Wrecking Havoc

Story time! For months I've been eying Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith every time I walk through the books at Target, thinking to myself, "Self, that looks like fun. You should get one." Then, during this last quarter (possibly the one before it), one of my very dear friends pulled one out of her backpack while excitement dripped from every essence of her being, further perpetuating my notion of fun. Then finally, yesterday, I found myself in Target's books, and I bought one.

For those of you who may not know what Wreck This Journal is, it's a book with a different instruction on each page with the intent to ruin this bound volume. Some of the suggestions include things like ripping out pages and folding them into a paper airplane, or spilling your coffee all over it, or coloring/drawing lines, or making a general mess of things.

I have a problem with liking things beautiful and pristine. I buy notebooks and don't write in them because I don't want to ruin them. But here I have something tangible, telling me to ruin it. It really goes against my nature, but I'm reminding myself that is the PURPOSE of this book. Of course, there are some instructions that I don't think are good ideas at all (licking a page with a candy stained tongue or using a page as a napkin just seems like a recipe for ants...and I overreact to swarms of ants in my room*), so we'll see how I deal with those. But in the meantime, it's liberating to have something that I can exact the inevitable messiness of life upon.

I Peter 5:10 ESV
"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you."

*In the summer of 2011, I had a package of DumDum lollipops on my desk leftover from Halloween that was found by a massive swarm of ants. They were all over my desk, my computer, the wall, etc. I panicked, and ended up spraying down that whole corner of my room with Raid, I threw away bags and bags of unnecessary "stuff" that lived in my room (major declutter process), and for good measure, I repainted my whole room and reorganized all my furniture. And I love the result. (Seriously, my room is awesome and vibrant now). But to say it was an overreaction is an understatement...

Refreshing Freshness

This morning I was wasting my life away enjoying some Pinterest time, and I was inspired to do something creative. However, since I'm not at home, I'm not near my sewing machine, scrapbooks, smash books, my room, or anything else that I can revamp. That left me with one other outlet: here. So I took a leaf out of Clarissa's book and played around with settings and new websites and such, and well, this is what I came up with. It's vibrant and orange and obnoxious and I am rather fond of it all. Sometimes you just need a little freshness in your life.

I also realize that I haven't posted anything since finishing school. Sorry. I was recovering. Anywho, I've returned to the Midwest for the summer and let me tell you this is a whole different ballgame than it was last year. Last year, my brother was working a crazy schedule, my sister-in-law was out of town most of the summer training for a new job, and I spent the beautiful summer days sitting on the couch watching Netflix and reading books. This year both Kyhl and Charity are here, and working normal, daytime hours. I also was blessed to find a job in a grocery store near the apartment.  God has heaped blessings on me this summer, y'all. I feel refreshed, in more than just the I'm-in-a-new-environment sort of way.


My soul feels refreshed. This summer has been significantly more stormy than the one I experienced last summer, and I don't do well with storms. I can barely handle thunder and lightning, but when you add the possibility of tornadoes I become a hyperventilating puddle of uselessness. But through these storms, I've been reminded that my God is bigger than it all. He is bigger than the storms of life, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual. And that is comforting to my terrified soul indeed.

Hebrews 1:3a ESV
"[The Son] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power..."