"It's Only a Matter of Time"

"May the Lord lead you into a greater understanding of God's love
and the endurance that is given by Christ... 

May the Lord Himself, who is our source of peace,

give you peace at all times and in every way.
The Lord be with you all." ❤
~2 Thessalonians 3:5,16

Hey friends!  It's been a while... because slightly over a week without posting truly qualifies as a while in my book. lol  *To be clear, I have actually written a rather lengthy post this week, with the intention that it will publish sometime after my death.  (No, you did not read that wrong.)  I will keep pushing the date out and making small edits as time moves forward.  I do fully realize that will likely be decades from now when I no longer have a blog, but no one ever really knows.  This whole pandemic season has me thinking about how much is outside of our control and what matters most in the end, as you can tell in my last post.  When it comes to "getting my affairs in order," I don't have an official will yet, but I've filled out and emailed my Advance Medical Directive to family, and now I have written a final letter of sorts to everyone that I love, just in case death comes sooner than expected, which it so often does.  I will absolutely choose life over death as long as it's within my power, but I'm spiritually prepared for it and do not fear death at all.  It's unorthodox, but I actually feel much better and more at peace having written that post now!  Spoiler alert: It ends with the verses above. =)

Back to lighter things, I'm currently eating leftover strawberry cake and listening to Joe Fox's niece serenading the fam on You've Got Mail, to be followed shortly by "the violin sings with joyful ring" song. lol  It's still definitely a go-to background noise favorite.

Before I get to all the birthday fun, here are a few other pics to catch up on:  Cody Rigsby finally led a Britney Spears ride on Wednesday (she's his favorite singer), so that was super fun!  Her Stronger song was empowering and uplifting on a day that I needed a mood boost.  Also, please note my "Legends of Fun" pink water bottle. lol  I'm going all out with my Pelothon team!

This = him going off about the greatness of the Crazy (Stop Remix) music video and imitating the part where Britney was a waitress. lol  Rach and I LOVED that one too back in the days of MTV's Making the Video.  I remember us doing parts of that dance whilst walking around our 9121 neighborhood! =)

He also called Britney a "sexy Martian goddess" in the Oops I Did it Again video. lolol  Cody's energy and sense of humor are fantastic, as evidenced by the 22,000+ people joining this live ride with me!  #BooCrew for the win!!

On Friday, Tiffany and I had lunch at Rib Crib then got this happy masked-up pic when we re-entered the courthouse!  ...Our lunch was more eventful than usual as we saw a man getting arrested in their parking lot (same guy I had seen behaving very strangely at Quik Trip earlier that day).  Fascinating times!

Lest you think I haven't done anything impressive lately, I made homemade potato salad for the first time this Friday!! lol  (Chet requested that for his party, and I decided it'd be fun to try making it myself - it was time consuming, but I will say it went better than my strawberry cake extravaganza. lol)  It was kind of a combo of my Uncle Gene's and the Pioneer Woman's recipes, so I figured it'd be pretty good ...despite my having no real reference point for taste comparison (tried it for the first time ever yesterday - far better than I expected for something where half the ingredients list made me cringe).  I laughed when Chet and Karli thought I'd bought it at Reasors then poured it all into a bowl, which is totally something I would do! lol  It seemed to go over well at the party, so yay for a successful new cooking endeavor!

In sad news, whilst boiling the eggs and potatoes for the potato salad, I lost track of time.  And when I glanced at the clock at 12:01, I knew I had broken my 82-day Peloton streak.  The highest badge they give out there is for a 60-day streak, so I'm all set, but I was hoping to make it to 100 and it's just obnoxious to come up 18 days short.  But guess what!?  Day 1 starts over today! =)

At the beginning of this whole quarantine mess, I was really enjoying the neighborhood walks.  All the pool time yesterday was good for my soul, despite being all kinds of sunburned now.  So although I'm not in a bad mood, I want to start taking the below advice on 10-minute outdoor walks!  It's crazy hot, so I'm unlikely to go much longer than that. lol

Fun fact that no on else is likely to care much about: According to an article I read recently, I have the same Enneagram personality (Type 9 with a 1-wing) as Eliza Hamilton.  Whether or not that is actually true, the idea makes sense to me.  From her first big song titled "Helpless" (about falling hard and fast for someone with drive and charisma) to "That Would Be Enough" (trying to connect and help him recognize that a peaceful, family-centered life could be more important than money and power and building a name for himself) to "Burn" (intense, destructive anger at being betrayed) to her final song, "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" (about finding strength after loss, creating a meaningful legacy, and looking forward to seeing loved ones in heaven)... I find most of her lyrics, emotional energy, and personal growth relatable.  So I'm good with that comparison.  Thank God that we eventually grow out of the Helpless mindset!  I also tend to be nostalgic and gratefully optimistic ("Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now!"), likely to put the needs of others above my own, and I'm equally drawn to the high energy, never satisfied, non-stop driven nature of 8s.  In tough seasons, I have recklessly discarded old memories and bottled up certain emotions, very "The world has no right to my heart!"  Then eventually, I've worked through things and found forgiveness, "a grace too powerful to name."  And "I put myself back in the narrative," preserving the connections and writing down the stories that matter most to me! ❤ 

Anyway, yay Hamilton!  You're missing out if you haven't given it a chance yet!

I hope you're having a lovely weekend, friends!  
Posts about two of my favorite summer birthdays coming soon. =)