happy friday

Why is it that the weekend flies by, but the rest of the week drags on like second period history?? It's not that this week wasn't a good week, it was just long and cold. It felt like we had three Monday's in a row...so now I am eagerly welcoming the weekend and hope that next week only has one Monday.

Tonight, Alex will be mourning the loss of his fantasy football during the trophy presentation and I will be celebrating my friend Amanda's 25th birthday! She asked for a red velvet cake, so I'm going to try to perfect my recipe.

Tomorrow, we have plans for brunch with some friends and then Alex is going to a Blues game and I'm having (another) girls night.

I really enjoy our weekends and love that in the winter we don't have a lot of obligations other than what we create for ourselves. I'm looking forward to resting and getting ready for another busy week. Here are some of the links that caught my eye this week. Enjoy!

Alex and I are planning a trip to Oregon this spring, we've been using this website to help

The age old question finally has an answer

Just because I'm twenty years older than the target audience, I'm still a fan and scored very well on this quiz

This little girl is too cute and definitely shows Alex (and me) up with presidential knowledge

This is a good post about spending time alone

I have to make a lot of small talk with my job (and my personality, I don't like awkward silence) so this post was an interesting read

The mid-west, as a whole, is not ranking very well in overall well-being and happiness

Have a great weekend!

chopped

I have always had shorter hair. My mom didn't want to deal with three girls and their long hair, so we rocked the bowl cut for quite a while. Because of that I never learned how to do hair, so I've always found it easier to have short hair. 

In the summer of 2013 I was brave enough to get a pixie cut. I loved it, it was fun and so easy to take care of. But after a few months I decided it was time to grow my hair out.  Then came the awkward growing out stages, you know what I'm talking about...I looked like Justin Bieber, then Carol Brady and then slowly (finally) like myself again. 

I let it grow until it touched my shoulders. I began embracing pony tails and the ease of just tossing my hair on top of my head and calling it a day. But, because I have the attention span of a squirrel, I got tired of all the time it takes to dry and style longer hair, so I got it cut! I'm happy with how it turned out and it only took me 5 minutes to dry and style my hair this morning, so that's a win!

I want to be Peter Pan. I don't want to grow up. I don't want to be an adult with real responsibilities. But, apparently it's too late for me...if it's not too late for you: Run! Save yourself!

Lately, there has been a lot weighing on my heart and mind. Most of it is normal, adult-y life stuff, but more and more I find myself worrying and praying for the high school students in our youth group.

They are battling some pretty dark stuff that I have never had to encounter. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around what some of them have had to experience. My heart breaks for them and I just wish that they didn't have to grow up so quickly.

My prayer is that I can show them an ounce of the grace and love that Christ shows me. I know that growing up is unavoidable (insert sadness, despair, weeping and mourning), but I know that my hope and identity is in Christ and I pray that these students will find that in Him too.

image via

snow day

Today I took a snow day and took full advantage of it. I slept in, ran (on the treadmill, not in the snow), binged on Friends, baked some delicious muffins and then made a great dinner. I feel like a regular 'ole housewife!

Alex, on the other hand, scraped the car, shoveled the driveway and trudged his way to the office and worked all day. I definitely got the better end of the stick. Tomorrow we will both be going to work and resume normal activities.

Happy snow day!