What's a girl to do?

 I've been battling an illness going on two weeks now. I know I've told you before, but when I get a sinus infection or a cold, it just takes me longer than the average Joe to get over it. Well, the infection moved into my jaw. It's not cute! And, it hurts! Soooooo, this morning I get up and it's more illness.

My "TO DO" lists is shot.

 I look over it again and pick out the essentials :

 1) Wash the soccer socks that I so carefully asked my children to put ALL of their uniforms together when we got to Atlanta. One pair of socks caused a mental breakdown in the la mansion Britton this morning. Whew.  ( DONE!)

2) Study to show thyself approved. (DONE!) 

Equipped with my Bible, my prayer book, my journal and my favorite bible class book, I got this covered. Isn't my journal SUPER CUTE?! Kase bought it for me. I love it.

3) Go to post office to mail taxes.......... I'll get there. 

                                                        4) Write a letter.

This is a lost art I refuse to give up. 

5) Make myself feel better! 

Who could not get better after having tea in this cute thing? It's a gift from Emily, Olivia and Abby. Makes my day just looking at it! I love it and those girls! 

Well, that completes my TO DO list today. Everything else I had on there will have to be moved to 

tomorrow. Hopefully by tonight I will feel like going to the soccer game. I will be there even if  I don't feel like it! It's what I do. 

MAKE THE BEST OF YOUR DAY! 

A Little Piece Of My Heart

   
 There are many people in life that are obsessed with cars. They look for them to purchase, they work on them, they talk about them, they dream about them! Their life revolves around cars. I'm just not one of those people. I've never placed emphasis on a vehicle. I mean, come on, I drive a Mom van. Ewwwww!!!!!!

 But, it's paid for and when I got it, I needed room for seven people in a vehicle. It was the most amazing car ever in my eyes. It was perfect. Everything automatic, clean, new smelling and all the bells and whistles. I thought it was something!

 Well, my first car was nothing like that.. It wasn't expensive. It wasn't luxury. In fact it was considered Antique! It had that old car smell and dust still in it from the 60's I know! You had to manually roll down the windows. I even ran out of gas a few times before I realized that the gauge was broken. It was a 1965 Volkswagon Beetle, or better known as the Bug!

  It was my DREAM car. It was electric blue. (I wanted to paint it purple, but somebody wouldn't let me!) You could hear me coming from a mile away. I blared Janice Joplin, Lenny Kravitz and Tori Amos from the speakers constantly, while screaming every word from the top of my lungs. I carried all of my friends everywhere they wanted to go. It was awesome!

I loved that car.

It was me.

It fit my personality.
Even the horn had a little sass in it!

 When my Dad sold it, a little piece of my heart went with it.  One of my best friend's would now be the owner of my car. I was devastated. Still am.

Even today,  I do not want a Denali. I do not want a Lamborghini. All I want is a BUG!

My style of music has changed, and my color preferance is no longer purple. But, it is and will always be my dream car. I do want an upgrade to a comvertible... Selfish, I know!

 I want the wind in my hair. I want you to hear me coming from a mile away because of my amazing singing!  I want to drive to Seaside with my flip flops and shades on. I want take another little piece of my heart with it. I want to make new memories.

 It will happen one day and I want you by my side all along the way!

She is more than Beautiful

How many times do you tell her she is Beautiful? 

 This is something that I have struggled with for many years. Even though I know B loves me with every ounce of  love he has in  his heart, I still get embarrassed when he tells me, "You are beautiful."

 This week I was talking to a dear friend of mine. We were discussing the word "Beautiful." I tell her many times how great of a friend she is, how she makes me a stronger person, and how beautiful she is. When I say that she is beautiful I noticed that there was never a response. In fact, she always changed the subject. This began to become a challenge for me. I thought she did not have enough confidence in herself. I thought she was just like me. Little did I know, that was far from the truth.

This is her response to me asking the question, "Why can you not accept it when someone tells you that you are beautiful?" :

 " I know that when you say that I'm beautiful, that you really mean it and you're not talking about just physical. I really do appreciate that. I'm just not really comfortable with the word because I hate that so many girls put all of their effort into it and base their worth/status on being "beautiful". It's such a trivial thing, especially because we have no control over how God made us. That word and "pretty" have always, sort of, left a bad taste in my mouth. I do not want my worth to be defined by how I look. I'm more than that. I've put effort into being more than that." 

 WOW! 

 My next statement to her was nothing but an apology. An " I'm sorry for not understanding." Of course then I started to question myself. "Why do I even question my beauty?" " Did my God not make me with the beauty that he desired me to have?" Gen. 1:27 . Sure, I have corrupted it with MY acts of over eating and lack of exercise. But, he made me what I ought to be.

 Little did I know that I was going to learn a valuable lesson about myself. All of these years of not liking my outer beauty was lacking the trust I had in my Father. I am blessed with a husband that has loved me no matter what my jean size was. I am beautiful. I'm beautiful because I am me. I am me because I fear God. I trust that he made me how I ought to be.

 I also have worked hard at being "more". I work everyday to be more Christ like, more of a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend.

I hope that when you read this you will also strive to be more

Be the YOU that God made! And, LOVE it.

18 Years Old

Do you Remember when you couldn't wait to turn 18? How you thought that all of life's worries were going to change! How you couldn't wait to make those "Adult decisions" on your own! Ohhhhh...... those were the days!
Well today I'm celebrating being 18 years old! I'm not talking about my age....
 I'm way over that (25,shhhh... don't tell)!
 Today I'm talking about being in LOVE for 18 years! I met Brandon Britton 18 years ago today!

 Ever heard of High Rock?

          Well, I AM a Mississippi Girl, and even I have never been to a swimming hole! I was really a little disgusted by it all!!

But, I am a girl of adventure, so why not!

Brandon came by chance, if that is what you would like to call it.( And, I thought he liked my best friend's sister!!!!)

He was kind of shy. Really nice.And kind of a sports nut. Nothing I was used to.

BUT, He was cute! And, I am a girl of adventure! LOL!

He asked me out for that night and the rest is history!

                                                                      I WAS IN LOVE!

He was the best thing that ever happened to me. And, I knew it. We didn't leave each others side.

I didn't know that love could be so strong.

If I hurt, he hurt.
If I cried, he cried.
If I smiled, it was because of him.

Now, a friend of mine once told me that I shouldn't paint such a perfect picture of marriage. I must say, ours has never been perfect. But, it has always been worked on. If we hurt each other, we try to fix it. As, with every relationship we have. It takes work. But....

                                                                  LOVE NEVER FAILS

When we said I do....... it meant FOREVER.

When I make him mad, I apologize and we work together to make it right again.

He has hurt me. And, I him. But, we never give up.

We strive to choose the right paths.We fail sometimes. But, the love is still there. It is what keeps us glued together.

When God chose Brandon Britton for me, he knew just what I needed.

   Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

The Lord knew that Brandon needed to be all of these things so that I could survive.

Because, besides Him, Brandon is my ROCK.

He is patient with me, even when I  don't deserve it.

He is always kind.

He does not boast in being the man of the house. Nor, is he arrogant or rude about it.

He lets me work with him to fix our problems.

He is not irritated  because I fail. He knows I'm  human. And, he forgives me when I do.

He strives to lead our family to greatness.

He is LOVE.

He belongs in my heart because, that is where God put him.

Now.... when I was 18 years old, I had no idea what God had in store for me. But, I did know that meeting Brandon was some kind of wonderful. I was turned around from the life I was living and I knew I needed some kind of special person to get me there.

Here he was.

Right before my eyes.

I had no idea what journey God would take me on when we married.

But, I wouldn't want to walk in anyone elses shoes.

I love you Brandon Britton.

Thank you for 18 beautiful years!
   

                                                                Of the best years of my life!

Just Me!

Now let me start by saying....

I AM a thinker!
I AM a list maker!
I AM an organizer!

 I love all of these things about me in small doses. But, sometimes I...... well, OVERDO them! The past few weeks a lot has happened in the Britton household. If you know much about me, you know I don't share much of my life with others. I mean, real stuff. Yes, I post on face book about all that we do and all that I LOVE. But, I don't speak out when I want to. I don't stand up when I need to. I second guess every word that I say and every word that I hear.

 Well, I have felt like I was going to BLOW UP this week. I would just look at Brandon and say, "I don't know what to do next?"

 I finally called a friend, which I never do, and told all. It was liberating! I told her that I had so much going on that I felt I needed a list to keep up with all of it. It wasn't a list of things to do, people to see,or places to go; that I would normally make. But, I needed a list to keep my thoughts in order. A list to concentrate and process what I was thinking about before I went on to the next thought.

 I HAD to take control of my wandering mind before it took control of me. I'm learning new things about myself these days. I feel FREE when I share my thoughts. I am learning to have faith in others when I need to talk. I am moving on. I don't need the approval of those around me that don't love me anyway. I don't have to please anyone but my Lord. He is the one that controls me and He is the one that I answer to. He is the one that loves me for being....... Just ME!
AMEN.

Hazy

I watched you sleeping quietly in my bed
You don't know this now but there's some things that need to be said
And it's all that I can hear, It's more than I can bare

What if I fall and hurt myself?
Would you know how to fix me
What if I went and lost myself?
Would you know where to find me
If I forgot who I am,
Would you please remind me oh?
Cause without you things go hazy

I watched you sleeping quietly in my bed
You don't know this now but there's some things that need to be said
And it's all that I can hear, It's more than I can bare

What if I fall and hurt myself?
Would you know how to fix me
What if I went and lost myself?
Would you know where to find me
If I forgot who I am,
Would you please remind me oh?
Cause without you things go hazy

What if I fall and hurt myself?
Would you know how to fix me
What if I went and lost myself?
Would you know where to find me
If I forgot who I am,
Would you please remind me oh?
Cause without you things go hazy

Creative Therapy



Last week was yucky, and Monday is normally pretty blah...... But, not yesterday!!! It was my annual "Hobby Lobby All Day Long Fest!!!!" I ran away early yesterday morning and tried to have as little contact as possible with the technology. At one point Brandon even sent a text which said, "M.I.A?" Well, I looked, touched and dreamed about what I was going to do with all the treasures I had found. I even made new friends : ) I  had a grandma follow me around for two hours. She enjoyed my adventure as much as I did. I know I must have gone down the same two aisles thirty times!! Yes, I WAS there THAT long!!!! Once I made my final decisions, I hurried home to get started. I made necklaces, earrings and braclets. I had so much fun! My LOVE for owls is definitely present in the pieces.I can't wait to get more chains (they were not half off this week) so that I can use the rest of the beads that I have. When I got ready to leave a lady asked me, "What are you doing with all of this?" I said, "Nothing, its just therapy!!!"