comparison

i have a confession to make: i've caused my relationship with my boyfriend to suffer lately because i keep comparing it to other people's relationships. you know the couple that just seems so perfect? he appears at her front door every single morning with starbucks and roses and drives her to work/school so that she can do her mascara in the car, allowing her to sleep in an extra 5 minutes in the morning. she is perfectly cute all the time and when he's sick she makes homemade chicken broth, all the while in a hand stitched apron that she made herself. just kidding and if you do these things.... seek therapy. 

but you know what i mean. you can't even imagine them fighting, they have the most loveable pictures together on facebook, they consistently do bible studies together every wednesday morning, etc, etc. you know who i'm talking about, right? 

well here's the deal... my boyfriend and i get in arguments. not all the time and not super regularly, but we still fight. most of our pictures together are of us making faces at the camera, we tried to do a bible study together but failed, and we endearingly call each other "bro." 

i love all this stuff about our relationship (except the failed bible study part of course) but sometimes i start looking around at all these couples who are just so insanely perfect and i start to question what he and i have. 

he reminded me today that i don't know what the people who i think are perfect are struggling with behind closed doors and that some people could even see us as being a perfect couple....and lawd knows we ain't.

anyway, thankfully i realized you can't compare what you have to someone else's. i definitely know that there are exceptions; there are abusive, toxic relationships out there in which cases it's good to realize that you need and deserve something better than what you have, but if you have a guy who loves God, makes you laugh, brings out the best in you, and likes you better in a ponytail than in heels, the grass is DEFINITELY the greenest on your side and, in this case, on my side. :) 

i'm going to let comparison stop robbing me of joy. 

sunshine & duke

i couldn't resist going outside and enjoying a pretty orange pre-sunset with my trusty little companion maggie.

 speaking of dogs, my brother and sister-in-law lost their sweet little two year old pup last night. he got hit by a car at my parents' house. duke was one of the best dogs that ever lived. i'm getting teary-eyed as we speak. here's to all the faithful dogs that have found their way into our hearts and to one of the best dogs that ever lived and who will never be forgotten. 

i love you, duke! 

colder weather

i can totally smell fall in the air and i absolutely can't wait. usually i dread the end of summer but we had such a mild winter and spring this year that i feel like summer's been here for ages. it will be so nice to snuggle down in some colder weather. 

 a few things i want to add to my wardrobe:

fabric coat - zara

puffy quilt vest - jcrew 

shrunken anorak - jcrew

denim western shirt - jcrew

ankle boots - zara

cowboy ankle boots - zara

(ummm didn't mean for there to be a slight western theme going on here...)

the rules of life

decisions and downton abbey

a dreary morning calls for extra time under my cozy down comforter and season 2 of downton abbey that i'm finally getting to watch, thanks to hulu. 

i have so many decisions to make it's not even funny. on top of the stress of actually making a decision is the fact that any decision i make is going to tick someone off. great. it's one thing to screw yourself over but to give someone else the shaft in the process is no fun at all. needless to say i'll be doing some praying today since i know Someone who knows which decision is best. thankful for that. 

strength and courage

sometimes i get in this mindset where i think that being a christian dealing with difficulty means meekly sitting by and letting obstacles crumble me, then humbly asking God to put me back together again and restore me. God certainly repairs us when we're crushed, but i forget that i don't NEED to be crushed. i forget about verses like this: 

have I not commanded you? be strong and courageous. do not be terrified; do not be discouraged; for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you may go.

joshua 1:9

i'm supposed to be strong and courageous. i'm not supposed to let my worries over take me and wipe me out. i need to work on over coming my obstacles by changing the way i see them. not as things that are going to bowl me over, but things that i can bowl over. God helps me when i fail, but he also gave me the strength not to.

soooo, a goal for this week:

put trouble and obstacles behind me by facing them with strength and courage.