7 Quick Whats!?

1. Um, what? #7QTs moved!? Clearly I have been immersed in the SEEK planning world for way to long...but here I am! I'm popping in to say hi today because I've missed you guys, and I've missed writing.


2. I haven't written since October. Which is really weird. Life has been a whirlwind of sleep, work, sleep, work, repeat for the past two months. One of those reasons is because we exceeded our goal of 8,000 attendees...the last time I checked we had about 9,400 people coming to SEEK! Can you believe it!? I definitely cannot. God is so good - none of this happened because of us.


3. In TEN DAYS I will be in Nashville. I don't know how I feel about that! Excited, weird, nervous, hopeful, and like I'm going to throw up. Fun Fact: Jen is one of our main speakers! And I get to run production during her session! It is going to be awesome.


4. One of the strangest things about this job is the timing. I'm headed home for Christmas tomorrow, but I will pretty much be working straight through SEEK. Today I'm grateful that my family is understanding of the demands of this job and that my boss lets us work remotely.


5. My brother is coming to SEEK, so that's cool. It's strange to think how significant of a part of my life planning events is, but no one in my family has ever attended one I've planned. So I'm excited for him to see what I do, but I'm more excited for him and all other 9,399 people to experience the conference.


6. I would like to shoutout to Emily, Carley, Steph, & Carol for being really good friends this week. I love you guys. Additional shoutout to Murph who I get to see in the AM for brunch.


7. I picked up this book at the store on Sunday. Because I'm, well, Crazy Busy, I have only read the first chapter. And I already recommend it. I think it's going to be just what I need.

Hop on over to, um, This Ain't The Lyceum, for more quick takes!

Best Moments from our trip to Maui

Aloha, friends! I am back from Maui quite a few shades darker (seriously, I am so tan). Hawaii was incredible. The weather was perfect (minus a minor hurricane glitch), the landscape was so beautiful that it looked fake, and the people were incredibly laid back. I don't think I've ever felt quite so disconnected from the world while on a trip before. It was a perfect nine days of just relaxing, being with family, and trying not to get too sunburnt.

Here's a quick recap of our trip, in the format of a list of bests!

Best Adventure: Biking down the side of a volcano! More details to come on this tomorrow.

Best Meal: Crab Mac & Cheese at Honu on our very last night. Oh my goshhhh. I would go back to Maui just to eat this again.

Best View:

Drinking: Iced White Mocha
Reading: The Paper Magician

Just kidding. Here's Ka'anapali Beach without anything blocking your view! That island in the distance is Molokai.

Best Sunset:

The sunset in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii

Best Loss of "What are the Odds": "What are the Odds" is a game where you challenge someone to do something. You ask them, "what are the odds you'll eat an entire pizza?" and they answer saying something like, "1 in 10." After counting to three, the challenger and the challengee say a number in that range. If they say the same number, they have to do it. If they say a different number, they do not have to complete the challenge. At the end of the beach, there's a giant black rock that juts out into the ocean. If you swim out far enough, you can climb up 20ft and jump in. Tommy is not a fan of doing things like this. Steph, Joey, & I all jumped, and we wanted Tommy to join in the fun. After making all sorts of offers (like endless baked goods, Joey being nice to him forever), Tommy lost What are the Odds and had to jump. It ended up being a great experience, and we were all glad he did it!

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Best Ocean Experience: Snorkling right next to a sea turtle off the coast of Maui! Amazing.

Best Hawaiian Moment: Either surfing, or attending the Luau! Surfing is hard, but super fun! And the Luau was a sweet way to try traditional Hawaiian foods while watching hula!

#nailedit

Best Book Read: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. This book was so enchanting, I could hardly put it down. It's the story of two opponents, competing to show who is better skilled at magic. The two main characters have been bound together their whole lives, and the story is about how they overlap and how the magic that they create is a gift to others. I highly recommend it.

image via.

Best Parents in the World: MINE. Huge shoutout to my generous parents for taking us on this trip!

Aren't they so cute!?

But the best part of the whole trip was being able to spend 9 days of carefree timelessness with my family.

Aloha, Hawaii! Can't wait to see you again.

The Practice of the Presence of God: A book review

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So, I downloaded this book way back in August, but I only got about half way through. Now after rereading it I know why. This book is incredible and every sentence requires a holy hour of meditation after you finish reading it. It's intense, yet simple. Profound, yet full of incredible common sense.

Br. Lawrence was a religious brother who lived in the 1600's. He had an incredible closeness to Jesus and was able to actively live that out every day. 

What I admire most about Br. Lawrence and this book is his profound self-awareness and dedication to his resolutions. He says over and over that he decided he would give himself wholly to God, so that's what he did. And when he lost sense of Gods presence or sinned, he simply turned his heart back to Jesus and started over. 

How beautiful this way of life is. It exemplifies everything I hope to be. I admire his will and love how simple he views the spiritual life. He understands that he is a sinner and without God he can do nothing. How often so we get mad at ourselves for failing or turning from God? I get angry about this on a weekly (daily) basis. And then I feel like I can't talk to God because I haven't behaved perfectly. But, I don't think that's what Jesus wants. I think this practice of the presence of God pleases him greatly and makes him smile. He just wants to be with us, and this practice does that in a beautiful and humble way. 

So I'm trying to take a page from Br. Lawrence and trying to consciously find Jesus with me at all times. And when I forget or mess up, I will simply ask Jesus to help me to continue on.

PS - It's free on Amazon.

Some favorite quotes:

Make immediately a holy and firm resolution never more willfully to forget Him, and to spend the rest of your days in His sacred presence.

The least little remembrance will always be acceptable to Him. You need not cry very loud; He is nearer to us than we are aware of.

That it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times.

It was nearly impossible to stop at three quotes. I think I highlighted 99% of the book.

5 Favorites: On Reading [1]

I'm a sucker for a good linkup (even though I'm out of the country and probably won't actually be able to link up), especially listy ones, so I figured I'd give this a try. I'm excited to be along for the ride this week!

So, my 24th birthday is on March 17th. My parent's gave me my present early so I could use it on vacation this week. I got a kindle and I LOVE IT. 

I used to be an avid reader, before I took AP English Jr. year of high school and Netflix, but since then my reading has dwindled. Part of cutting out TV for lent involves an increase of reading, so here are my 5 Favorites in regards to reading.

1. Okay, so my kindle makes the list. For so many reasons! It's light, it's small, it's easy to read on. You can borrow free books from amazon. When you buy something, it syncs automatically. It saves what you highlight in your books. This was the best birthday present, ever.

2.  THE LIBRARY. Guys, the library is the most underrated thing in the world. You can walk in there, pick out whatever books or magazines or movies or CDs you like, and then just TAKE THEM HOME WITH YOU! Seriously, what is this madness? Why did I ever stop going to the library? It's even better now because I can borrow ebooks and they just show up on my kindle.

3. I love young adult literature. In college, I was able to take a YA Lit class and it was seriously the best ever. So, I've been loving Katie's blog, YA Book Love. She reads books and then reviews them on her blog. Simple, straight forward, and really fun.

check out Katie's blog!

4. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this when I started, but I love audible.com. I'm currently using it at a first time users discounted rate, but it's pretty great. Basically, you pay a monthly membership fee and then based on your plan can download an audio book a month. To keep. Audiobooks are expensive, so the monthly rate allows you to save, a lot. I can't decide if I'll keep it when my three months are up, but I've loved listening to books when I'm driving, getting ready in the morning, and unpacking/cleaning my room.

BONUS: If you don't like a book you can return it for ANY REASON and get a new book. Isn't that so nice of them?

5. The Dynamic Catholic book program. I think this is one of the greatest things ever. Basically, at a very low rate (of like $2/book), you can buy awesome, well written engaging books in bulk. The parish book program is meant to give away books that will evangelize parishioners at the big Mass days (Christmas & Easter), in faith that the book will stir the hearts of the reader. I love that these Catholic authors have sacrificed large profits on their books for the sake of the kingdom.

7 Quick Takes on Anything Other than SLS14 [11]

--- 1 ---

SLS IS OVER. WHAT. HOW.

Okay, I know, I know, this post promised no SLS quick takes. That's because there will be some pretty sweet SLS posts next week. But I think one QT on SLS is fine, right!?

 I got home from Dallas Wednesday evening and took yesterday off. It's back to work today to start wrapping up. SLS went so incredibly well. I loved every second of it and I had SO MUCH FUN. Check back next week for some highlights and posts on SLS. I can't believe it's over! But I do not miss having a walkie talkie stuck in my ear.

--- 2 ---

My life these next two months is seriously CRAZY. I think I have one open weekend...I'm going to have to be intentional about seeing Colorado people and doing things here. But I am so excited to see missionaries at the Greek Getaway's, Emily when she comes to visit, KC friends at home, Nebraskans, and maybe even Jess if I get to go to Cali. Hopefully when March hits I can start to get back into a normal daily life routine.

--- 3 ---

The coolest thing ever happened to me Monday night, someone recognized me from this blog! My first thought was, "people actually read this!?" It was fun to chat. So shout out to Katie from Northwestern and thanks for reading! And thanks for saying hi!

--- 4 ---

I can't think of anything else that doesn't have to do with SLS...so enjoy this picture of the Blessed Mother.

Image via.

--- 5 ---

I am obsessed with Salvation History. So much that I am doing the Bible Timeline with my freshman girls AND basing my cirrocumuli for my kindergartners on it. Maybe I'm over ambitious with the 5 year olds...but they do a pretty good job of remembering it. So I've decided to educate myself as well and actually read Curtis Martin and Dr. Sri's The Real Story. 

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I think it will be a good start to my 2014 mantra: More Jesus, Less Stuff. Starting with the "more Jesus" part seems like a good choice to me.

--- 6 ---

Speaking of my freshmen girls, on Dec. 30 we volunteered at a homeless shelter together. I was so impressed with them and how they stepped up to help out without being asked. The best part was they had so much fun and they want to do it again every month. I hope we can do that and I hope I can find as much joy in serving as these girls do.

--- 7 ---

I bought Flannery O'Conner's prayer journal yesterday and I am so excited to read it! My friend Elizabeth and I decided to host a brunch for time with friends and to read the journal aloud together. I can't wait.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!