Stress & Then Some

Anyone that personally knows me knows that I get stressed, usually over insane things - especially my job! Give me a break though... I'm a therapist - HELLO, it HAS to be one of the 10 most stressful jobs on the planet!!! & as a therapist, I teach stress management skills to my clients everyday, do I use these techniques... yep, but not often enough I can assure you! We all deal with stress differently... I SLEEP! I literally come home from work and take an hour nap, does it help... no, but it does give me 60 full minutes to not deal with anything. So really, I'm just shutting it out or running away for 60 minutes; this of course, causes even more issues that night when I go to bed, because not only is my mind reeling with possible solutions for hours but my body doesn't want to fall asleep either because I've napped. & when I don't sleep, I'm a pain in the butt to say the least... it's a vicious cycle! So - help a therapist out... what helps you manage your stress?

The last couple of weeks have been particularly stressful at work for me; it hasn't been only 1 thing but a multitude of things. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my job so please don't think that I'm complaining! I can't imagine a more fulfilling, rewarding (stressful yes) career for me to have... I believe that God's purpose for me in life is to help others. I'll give you a brief overview - 1 last week of school, 2 find out that I am moving schools next year, 3 plan summer services and schedule appointments, 4 go to a training, 5 work on summer packets and paperwork for hours & work late, 6 find out summer services are (temporarily- fingers crossed) canceled & have to figure out what to do with a whole caseload of kids, 7 play the waiting game! Yesterday, several of the other therapists that I work with had a little get together to unwind - this is incredibly helpful. I'm blessed to have made friends with most of the therapists in my department & since we all become a little loopy when we're overwhelmed the humor is flying free in our halls right now! I need to learn to set things down and walk away... "Let go and let God." You'd think after 27 years I'd have figured that out... maybe one day!

Thankfully, I have a rock at home - my amazing husband, my sister who is my best friend on the planet & that I can talk to anything & everything about for hours, my parents, my family, my wonderful friends - I'm blessed to be surrounded by such a great group of supporters everyday! So, the verses that I need to focus on for the next couple of weeks:

Proverbs 3:5-6
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Howards for Hire

Jon and I bought our house a couple of months after we got engaged in 2009; we knew that we wanted to make a lot of updates to the home before we even moved in, so we took around 5 weeks to get the house ready to live in & then moved in. We've been living here for about a year & a half & we're still working on the house - home improvement projects are time consuming & EXPENSIVE!!! We deemed 2011 The Year of the Kitchen & started looking for ceramic tile, new counter tops, back splash, etc etc in January & by March we were ready to go. I made a budget for our project based on everything we picked out & we started buying everything. Thankfully, my mom, dad and grandparents have done their own fair share of home improvement projects so they teach us how to get started & help us out a TON & then Jon & I take over. We complain A LOT to each other about how tired we are, how much this stinks, how much money we're spending, etc but when the project is complete we both have this overwhelming sense of pride "We DID IT & it looks AWESOME!" Ceramic tile was AWFUL... it wasn't that it was hard work but it was time consuming & messy!!! We put ceramic in the kitchen, breakfast nook & laundry room... we have a lot of space - we started this the week of our wedding anniversary & got all but about 20 square feet grouted... ummm... that was 2 months ago - I finished it last night! HA! I'd been saying for weeks that I was going to finish it but I never had the time, yesterday, Jon began to install our new counter tops so I guess I felt the need to be productive in the kitchen too (aside from the daily cooking and cleaning!). I'm off today and I have a few projects (that don't involve remodeling) that I need to take care of but the rest of the day I will spend on the floor with a little brush and cleaner to clean all of the grout so that I can seal it, its slowly coming together & I get so excited!! After we finish the counter tops (hopefully tonight) then we are going to put up a stone back splash, under cabinet lighting, finish the door separating the kitchen and laundry room, and hang a new pot rack... then I can add the final decorative touches. It really is a lot of fun and I also think it's good for a marriage to do things like this together, we see our work everyday and know that WE DID IT TOGETHER - my brother in law Mark said that exact thing this weekend because he and Dede (my sister in law) are constantly working on projects at their home too. We love our home and still have many more projects that we're going to be tackling over the next few months (years!)... up next, the guest bathroom! So... Howards for Hire... umm... not really, only in our home - ask for help in oh, say 2015!

Bless This House

Bless this house, o Lord, we pray.
Make it safe by night and day.
Bless these walls so firm and stout,
Keeping want and trouble out.
Bless the roof and chimney tall,
Let thy peace lie over all.
Bless the doors that they may prove
Ever open to joy and love.
Bless the windows shining bright,
Letting in God's heavenly light.
Bless the hearth a-blazing there,
With smoke ascending like a prayer.
Bless the people here within...
Keep them pure and free from sin.
Bless us all, that one day, we
May be fit, O lord, to dwell with Thee.

Life's Blessings

Jon & I are home together all morning since it's Memorial Day - we're having a cookout with my whole family this afternoon & hanging out at my parents' pool. I decide, since we've been gone to Atlanta for the weekend that I'm going to use the morning to do laundry, run by the grocery store for some projects I'm tackling tomorrow, etc; I consider this a lazy morning... although there's really nothing lazy about it. I go in our laundry room & I say to Jon "If I'm not out in 30 minutes start digging through the piles of clothes until you find me!" - he laughs & says "Deal!" Seriously... that's HOW MUCH LAUNDRY WE HAVE!! I could've sworn I just did a TON of laundry last week. You'd think after 3 years of living together that I would know HOW MUCH laundry the 2 of us accumulate... apparently, I don't! I mean really, how in the world do 2 people wear so many clothes??!! How will I ever manage this load(s) after we (dare I say) have kids?! Maybe there's a laundry service for hire!

So, as I sit here thinking about all of this laundry & semi-complaining in my mind what is my sweet husband doing? He's installing our new coutertops that have been in our garage for at least 6 weeks! Jon has to go back to work tonight so it's his only lazy day of his 3 day weekend & he's installing our countertops. I didn't ask him to do this today & I'm not even helping - nor has he asked... I'm sitting at the breakfast table blogging & he's working to get this finished & it's hard work; knowing that after working on these all day and a family cookout all afternoon he'll have to go to work for 8 hours tonight & I'm off again tomorrow. Oh, how blessed I am! God provided for me the most amazing, hard working, supportive, loving husband! I thank God for him each and every day, Jon is my rock, my best friend and the love of my life - days like this & little moments like these really open my eyes even more to the wonder of God's love for us... He brought this amazing man to be here with me until I am in Heaven with Him!

So - Life's Blessings... husbands, laundry & all that goes along with those!

Ephesians 1:3 "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."

Busy Bee Howards

It's probably not a good sign that I've only been blogging for a week & I've already taken a 5 day hiatus... BUT in my defense it was an INSANELY BUSY week! I'll recap: Wednesday was my last school day as a school-based therapist, I made it through my 1st year! Woo hoo! I spent the afternoon working on summer plans with another therapist & then I had a study group until 7:30pm for my LMFT exam (more on that later). OF COURSE, since the Idol finale was Wednesday night Jon & I were glued to the television for 2 hours... thank goodness for Papa John's - I usually cook dinner but I was exhausted - little did I know the following 2 days would be even more exhausting!!! Thursday I had to go to Columbia for a training for work... leaving my house at 6:15 in the morning does NOT make me a happy girl - but training is done & now I'm a better driver (HA! It was driver's training so I can drive my kiddo clients all summer - we watched videos for 8 hours). Friday - in true mental health fashion, I had plans to catch up on paperwork, get out all of my summer appointment reminders & summer camp letters & instead there was a crisis in one of our districts & the rest of the day didn't go as planned - however, a lot of kids & families were helped with our presence & that is one of the most rewarding feelings you can have. Jon of course had take-out 1 night & leftovers 1 night... nothing wrong with that... I was asleep on the couch Thursday night before 9 & Friday night I was in the bed before 10 - worn out! Luckily, 4 days of stress free bliss follow!!! So - no excuses... I'm back to blogging; busy bee Howards or not!

Oh, American Idol

Every season Jon & I attempt to rebel against the American Idol hype & every season we fail miserably! We decided that we weren't going to watch this season as soon as we heard that Simon, Ellen & Kara all left and wouldn't be back for Season 10... how long do you think that lasted? Umm... until the very first show of Season 10 - Auditions! We said "We'll just see how we like the new judges, we still won't watch the whole season." BOLOGNA! We were once again sucked in & have watched EVERY SINGLE episode this season!! We comment during the performance nights & then attempt to identify the bottom 3 & the contestant going home each week... we are borderline addicted - thank goodness for tivo because we'd probably miss half the shows without it & we just couldn't have that!!

Tonight was the final performance night & tomorrow the Season 10 American Idol will be named... guess where we'll be tomorrow night at oh, say 8:00 pm?!

I am...

I read a small daily devotion from Women of Faith and on Friday there is a longer devotion posted, this was last (5/20/11) Friday's; I copied it from their website. I am carrying it with me this week, what a powerful message to know who I AM TO GOD, I thought I'd share it with all of you.

Who Are You - Really?

Your hands have made me and fashioned me. —Job 10:8

Do you know who you really are? Do you really?

I know this may sound like a radical concept to some of you, but the more I’ve soaked myself in the truth of God’s Word, the more I believe I know who I really am. God has the kindest and most amazingly brilliant methods of affirming who we are to him.

Well, just in case you aren’t completely sure who you really are, consider this wonderful list of verses as a daily reminder of what God thinks when he thinks of you—which is, by the way, constantly. Let them lift you up and open your heart to see your true identity.

1.I am God’s daughter. (John 1:12)

2.I’m a friend of Christ. (John 15:15)

3.I’m God’s coworker. (1 Corinthians 3:9)

4.I’m God’s workmanship. (Ephesians 2:10)

5.I can’t be separated from the love of God. (Romans 8:35–39)

6.I am free. (John 8:31–32)

7.I am forgiven. (Romans 8:1–2)

8.I can do all things through Christ. (Philippians 4:13)

9.I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. (Ephesians 1:3)

10.I have Christ’s mind. (Philippians 2:5–7)

—Sandi Patty

Excerpted from A Grand New Day © 2008 by Thomas Nelson. Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Mexican Monday

In the Howard house we LOVE Mexican food! The Mexican restaurant near our house is our go-to place when we're really busy, I work late or we're just plain tired & don't feel like cooking. A month or so ago Jon & I went to The Cazbah in Greenville for dinner (we LOVE The Cazbah, GREAT tapas!!!) & we ordered shrimp tacos... delicious!; I've had a craving for them ever since! So, tonight I decided, craving Mexican as always, that I was going to make my own version of these shrimp tacos; I googled & cook.com & recipe.com, etc etc until I had made my own recipe. They were WONDERFUL!!! I served them with homemade corn chips & the organic, homemade salsa that I had gotten at the FM on Saturday, great Mexican Monday!

Shrimp Tacos:

In a large pot:
1 teaspoon of ground ceyenne pepper
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
1 tablespoon of ground black peppercorn
Quarters of 2 limes (from the squeezed)
Approximately 3 quarts of water

*Bring to a boil for 2 minutes & then add 1 pound of shrimp, boil shrimp for approximately 4 minutes or until done

In a seperate bowl:
1/4 cup of fresh squeezed limes (about 3 limes)
1 medium tomato diced
1/4 cup of minced green onions
1 avocado diced
1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh cilantro
2 turns of a black peppercorn grind
1 cup of corn (I used frozen & heated throughout)
1 jalapeno seeded & minced

*Once the shrimp is cooked fully drain it and it to avacodo mixture.
*Shrimp mixture goes on corn tortillas (that I had already warmed in the oven on 350 for about 7 minutes)
*You can add a dab of sour cream to each if you'd like & some salsa

For the homemade corn chips (SUPER EASY):
Corn tortillas, cut into quarters
Spray a baking sheet w/ cooking spray litely
Place Quartered corn tortillas in rows, spray litely with cooking spray
Top with a touch of Kosher Salt
Bake approximately 10 minutes on 375 or until litely brown & crispy
Serve with Salsa!

With this recipe you can enjoy Mexican Monday ANY day of the week! :-)