New year, new Book

Write it in your heart that every day is the best day in the year- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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New blog

Hi guys!

If you liked my writing and want to take a look at my new project, feel free to check out Owning Our Badassery, a blog dedicated to empowering women and helping us realize our inner strength. 

Here is the link!

https://owningourbadassery.wordpress.com

Hope to see you there!

[newyearnewbook]

Hiatus

September 12, 2017

If it isn’t clear already, I’m a bit behind on my blog posts (as in almost a full month behind). 

I had the intention, in December 0f 2015, to blog each day for a year. I have successfully completed this goal and then decided to continue keeping this account of my life. On that day, I wrote “It’s amazing to think how quickly time can fly by, how in an instant you go from one new year to the next and everything in-between seems like a blur end capped by a ball dropping in Times Square. Sure there are the big moments that peak through the blur, the happy and joyful moments of birthdays and holidays or graduations and weddings, and the horrible moments filled with sorrow, pain, and loss. But how much do we miss? How many fantastic and beautiful tiny moments are merely blended together in the blur? How many moments do we miss feeling angry or sad or stressed?”. It is interesting to look back on how I’ve grown and evolved over the last 20 months, and I am beyond grateful to have gone through this journey with you. You have shared every little moment with me, and somehow we successfully muted the blur and spliced it to see the beauty of every moment. 

At this point in my life, a Senior in college who is a student full time, part of an instructional team, working in a research lab, and hopefully about to start a new job, I am finding myself short on time and simply unable to keep up with this blog. I am pushing myself to grow in many different areas of my life, and journaling is still a central aspect to my growth. However, journaling for my private accounts and managing this blog is, at the moment, ineffective. This blog has, for close to two years, been life giving to the fullest extent. I want this space to always be life giving, and it is for this reason that I am taking a hiatus until I can fully dedicated myself to the intention of this blog. I will be back, I know that already because I am crying as I write about taking a break, even though I never imagined it would mean this much to me. 

Before I begin my hiatus (or I guess more accurately continue my hiatus I have just now formally labelled), I will leave you with the same thoughts I wrote back in December of 2015: 

But what could happen if, even in our darkest or weakest or most painful moments, we all tried to find the love or the joy or the hope or the good? How different might our lives be if we jumped in the puddles in the rain instead of fleeing angrily from the storm? How different might our world be if we altered our perspectives in this way?

And as always, please remember, 

This is your new book too. What are you going to write in it?

With all the love in the world.

-L

[newyearnewbook]

Chapter 227: The grill master

August 15, 2017

So as you know (I think I’ve talked about it) I’m learning to grill this summer. It was a big weekend for me: Steaks, chicken, and brats! WOAH.

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Chapter 226: The lunch

August 14, 2017

Yo go to lunch with your best friend and you mom.....it’s awesome to be at the same place, in the same conversation, with the two people that most accept you in the world.

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Chapter 225: The stories

August 13, 2017

Erin is home from Cuba! Welcome home!

She had such a wonderful family vacation and she spent hours telling me every detail of her trip and analyzing what she learned. I think it’s incredible to listen to people talk about their passions, because their whole aura shifts and they just glow. 

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Chapter 224: The lifting

August 12, 2017

Mom and I went to the gym to lift today and it felt SO good, plus it’s a nice excuse to hang out with just my mom. 

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Chapter 223: The great lunch

August 11, 2017f

My great aunt Jan took me to a great lunch and we had great conversation (don’t worry, I hate myself a little bit too right now). 

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Chapter 222: The Thursday fun

August 10, 2017

I don’t usually think of Thursday’s as the best part of the week, but today was awesome. I had a morning meeting with David, a professor I’ll be teaching with, and we started to plan for the next semester. It was such a creative meeting and we really started to make some progress on how we want this class to feel. Then I went to Maddy’s, where we made pizzas and watch A Cinderella Story: ICONIC. All in all, a fantastic day. 

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Chapter 221: The rain

August 9, 2017

It poured today and I got soaked. 

I don’t even care though it was so pretty. 

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Chapter 220: The Ruby

August 8, 2017

Brooke and Breanna got a new puppy...well really I guess their parents did...so yesterday I got to go spend a couple hours puppy sitting Ruby, a 6 week old snuggly little yellow lab. So cute I’m sobbing. 

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Chapter 219: The ride in

August 7, 2017

One of my favorite parts of working in a lab in the cities is that I have about 2 hours in the car to jam to music!

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Chapter 218: The corn

August 6, 2017

At least in my experience, the stereotype that Iowan are obsessed with their corn is 100% accurate! My grandparents brought up some local corn (granted it is the best corn I’ve ever had in my life, I’m not sure what Fincel’s does but they grow some amazing corn) and we ate it...literally just corn...for lunch. 

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Chapter 217: The jazz player

August 5, 2017

This morning I got Grandpa to play the piano for a bit. LOVE. 

Then Erin and I went to see some friends from high school play a jazz gig in the cities. 

Guess you could say it was a jazzy Saturday!

[newyearnewbook]

Chapter 216: The Jojo

August 4, 2017

There’s a local coffee shop that my family and I go to dinner at most Friday nights. We never used to go out to eat, but since we discovered Jojo’s we have made it the end of the week tradition. It’s nice to just relax, eat some food we didn’t have to make, and plan for the weekend. 

[newyearnewbook]

Chapter 215: The penny

August 3, 2017

My Grandpa told me, before he died, that whenever I found a penny on the ground he’d be thinking of me. He died 13 years ago today, and when I found a penny on the floor of Walgreens I couldn't help but smile. 

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Chapter 214: The drunk Muggles

August 2, 2017

Today I took my dog to the vet and when she was done with her surgery she was loopy. There is nothing funnier than a drunk dog...literally nothing. 

[newyearnewbook]

Chapter 213: National Night Out

August 1, 2017

I got to spend the evening with my cousins and grandparents. Lucky me!