The Best Vacation Ever

     So I'm about halfway through my summer vacation, now, and I've pretty much decided that this is the best summer I've ever had and that this summer probably will hold that record for a while.  I'm not saying it's perfect, with every day better than the last, but I seem to have struck the balance between busy and relaxation that works for me.  Below is a list of what I think makes this a beautiful summer:

     1. Get a job/be productive.  One of the things I think ruins a vacation is boredom.  Vacation boredom is why I love the South African school schedule we were on: 3 months school, 1 month holiday, repeat.  However, if you can keep yourself busy with a good summer job (especially if it's one you enjoy) that boredom will be a lot longer in coming.  As for being productive, this is around-the-home stuff: college/scholarship applications, cooking, cleaning, organizing, community organizations, etc.  
     2. Be lazy. That said, vacation is supposed to be relaxing.  Only allot yourself so much to do that when you feel like being lazy, you can be lazy.  Obviously, this is in lesser amounts.

     3. Exercise.  You should do this year round, so don't slack off in the summer.  Much.  For more than a couple weeks at a time.  And have fun with exercising!  Don't use that machine every day for 30 minutes... borrrrring.  Pick up a new water sport, or run outside, turning down whichever side street you come to!
     4. Spend time outside.  Summer, unless you live someplace ridiculously hot, is a great time to go outside.  I've pretty much taken over caring for my mom's herb garden, and even the normally tedious chore of weeding is made 100x better when I'm out soaking in the sun.  Read outside.  Nap outside.  Work outside.  And exercising outside is so much nicer than exercising inside.
     5. Do what you love.  Spend time really filling yourself up; for me, this means I take my camera and play.  I read good books (this summer our family is reading classics), I paint, and I spend time in the kitchen.
     6. Build relationships.  This means seeking to hang out with friends, to spend time with siblings, to connect with parents and peers.  Be sociable.  I'm an introvert, so sometimes this is difficult, but it just means sometimes I need to have a day to be antisocial. 
     7. Keep traditions.  For as long as I can remember, my extended family has congregated at a cabin on a lake in northern Minnesota.  I know each of my cousins and aunts and uncles because of this, and I love the lake.  I wouldn't trade this time for anything. 
     8. Start new traditions.  Just because you have good old traditions to keep does not mean you can't start new traditions.  I always wonder when people say one mustn't do something because "it's not tradition."  Tradition had to start somewhere.  So, once a week, have a game night.  Rent a jetski and visit a local body of water.  Something.
     9. Explore.  Going hand in hand with starting new traditions, summer is a perfect time to find new places.  Visit a new restaraunt.  Hike unknown trails.  Take a road trip to wherever you end up.  Or, explore your own town a little bit more. 
     10. Spend time with God.  Most importantly, as always, spend time with the one who set an example for resting, who created the places you'll explore, who is a working, hands-on God, who wants a relationship with you. 

     This summer does have a bittersweet aspect to it.  I turned 18 back in April and, looking back over the last few months, it's almost as if I can feel childhood slipping away.  It's not something I can stop, it's not something I wish wouldn't happen, it's not something I want to hurry up.  People say my entire life is before me, but, more accurately, my entire life is behind me.  The rest of my life is before me.  This may very well be the last summer I can spend in the way I've just described.  That aches, but I've a restless excitement for what comes next, what God will do next.  

Note: it does help to speak to the weatherman and ensure that the summer weather is spectacular.  I've hardly had one ugly day in the last 8 weeks and 3 states.

How to Make a Basic Pair of Earrings

     I had to write a process analysis speech for my English class, and I realized it would be a nice how-to post on here.  So, while, it's not a reflection, here it is!  Besides, I can, um, reflect on the beauty of glass.  And my creative side from God.  And.... the slippery character of beads?  Maybe that last one is a stretch.  

     The ability to work with wire, beads, and some basic tools has many advantages.  It enables one to create unique statement jewelry, reuse old jewelry, and fix any broken pieces.  To create a basic pair of earrings, first gather the needed tools: assorted beads, ear wires, head pins, chain nose pliers, round nose pliers, and wire cutters.  Ear wires are the bent wires which hang in one’s ears; head pins are a stretch of wire which have a flat part at the bottom to stop beads from sliding off.  Local craft stores should carry all of these tools.  One will also want to make sure to have patience with minuscule components, an eye for beauty, and a clutter-free, well-lit workspace.

     First, the design and style of the earrings-to-be must be decided upon.  Select the desired beads and lay them out on the work surface in the order they will be strung.  Since there are two earrings in a pair, lay out two sets of beads, same or different.  Carefully string the beads in the decided order onto the headpins, using one headpin per set.  Beads slide off as easily as they slide on, so be attentive to their desire to undo one’s hard work.  

     One set at a time, use the chain nose pliers to bend both headpins to a 90° angle just above the beads.  Now that the bend will stop the beads from sliding, lay one incomplete earring aside and focus on the other until its completion.  Using the wire cutters, cut the excess wire off of the headpin about one centimeter away from the beads.  The round nose pliers should now be used to create a loop at the end of the headpin.  This loop will be used to connect the headpin to the ear wire.  Clasp the very end of the trimmed part of the headpin between the two parts of the pliers.  The pliers should be perpendicular to the wire.  Holding the wire tightly, roll the pliers so a loop is almost completely created, leaving a small space on which to string the ear wire.  This is where patience comes in - shaping wire takes practice.  

     Now it is time to attach the ear wire to the beaded headpin.  Slide the ready-made loop at the bottom of the ear wire onto the loop which was created on the headpin.  Again using the chain nose pliers, gently close the loop on the headpin so there is no room for the ear wire to slide off.  One must be careful not to change ear wires and beaded headpins too often because the loops will break over time if they are bent too often.  

     The first earring is now complete.  Repeat the wire-bending-attachment process with the second earring.  Finally, the one of a kind earrings must be worn with pride because no one else has the same pair of earrings!  

or something.

You Are What You Eat

        While this statement isn't entirely true, and you're not going to turn into a banana if you eat three bananas every day, there's a lot of meaning behind it that, sadly, gets ignored.  Americans are stereotyped as being fat, as I've discovered after being asked several times why I'm NOT fat.  There are plenty of people over here who are just as overweight as Americans are.  I see a lot of girls my age who were fit a year ago when I showed up starting to put on weight as they stop growing upwards but don't stop eating as much and don't exercise enough.  Our body is a temple and we need to take care of it.
     We can't gorge ourselves on candy, chips, and McDonalds every day.  Actually, most of us don't, but we'll have a piece of chocolate here, a handful of MnM's there, a coke now or then.  I'm not saying don't ever touch any junk food ever, but we need to think about what we're putting in our body.  

     To consider another point of this, there is a passage in the Bible where Jesus talks about the inside and the outside of the cup:


37 When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. 38 But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.

39 Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 

     Now, making sure your eating is healthy and you exercise enough is all well and good, but that's just taking care of the "outside" of the cup.  The outside is your physical body; the inside is your spiritual, emotional, and mental being.  What are you feeding your mind?  Are you reading your Bible everyday?  Are you listening to music that swears and elevates sex?  Do you listen to your mentors and leaders, or are you following the way of tv shows, magazines, and giving in to peer pressure?  
     I challenge you to think about what you eat.  What are you putting into your body - both physical and spiritual, and does it honor God?   

The Taste of Words

     "Milo nibbled carefully at the letter and discovered that it was quite sweet and delicious--just the way you'd expect and A to taste.  'I knew you'd like it,' laughed the letter man, popping two G's and an R into his mouth and letting the juice drip down his chin. 'A's one of our most popular letters.  All of them aren't that good,' he confided in a low tone. 'Take the Z, for instance--very dry and sawdusty.  And the X?  Tastes like a trunkful of stale air.   That's why people hardly ever use them.  But most of the others are quite tasty.  Try some more.' He gave Milo an I, which was icy and refreshing, and Tock a crisp, crunchy C."

     Words we use have their own taste, too.  Think of negative words: never, hate, can't, won't, worthless, preppy, etc.  Would you want to eat those words?  Wouldn't it be much nicer to use (and eat) positive words such as love, please, thank you, encouragement, and beautiful?  Let's think about what we're saying...

     Proverbs 12:18: "The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."

6 Easy Ways to SLEEP More

I don't know about you, but I like my beauty sleep, ladies. Since I'm starting school on the 24th, I've been trying to think of ways to cut my getting-ready time down so I can sleep in as long as possible. Most of you have probably already started school (and are loving having to wake up early again, I'm sure!) so I thought I would share with you what I have come up with.



1. Time yourself.
Use a couple mornings to time yourself to figure out how long it takes you to get ready. You might find that you are allowing yourself way more time than you need. If that is the case, take the time your using on facebook or texting your friends to SLEEP instead.

2. Take showers at night.
I used to take showers every single morning and this was definitely cutting in on my sleep time (not mention, not very nice to my hair). Now I take one every other night. I find that taking a shower before bed also helps me to relax.

3. Pre-perpare your breakfast.
I can't even tell you how long it takes me to decide what to have for breakfast some mornings. Our family doesn't buy cereal often so that's not even a quick option for me. By taking a Saturday afternoon to make up and freeze a bunch of waffles to warm up when I need them, I cut down a lot of breakfast time in the morning.

4. Plan your outfits.
Okay, lets be honest, most girls take way too long to decide what to wear. But if you plan ahead, it can save a lot of time and headache on a hurried school morning.

5. Find cute and easy hairstyles.
Curling or straightening your hair every morning takes a lot of time, hassle, and can be very damaging to your hair. Youtube has tons of video hair tutorials for every texture and length, making it easy to find ways to style your particular hair type. I have a couple go-to styles that work really well for my hair texture. And when I want to change it up, I either french braid or roll my hair up in socks like rollars before going to bed to get a wavy or curly texture.

6. Take care of your skin.
Yeah, this is a weird one; how can taking care of your skin help you get more sleep? Bear with me ladies, it will make sense in a minute. So, am I completely weird in that the way I feel about my looks depends on how my skin looks? I have an acne problem most of the time and whenever I get a new breakout, my looks-esteem drops quite a bit. Yes, I know, beauty is not skin deep. But that fact doesn't change that we want to look our best, does it? I have tried so many different products to clear up my face. The problem is, whenever something worked to get rid of the acne, it made my skin dry and dead looking. This week I decided that putting all those chemicals on my face could not be good for me at all. Thus began my search for the perfect natural skin-clearer. I'm getting pretty close to finding it (thanks to pinterest). There will be a post about it once I do find it.
Anyways...that long skin story did have a point. That point is that when my skin looks good, I feel good about my looks and don't feel like I have to make up for my not good skin by wearing more makeup, making sure my hair is extra perfect, or spending more time on my clothes. Thus, I spend less time getting ready in the morning! (Whew, glad I finally got my point accross!)

I hope these ideas will help you sleep in later! Let me know if you've tried any of these things and how it worked for you. Or if you have other ideas for cutting down your getting-ready time.

Beauty Tip of the Week

     Everyone talks about finding your own style, being unique, loving who you are and so forth.  One really, really great way to do this is make your own jewelry.  I can't wear anything but gold earrings, so I have to know how to change out the wires on most store bought earrings, but I love making my own as well.  It's easy, too; if you have beads lying around your house, you can use those, or you can use anything you find.

       You really only need two tools - a pair of needle nose pliers, and a pair of wire cutters.  These can be picked up at craft or hardware stores.  Other than that, you need wire, a pair of able hands, and good lighting, and maybe an easy pattern.  For the pattern, just google how to make something, and then browse around until you find an easy one.
     The great thing about homemade jewelry is that no one else will have something just like whatever you made.  It'll be completely unique, and completely you.  If what you like changes, then you can just take it apart and remake it - it's as simple as that.
     Go get creative!

Beauty Tip of the Week: Less is More

Okay, so you’ve probably heard the saying “less is more” right? Well, in my opinion, that saying works really well when it comes to makeup. I only wear a little bit of eyeliner, some mascara, and chap-stick. When I want to look especially nice, I put on some lip gloss that I got for Christmas last year. I want to make my best features “pop” rather than over-throwing them with layers of makeup. I know how fun it is to “mess around” and experiment with different makeup but ladies, makeup doesn’t make you beautiful. What makes you beautiful is your heart, your personality, and your face before you put on your makeup. There isn’t anything you need to change about yourself, you’re perfect just the way you are.