"God Day"

Once a month we have something called a "God Day". I was told that we were just supposed to do things that we enjoyed and spend time with God which sounds wonderful. Well, it was. I slept in (because I REALLY enjoy that) and then got up and went on a run at a cute park near my house. They have a really nice trail with multiple different paths which kept the run interesting. I really do enjoy running, but I was also using an interval training app on my phone which pushed me pretty hard so at times I felt like cussing... Oops! Probably not exactly the best thing when you're supposed to be spending time with God. BUT, the weather was incredible and the trails were beautiful so I did appreciate that! 

Then I treated myself to lunch at Chick-fil-a. It was perfect! I knew that I wanted a salad because I had already had the asian salad and loved it. I decided to go with the Grilled Market salad, and it was SO good! The granola, nuts, and zesty apple cider vinaigrette was absolutely amazing and just what I was craving. Isn't that the best feeling? When you're craving something, but you don't know what it is, and then you get it! Yum. I've already gone back and gotten another one. And now I'm hungry again.

Anyway, back to God Day. I got ready and went to Barnes and Noble. That is seriously one of my favorite places to go whether it's to study, meet and friend to talk, or just sit and read with a yummy drink of course! (My go to drinks right now are Starbucks instant caramel iced coffee or their passion iced tea lemonade. Mmmmmm.) I was able to sit for hours and work on some books that I've been wanting to read. Specifically: Prodigal God by Tim Keller. (Book review coming soon!) I also got to spend some time in the Word and journal for a while. It was so nice and relaxing (except when different groups of teenagers would come and talk loudly around me at which point I wanted to yell "WHERE ARE YOUR PARENTS AND DO THEY KNOW WHERE YOU ARE?!" but I suppressed my inner old person and put in head phones.) 

I ended my day with some incredible finds from Trader Joe's: hummus, pita chips, and dark chocolate with caramel and black sea salt. So yummy! I also got to babysit two precious children that are right up there with my nieces and nephews on the list of kids that I love to babysit. Seriously, adorable. The family has a baby and after feeding her, she just fell asleep in my arms  while I watched Psych. Perfect end to the night.

This day encompassed some of my absolute favorite things in life. Sleep, exercise, food, reading, spending time with the Lord, and babies. Almost the perfect day!

*Did anyone else notice how much I talked about food in this post? Not sorry that I love food!

Week 3 Already?!

Hey y'all! I cannot believe that I have already finished 1/5th of my internship! I thought that it would be a struggle to get up early in the morning and go to work all day, but I absolutely love it. Well, maybe not the getting up early part. But I do love the structure that having a full time job brings.

I'm all about structure as my past roommates could probably tell you. (Sorry Dev, Emily, and Alex!) I like to have everything in its place. And what do I do when I have a lot to think about or am stressed? I clean. And organize. And reorganize. It doesn't matter what it is: drawers, closets, craft stuff, bookshelves, everything. It somehow calms me. And there were even a couple of times this past year that I would have so much to think about that I would clean all of my 1/4th of the room and then move on to other people's areas. Oops! Sorry again, roomies!

The structured part of me also loves routines. I have the same routine every morning and every night. I've been in the bad habit of watching Netflix (specifically Psych right now) until late at night because let's be honest, it's way to easy to press the "next episode" button. Anyway, recently I've been trying to keep myself from looking at any time of screen (tv, laptop, or iPad) for at least an hour before I go to bed. I'm using that time to get in my fun/personal reading (instead of reading for work), get ready for bed, do devotions, etc. This allows me to slow down at the end of my day as well as make sure that I'm working through my personal reading list.

Quick side note: I just finished reading Emma by Jane Austin and loved it. Of course, I knew that I would because I love all of the movies and loved Pride and Prejudice. Part of me wants to read through all of Jane Austin's books in a row, but the other part wants to spread them out and read some other books. Do y'all have any good suggestions?

Now for the getting up early part. Am I scatterbrained or what?! I have a rough time waking up, like most people, and was in the habit of pressing the snooze button multiple times. One of the main problems with that though, was that I would forget how many times I had pressed snooze. It would be the fifth time I was pressing it (with 5 minute intervals) and think it was only the third time. I was then rushing around trying to get ready which just starts of my day wrong. I decided that that needed to change and ideally I would say that I bought a Jawbone UP bracelet, but sadly I did not. (I've been craving that bracelet ever since my favorite blogger did a review on it.) But, I did go with a cheaper option. I found an app on my phone called SleepBot and it's been so helpful! I set my alarm to go off at 7:00 AM and press "Going to sleep...". Then I place my phone on the bed next to me and go to sleep. Through the night it tracks my movement (and even records noises during the night if you want it to. How cool if you talk during your sleep!). Then, in the morning, it wakes me up when I'm at the most shallow part of my REM cycle and within 30 minutes before my alarm. So when I set my alarm for 7:00 AM, it will wake me up between 6:30 and 7:00 AM. The first morning I tried it, I heard the alarm and went to press snooze (as a terrible habit). Before I hit the button though, I realized that I was awake and didn't need it! I've been using it for 9 days now and it really does work! I can also go back through my log and see each day individually (with a graph of my movement, sound recordings, duration of sleep, sleep time, wake time, a star rating of how well I slept, and notes of what I dreamed of which can be pretty funny), or I can see a trend of every day in a month and how I'm doing with my sleep. I've set a goal in the app of sleeping at least 8 hours every night and it lets me know if I have a sleep debt and the average amount I sleep every night. Maybe I'm just a nerd, but I love all of these stats! This app is for an android phone, but there are tons for iPhones as well. Let me know if you try one and how it goes!

Final note: I really enjoy getting comments and feedback because then I feel like I'm talking to people instead of just myself :) Also, I'm always looking for book suggestions or blog topic suggestions! So ask questions about my internship or life or anything, and you'll be helping me out!

Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

A lot of my internship includes learning whether it's about ministry, myself, or the great God I serve. Part of my job includes reading three books and writing a small paper on what I thought about it and what I learned and this was my first book.

It's call The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni. It's not necessarily a Christian book, but I think that it was very beneficial to read. Lencioni described the five dysfunctions through telling a story of a company. They had an extremely dysfunctional executive board that did not work together well. That same company decided to bring in a woman named Kathryn to help them become a team and be more competitive in their market. I have to say that this was much easier to read than if Lencioni had simply written about the dysfunctions and how to fix them. I found myself engaged in the story and able to identify with some of the team members. It also helped me to picture what these dysfunctions looked like on our staff and how I could be a better teammate. 

The five dysfunctions include:

1. Absence of Trust which leads to Invulnerability

2. Fear of Conflict which leads to Artificial Harmony

3. Lack of Commitment which leads to Ambiguity

4. Avoidance of Accountability which leads to Low Standards

5. Inattention to Results which leads to Status and Ego

Kathryn was definitely my favorite character. She had so much wisdom throughout the entire process of creating a team. Lencioni let us in on her past as well that helped her to gain that wisdom. She was a volleyball player, a teacher, a mom, and a business woman. All of her different experiences allowed her insight into different situations and gave her the authority to speak into the teammates' lives. She also employed incredible restraint when in meetings. She allowed the teammates to fight things out when necessary. I envy her ability to restrain herself when leading meetings. I struggle with that because 1) I like to control things and 2) I like to talk. I'm working on it though, and hopefully this summer I will learn and grow a lot!

The way that Lencioni explains everything is so easy to follow and I really enjoyed it. Our whole staff is reading it together and we will have a meeting to discuss it, so I'm excited to see what other people thought as well. 

Good morning! I've created this blog because so many people have asked about my internship, and this seemed like the best way to keep everyone updated. I am working this summer as the Jhi intern at Perimeter Church in Johns Creek. Jhi is the middle school ministry here which goes perfectly with my major (middle school education). I guess first I'll start with some background info:

I've gone to Perimeter for my entire life and in middle school always attended the Jhi programs. Through those programs I became extremely close with the staff and loved everyone there so when I went to high school I didn't want to leave them. I ended up staying involved with Jhi as a volunteer for their Friday night program called the Bricks (where students can come and hang out with their friends, get food/drinks from the cafe, climb a rock wall, play games, etc.) and leading different discipleship groups. Through this God showed me my passion for middle schoolers and I was able to decide that I wanted to be a middle school teacher. Now fast forward to about two months ago...

I've kept up with the Jhi staff, but it's gone through quite a few changes in the past two years that I've been at UGA. Anyway, I got a call saying that the staff was considering me to be the summer intern, but I needed to send in an application with my resume and have an interview. This was completely a God thing because until that moment I had been planning on staying in Athens and taking classes. Instead, I sent in that application and the process was starting! Long story short, I had my interview when I was home one weekend, loved the staff, and was offered the job that same day! This incredible blessing was just placed in my lap.

I'm already finishing up my second week out of ten being the intern and I love it. I love the staff that I get to work with, wearing actual clothes rather than norts (nike shorts) and t-shirts, and doing anything that they need me to do. I'm mostly doing very intern-ish jobs such as typing, stapling, running errands, etc. but I love it. I'm learning more about myself and the way that I work best and I can't wait to see how the summer goes!

One of the first jobs I was given was to create 3 personal and 3 ministry goals for myself for this summer and one of the goals was to keep a blog and update it twice a week, so y'all can hold me to it! Please let me know if there are any questions I can answer as I'm not the most creative person, and I'm definitely NOT naturally a writer. I'm working on it though!

Prayer Requests:
1. That God would lead me toward the students that He wants me to create relationships with.
2. That I would have a servant's heart even through the mundane tasks.
3. That my heart would be malleable so that God can do great things through me this summer.