean. It was cute.

As the balls slowly filled his little bucket basket, he grabbed another bucket and swapped it with the one that had already started filling. “Well, you can just share with me. You can have some of these,” he said.

I asked for confirmation, he gave it, and I thanked him. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I’m a volunteer. Don’t worry about it.’ I thanked him some more, and we both went our separate ways, he back to a cart and I over to the driving range.

I went to the upper level, and poured out the balls. He’s given me 63 balls! Pretty good guesstimate for that 50 I’d mentioned! Anyway, I had a blast hitting them. I tend to be quite consistent, but I don’t know how to fix certain things yet. And that’s okay. I need to stay low with this all, so I don’t overwhelm myself. Baby steps and only casual ones at that. Low intensity progress here, please.

Roughly the first 40 balls went great. Nine out of ten were decent hits, and three to four of those nine were good, straight or almost-straight-forward hits that went far. After about 40 balls, however, I noticed I was tired. My hands started to hurt. I started having decent balls only about half the time, with maybe only one or no straight and far hits per ten swings. So, today I confirmed that I am consistent in any given day and that I can only comfortably handle about 40 swings/balls right now. Good information.

I also videoed myself and saw that I was hunching my shoulders. Once I fixed that, the hits were much better.

Anyway… yeah… golf…(!!!) And I even get to look the part in all these cute tennis-type skirts I now have. Next step is to be able to perform well every time in those adorable outfits – to look the part and to play it.

Thank you, God and my man, for this blessing. And thank you, God, for golf and for my man. In your name I pray. Amen.

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P.S. When this is posted, it will be my man’s birthday! Happy, Happy Birthday, Love. May God fill you with gratitude, confidence, and love this year. Amen.

Habits

It’s always funny to see what people’s habits are in life, what things they pursue for their own enrichment and enjoyment, for no reason other than that they want to pursue it. For me, right now, I have a quite ridiculous streak on Duolingo (streak meaning that I have done it every day for that many days). I had used it for years without consistency on the whole ‘every day’ thing. Yet, here I am, looking like a weirdo and dork with my streak. I’m not one of the ones who does loads of lessons and gets thousands of points in lessons every month. No, not I. I just have kept up the habit.O

Nerd… oh, well…

Today was actually 801, for anyone counting ;P

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A day for rest

I think I am finally remembering why I avoided scheduling and agreeing to things on Sundays, why I wouldn’t work Sundays at the shop. You see, by Sunday, I am worn down, sometimes immensely. I truly think that I need Sundays as a day of rest for me in my life. Yes, it lines up well with Church and the sabbath and all, but it really seems like I just end up sick and stressed and feeling inevitably behind and nearly overwhelmed with everything else in life, when I just keep going over the weekend. However, when I take a Sunday like a rainy day restful day, not really going anywhere but Church, and just hanging around at home, maybe doing household chores, if they’re needed and if I have the energy (though, folding clothes is usually quite meditative for me). I think I need to move back to that.

I considered doing it today. But it felt like a wasteful idea, to lie on the sofa and watch a movies or series and, maybe, doze… I think, however, that it is more beneficial to me and to the week at large if I actually do laze around on Sunday afternoons, truly giving myself space to do nothing for a little while. From that, I am able to go to sleep early, and wake up actually refreshed on Monday morning.

I certainly wish that were the case right now… alas, I know how to handle things going forward!

Post-a-day 2022