vacationing the crap out of tennessee

after work today, i am a free woman for a whole week. 

this is big stuff.

i am actually using vacation hours to go on a vacation.

how very grown up...of course, i used the word 'crap' in my blog title, so i guess it comes in spurts.  (and we're probably dear friends if your next train of thought was, 'the crap comes in spurts?  haha.  poop is funny.')

...

anyway.

i am heading down to good old gatlinburg, tennessee, for some chill time.  my plan is to do pretty much nothing.  just relax.

that is an important thing for me to do sometimes.  you know, breathe in and out. 

should be good.

...

in other news, i am a ninja in training.

my anchor holds within the veil

hey, friend.  i hope this week has treated you kindly, full of gentle words and tender embraces.  it has been that kind of week for me, every day bringing little moments of grace and wonder.

here's the kind of weird thing, though.  nothing really happened.

do you remember when i wrote THIS POST just a few months ago?

well, circumstantially, nothing is very different in my life.  i'm still a single lady, hoping and praying that i will get to marry a farmer and have a lot of babies.  (he doesn't have to be a farmer.  i've just really been in a little house on the prairie kind of mood.)  my heart still both delights and breaks when i snuggle with my sweet nephew.  there is a very real loss and sorrow in my life.

but.

i am safe to travel to the edge of that sorrow, to look it right in the eye, to feel the utter extent of that pain and confusion. 

my anchor holds within the veil.

there is no place i can go where He is not.

and allowing myself to fully feel those emotions and acknowledge my life circumstances creates a space for healing and rest.  creates space for holy dancing and jumping and delighting in the freedom He purchased at such a great cost.

do you see?

i fully feel my joy because i fully feel my sorrow.

have a great weekend, beloved.  let me know how i can be praying for you.

#iamgrateful

if we are friends on facebook, then you may have seen me hashtagging some things this week.  (and yes, justin timberlake IS the king of hashtags.  watch him here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57dzaMaouXA)

i don't normally like to do group-mandated activities, but we were challenged at church to post things for which we are grateful...and this is a good time to tell you to go read 1000 gifts.  just trust me.  so i'm hashtagging my gratitude.  (mom, hashtagging is a twitter term that facebook tried to steal, only it's less cool there.  it means putting the pound sign in front of a word or phrase to try and make it trend...that means make lots of people tag the same thing at the same time.)  because it's actually a very good discipline in my life.

here's what i came up with this week:

monday:

#iamgrateful for new mercies every morning.

#iamgrateful for burning thighs and bruised knees because it means this clunky jar of clay can still both move and feel.

tuesday:

#iamgrateful for cups of coffee and the book of hosea.

#iamgrateful that certain foods make me think of people I love. (Brussels sprouts...Stephanie and Holly)

wednesday:

#iamgrateful for sweaters and chai latte k-cups.

thursday:

#iamgrateful when my ribs hurt, because it makes me think of skydiving with Miranda and Melodie.

#iamgrateful for steak!!!

friday:

#iamgrateful for the many quality men i know.

saturday:

#iamgrateful for a life-changing summer in myrtle beach in 2004.



so what are you grateful for?

#8) breathing in grace

Most days, I awake to darkness,
but this morning,
sunlight steals through the window,
gently nudging me out of bed.
I stand and stretch widely,
opening my lungs and heart,
breathing in grace for the day.
There is quiet all around,
and it delights me to remember
that I, too, am part of the
royal priesthood,
with access to
heaven.
My words go straight to
the Most High God,
for I am His daughter,
His beloved.
What a wonder, this life.

Holly Willman
10/12/13

#7) a portugueseish haiku

eu escrevo
...syllables are different
[i write in english]

holly willman
10/3/13

you, too, can learn another language!

i think i have made it pretty clear that i like to learn.  (if you know what strengths finder is, i have gotten learner as one of my strengths both times i took the test.)

at work, i ask for resources to learn more about this new field (401k stuff).  at home, i read, i do logic puzzles, and i ingest random tidbits of information all over the place.

i don't have any desire to be great at one particular thing...it kind of bores me, actually.  so i try and develop skills in many different areas.  this is why i could teach myself acoustic guitar and bass guitar and be content with my medicore skills.  probably why i am a decent athlete in many sports but not super talented at any of them.  i just like to take in more and more content.

so i took 3 years of spanish and a year of sign language in high school.  passable...i can say things like 'por favor, puedo sacarle punto a lapiz?' in spanish (roughly, 'please, can i sharpen my pencil?') and sign, 'i'm sorry your cow is dead' in asl.  you know, important conversational pieces.

i met a friend in college who was from brazil, and i thought portuguese was such a cool language...kind of a smash up of spanish and french.  so i bought some cds to try and learn it, and she gave me a new testament in portuguese.  i learned a couple things but didn't really stick with it.

but...

last week, i was killing time and looking through free apps for my phone, and i found one called duolingo. 

dude.

this thing is baller.  it's totally geared toward a mind like mine...give me the lessons in little chunks, have lots of checkpoints so i feel like i am doing well, etc.  you can learn a ton of different languages, but if you're starting from english (which...i'm going to say the majority of my readership is...), you can learn spanish, german, french, portuguese, and italian.

it teaches you in a variety of ways: they write portuguese, and you write in english and vice versa.  they have a sentence in portuguese and give you options with which to build the sentence in english and vice versa.  they say a phrase or sentence in portuguese, and you write it in portuguese.  they have pictures to help you learn vocab.  they give you multiple choice questions.

i think it's really fun.  :)

travis is learning italian, so you'll have to ask him how it is. 

but now my speech is filled with phrases like ' eu como frango' (i eat chicken) and 'voce gosta o livro?' (do you like the book?)

check it out.  let me know what you think.  i think it's pretty sweet, especially considering it was free.


yes, i am talking about a product that is awesome.  no, i am not getting paid to do so.  yes, this is all my opinion.  no, i was not forced to say this.