Hair

Remember when I cut my hair in October? I am growing it back out, and I'm trying to do it the right way. So, I've been conditioning it well, avoiding the blow dryer when I can, and getting a trim every 10-12 weeks.

Look at how long it used to be! This was taken on our honeymoon last year. I miss you, hair.

Yesterday, I came home from my trim at the salon and had this conversation with Josh. (I was really happy with how my bangs and layers looked!)

"Do you like my haircut?  You probably can't tell the difference, but I can!"
"Yeah, I can!"
"Really?!  I'm so impressed!  Yay!"
"Yeah, it's really, really smooth and less frizzy.  It looks nice!"
..........

"Less frizzy." He meant well. (Why are you so expensive, Moroccan oil? Apparently, I need you in my life.)

On waking up

After I graduated from college in December, I turned off my brain.  Reading did not appeal to me at all.  My job is a tremendous blessing, but it feels pretty mindless after awhile.  I have watched a lot of TV these past few months, barely filtering it, always choosing Hulu or Netflix over anything productive.  If it made me laugh, I watched it and I laughed.

The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God.  Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life, blindfold, as it were, with no sense of direction and understanding of what surrounds you.  This way you can waste your life, and lose your soul.

Dr. J.I. Packer
Knowing God

I feel that my mind has been reopened, my intellect stimulated, my soul suddenly made aware of its ravishing hunger for the knowledge of God.  It seems that I am finally exiting a season of recovery from undergraduate work, a season of complacency and dullness.  I want to learn again.  I want to grow. I don't want to become a ghost.

One can see them everywhere: women who are ghosts, young and old, who while living shrilly are still examples of voicelessness, of the divided soul, of longing gone wrong.

I can't say it with enough emphasis: you can't afford to be casual about any part of your life.  The misplacement of longing, the mistaking of the temporal for eternal will always turn you into a ghost.

Dr. Rosalie de Rosset
Unseduced and Unshaken: The Place of Dignity in a Young Woman's Choices

Do you have any insights on managing time well?

Ben Howard

This may be old news to you all, but I'm willing to take the risk.  Josh and I were listening to NPR on the way to work this morning, and we heard this music... I have to share it with you all!  Like Marcus Foster, this artist is from the U.K.

Quote of the day

"The culture has encouraged so much self-culture and indulgence that sometimes I wonder if we haven't told ourselves we can't be heroines in the old-time tradition. Being a heroine means being countercultural where culture or subculture is wrongheaded. Everywhere we look, people are telling stories of recovery from sin; and, of course, God's grace is marvelous beyond words. However, it is possible to choose well, to spend less time recovering and more time deepening our walk with God."

Unseduced and Unshaken: The Place of Dignity in a Young Woman's Choices
Dr. Rosalie de Rosset

Marcus Foster

Thanks to this beautiful mix by Kelly Ann, I am now smitten with this singer from the U.K.

Click here to listen to his most famous piece, "I Was Broken."

California, v.4

We spent our time in Santa Barbara at the sweetest little inn. The front door was propped open all day long for easy coming and going.

We actually didn't spend our entire day out and about, exploring every tourist attraction or lying on the beach for hours. To be honest, we went out for breakfast... then went back to the inn. We took a long walk down the beach, ate lunch... then went back to the inn. We ventured outside once more to go window shopping... then went back to the inn. It was amazing, and we definitely needed the rest!

Our final adventure in Santa Barbara took place at Stearns Wharf. We left the inn one more time for a beautiful walk along the coast.

Aren't the mountains gorgeous? This scenery is much different than the beaches in North Carolina, where I grew up. The East Coast is very flat, but the West is garnished by these rolling hills.

California, we miss you already!

California, v.3

 

We took the California 1 from the San Francisco Bay area to Santa Barbara. Needless to say, it was the most glorious drive of my life. These photos hardly capture the magnificence.

California, v.2

You can't visit the San Francisco Bay area without walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, right?  We thought so, too.

 San Francisco dwellers have such a pretty view!

Someday, we'll show these photos to our kids.  I'm hoping that they'll be able to say, "But... we drive over that red bridge all the time!"

I can dream, right?  :)

California, v.1

We are back, we are tired, we are content. Our nine-day adventure in California was truly beautiful.

These particular photos were taken on Mt. Tamalpais, or "Mt. Tam." Our cousins drove us safely along the steep road, through the fog and around the deadly turns. I had never been to the West Coast, so in my mind... those golden hills were the most stunning scenery I'd ever seen.

So, what did we do for nine days? We flew in to Los Angeles and drove the 5 through the desert to stay with family in Novato. Together, we explored San Francisco, Sausolito, Fairfax, Mill Valley, Berkeley, and other towns sprawling across the coast. After a few days, Josh and I left and drove the 1 down to Santa Barbara to stay at a charming inn, finally journeying back to Los Angeles for our return flight to Chicago.

To all you lovelies from California... now I know why you love your state. :) More photos to come.