Drink coffee. Read books. Be happy.

Really, my daily life can be as simple or as complicated as I let it become. The reality is that, most days my mantra need only be:

I mean really, those 3 things in some capacity [most days] are about as simple as a to-do list should get.  Especially considering the books I try to read the most are all found in the Bible. "Be happy". That is one part of this list that does trip me up. "Happy" isn't always easy when mornings are too early, work days are too long, and close friends and family are too far away. So today,

Joy to me can be a foundation for feelings when "happy" just doesn't cut it.  An emotion that has solidity where happiness can be incredibly fleeting and subjective. Joy comes from a deeper place. A place where I daily seek to 

Let go. Let God. 4 words that are freeing and yet also inevitably the start of adventure that becomes my every day life [especially working full-time in ministry].  God [whether I 'let' Him or not] loves me so much that He grows my faith and works on my heart everyday. My faith growing is a daily adventure, which may seem like a funny way to think about the 24 hours in any given day [as an adventure], but I want you to take a moment and consider this:

I read all this...

An adventure to learn that

and to 

Adventure is the best way to learn that

Because, simply put, 

seriously. everyone.

But each day is never to short to

because:

So on this daily adventure of life, I try to

Lots of life.

Yikes, it was brought to my attention recently that it has been a loooooonnnnnnnggggg time since I have blogged, and quite honestly I miss it! Hopefully everyone doesn't mind a post with lots of fun pictures of life that has been happening. Here we go...

Fall Semester - a few exciting and favorite highlights:

Homecoming, we lucked out and had awesome weather, check out the blue sky behind us!

Then the Rodriguez's & the Snyder's came and spent a few days in Chicago before John & Allison left for Japan! 

(This is all of us at Harry Caray's before our bike tour of downtown Chicago)

Thanksgiving! Got to see my family and godparents and run a race with a turkey on T-day. After Thanksgiving we even got in a trip to the Creation Museum. 

Christmas!

Some highlights: Adam visiting & seeing the National Tree in DC, happening across the craziest Christmas cheer street in Baltimore, and playing lots of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit with the little boys.

Spring Semester, not finished, but here are some fun things that have happened so far:

     I hosted a bridal shower for Jordan & Kevin here in Chicago. (I had awesome helpers!)

Spring Break: Adam & I enjoyed time down south (and enjoyed tons of awesome food!)

And then most recently, last but not least, St. Patrick's Day downtown!

 Whewww. I tried to write little, since who wants to read when you can look at pictures anyways?!
More life soon + a healthy lifestyle thoughts update.


Love you all!

And, I'm back!

Whew. It's always amazing to me how quickly life can take over. As I look back on the last several weeks of mine I have been all over the place literally and figuratively. I will catch up from Easter to now and share how my eating has been in my next post.

For Easter this year I was blessed to spend the weekend with Adam and his family in Indiana - the Easter bunny even caught wind of my eating preferences and my basket was filled with dried fruit & nuts (and Vera Bradley!). Our Easter morning service was beautiful and Adam's grandparents surprised everyone by deciding to drive up from Alabama last minute to join us in celebrating the miracle of Easter!

After Easter break ended the remaining two weeks at school became almost a blur. Papers, projects, finals, meetings, work...a typical end of the semester list for any college student. On top of normal school stuff, Adam and I and two other friends from school - Ryan & Hannah - were involved in planning a 1 day community service event in the Chicago area that would be taking place May 7th (the day after our semester ended).We also were asked to be co-coordinators for a ministry program at our school this upcoming year and needed to begin immediate planning for that, mainly focusing on getting leaders applied & interviewed before we all left for the semester. Needless to say it was a very busy end of a semester but God continues to bless my life in new ways every day through all of the amazing opportunities he places in it!

Adam and I succeeded in interviewing all of our leader applicants (we did anywhere between 5-10 interviews a day for a week) and are incredibly excited to see how God will shape our ministry in the upcoming year.

The 1 day service event we were involved with was also a fantastic day and great way to end a semester. We helped plan 1ByYouth Chicago which saw over 600 youth spend the day in a Chicago neighborhood serving the residents through cleaning, picking up garbage, painting, and small home repair projects. For tons of pictures of the day go here.

With the completion of 1ByYouth and the semester being officially over  that meant next stop was Maryland to spend time with my family! After a brief stop at Adam's house in Indiana to drop off his school stuff, we road tripped back to my house. It is always amazing to me how much taller all of my brothers always are every time I see them! Our visit was cut a day short when we had the opportunity to go down to parts of Alabama where the recent tornadoes hit and help with disaster relief.

We packed up and headed to Indiana on Sunday and were on our way down to Gardendale, Alabama by 5am on Tuesday morning. As soon as I get the pictures uploaded to my laptop - look for a post on this as well - it was unbelievable the damage and devastation down there - but alongside of that it was also amazing how many stories we were told of God's power and love in the midst of the destruction.

I am now back up at Adam's house for a few days - as we both work to pack and finish up last minute things before flying out to our jobs for the summer on Monday.

So here we are, I will be posting shortly about how healthy eating has been through all of this and my recent trip down to Alabama!

“One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure” -William Feather