Just the little things that make me terribly happy.

What makes you terribly happy?

1. A good laugh with my grandma.
2. Tacos.
3. Celebrating birthdays.
4. Being afraid to stick my leg off the side of my bed, because it's for sure going to get eaten.
5. The sound of a perfect high five.
6. When Siren plays with my hair.
7. Seeing my favorite four little people.
8. Sister runs...NOT being left in the dust.
9. An insanely good stretch.
10. When a person genuinely asks how your day was.
11. Vanilla sleepy time tea.
12. Viva La Juicy.
13. Wishing on an eyelash.
14. Daily reminders that I have a beautiful life.
15. The feeling of my freshly clean shaved legs rubbing against my sheets.

Letters.

Dear disgusting bug,
You are more than 100% unwelcome. Please go away already!

Dear orange juice, tea, airborne, and more tea,
Please make me feel better.

Dear weekend and Monday,
You were insanely rough, but incredibly productive!!

Dear school,
You're half over!! Yes!!

 Dear PMS,
You are 100% un-enjoyable. In fact, you make life itself for almost two weeks miserable.

Dear weather,
Please knock it off. Stick to a season. Summer...you had your chance, now GO away.

Dear Candace,
Quit making pumpkin bread...thanks.

Dear pumpkin spice coffee creamer,
I get out of bed for you.

Dear Siren,
You're unbelievably adorable when you are hidden in the window by my blinds, but I can hear your making kitten noises and flicking your tail all around.
 

Matthew Wade Woodson Mann

Today is my baby brothers birthday.

I remember when he finally got to come home from the hospital (he had to stay there a month after he was born, because he was a preemie.)

I remember when I knocked his arm out of his socket when he was two.

I remember how when he was still in a car seat, he would bust up laughing when cars went by his open window.

 I remember being the only one who could make him belly laugh when was a baby. 

I remember he laughed at me when I broke my foot and I was mad...(I also remember him stubbing his toe so bad last night on my door frame, and I got to laugh at him..I guess we're even.) 

I love and know that he is selfish, sensitive, kind, smart, thoughtful, handsome, lazy, and a total manN. I also know that we butt heads a lot...I really just don't get the whole 15 year old boy things ;) but I know that I love him with all my heart and I wouldn't trade him for any brother in the world! 

You may not know.

That eating an apple or peanut butter toast can make me happy for hours.
That fall is my favorite season because I'm still excited about my summer, and stoked that winter is next.
That I could probably spend all day tucked in my covers snuggling my kitten...if she would let me.
That I've struggled all my life with excepting who I am and thinking I'm beautiful,  inside and out, and horrid blog comments don't help.
That I like Crocs...go ahead and judge me.
That the rain, thunder, and lightning puts me in the best mood I could possibly ever be in.
That I have major test anxiety and struggle with exams no matter how much I've studied...so when I get a good grade, it's a big deal.
That I have an irrational fear of explosives, and being rear ended.
That putting in the last piece of a puzzle is probably my favorite ever...
That when my bangs actually cooperate with me...I have a happy heart.

xxo.

Tuesday thoughts.

The potter and the clay.

I know this a whole lot cliche and this example may get used a lot...but I finally really understand it.

This semester I am taking a ceramics art history class to fulfill my art requirements.
It's three and a half hours long, goes right through lunch, and has dried out my hands to the point of cracking and bleeding. It's not very fun, and no one is remotely friendly at all...what I thought would be my most fun, and easiest class this semester, has turned out to be the longest, most boring, hungriest, frustrating class I've ever taken. For a few weeks, we've been doing a lot of wheel work, rather than pinch pots or coil pots, or any other project.

Trying to make something on the wheel is literally the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. First, you actually have to try and mesh your clay to the wheel plate. If not, then your clay goes flying off the second you start to spin it...(absolutely 100% embarrassing!) Then, you have to center your clay. What? Honestly, I don't think I've ever used my arm muscles this intensely before. It can take more then twenty minutes, bent over the wheel, elbows on your knees (kind of how batman rides his bat-motorcycle...in fact, maybe I pretend I'm batman on that motorcycle to make the time go a little faster), trying to get your clay in the right spot with no air bubbles, and mashing it down, and squeezing it back up again...it's not fun. Keeping it wet because it can't get too dry, molding it, creating "a foot"...it's all very specific and takes a whole lot of time and effort.

However, I finally literally understand the potter and the clay references when it comes to God and his children. God is at his wheel daily, and I, specifically my heart and spirit, are his uncooperative, stubborn, and annoying clay. Despite how stubborn I actually am, He likes to be the potter. He likes molding my heart to be like His! He is working on my heart every second of every day. Shaping me, and whispering subtle reminders  for me to be like Him, and not to trust anyone else with the shaping of my heart. I'm guessing it's a tough job, because sometimes I have a really tough heart. He probably doesn't find it easy to center it(maybe He pretends He's batman too), or to keep it soft enough to work with...but I try to do my best to work with Him, and let Him guide me to be who He has intended me to be all along. 

Isaiah 64:8 - But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand..