Being Married

So I've been married for about 2 1/2 months, and it's a lot different than I expected.  I was talking to my sister-in-law about it, and I really do believe people glamourize marriage.  When I was single, I wanted to be married so I could experience constant intimacy and love from a man.  But NEWSFLASH - men are not perfect.  And they can't always fulfill the desires and expectations of women... in fact, they can be pretty bad at it. Lol  

Marriage is about sacrifice and service - CONSTANTLY.  As a single person, I only had to worry about providing for myself and meeting my own needs.  Not so anymore.  

NOW I'm constantly thinking about what to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner that my husband will actually eat; how I'm going to work a full time job, keep the apartment clean, keep the dishes clean, make sure the laundry gets done, AND stretch our meager incomes to pay our bills, buy groceries, and have money left over for things like saving, insurance, and investments... you know, for the future.  

It's exhausting.  I'm exhausted.  And it doesn't help that I've been sick 4 times in the last 2 months. 

Yeah, marriage... it's not about me or making myself happy.  It's about serving.  It's about sacrifice.  It's about denying self.  It's about forgiving.  It's about learning how to function and interact with another human being whose thoughts, interests, and priorities are often vastly different from my own.  It's about maturing.  It's so different from anything I've ever experienced before.  

Without Christ, I wouldn't survive it.  

I'm so thankful He is my anchor.

Why You Should Care What People Think

I've heard a lot of people say, "I really don't care what anyone else thinks."  Or friends give other friends advice/encouragement with the words, "Don't care what anyone else thinks - do your own thing!"  But have you really thought about what saying those words means?

If you don't care what other people think, that means that you essentially only care about your own thoughts or opinions, which, in a word is SELFISH.  People who only care about what they think are selfish individuals who struggle with submitting to authority.

I bet now you're asking, "So does that mean we're supposed to care what everybody and their brother thinks?"  And the answer to that is an emphatic NO.  Because if you go around caring what everyone else thinks, you will have no inner strength to stand up for what you believe (because you will be bending to everyone else's will)!  That kind of life would make a very INSECURE and FICKLE human being.

So what's the alternative?  If we shouldn't care what everyone thinks, but we also shouldn't NOT care what everyone thinks, then what are we supposed to do?  Glad you asked.

I'm gonna throw a word out there, and you just think about it a minute.  Let it roll around in your brain.  Let it seep into your thoughts.  Let it form how you think about this topic.

The word is DISCERNMENT.

Some of you may already know what that word means.  Some of you may not.  So I'll tell you anyway.  Discernment is the ability to judge well or, in Christian contexts, discernment is perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtain spiritual direction and understanding (thanks Google).

Discernment is one of those words often misused by Christians and hardly ever used by any one else...unless someone says that you have a "discerning eye" for beauty, clothes, etc.

It's no wonder, then, that people often take the "advice" to not care what anyone else thinks and become less humble, less selfless, and less able to submit to authority.

Let's go back a little bit and review who we are as people and why we were placed on this Earth with other people just like us.

We are imperfect.  We are fallible.  We are forgetful.  We are frail.  BUT we are also creatures of the same God.  He is our strength.  He comforts us, guides us, and gives us direction if we let Him.  Oftentimes this direction may appear in the form of ANOTHER HUMAN BEING being used by God to give us godly counsel or direction.

Did you catch that?  GOD SOMETIMES USES OTHER HUMAN BEINGS TO GIVE US GODLY COUNSEL OR DIRECTION.

Which means, if we're off "not caring what anyone else thinks" and doing our own thing, we may miss that direction.  We just need to be conscientious of others around us.  But that doesn't mean we need to take what everyone else says as "God's honest truth," because honestly, it may not be.  There are a lot of false prophets and deceitful people out there who would love to see us fall.

So what can we do to distinguish between those God is using and those who are trying to make us fall?  That's where discernment comes in.

1) God will never ask us to do anything that directly defies Scripture, so if someone is giving you advice or counsel that is against Scriptural teaching, then it is NOT of God, and you probably shouldn't listen to it.  If you're not sure whether the advice goes against Scripture, then GET IN THE WORD and find out!  Or ask someone you TRUST and who you know is wise in Scriptural teachings.

2) JUST BECAUSE advice or even an opinion comes from a "Christian" source does not automatically mean it is the right or only opinion to have.  Growing up, I had a friend who was a die-hard Christian.  Just to look at her, you could tell she loved Jesus.  It took me a long time to realize that there were certain things that we had different opinions about, and that was okay.  Just because she didn't like a certain store, certain clothes, certain music, or even certain people DID NOT mean that I shouldn't like them either.

3) On the flip-side, JUST BECAUSE advice or an opinion comes from a non-Christian source does not automatically mean it is the wrong opinion.  They just may come from the wrong motivation, but the opinions themselves may not be wrong.  For example, there are people in the world who are not Christians that have decided to save sex for marriage.  This reflects the biblical command to remain pure and undefiled for the marriage bed.  Another example is the health movement currently sweeping across America.  Not everyone who eats healthy is a Christian, just like not everyone who eats like a glutton is a pagan.  But Scripture does say our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, so we need to treat it as such.

I hope this gives a clearer picture of why we should care what people...certain people...think.  BUT, we should always judge the thoughts and opinions of others through the lens of God's Word and what we know to be biblical truth.

No, I don't want to be a FCSB!

So whilst G-chatting with one of my most awesome friends, Jordan, today, I realized something.  Well, first, let me just post a bit of our convo to get you in the zone:

me: I'm trying to find a job and I just want to pull my hair out, scream, cry, and eat chocolate all the time.
Jordan: i know that's super hard
me: Yeah :/ And the whole eating chocolate thing doesn't do well with my wedding diet/exercise program. haha
Jordan: hahaha
yeah i've been working out 5 or 6 days a week
training for a 10k in a few weeks
and then i'm doing a triathlon in the fall with some coworkers
for me, it helped to have something to train for
instead of just having a general "i'm going to lose weight for the wedding" thing
because that was too easy for me to cheat with
like "oh, yes i will eat all of this bread because the wedding is still months away"
me: haha yes, the bread thing - totally me
Jordan: "i don't need to go running this morning, i've got so much time"
but with having an actual race coming up, i've gotta build up my stamina
and i've come a long way since the fall
i went from only being able to run like 5-10 minutes at a time to now being able to run for over an hour without stopping
me: And you're already so good-looking! Gahhh! I'm gonna be like a flesh-colored Shrek bride!
That's. awesome. You're awesome.
Jordan: FLESH COLORED SHREK BRIDE IS MY FAVORITE PHRASE OF 2014
i love you and you will look NOTHING like a FCSB
me: YASSSS! I'm so glad it's a thing now. With its own acronym and everything.
In fact, I'm going to write a blog post entitled FCSB and mention this very conversation. I may even copy and paste.

So, in conclusion, I don't want to be a FCSB.  I refuse.  My current goals are:

1. Find a dress.

2. Find a job.

3. Eat healthy.

4. Exercise er'day (or almost every day)...

5. Lose weight, look great - No FCSB here. 

Have a great day, everyone :)  

Graduated & Engaged: A Journey Frought With Tears and Laughter

So I'm definitely not bored anymore - that's for sure!

As of the middle of December, I am a graduate of Liberty University Online with my degree in Human Services. Which I still don't know what to do with. And tons of debt - yay! Perfect.

Obviously, that means I am now looking for another part-time job or a full-time job. Aka, I need more money. lol

And now to my more exciting and less depressing news - I AM ENGAGED! *cue celebratory music and confetti and balloons and dancing monkeys*  Our wedding date, as of right now, is set for September 13, 2014.  But that might change.  Because, you know, for-sure wedding dates are so overrated.

Here's a link to our website.  You should visit and sign the guest book and donate towards my wedding fund.  Haha  Just kidding about that last part! ....Kinda.

Anyway, thanks for being happy for me, and here's some wedding-y type things to leave you with:

The engagement ring :)

Cake Topper that I LOVE!

Brady Bunch-esque bridal party pose!

Adorable ring bearer/flower girl photo :)

I love mason jars, sheet music, and flowers...

...And lace.

...And floating candles :P

What our wedding cake will (hopefully) look like!

Idea for the getaway.

Bored Before Christmas

I think the reason I usually procrastinate so long before anything is that it builds the anticipation.  Also, if I'm super productive and get everything done ahead of time, all I have left to do is wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Which is no fun, because then I just get bored.  Like today.  I'm done with all my Christmas shopping, and I'm done with all my homework for my Master's degree.  So now what?  I'm bored, broke, and in debt.

Yeah, this is great.

I could exercise, but that's no fun to do alone, and I don't feel like getting all sore and sweaty.

I could write more in either of my two stories, but it's been so long since I've updated them, I've forgotten where I was going.

I could...well, that's about it.

So what am I doing instead?  Shopping on Amazon and Etsy, of course!  And spending more money I don't have.  Pfft.

I want to decorate a gingerbread house.  I want to write a song.  I want to have a guitar lesson.  Where are my artistic and musical peeps at?

Sorry if this was more like a drawn-out Facebook status than an actual blog post.  Here's some fun pictures to make it more interesting:

*Sigh* I need to go caroling.

Impromptu Recipe

So I woke up this morning hungry.  (Who doesn't, right?)

I looked in the refrigerator to see what we had in the way of healthy breakfast foods.  Okay, is it just me, or if you're out of fruit, you're pretty much screwed regarding healthy choices?

But then I saw it - we had one egg left!  Hallelujah, praise the Lord!  Except...I'm not a skinny model-type, so I require more than one egg for satiation.  Then I got a brilliant idea.  Beyond brilliant!  I would make a new recipe that would be talked about for generations and generations to come!  I, Christina Acree, would create a masterpiece to end all breakfast masterpieces!  In my mind, it would look something like this:

So, armed with my hopes for the end result, I began...rifling through the refrigerator.  Onion, oh yeah, can't go wrong with that... Don't forget the one egg that started it all... Parmesan cheese, what a good choice! (mental back pat)  Zucchini and squash to use for the bottoms... An orange pepper just for fun...  Tomatoes and cheddar cheese... maybe?  

Once I had my ingredients, I was ready to begin.  I briefly considered donning an apron to feel more epically domestic, but then I thought, "Mmm, yeah, better not..." (Name that movie.)  I hollowed the squash and zucchini using a vegetable peeler, because we didn't have any other kitchen utensil I could think of to use.  Then, I threw the innards (that's an awkward word to use when cooking...) into my Magic Bullet cup, along with the one egg (sans shell, of course), a bit of orange pepper and onion, and...that was pretty much it.  Blended it all together until it looked like runny, gag-me, orange goop.

It was at this point that I decided to give myself a pep talk, because so far, things weren't progressing quite how I had originally pictured them... So after the pep talk, I forged ahead, just as Julia Childs (Child? Chiles? Eh, whatevs) and the other culinary greats had before me.

I placed the zucchini and squash shells on a black, greased 9x13 pan.  I poured the concoction onto each shell, then sprinkled on the parmesan cheese (in hindsight, step-by-step pictures probably would have made this seem more legit, but that's why hindsight is 20-20 and foresight is...not).

Then, everything was ready to go in the oven...which I quickly realized I had not even pre-heated as of yet.  So, being the impatient person I am, I popped the pan into the oven and turned it on to 400 degrees (not gonna lie, I just stared at my keyboard for about 2 minutes trying to find the degrees symbol).  Then I cleaned up the kitchen while I waited for my food to cook (also eating whatever I had not used for my recipe).

After I had cleaned up, the oven finally beeped, signalling that it was done preheating.  I turned on the oven light and peered in, hoping my masterpiece had transformed in just 10 minutes!  Nope...still looked sad.

So instead of fangirling over my food by the oven for the next 8 minutes, I decided to set the oven timer and clean my room whilst waiting.

Now, cleaning my room is another story within itself.  It actually usually only requires me making my bed and sorting through my clothes to look a million times better.  The trick is knowing which clothes are clean and which ones need to be washed - or, if I'm really lazy, I just throw all of the clothes in the hamper and call it a day.  But today, I was feeling productive.  So I decided to sort through my laundry using the sight-and-smell method.

First, I look at the laundry in question.  Are there deodorant stains on the shirts?  Yes?  Dirty.  Do the shorts/jeans have any hideously grotesque food or grass stains on them?  No?  Clean.  Is this a pair of underwear?  Yes?  Dirty.  Is this a bra?  Yes?  Clean.  Socks?  Dirty.  Then, for the clothing that is not easily sorted by sight, I use smell.  This is reserved as a last measure, considering that some clothing (especially any shirts or socks left here by my boyfriend) can be really rank and devastating to my nasal passages.

After the laundry was all sorted, I made my bed.  The oven timer beeped.  I surveyed my dish's progress through the oven window.  On a scale of 1 to 10, it looked to be about a 7.  Not bad.  I pulled it out of the oven, sampling a zucchini piece and then a squash piece (both pretty bland, next time I need to add some seasoning), and then I put the rest in a storage container for the fridge - lunch perhaps?

I threw all the dishes in the sink for my mom to do later, then left the kitchen.  Ten minutes later, I came back in the kitchen and turned the oven off (Oops...).

And (drumroll please) here are the results:

Hold your applause.  No really.  They were nothing to write home about.  Although, let me just say, for only using what I had to work with, these didn't turn out bad!  And at least they're healthy.

So that's my impromptu recipe for today.  Help me name it and you'll win a prize!

Life Lately

I know you all are probably sitting on the edge of your seats wondering what I've been up to lately, because I haven't posted anything in a bajillion years! ...Right?  Knew it.

So, first of all, I'm hoping to graduate with my Masters degree in December.  We'll see how that goes.

Secondly, I'm in a band!  It's called House of Alitheia, and we've been together for about 3-4 months now.  We've had 2 shows so far, and we're working on some original music now.  I'm so excited!

Also, for those of you who aren't up on the Facebook or haven't talked to me in awhile, I'm dating this pretty incredible guy named Tyler.  It's pretty official :)

There's more photos, but I'm too lazy to upload them right now :)

Um...I guess that's about it.  I'm still working at the church three days a week, I still love my niece and nephew, and I still wish I had more time to write my stories... :( Maybe one day soon...

So, you can back up off the edge of your seat now.  Oh, and you're welcome. ;)