30 days of thanks x4 {quiet time, random dance parties, crock-posts & ibuprofen}

Hey y'all,

So I have been lacking on the postings this week but my job has had me running all over with UNC registration for the spring semester. To make it up here are all the things I have been thankful for the past four days:

quiet time. One thing I love about my job is that I get there in the mornings before the office is officially open so I am able to spend some time getting ready for the day and I try to read a devotional online. I am currently reading through Good Morning Girls' Thanksgiving series as well as She Read's Truth series on the Women of the Bible that came out a while ago. You can find both on Youversion so if you have 15 mins in the morning or during a lunch break I highly recommend devoting that time to the Lord. 

crock-pots. As a girl that loves to cook it is weird to write that my slow-cooker is something I am thankful but there are always those nights when you actually want to come home and do nothing, well those nights I am thankful for meal planning and my crock-pot. I mean some days you want to hit the gym after work and not eat at 7pm or later. This weekend I tried this healthy chicken stroganoff recipe and I recommend it! It was perfect for a night where I left work, ran home, then was off to a choir concert at church. With only four ingredients (plus noodles) I have made 5+ meals for this week with all the leftovers after one day of a crock-pot cooking for work. 

random dance parties. Tonight my roommate and I were talking about motivation to work out and she pulled up her playlist from when she was really determined and diligent to a workout regimen and we then had a mini dance party to Cher Lloyd's "Want you back" and One Direction's "You don't know you're beautiful." Yep, my roomie is great and who doesn't love dance parties in your living room. What is your motivation to workout/lose weight?

ibuprofen. I had the worst headache/migraine thing this afternoon. I don't get headaches often and when I do they tend to be terrible so I sleep them off. Most medicines don't really change it so it sucks but such is my head. However, after taking a bubble bath to relax, taking my allergy pill, and sitting in a dark room for over an hour nothing had changed but ibuprofen when was taken helped tremendously and so I was able to feel better and have a small dinner at 9pm. YAY for no more headaches.

What are you thankful for?

Summer Study....

Hey y'all,

This summer has been filled with a lot of spiritual growth. My church has just finished their series called "First Love" that was filled with discussion of relationships looking through Ephesians 5:21-32 and we began a series called "Something Better" focusing on the fact that God is the only true and real God. We have been focusing on 1 Kings 17 so far and I am loving the reassurance the series brings.

Along with growth in the church, I am beginning a new 8-week study through the blog Good Morning Girls using the book Anything: The Prayer that Unlocked My God and My Soul by Jennie Allen. GMG is similar to She Read's Truth, another online community for bible studies but it has more of a structure to it rather than just daily blog posts which I love.The book is described on GoodReads as:

Safe. Comfortable. Happy. 
Words we all love. Feelings we want. Even crave. We may love God, but being that he's invisible, words like "comfortable" seem to feel better faster. 
We are all chasing something. Our hearts were made to run hard and fast after things that move us. But as a generation we are all beginning to stir and wake up, identifying that these words don't satisfy for long, especially when compared to God. If God is real, and we are going to live with Him forever, shouldn't He be everything? 
Caught in this familiar haze of worldly happiness and empty pursuits, Jennie Allen and her husband Zac prayed a courageous prayer of abandonment that took them on an adventure God had written for them. 
"God, we will do anything. " "Anything"

I just started the study and I am a week behind the start date but upon opening the book and reading the audacious prayer of "anything" I felt at peace. My Sunday School kids were told to pray bold prayers a few weeks ago while we were going over Joshua's prayer to have the sun stand still (Joshua 10) and it prompted a reflection on the fact that we often pray for small miracles when we can truly pray to God for anything and will be willing to do anything for Him.

So here is the schedule of readings in the bible for week one as well as the verse for the week.

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Jessica at Proverbs Living wrote a wonderful post of tips on organizing your GMG studies and I am in love with her blog after just finding it this morning.

 Are you going to follow along with the GMG study this summer?