Napkin Note 03.31.2015

Napkin Note 03.30.2015

Napkin Note 03.27.2015

Napkin Note 03.26.2015

The Proof of Your Love

Where I grew up, you could only tune in to one Christian radio station (two if you were lucky and in the right part of town, during perfect weather), and sometimes even that one was fuzzy, depending on where you were. Since I've moved up to Athens, I've been in complete awe of just how many Christian radio stations I can tune in to (I think I've counted at least five, and those are just the "Contemporary Christian" stations). My three go-to stations so far have been The Fish (out of Atlanta), Great 88, and K-Love. They've opened the doors to so many new music options (okay, like I couldn't already get that through Pandora or Spotify), but more than that, they always have words of encouragement. 

On my way to work this morning, I got a little bit of both. I heard For King & Country's "The Proof of Your Love," which I feel like I've heard countless times, but the version played on K-Love seems to be a little different than the other "radio edits" that I've heard.

Towards the end of the song, there's a fantastic quote about how unfulfilled our lives are without love, and it weighed heavily on my mind during the rest of my drive. As soon as I got to school, I quickly tried to do a little research on the quote (before I had to rush off to my morning hall duty). As it turns out, it's not a random quote from some profound pastor, speaker, or historical figure (as I was assuming it was). It's a translation of scripture. It's not really exactly like the version I've read and heard before, but nonetheless, I found the words to be pretty profound. It's "The Message" version of I Corinthians 13:1-4, and I think it's absolutely beautiful. 

Napkin Note 03.25.2015

Napkin Note 03.24.2015

Watching His Plans Unfold and Trusting His Perfect Will

For the past several months, anytime someone asked me about my plans after graduation, I would tell them that I planned to substitute teach for a semester and then would hopefully have a graduate assistant position within the housing program at the university I planned to attend for grad school, so that would be my job for the next two years before I actually pursued getting my own classroom. 

That's all changed lately.

I had my interview for the position several weeks ago, and I was supposed to hear back about it within the week and half or so following the interview. That time passed . . . then two weeks passed . . . then three. I was beginning to become a little concerned, but a friend that had previously worked in the department assured me they had been busy with conferences and interviews for professional staff and that I shouldn't worry. The decision had probably been pushed to the back-burner for a little while. No problem. I could wait a little while longer.

So I thought.

Just when I was truly beginning to reassure myself that, "Everything would happen as it needed to, in its own time," and that "God had a hold on everything," and "I may not know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future," and so forth--anything to calm my heart that was becoming overwhelmed by my "futuristic," always-planning self (thanks, StrengthsQuest, for re-affirming that "strength" . . . )--I got a Facebook message. 

The family that I was a nanny for last summer was beginning to look for a nanny for this upcoming summer, and they wanted to see if I would be interested. Of course I was interested! I had a blast with my sweet friend last summer, and would do anything to have another summer of play and adventures with her! There was only one problem: if I did get the graduate assistant position, my training would begin during the summer, possibly ruining my chance of being a nanny. This waiting game was beginning to affect a lot. Luckily, the mom that I was in contact with is one of the kindest, most understanding, supportive people you'll ever meet, and she assured me that they could wait on me a little while, until I got some more information, so that's exactly what I intended to do.

After e-mailing a contact in the department, I learned that I was not a first choice for a position, and that the top-picks had already been contacted. These candidates were given a while to respond with a "yes" or "no," and then the department would notify the next alternate if a position was still available. This was helpful, but as new things were beginning to pop up (such as our apartment complex wanting a contract renewal by the end of the month, while I wouldn't hear about this on-campus position until the middle of next month), I began to need more answers. After a couple more e-mails, I learned that the majority of the positions had been filled, and the department was only waiting on responses from two candidates, so, in a nutshell, I was beginning to feel like my chances of getting a position were pretty slim. However, I did also learn that if I were to get the position, my training wouldn't begin until close to the end of July. This little tidbit of information would prove extremely useful in my next conversation with the mom I want to nanny for this summer.

As soon as I got home that night, I shot back a Facebook message with an update on the graduate assistant position. The training would be no problem! Other arrangements could be made for the training dates if I were to get the graduate assistant position, and I was offered the nanny position again. Of course, I gladly accepted it! I now at least have a summer job lined up, but, being the "futuristic" person that I am, I'm already thinking about the next school year, too (as I should be). 

According to one of the teachers I've been working with, some schools are already starting to interview for next school year! *WHAT?! HOLY GOODNESS!! I HAVEN'T EVEN APPLIED!!* This made me super nervous, especially when a search for jobs in the area lacked postings. So, Friday afternoon, I pushed myself to go talk to the principal at the school I've been substituting at for the past few months. As it turns out, she will hopefully have some positions available next school year, and she assured me that I shouldn't worry, as they haven't posted anything yet. She can't promise anything, but she told me that she would keep me up-to-date on the timeline for applying! This was a huge relief! Although I'm pretty much back to square-one with applying for and seeking out positions, I was at least happy to know that there is potential in a familiar environment. 

Although I can't exactly see what my future holds right now--I'm not even sure I'll start grad work right away without that assistantship, or if I'll even attend the same school I had my heart set on--I'm learning more and more not to worry. I tend to be a worry-wart about many things, but God has shown me on countless occasions that things don't always go the way I plan or the way I think I would like them to--because He always has something better waiting up ahead, even when I can't always see it. It's hard not to worry about what I'll be doing four or five months from now, especially when so many other decisions are contingent upon what position I'll be in, but I know that I need to stop worrying. My God is Jehovah-Jireh, and He will always provide. Things will fall into place the way He sees fit. (Maybe I need to get Matthew 6:34 stamped across my forehead as a constant reminder to stop worrying about the future.) His will is always better than my plan, and I need to trust Him more. (<--Prayers on that front, please!)

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Say a little prayer. It'll all be okay. 

Napkin Note 03.23.2015

Napkin Note 03.20.2015

Napkin Note 03.19.2015

Napkin Note 03.18.2015

The Paper Anniversary

A year ago this past Sunday,  I was blessed enough to marry my best friend. The past year has taught me many things (but that's another post: "What I Learned in Our First Year of Marriage") and has been absolutely wonderful. It's so hard to believe that we're already embarking on the second year of our lifelong journey together! We certainly kicked off the year with a great bang by celebrating our anniversary together, starting early in the morning and ending later that night (not too late . . . we're old people at heart). 

To start the day, I got up before Hubby to start getting ready for church and make banana pancakes. They're super simple, and we already had everything on hand! Thanks to Pinterest, the recipe was easy to find! (Find it here: Three-Ingredient Banana Pancakes). Hubby and I both loved them!

While I finished getting ready, Hubby presented me with an invitation:

So, after taking communion with each other at church (such a cool way to start our second year together), we did some quick grocery shopping to prep for the picnic, then headed home to get ready to go. Before we left, I begged Geoff to let us go ahead and exchange gifts. I had been working on his all week and was really excited to give it to him (plus I have the worst poker face and couldn't keep his gift a secret any longer than I had to). I made him a deck of cards with "52 Reasons I'm Blessed to be Your Wife" written on them, an idea I found via Pinterest (of course): 52 Things I Love About You. I did mine a little differently by handwriting each one (instead of formatting them on the computer and printing) and gluing them to the face of each card instead of the back. I think they turned out pretty well, and he really seemed to love them! 

After exchanging gifts, we headed out for Tallulah Gorge State Park. It only took a little over an hour to get there, and the weather was perfect for all that we had planned! We found a nice patio by the Interpretive Center to lay down our quilt and have our picnic before we headed off to explore! When I say Tallulah Gorge is beautiful . . . y'all, I don't know that I've ever seen something so breathtakingly beautiful in my life. We literally had to stop and perch on a giant rock for a while just to take it all in (okay, and partially because I needed to take a break; there are a million stairs on those trails)! We had such a great time walking around, talking, and taking in the views!

Hanging out on the bridge

Down at the basin

Our favorite perch for the day, a giant rock close to the top

Taking it all in

In front of one of the falls

Going down the stairs wasn't bad; I was okay to smile.

Seriously, stairs for days.

After that, we headed home (taking a quick detour to stop by an outlet mall we discovered on the way home--it's seriously 30 minutes away from where we live; how did we not know about it?), did some prep-work to get ready for the week, and curled up to watch the newest Walking Dead. (I HATED that show the first time he made me watch it; then I went back to the beginning and got hooked. It's a "guilty pleasure.") 



It wouldn't be the first wedding anniversary without cake though . . . BUT we forgot to get our wedding cake from my parents' house last time we visited, so we had to improvise with some little store-bought molten lava cakes. I'm not complaining; those suckers were delicious, so delicious that Hubby threatened to eat mine if I didn't get to it first, and he's NOT a "sweets person" (which Queen Sweet Tooth here is still trying to wrap her mind around). 

Our first anniversary was so wonderful, just like our first year of marriage! I'm so blessed to have spent this time with the love of my life, and I'm looking forward to the many years ahead!

Napkin Note 03.17.2015

Napkin Note 03.16.2015

What I Learned in Our First Year of Marriage

Over the past year, and even some before our wedding day, I've been told a couple of different things about the first year of marriage. It's mostly the "honeymoon" phase, full of bliss . . . or it's the hardest year of marriage. I'm not really sure which one was more true for our first year, and I suppose only time will tell for the latter, but while our first year was full of many ups an downs, I learned a lot (and am continuing to learn even more) that I can apply to our upcoming years. All I know is that our first year of marriage has been one of the happiest of my life, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for us, especially if this was the "hardest." 

During our first year of marriage, I learned . . . 

-How to be a better friend

-How to be more patient (this is something I'm still working on, heaven help me)

-How to share space

-How to have "me time" in said shared space

-How to truly love our circumstances, ugly bathroom wallpaper and all, and do my best to make our place a home, welcoming enough for peace and rest (thanks to The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith)

-How to put the toilet paper on the "right" way

-How to be more domestic--cleaning, baking, helping our household (partially thanks to My So-Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife by Sara Horn)

-How to be more submissive (also thanks to a Sara Horn book, My So-Called Life as a Submissive Wife)

-How to trust more than I ever have before

-How to be kinder

-How to support my husband in all things that he does

-How to pray for my marriage more than I talk about it

-How to pray for my husband

-How to truly appreciate my husband and all that he does for us

-How to seek wise counsel from unbiased counselors

-How to stop comparing our marriage to others' (just because others are buying houses, having babies, or taking trips, doesn't mean we need to right now; that will all come in God's perfect time)

-How to actually plan meals (it's not really a big part of single life, but this man's gotta eat!)

-How to truly put others first

-How to take better care of myself (Hubby is helping me with this big time, even if I'm not always so willing)

-How to budget better and be more spending conscious

-How to make better decisions, especially when they'll affect both of us (thanks to The Best Yes by Lysa Terkeurst)

-That date night doesn't have to be fancy--sometimes the best date nights involve a homemade dinner and snuggling up on the couch while watching Netflix

-The importance of relying on family and friends

-How to make our marriage reflect what God designed it as, more so than what modern society has tried to make it (thanks to The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller)

-How to do laundry more often (sweaty guys go through clothes a lot quicker than girls do)

-How to fold and organize laundry the "right" way

-How to truly let my guard down and love better (thanks to a book by Sheila Wray Gregoire)

-How to let God's Word flow into our marriage and become the focus of all that we do (as best we can; we're all sinners)

-How to work as a team, serving as each other's helpmeets

-How to schedule with and around each other

-How to be more flexible

-Never to go to bed angry

-Wives must be loved, and husbands must be respected

-That marriage is hard work. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it's worth it. I would fight for my marriage all day every day if need be, because I'm more in love with my husband than I ever have been before, and I can't wait to see where this wonderful journey takes us. 

I've learned these things and so much more, but I know that I'll only continue to learn as we continue to press on through our marriage. I'm looking forward to what year two brings for us: the ups, the downs, the good times, the bad, and all of the lessons that come with everything. To make this wonderful blessing of a marriage work, it'll all be worth it. 

Napkin Note 03.13.2015

My First Time ACTUALLY Baking

I came to a sad realization yesterday. I mean a sad, sad, SAD realization, that I only made when two of the other wives from our Life Group came over to bake with me and asked me what I'd baked in the past. 

• Bread. 
• Box mixes. (I mean some delicious cakes, brownies, cupcakes, cookies, etc., but it was only with the help of my good friends Crocker, Hines, and Pillsbury.) 

That's it. I, a twenty-two-year-old newlywed woman from southeast Georgia could not think of one single thing that I had actually baked from scratch (other than the yummy loaves of bread I made last summer, thanks to recipes from my sweet mother-in-law). SAD (and pretty embarrassing)! 

Now, I promise my husband doesn't go around starving. I do cook and like to try new recipes, but I'd much rather bake . . . I've just been cheating this whole time! Luckily, these sweet ladies are saving me and teaching me their recipe-finding, ingredient-grabbing, measuring, knowing-the-difference-between-sifting, stirring, combining, and mixing ways. 

The first recipe we tried was a fudge recipe that was handed down to one of my friends. Sorry, y'all. I've been sworn to secrecy. You can ooo and ahh over the results below though! & yes, it's as delicious as it looks (which is good because Hubby didn't tell me until last night that his office was having a potluck today; guess what he took in)!

While that was setting, we whipped up a batch of The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Joy the Baker (who I'm now in love with, by the way). We left out the walnuts and substituted the dark/milk chocolate chips for white chocolate chips, which still tasted amazing. My favorite part? The smell of the brown butter. Y'all, have you ever made brown butter? I obviously hadn't before yesterday, but I'm pretty sure that's what Heaven will smell like. It immediately took me back to Savannah, walking through places like River Street Sweets. Mmm!

Needless to say, I loved baking with the girls, even if there were "too many butts" in our tiny little kitchen. I hope to continue learning even more from these sweet friends! I believe the next item of business is pie crust--and I can't wait!

Napkin Note 03.12.2015

Napkin Note 03.11.2015

New Beginnings & New Blessings

Last summer, I moved three and a half hours away from everything and nearly everyone I knew. It was okay, because it was temporary. I was only in Athens for the summer, and then I would get back to my comfort zone in Statesboro. {Statesboro: home to the most wonderful university in all the land; a place where many friends and memories were made; a place where I got to do life with some of the most beautiful girls you'll ever meet, while being led by the most godly woman you'll ever meet *shout out to the Best Connect Group Ever;* a place where I learned many things both in and out of the classroom; most importantly, a place where my family was only a phone call away (Seriously, y'all. I once called Mama Kelli crying about something, and she was at my doorstep within an hour just to cheer me up and spend time with me WHILE I WAS AT WORK. Also, Daddy was able to go to football games and campus events with me, and I was able to squeeze my little brothers and sister with huge bear hugs a lot more often)}.  Please don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my husband with everything I have, and I am more than thrilled to be on this new journey with him, but moving away from all of my friends and family was not exactly easy the first time, and it was even harder the second time I did it this past December, because it was more "permanent." Now, it was time to actually find my niche in Athens, rather than calling it my home away from home for a couple of months. I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but it's hard to make new friends after college. Sure, I talk to teachers at work (I'm currently subbing in our local school system), but it's always very surface level, co-workery, school-related stuff. I'll chat with neighbors in passing, but I tend to lay low so I don't come across as a creepy-over-bearing freak of a neighbor. Other than the sweet companionship of my hubby, the friendship department has been running kind of dry, and I'm a firm believer in having some good girl friends that you can talk to and hang out with whenever you need to, so that's not really my ideal situation.

That all changed recently.

A few weeks ago, Hubby and I joined a nearly/newlywed Life Group through our church. I'll be completely honest, at first, I was hesitant ('cause that's a great way to make friends, huh?). I didn't know these people. This wasn't my old Connect Group. What if we didn't really mesh well? What if they were really different and not very accepting of me or us? What if . . . ? All what ifs went out the window within the first 15 minutes of our first real meeting as a group. We were sharing our stories, our backgrounds, our shampoos (don't judge; I learned it's a good way to get to know interesting facts about people), and most importantly (at least, for me at the time), some great laughs. Just within the past couple of weeks, I've grown to absolutely love these people. We did dinner with each other tonight, and time seriously passed within the blink of an eye because we were having such a good time carrying on about life. Tomorrow, some of the wives and I plan to get together to bake (I get to learn a super-secret fudge recipe). Those are friends, right? Yes. These are the new beginnings to some wonderful friendships at a time when I need them most. That's what I call God's timing. That's what I call a blessing.

Another blessing: I also got to meet with a sweet friend and her precious baby boy for coffee today. We met a few years ago at a New Year's Eve party and have gotten together with each other and our hubbies for dinner a couple of times, but today, we got to just sit and talk for hours (which again, passed in the blink of an eye) about how life is going, where life is heading, and about the way God is working things out for us in His perfect time. This friend's a little older than me and has a lot more experience in the marriage department, baby department (obviously; there aren't any Little Kennedy babies running around this apartment, unless you count our cat, Audrey), and in life in general. She gave me a lot of great perspectives on several different things, and we just had an overall great time catching up and playing with her little man (gosh, if I could get more of those sweet smiles and snuggles). Our friendship may have technically begun a while ago, but today, I feel like it really took off, and I love it. 

God knew I needed some great friends to fellowship with and some great girl time, and that's exactly what He's given me. How blessed am I that He always provides in every way? This new beginning has been a little scary, and at times, a little lonely, but it's brought some wonderful blessings, and I'm so excited to continue down this path with Hubby to see where God's plan takes us. 

Napkin Note 03.10.2015

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