Category: Just for Fun

For thirteen years I was a school teacher, so my year was not marked by January 1st through December 31st. Instead, my year started in August and continued through until the next August. It seemed like when I became a teacher my life started going by faster. I don’t know if continuing to mark my adult years in school years, each with its own chapter, sped it up or just simply that I was getting older, but life certainly hit the accelerator. Before I knew it I was 30. I wasn’t married, and I couldn’t believe it. How could my twenties have gone by so fast? Now I’m 38, and I’m no longer a school teacher. But life isn’t getting any slower. If anything its accelerator pedal is hitting the floor.

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Okay everyone, so August is here and Weekend Prayers and Links is back! I took a small break from this series over the summer, but I will tell you, and I’m so honest and sincere when I say it, YOU have not left my mind! I think about my readers every single day, and I pray for you.

Here’s a glimpse into the past few months with a cool God moment at the beach. I just love when God shows up so boldly. This picture was taken on Fripp Island in South Carolina. We went there in June with our family. Fripp Island is only six miles long and is still well preserved. The deer know whose home it really is, and they will walk right up to you. (more…)

Okay, so we started our Summer Online Bible study this week, and it is so awesome! What’s awesome about it is that God brought 30 women to our group! We are different in so many ways, but our heart for demolishing the lies we believe and replacing them with truth is the same! It’s not too late to join if you’re interesting! Find out more here! 

I thought it would be fun to do a “5 Things I Just Learned about Myself” list. I know these lists are cheesy, but for some reason I love them! One went around last year on Facebook, (Did you jump on that bandwagon? Well, I did!) and I learned more about my Facebook friends from those lists than I ever would have otherwise. So here I go . . .

5 Things I Just Learned about Myself:

I just learned that . . . 

1. I don’t like blackened-seasoned food. I don’t like blackened shrimp or scallops or chicken or pork or any other meat for that matter. I tried to like it, but I just don’t, and I feel liberated, in a sense, for finally  admitting it.

2. Perfectionism is the culprit for my indecisiveness. Okay, so I’m in the store for an hour looking for a gift for someone. I buy a gift. Then I get home and can’t decide if it’s the right gift. So I return the gift and get another one. Throughout this whole fiasco I’m asking myself, “What’s wrong with me?? Just buy a gift! Who cares!” Then it hit me. I’m paralyzed with indecisiveness because I have to get the perfect gift. And . . . others have to know it’s the perfect gift. Ugh! Yes, I’m working on it. Or better yet, God’s working on it through me. #LiesWomenBelieve

3. In theory I want perfectly painted, manicured fingernails, but in reality they drive me crazy. Yeah, my perfectionism problem is weird. It’s not in all things, and it’s not in fingernails. I love the look of nail polish. But without fail, one day later it’s chipped and I’m irritated I spent $20 on a manicure for 24-hour nail polish.

4. I can’t read The Jesus Storybook Bible without crying. So really, whether you have kids or not, get this Bible. If you’ve ever struggled with understanding the Bible or accepting that God loves you, then you need this Bible. Just be sure to have a box of Kleenex nearby.

5. I always thought that all I wanted to be was a wife and mother “when I grew up.” Now that I guess I’m as grown as I’ll ever be, (I still feel like I am a 25-year-old mind in an almost-38-year-old-body) I realize that I love being a wife and mother, but there’s many other things I hope to do, too, in my lifetime. My regret is that I didn’t figure this out when I was single so that I could have spent my time more wisely.

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So I guess it’s Memorial Day weekend – already!! That means the pools open here in the south. Do they open pools on Memorial Day weekend in colder places? I’d love to know. If you live in a cold place, let me know in the comments.

I can’t tell you that I’m ready for pool season. I wish I were, but I’m not. I have much to say about the whole eating, dieting, exercising saga (for me it’s a saga), and I plan to write about it soon. But for now I’ll just leave it with – I’m not ready. But then again what is “ready”? I know that even if I was the perfect height and perfect weight – whatever that means – I still wouldn’t be ready. Again, more of these ongoing battle to come . . .

However, we are planning to go to the beach in a few weeks, and I did find the cutest ever swimsuit at Target. Well, I think it’s the cutest ever, plus it was inexpensive. It’s been years since I’ve been in the market for a one-piece swimsuit. You can read more about that in this post and in this post at MoretoBe.com. Do you remember that YouTube video, The Evolution of the Swimsuit, that went a little viral last year by Jessica Rey? Well, these are the swimsuits she designs. In my opinoin, they are so classic and glamorous, and I absolutely love them! I am not buying one yet mainly because they are more expensive, but a swimsuit from her is on my wish-list.

Join us for a Summer Online Bible Study!

Speaking of “perfect bodies” and swimsuits and the beach . . . what about those lies we tell ourselves? As you can tell, I’m still struggling with believing lies about my body image. But the timing couldn’t be more perfect because this Wednesday we are starting a Summer Online Bible Study right here at Triple Braided! We will be reading Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and we will meet here in this private Facebook group. Will you join us?

Even though the book will help you go deeper, you don’t have to buy a book. Join in the discussion anyway!

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There’s this delicate tension I have always felt here, writing at Triple Braided. I’ve told bits and pieces of its journey before, but I think I’ll tell some of it again because it doesn’t seem to go away. I say tension, but it’s not a bad tension. It’s a tension to want to serve all my readers with my words.

You see, I am obviously married. But I desperately want to disciple single women because no one discipled to me properly when I was single. And I was single for longer than I wanted to be. And it was painful. And now I know there was a better way. At the time I just didn’t know that way. I want to be for others what I didn’t have myself.

However, even though I’ve written here inconsistently at times and without a focus much of the time, I have found that I also have married readers. This is where the tension lies. I don’t think single women want to read about marriage and baby topics just like married readers probably don’t want to read about dating.

So there’s my delicate tension.

I bring all this up because recently I asked you to take a short survey. Personally, I love taking surveys. I don’t know why except I think they’re fun. Maybe it’s because I get to talk about myself. Anyway . . .

The results of the survey are just wonderful! All of you actually wrote out sentences to the answers! I know that takes more time and thought than just clicking an answer, and I want to tell you “thank you” tons because they have helped me tremendously.

So here is some of what I’ve learned about you, the readers of Triple Braided.

62.96% are single.

37.04% are married.

33.33% like posts about your relationship with Jesus.

29.17% like posts about mentoring younger women because you’re married.

16.67% like posts about singleness.

16.67% also like posts about dating.

4.17% like posts about current hot topics.

Most of the readers are in their 30’s with the 20-age-range coming in second.

So where do I go from now? I’m going to continue to write for both of you – single and married – to hopefully serve both of you well. Jesus is my favorite person to write about, so that’s good most of you like that, and the great thing is He’s for ALL of us and relationship neutral!

Mentoring is also very close to my heart, and so I am going to probably start adding in some of those posts. One reader mentioned that she’d like posts about preparing for marriage. That sounds like a good idea to me. I know some single women really don’t like to talk about marriage at all. If you stop by on a “marriage day”, please just come back another day. There will be something for everyone.

And in closing, thank you for being here above all else! You do not know how much joy you and this blog brings me!

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