Daily Archives: September 23, 2013

52 Weeks of Blogging with a Purpose: A Letter to My 16 Year Old Self

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Today’s topic: a letter to my 16 year old self.

Dear 16 year old self,

I have good news: it gets better — SO SO SO MUCH BETTER. Here are a couple tips:

1.) Junior Honors English Wench is dead wrong. You might get B’s in her class but you will have straight A’s in AP English. Her drama queens won’t even get past the first week of AP English where they regurgitate whatever they read over the summer. This class will prove to you that you have no desire to do anything with literary criticism. Screw what JHEW thinks — she might take perverse pleasure in screaming at you in front of the class but that’s because she is so insecure that she needs her pets to prop her up.

2.) You will get a B+ in USH AP. You’ll live. You probably should have done more on Project A and actually gone through the magazines in the library but you’ll live. Project B will rock your world. You will find that the paper you write on the Scopes Trial will get you out of a few assignments when you hit college. Enjoy it.

3.) Your Walk-A-Day experience will show you what you truly want to do in life. You might start out being pre-med and change to religion but what you really want is to be an ER nurse or a respiratory therapist. It’s OK though — everything you learn in college and seminary will prepare you for the rest of your life and you’ll find a way to go back to school eventually.

4.) ECA will become your home and the choir will become your new family. You will find a church community who will love you because you’re Jen — not for any other reason.

Just hang in there for now. Once you graduate, you can leave high school behind and find your true self in college.

Snuggles,
Your 33 year old self

Now go see Becky and what wisdom everyone else shared with their 16 year old selves..

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: September 23, 2013

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY September 23, 2013

Outside my window… dark. It’s 2:15 a.m.

I am thinking… about my next move on Words With Friends. (I’m writing this in between ads.)

I am thankful… that Thomas’ sons have been able to stay in utero for another week and am praying they can stay in utero for longer.

In the kitchen… dishes to do.

I am wearing… my black “Governator” shirt (I am Californian after all!) and black running shorts.

I am creating… the bare bones of blog posts.

I am going… to hope I can get myself organized for the week tomorrow morning (well… technically today).

I am wondering… when Daniel’s hitting and head-butting will stop. I’m still surprised he didn’t knock out one of my front teeth on Saturday.

I am reading… Sundays in America by Suzanne Strempek Shea. I’m hoping to finish it this week so I can move on to Pastorix by Nadia Bolz-Weber.

I am hoping… for a quieter week.

I am looking forward to… all premieres of all my favorite shows.

I am pondering… waaaaaaay too many things.

A favorite quote for today… “The risk in seeking and finding God in all things, then, is the willingness to explain too much, to say with human certainty and arrogance: ??God is here.?? We will find only a god that fits our measure. The correct attitude is that of St. Augustine: seek God to find him, and find God to keep searching for God forever. Often we seek as if we were blind, as one often reads in the Bible. And this is the experience of the great fathers of the faith, who are our models. We have to re-read the Letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 11. Abraham leaves his home without knowing where he was going, by faith. All of our ancestors in the faith died seeing the good that was promised, but from a distance…. Our life is not given to us like an opera libretto, in which all is written down; but it means going, walking, doing, searching, seeing…. We must enter into the adventure of the quest for meeting God; we must let God search and encounter us.” — Pope Francis in his interview in America Magazine.

One of my favorite things… iced vanilla whole milk lattés.

A few plans for the rest of the week: ABA therapy for Daniel on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, getting Daniel a flu shot on Tuesday, fighting with SSI on Wednesday, and hopefully not much else.

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