Today I Choose Joy

28 October 2014


Yesterday afternoon I got some news that I didn't really expect nor want. It ticked me off and I was not in a great mood. I did a prayer project for one of my classes and really just felt like the best thing for me to do in the midst of all of it is to keep being joyful. It isn't easy when there is a whole earful I wish I could share with people, but life isn't much fun when I'm hung up on the bad, frustrating stuff.

So today I choose joy. I choose to be happy in the midst of the anger & frustration. I choose to lean on God. I choose to always keep choosing joy on the good days and the bad days.

I hope that you are able to choose joy even in the midst of anything that is going on in your life.

Have a great day!
God Bless!

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Weekend In Review // I Will Look Up

27 October 2014

So this weekend was actually fairly uneventful. I spent a lot of it in my apartment just recouping and it was quite wonderful. I did get to spend some time with some of my favorite kids on Friday night for a few hours while Moms and Dads went to dinner. It was fun and I enjoyed getting off campus. 

Saturday I literally sat on the couch all day with the exception of getting up to make food. I'm a lazy bum, I know! :) But hey, sometimes it is good to just relax and do nothing. Lots of movies and reading were a part of my day. Loved it! 

Sunday was a good day. Church was a reminder that things are indeed changing, but good things are going to come. I was able to get some work done, as well as some homework. Youth group was quite entertaining. Love getting to interact with and spend time with these students! It is a blessing to be a part of their lives.

That was about the extent of my weekend. I don't even have pictures! Lol it was a slow weekend. Even so, I want to leave you with this song that I heard from a professor last year and was reminded of in chapel on Thursday. It was just what I needed and I keep singing it in my head during the day. Enjoy this song by Elevation Worship!


I will look up for there is none above you, I will bow down to tell you that I need you, Jesus Lord of all, Jesus Lord of all. I will look back and see that you are faithful, I look ahead believing you are able, Jesus Lord of all, Jesus Lord of all.
 
Have a great day!
God Bless!

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Currently: Watching

25 October 2014

Hey y'all! Things have been busy around here with it being midterms this past week. I don't normally watch a ton of regular t.v., but there are some shows that have been a nice break and stress reliever in the midst of the crazy. Today I want to share a little bit about what I have been watching with you! Some of these are guilty pleasures if you will and not necessarily the greatest shows. 



1. Arrow // The second season of this show started just a couple weeks ago on the CW. Malik got me hooked on it last season and I love it. It is full of action, adventure, edge-of-your seat drama, and romance as we follow the story of the main character, Oliver Queen, as he works through past events while helping to catch the bad guys in Starling City. I love this show and can't wait to watch it each week!


2. The Flash // This is one of the CW's new shows this fall. It has only been running for a couple weeks, but so far I am enjoying it. This show focuses on the life of Barry Allen as he goes from an average, geeky guy to crazy quick but still geeky superhero, The Flash. There are times where there are links between The Flash and the Arrow, which is pretty awesome. I am looking forward to seeing the progression of Barry Allen's character throughout this first season!

3. The 100 // This show is also on its second season on the CW. I came across it last season, started watching and got hooked. This show is sort of sci-fi oriented as the focus is on humans coming back to earth after living in space for many, many years after a nuclear war happened that destroyed earth. Those in charge send down 100 people, juvenile delinquents, to earth to see if it is inhabitable. The whole show is about their time on earth and the many, many challenges they face upon getting there. Season two is revealing a new group of humans that managed to survive the war. It has been quite interesting but I am looking forward to more as it just started again this last week.

4. The Originals // Now I'm not normally a fan of all of the vampire nonsense that everyone is so caught up on, but for some reason I am hooked on this show. This one definitely falls in the category of 'guilty pleasure'. This show follows the story of a family of vampires who have been around for hundreds of years. It shows their interactions with the witches, werewolves, and people in the quarter in New Orleans. This second season is shaping up to be a good one!

5. How To Get Away With Murder // This is another show that falls into the 'guilty pleasure' category. Not the greatest show to be watching I'm sure, but it is interesting how they have put it together. I have missed an episode or two, but from what I have seen it could end up being one of the top shows of the fall. 

So there you have it, the t.v. shows that I've been watching regularly this fall. Some have been going for almost a month while others have just started, but I am looking forward to how they all progress. I have also been watching rerun after rerun of Law & Order: SVU lately and I didn't realize how many episodes I hadn't seen before. The shows have been a great stress reliever when I am undergoing a busy week or need a break from homework. 

Have you watched any of these shows? What do you think of them? What shows are you watching this fall?


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Fall Break + Steak Dry Rub

17 October 2014

http://blog.whimseybox.com/what-were-pinning-fall-is-in-the-air
Photo found at Whimsey Box

Hey y'all! This post is coming to you a little late. This week ended up being crazier than I thought, so I put the blog on the back burner. But here I am to share with you a little bit of what my Fall Break consisted of this past weekend. The above picture is about what everything looked like this weekend. Falling leaves and rain.
Fall Break is the most looked forward to weekend of the fall semester. It's that four day weekend right before midterms. It is a glorious break from commitment for most. I never leave campus during fall break, but my roommates always do, so I get to spend four days in an empty dorm/apartment. This year was no different. 
My roommates all left by 3pm on Friday and I relished in the peace & quiet of an empty apartment. I had been craving the solitude for weeks. I curled up on the couch with a blanket and a book. I spent Friday in my apartment from 3pm until 11:30am on Saturday. Haha talk about being anti-social! I watched movies throughout Friday evening. I also got out for a walk and it was wonderful to walk around campus in the dark, enjoying the quiet, unhurried pace. 
Saturday I had lunch with a family from church so I could see their house and meet the animals before house sitting of them this weekend. It was good to get off campus for a little bit. That evening I babysat for another couple at church. I got to enjoy some quality time with Noah and Elijah. 
Noah practicing to be Donatello for Halloween
Noah was showing off his awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle moves on Saturday evening! He is so ready for Halloween and trick-or-treating. Elijah was just a bundle of laughs all evening and was thoroughly entertained by his big brother. Enjoy this short clip of him smiling as his brother was smiling at him and showing him his moves!
These two are absolutely adorable and such a blessing! So glad I got to spend some time with them!
Sunday was fairly typical with church minus the fact that we did a stripped down set-up. So we didn't unpack everything which was nice. It did throw some people off guard when they walked in though. Youth group ended up being cancelled because all of the students were busy. I ended up just relaxing some more and it was wonderful!
I did a little grocery shopping on Monday, but decided to treat myself and bought a steak to cook. I wasn't sure how I would like a steak from Kroger but decided to try it. I found a rub on Pinterest to use. It was quite wonderful, although I did figure out the cooking time I like on our stove using my cast iron skillet.
I got the dry rub recipe here.
Spices in the dry rub

Cooking up the sirloin steak
Once it was finished
Sirloin Steak, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Creamed White Corn...Delish!
I absolutely enjoyed my treat meal that I made! It was so yummy! I made extra dry rub for other meats. I recommend it!
Tuesday was a day spent catching up on things and trying to clean up some before everyone came back home. I did do observation hours at a daycare center on Monday & Tuesday morning. Only 1 1/2 hours left this semester. YAY! :)
Popcorn & homework on Tuesday evening
So there is a brief recap of my Fall Break. It was a much needed weekend that didn't even begin to give me enough time to catch up on everything. Haha, oh well! Now classes are back in full swing and my schedule is swamped. Ah, the normal rhythm of life.
Have a great night!
God Bless!
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More Love Less Hustle

09 October 2014

Hey y'all! Due to some craziness in my schedule that I wasn't planning on I wasn't able to get the post done for today that I planned on. So I just want to share the song More Love Less Hustle by Jenny Simmons with you. I'm really loving it and I find that it really is the prayer of my life right now. 


Have a great day!
God Bless!

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Let's Be Friends Blog Hop

07 October 2014

Hey y'all! Today i'm linking up with the Let's Be Friends Blog Hop. This blog hop is hosted by Southern Beauty Guide and The Dwelling Tree. I am enjoying reading the posts that have been linked up this week!


Today I linked up this post from about a week and a half ago! Most of you have already seen it, but hey, I haven't posted as much as I would have liked to this last week so i'm rolling with it. :) 

If you haven't tried a blog hop before this is a fun one to get involved with! Click on over to one of the hosts' blogs and see what it is all about and how to join in on the fun!

Have a great day!
God Bless!


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Finally on Facebook!

06 October 2014

Hey y'all! I finally made the move and set up a Facebook page for this here blog. So if you want to stay up to date on my life and my blog come on over to the Sincerely, Shelbi Facebook page. You can also find posts and updates on my various other sites, such as Bloglovin', Instagram, and Pinterest, by clicking on the Let's Connect! buttons in my sidebar!

Looking forward to connecting with you!
God Bless!

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Weekend In Review // Oct. 3-5

So this weekend ended up being a bit more hectic than I had originally planned, but it was a good one. After a long week I am just amazed I managed to make it to today without too much exhaustion. I do have a fairly busy week once again, but I don't have a bunch of extra meetings in the evening. Yay! 

My weekend started right after my last class got out at 3pm on Friday. I dropped my backpack off at my apartment, jumped in the bus and drove over to Bethel Baptist Church to help finish setup for the Collegiate Retreat we helped to host this weekend. We grabbed pipe and drape out of one of our trailers, light towers from our storage unit, and picked up instruments from our office. Setup was simple but it is a lot of things to transport.


The retreat was run by the Illinois Baptist State Association. It was the ENGAGE Collegiate Retreat. The whole concept of the retreat is to teach college students how to engage the students on their campuses with the message of the Gospel. This is done by helping them to really grasp the basics of what the Gospel is (just as a reminder) and then to share how they can start the conversations and really engage people in the message of the Gospel. 
 
Chris & Ashley prepping for worship for out last session at retreat
 
My church, Journey Church, provided the music and the Church Plant Project for the weekend. We had a bunch of different people help with worship because our college students had to bounce back and forth to campus for events they couldn't get out of. The project we did was going to door to door in the area near to the church with cards inviting people to come check out Journey and the new series we started yesterday morning, which just so happens to be entitled Engage.

While the attendance was not super high due to events that students could not get away from, it was still a great weekend and I hope that God really impacted the lives of all those who attended!

The rest of my weekend has been fairly uneventful. I've been working on homework and getting some work stuff done. Church yesterday morning was fun. The guy who ran the retreat, Chase Abner, and his assistant for the weekend, Caleb, came to Journey this morning for church. Chase actually spoke in service, which was awesome. It was a great kick-off to our new series!

If I haven't told you yet, I am co-leading the youth group with a friend from Olivet. So he and I gathered with three of our middle school and high school students yesterday evening. We shared some spaghetti from the wonderful Aurelio's Pizza here in Bourbonnais, IL. I wasn't prepped to lead the lesson because I didn't know I was leading, so I kinda just winged it. I think it went okay though. 

The big thing that happened yesterday was something that I have known about for a while now, but I didn't know for sure when it was happening. Now that it has been mentioned I can share a little bit more about it. Our worship leader, Nate, and his wife, Jill, and their kids are going to be moving to Southern Illinois in just a few weeks to a month. They shared it at the end of service yesterday, so now everyone knows. It kind of hit me yesterday morning, but I don't think that it will really hit me until a couple weeks down the road when it actually happens. I'm still processing it. I may just write a post in a week or two about it. We'll see...

Anyways, now back to college life. I'm off to General Biology in a little while. Yay for putting it off until senior year... Just kidding. It's not that bad. 

I hope y'all had a great weekend!
Have a great day!
God Bless!

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My Life Is Being Planned Out On Notecards

04 October 2014

I know that the title is a bit strange, but I promise it will make sense. Have you ever had friends and/or family try to plan your life? How about your marriage...to someone you aren't even dating? Well my friends have been doing exactly that.

A couple of years ago my mom made this comment about how I should be dating this friend of mine because we just get along and get each other so well. She proceeded to tell my grandma and some other extended family members. So I have been getting questioned about whether this friend and I are dating or talking about dating on a regular basis. This started out as just being a family thing. Then we started to go around talking about this idea of how he and I could get married and save on tuition. 

At this point our friends at school started to ask the questions my mom had been and is (still) asking. I got these questions on a fairly regular basis from a variety of people. Are you two dating? Are you thinking about dating? Do you want to date? Why aren't you two dating yet? And the list goes on and on. 

Eventually this grew to include our church family. They started to ask me such questions, although there was one lady from my church whose family I am fairly involved with who really talked it through with me as opposed to just asking questions galore. Everyone else seemed to just ask question after question. 

Since the end of last year there have been a few more friends from school who had been on the fence about this hypothetical relationship who have since joined the bandwagon. They have decided that they ship this friend and I. They have even created a hashtag for it and even started to name our children. It is a regular topic of conversation that they have while I just sit there and half listen, half block them out. 

As I sit there and listen to them plan this wedding that they are anticipating for a couple years down the road, I am rolling with a bunch of emotions. Part of me is totally on board with this idea of the two of us dating and can see us together down the road, but the other part of me doesn't want to get my hopes up and just wants to nix it all in the bud before it all gets out of hand. 

I am confused. I have so many emotions and a lot to say about it, but I don't know how to say it or how to even got about starting the conversation. Mostly because of one little detail...

He is currently dating someone else.

Most recently one of my roommates decided to draw one of those car sticker families (you know the ones...mom, dad, three kids with various objects representing hobbies, and all of the family pets...) on a notecard with the name of all of our children and our cat. All hypothetical of course, but she wants it to happen. She threw this card in his mail box on campus and he got it yesterday/today. His comment that he texted her, as well as the similar one about the hashtag, goes something like "I am going to kill you. I can't believe you did this." and so on and so forth.

When called out about why he is against it his response was that he would care too much. I don't even know how to feel about it all anymore. There are so many feelings in my heart and thoughts in my mind. I don't know if i'm even articulating them well here. 

My life is literally being planned out on these little 4x6 notecards. 
One part of me is annoyed by it, another part of me gets caught up in imagining it happening.

I don't even know how to really end this post seeing as it is really just my rambling/ranting. I just don't know who to talk to about all of this. If you have any advice or thoughts, maybe experience with a similar situation, feel free to share.

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