28 Mondays

 

     

February was a month full of Mondays.

Like, horrible-early-way-too-sunny Mondays. 

Somehow we struggled through - our good humor still intact. 
But just in case you ever run into a Monday, or a Tuesday (Monday's ugly sister),
here are 28 things guaranteed to get you through:

1. Dunkin Donuts Coffee. Dear Anonymous Reader... I love you. And every time I got a coffee this month I was reminded of you, sweet Coffee Angel. Thank you for your encouragement- it arrived with impeccable timing. I think it was a Monday...

2. A blanket scarf. 2 yards of pure flannel; and suddenly it's publicly acceptable for you to carry your blanket to class. 

3. A big dumb dog. Preferably the kind that like to snuggle. Mine has to be sedated before we can snuggle. 

4. Watch Garrett eat sushi. Especially for the first time, in front of strangers. It's a hilarious mix between polite and nauseous.

5. Wear your lucky underwear. No one else has to know, but you'll know. All Monday long.

6. Spend your grocery money on Scentsy. You'll be hungry, but you'll smell good.

7. Rent movies from the library. Because they're free. Unless you forget to return it. 

8. Dance. Dance like no one is watching. But first, seriously-- make sure no one is watching. 

9. Pinterest.

10. Grab your friends and get to the nearest Mexican restaurant. Run, don't walk.

11. Watch 5 episodes of The Office in a row. We recommend 

• "Classy Christmas" 
• "The Injury" 
• "Goodbye, Toby" 
• "Scott's Tots" and of course please please please watch: 
• "Diversity Day". Please.

12. Call in sick. We know you're not sick. Your motivation is just feeling a bit under the weather. Best not to spread those germs ;)

13. Treat-yo-self at Walmart. Every kind of Ben and Jerry's and all those $5 movies that are already on Netflix. 

14. Take a nap. Babies and cats and old people know where it's at-- take a nap. 

15. Peruse through AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. I learned this one from Robey Smith. Guaranteed to make anything you're going through feel normal.

16. Wear a hat. 'Cause your day 3 hair is nobody's business but yours.  

17. Buy the cupcakes. Do you need the cupcakes? No. But Mondays are tough and cupcakes are good.

18. Just cry it out, man. If you need help getting started, watch a few episodes of Parks and Recreation. Ron Swanson will have you weeping buckets by Season 4. 

19. Go ahead and binge watch every Jane Austen movie ever made. Trust me, you'll feel much better.

20. Buy something from Jen Daisy. Also just discovering that they now have a website... that always helps the Monday Blues. [jendaisy.com]

21. Manage to get a mild concussion. You get ice cream and sympathy out of the deal, but no permanent brain damage. 

22. Listen to Taylor Swift. I know you haters gonna hate, but then you're gonna get in your car and sing along. 

23. Make yourself laugh. Maybe its just me... but I am hilarious. I just can't stop laughing long enough to tell you why. 

24. Eat breakfast for dinner. Chances are your Monday morning wasn't all that bacon-filled, and you should fix that. 

25. Phone a friend. A good friend, who isn't gloomy or realistic. This is not the time for realistic friends.

26. Watch this video: Ultimate Dog Tease

27. 
             

28. And finally, remember this: you're never alone on a Monday. Or even through a month of them.

"So let’s not allow ourselves to get tired of doing what is good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith." 
Galatians 6:9-10

"Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does." 1 Peter 5:8-11

I'm encouraged in knowing that your Mondays suck too. 
Thank you for fighting the good fight, even on bad days. 

And don't worry: Friday is coming. 

With Love,
Emily LeVault

Tbh. [To be honest]

I just need to put this out there.... this week is trying to kill me.

I'm being serious.


Since about Sunday at 8:00 am to right this second, things have been going wonky.

We fought the good fight over the Church Budget.
 I started school, I dropped about five classes and scrambled to rearrange and find five more in the final hours of registration. I hate my classes.
 All of the people in my major have been friends for four years and I know absolutely no one.

 I'm in 2nd year 2nd semester Spanish.
That is a place I do not belong.
 Remember that feeling you used to get when it was Mile Day in P.E. class in third grade, when you were mentally willing yourself to throw up or fall down the stairs so you didn't have to run? That's how Spanish class makes me feel.

 My work schedule has been crazy, with more bathroom mishaps than I have been witness to in the last four months combined. I had to explain to my boss that I would not be showing up for my shift because my classes got rearranged, I locked my wallet in Child Watch when I closed on Tuesday.

I ate rotten lettuce, I've caught myself staring at other people's cups of coffee, Jimmy Johns does NOT deliver to my address, I got to Wal-Mart and realized I had no purse and no wallet, we got a notice from the landlord, I wasn't in Springfield for my Grandpa's surgery, Daniel would quite frankly be ashamed of the way I'm eating and my battery was dead this morning.

I've had the kind of week that makes you want to crawl back into bed until it passes-- except, yesterday my dog peed on my bed.... so there goes that plan.

I've missed my first class this morning, only to discover homework that I didn't do, online forums I have no idea how to access and another 11 hours before I can go home. I'm starting to consider moving into the bathtub... Luke hates the bathtub.

All the while under all of these tiny things there's this big answer Garrett and I are waiting for. Obviously I'm doing a bang-up job of waiting well.

How does one wait well? I wouldn't know, ask my husband.

I was going to post at the end of the week but I'm so scared that if I wait any longer more things will go wrong.

I think I might have brought this all on myself by informing you all that we are confident and content to wait for God's answers. He decided to test how true that actually was.

Here's the truth: everyday this week, multiple times a day,  a cry of impatience and frustration comes out of my heart. I want to know now. If I just had the answers, everything else would be easier. But still no answer.

I've made a few New Year's resolutions because I'm weak and so very mainstream: lose weight, go to the gym, read my Bible-- the usual things. But that means that on all of these bad days I've been able to cling to God's Word; I am holding onto His promises. He has overcome the world, he cares for my anxiety, and because of Jesus he hears me when I pray sad, impatient prayers.

I have to tell you the good parts of this week too; I've been doing my best to see them.

I got into all of the classes I needed and Lord willing I am going to graduate this summer. Holy Cow. What an unexpected gift. I thought it would be at least another two years. But at the last minute my advisor called to let me know I was 2 credits short, and I was able to get into a class that was already full in order to get those credits. Whoa.

I got to talk to my sister for 45 minutes this week. It's been a long time.

The people I work with rock.

My awesome husband left work to switch me cars this morning.

I had a cup of coffee today.

This week is almost over.

I'm being honest with you because I am still confident God is going to answer us. If I keep it together and never let you in on my junk, you and I will both miss out on what God is doing and what he is going to do.

So here it is-- this is my life status today.

I'm about to be late to class.
I'm counting down the hours until Saturday.
But I am content to wait-- uncomfortable and unsettled-- still confident in God's plan for us.

With Love,

Emily LeVault

37 things I learned this year

It's been a crazy day and a very full year. I have exactly 8 hours to capture and summarize that in a blog post...and no idea how to say it. 

So here are 37 things that I learned this year:

1. How to be a good long distance friend.

2. A wonderful technique for picking up dog poop.

3. How to save a choking baby.

4. How to start a blog

5. How to be a 22 year old freshman in college

6. How to legally change my name

7. Weddings never really go according to plan.

8. At any age, it is hard to leave your mom.

9. How quickly grocery money seems to disappear

10. The skill of packing and moving.

11. Snapchatting.

12. The value of a new hair do.

13. How to live with someone who uses your toothbrush.

14. How to make gravy.

15. I discovered dry shampoo.

16. The best way to get from Illinois to Indiana.

17. I do not like to fly.

18. How to make adult friends.

19. Dunkin Donuts is actually better than Starbucks.

20. How to knit.

21. Settlers of Catan. 

22. How to say goodbye.

23. Sometimes you just have to live with missing people.

24. It is illegal for me to carry a taser.

25. No one should live through winter without flannel sheets.

26. Finally rocked walking in high heels.

27. Garrett hates taking pictures with me.

28. Weddings are expensive.

29. The invention of the Grocery Clip changed my life.

30. How to build a tent... in the living room no less.

31. How to dodge jury duty on the week of your wedding.

32. How to passively aggressively retaliate against noisy downstairs neighbors.

33. Halloween will hereafter always be Harry Potter Day.

34. How to get both a husband and a dog through training at Petsmart.

35. Travel via Amtrak.

36. Diplomatically deal with people who don't like your husband.

37. How to leave home, transfer schools, quit a job, get a job,  be married, move everything, lose friends, leave friends, make friends and how much I appreciate my mom. 

My heart is full. We've been so loved and so challenged and so supported. This has been a hard year, I don't want to sugar coat that. There have been a lot of changes and pressures and days I wasn't sure I could live through. A lot has changed, and more will change before this time next year; but we are confident in our God and content to wait for His timing in 2015. Thank you for being a part of my year.

See you next year,

-- Emily LeVault

Surviving Shark Week

Holy cow-- where did November go?

Christmas is creeping up and it's been nearly six months since we married and moved-- what happened?!

A quick update on our life here in The Fort (that's what the cool kids call it): Purple Rain has officially moved out... so there goes the free entertainment, I am love-love-lovingggg my job, Luke graduated from puppy class and Garrett continues to play paintball.

God has blessed us like crazy over the last 6 months, answered so many prayers but I think the most unexpected blessing was the community we found here.

I have had so many people to love and do life with the last 22 years, but when we moved to Fort Wayne, those people weren't here. Our church is awesome, please don't hear me complaining. But sometimes when you are young and brand-new married and hamburger-helper-poor you want to hang out with people who are in the same place, struggling with the same things, using their mom's old couch.

We found our community through what could seem like an accident, Beth had a daughter Charly, Charly had a friend Steph, and Steph was looking for community too. Within a month of moving to Fort Wayne, we met people we could do life with.

I've heard a lot of sermons in my life-- a lot. One really stuck out and challenged the way I do community. At the Passion Conference in 2013 Judah Smith preached on the importance of community-- he said it was essential to surviving Shark Week.

I hear you --weird analogy-- but apparently sharks have a tendency to attack the lone seal over the group of seals. The lone seal. I'm sorry to tell you this, but you are not the shark... you are the seal. If you want to survive Shark Week, you need to get with a group of other seals.

Life for me at the time included really good things like an awesome boyfriend, a fantastic job and leading a small group in Edinburg; it did not include a community of my peers. After hearing Judah speak I decided I needed to change so I went home and I joined a Christian Student Fellowship small group. This is how I met Lyssa, then Hayley and got involved and invested with the entire CSF community-- and there were things (BIG) things in my life that changed because I was no longer swimming alone on Shark Week.

And then we left.

There I was all over again: a lone seal in shark infested waters. What is a shark? Depends. Sharks come in all shapes and sizes: the lies we tell ourselves to make sin okay, the lies we hear from someone who has us isolated in a relationship, depression, addiction, loneliness, arrogance, selfishness, church ladies-- you name it. It all comes down the fact that sharks are not friendly to baby seals.

Here's the thing: people are scary.

Seriously. Meeting new people is so so so so scary. It's like the first day of Kindergarten but you can't just say "hey, I like you hair-- let's be friends" doesn't work that way in the adult world. Maybe it should, but it totally doesn't. There are so many opportunities to look stupid, for your inner nerd to slip out, to say something politically incorrect, or to disagree on major life-defining beliefs-- sometimes it's better to just stay inside. Because people are scary. They have the ability to not like you, to reject you, to laugh at you, to betray you, to disappoint you and ultimately the worst part is: they are all definitely people, and people mess up.

I'm with you. I get it. I'm scared too. But the longer I'm an adult trying to make and keep adult friends the more I learn just how many people are lonely and in desperate need of community. You need community. You were designed to thrive in it, and I know no matter how much you don't like people you still desire to be known and to be loved.

This month has been a month of community for us. We've spent the past week with our family and friends in Iowa and Illinois, and what a sweet moment to be known and to be loved and to be hugged. Long car rides, so much laughter, getting pancakes dropped on me at IHOP and the feeling that I am known by these people and still loved. Crazy.
Then there are the friends in my life who just keep coming back. This month alone I've had coffee with my sweet Mo, a sleepover with my Mrs. Drent, and really really precious time with Hayley and Lyssa. Talk about being known.

Garrett and I have felt a renewed desire to focus in on our community here; to love them and to know them. God does silly things like providing married friends who love board games, people who laugh at our stupid and geek out with us over Mockingjay Part 1 [but omygosh her hair though]. God has provided for us in ways we didn't think to pray for, with a community that's been here to do life with us and I am so thankful for them.

So I want you to know that I miss you, in a way that fills up my whole heart. I want you to know that God provides for his children, even when you forget to ask. Mostly I want you to know that I know people are scary. But you need them. You need a community if you want to survive Shark Week.

With Love,

Emily LeVault

P.S. This is Garrett eating a burrito.
P.P.S. This burrito is not part of the Daniel Plan.

144 Days Later

October has been a really long month in the LeVault household.
But it's also been my favorite month of marriage so far.
While I was definitely not prepared for all of the joys of being married to a man the day I said 'I Do', here are a few things I can tell you about marriage 144 days later:

1. Husbands do not think that Ramen and ice cream qualify as dinner. [Hayley never complained]

2. The cable bill is due EVERY month!

3. If you wait long enough he will do a load of laundry.

4. Your husband is NOT your sister or your roommate. He will not help you curl your hair, he will not care about your new mascara, he will not notice your new shoes and he can't tell if your shirt matches your earrings. He just can't.

5. Nobody wins if Garrett watches paintball videos while Emily is home.

6. Couple friends: Ready. Set. Find some. 

7. You cannot play Settlers of Catan with only two people. This is also true of Shanghai Rummy.

8. Go to college after you get married-- the Financial Aid is fantabulous.

9. You get a lot of advice you never ever asked for. 

10. I love you, but leave me alone. No one told us that it was necessary to have alone time, so then we just felt guilty for wanting alone time. Turns out this is a normal thing. 
So.... have alone time if you want to stay married.

11. Your single friends are afraid to stay the night at your house.

12. Absolutely no one wants to do the dishes.

13. Do not say 'yes' to anyone before checking with your spouse.

14. Everyone should have a hobby and a job. A stay at home wife will drive both husband and wife crazy.

15. No one ever asked me how to spell 'Collins'...ever.

16. If I had a dollar for the number of times I've heard:
 "Wait- you're married?! How old are you?" (I'd have like 40 bucks)

17. "All you need is each other" - False. You still need people. 

18. Garrett doesn't believe in making the bed...this gives me hives sometimes.

19. Grocery shopping counts as "date night".

20. Hide your toothbrush.

21. My family is your family; the good, the bad and the sisters.

22. Going out to dinner means the Chik-fil-a drive thru.

23. Pray together and pray for each other. This puts you on the same page and it's much harder to get frustrated with someone you spend time thanking God for.

24. Maybe don't get a black lab puppy right off the bat. Or maybe ever. Adorable-- but needy.

25. "Marriage is like having a sleepover with your best friend every night" Sure. Except your best friend really just wants you to shut up and go to sleep because he has to work in the morning.

26. It's not that easy, but its' really really awesome.

27.  My favorite thing about marriage is how much we laugh together. 

Maybe I'll be able to offer you some more solid insights in a few decades, but for now this is what I know about marriage: it's scary and it's hard and it's all about putting someone else before yourself every single day, which means it's exhausting. 

Living so far away from everything we knew, figuring out a new city, a new church, new friends, new kids, new jobs and new responsibilities has made us more of a team than we ever could've been had we just stayed home.

 Marriage is like having one huge inside joke with someone who has seen every failure and understands the joy behind each victory. Life doesn't get easier or prettier or more magical when you get married; but oh my gosh... having someone to share it with is incredible. 

Happy October!

-Emily LeVault

Emily's Guiltless PBJ Shake

Emily's PBJ Shake

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon organic peanut butter

1 scoop of protein powder

1 Tablespoon ground flax

3/4 cup of almond milk

1 cup of berries 

10 ice cubes

Blend until smooth

Enjoy :)

Camo Cowboy Hat

Hi there. 

It's the middle of the night, Starbucks has this nifty BOGO sale going on right now. And it turns out that when your husband is out of town you can just drink both cups of pumpkin spice latte. Which I did. 

A little update on our life in Fort Wayne: I got job {hallelujah, praise the Lord}, we got a dog [super cute, eats everything], I started school (hate it.), and we are starting a diet called the Daniel Plan tomorrow morning <no dairy, sugar, gluten or any other fun yummy things>. 

Also: we survived our very first Jr. High lock-in.

Lock-in: (noun) a.) An event where adults go against nature and attempt to stay up all night without getting sick or grumpy. b.) The only time Jr. Highers can pump themselves full of sugar and still have time to burn it off before their parents pick them up. c.) Think kamikaze mission. It's really close to that. 

So that was an adventure. WOW. Lots of caffeine, some kid kicked my toe in soccer until it was purple and I definitely did NOT make it all night without being grumpy. 

A few good things did come from this experience; we planned for 15 kids and 24 showed up-- that's a huge number of jr. highers for us. We had more volunteers than the bare minimum needed and most of them stayed up most of the night. 

And I was reminded of a few important things regarding our ministry:

1.) I married the most patient human being that I have ever met. 

2.) Effective youth ministry has more to do with love than lock-ins. 

Around two years ago this guy from my Spanish class asked me to be a female chaperone for a jr. high weekend retreat. I said yes -- to this day I don't know why. 

I go on this retreat with lots of jr. highers-- we stay the night in this hotel - -we got there late (I think we had trouble navigating).
By the time we've got all of these jr highers in this one room for devotions, my patience has cashed out. 

It's late, I'm tired, jr highers are loud-- I'm done for the day. 

These boys just kept at it though--obnoxious noises, lots of giggling and I just wanted them to shut up (Will Patton & Isaac Nicol). I remember looking at Garrett and expecting him to tell them just that. 
But his patience kept going-- it stretched so much further than mine ever could.

That is the moment I fell in love with Garrett LeVault. 

Someone who is that patient with jr high boys is someone worth getting to know. 

So, naturally, I married him.

Fast forward a few years to this lock-in around 3 or 4 in the morning: It's late. I'm tired. Jr. Highers are loud. I'm done for the day. 

I know at this point that my husband is tired, I know he's had a long day, I know that he is a little grumpy... and then this jr high boy decides to plop a camo cowboy hat on Garrett's head in the middle of a volleyball game. 

Sidenote: jr high boys don't believe in showering therefore, everything they wear smells like jr high boy.

 My initial reaction was one of impatience. Impatience for this kid. Impatience for his hat. Impatience with his unnatural energy at 3 in the morning. 

But I watched Garrett LeVault smile real big and pull that camo cowboy hat more firmly down on his head like he really wanted nothing more than to wear it for the rest of the night.

 In that moment I fell in love with my husband all over again and I realized that mere patience could not endure jr high boys and camo cowboy hats at 3 in the morning. 

My husband is so full of love for these stinking, wide-awake beasts, that patience is his first response to them. 
Even when it's late. Even when he's tired. Even if he wants to be done. His ability to be patient is born from a deep love. 

When my Boss told me that he and his wife were having a second baby... I wasn't really sure I was going to love her.  Ellis Throckmorton pretty much had my heart. I was so excited about him. I had watched him grow. I couldn't wait to hear what he sounded like when he started talking. Ellis was a pretty big deal and I was really sure that there was no way I was going to love Baby #2 as much as I loved Ellis. And then I met her. The first time I got to hold her my heart did this weird thing and Ellis and Olive both fit just fine. As much as I had been excited about Ellis-- I was excited about Olive now too. 

And I thought that would happen again for me the moment I moved to Fort Wayne. But it's been a little bit harder than that. 

See, I loved those stinking Edinburg kids. I wanted to watch them grow, I was so excited to see them fall in love with Jesus, I was so proud of them. They pretty much had my heart. 

And then we moved here, and it felt like I had left a part of me in Edinburg. I struggled to quickly form relationships with kids I barely knew, and I started to worry that there wouldn't be enough room for them in my heart. 

But my husband, and his patient love for a jr high boy he's only met a few times, reminded me why we do this. 

When I started ministry at Edinburg there was only one girl in jr. high youth group-- and I volunteered because I wanted her to know she was loved. I had never heard of Edinburg, Illinois; I had no reason to care about the people there. But God softened my heart and he gave me compassion for those kids and it became easy to love them and eventually so very hard to leave them. 

As we get our feet under us, as we spend more and more time with these kids, I'm starting to feel my heart grow to fit them too. I'm reminded of why I fell in love with this man I followed to Fort Wayne. And I am reminded that we do what we do so that these kids will know they are loved.

It's been 3 months and 4 days since we moved here. 
Just before bed this evening Garrett confessed to once again using my toothbrush. 

But things are finally settling. I'm again in a town I had never really heard of, full of people I had no reason to care for, with a man more full of patience than the day I fell in love with him. 

Please keep praying for us. Please pray for our relationships with the kids here.

Please pray for my patience. 
Garrett already has plenty.

With Love,
Emily LeVault