February Challenge Day 2: What Fires Me Up

February 1, 2014 ~ Laura ~ Leave a comment

Take a wild guess what I’m passionate about . . .

If you’ve read things on here before you probably guessed right. Congratulations! I am passionate about pro-life issues. And more recently I’ve begun to love writing about feminine things (like not dressing like a hoochie mama or modesty in general). A lot of the life issues I love to read, write, and talk about boil down to how we treat the human person. And here in America I think we treat people rather poorly sometimes. Give me a news story about the last thing Obama lied about, people giving feminism a bad name (recent Beyonce news, anyone?), or abortion rhetoric, and I will have lots to say. Sometimes too much 🙂

But I really love reading and talking about inspiring people too. I’m just not so good at writing about those things as often. Mother Teresa is pretty much a beast. And I enjoy inspirational things like Pinterest boards and videos and sometime encyclicals and stories. Lots of stories.

It all kind of boils down to becoming the best version of myself and helping other people do the same. When I see people overcome challenges and defeat the odds? That’s pretty amazing. When I see people make sacrifices out of love for other people? That’s inspiring too. I do what I do because I love people and find it a terrible misfortune that sometimes people are blind to the truth and beauty I see in life and my faith.

I want to encourage and inspire people to become better people because I know we are all meant for greatness. Too much of the time I think we’re content with our lives just getting by. But we were not meant to just get by. We are all here for a reason. And it’s our duty to exercise our talents and gifts to realize the potential we were made for. When people strive to become the best versions of them selves and serve the world – that’s what inspires me. My drive comes from my passion to share our potential for greatness with people because I think we’re made for so much more than we make ourselves out to be.

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February Goals!

February 1, 2014June 25, 2014 ~ Laura ~ 2 Comments

Last month I was a bit apprehensive about making goals because I was home for half the month and then got right back to school, went on the March right after starting classes and then whew! Here I am still getting into this semester’s groove. But it’s a new month which means it’s time to evaluate the last month and look ahead to this one. Join me in the link up at the end of this post so we can all work together at becoming the best versions of ourselves!

My January goal review:

1. Finish plans for RRL’s sidewalk counseling program (with my officers!)

Done. We’re having a training on the 6th and are planning to start going out regularly after that. Goodbye Saturday mornings! I’m very excited about this because the woman we’re bringing in to train us (from the local diocese) knows a couple who wants to bring out their mobile ultrasound unit when we’re there. OMG. Excited is an understatement, guys. I have no idea what kind of impact we’re going to have, but I’m praying we’re able to work together with God to touch people inside that clinic.

2. Write 3 articles for Live Action.

I wrote one. It didn’t meet my goal, but hey. I wrote one! And the last one was in October. I guess I needed a break to appreciate it a little more. It feels so great to be back at writing.

3. Perform 3 random acts of kindness.

This was a fail. I didn’t print these goals out and pretty much forgot about this one.

4. You know that 9-5 thing? Do it.

This one has been hard but awesome! The first few days my back got rather sore because of everything I stuffed into my backpack. And I had to come back several times those first couple days because I forgot major things (like paper to write on…duh). Sometimes I’m not out until exactly 5, but if I have homework to do I go to the library to do it. Forced constructiveness, folks! It’s hard when I have homework to do on my computer because it generally refuses to charge in the library. But other than that, this concept has made homework SO much better. I’ve only stayed up late one night getting it done 🙂

5. Finish one of my Mother Teresa books (and hang up the poster from Christmas for a daily reminder)

I looked at the books and really didn’t feel like finishing them right now because the ones I have are a collection of quotes. But I hung up the poster! This is a picture of my corner of my room, and you can see the LIFE poster of Mother Teresa’s quote up there right next to my babies saved from abortion calendar 🙂

6. Exercise 3 times a week once I’m back at school.

This one has gone quite well. I didn’t count every time we’ve worked out, but I’m feeling great and sore. For the first time I was able to do a half hour of the ultimate bootcamp video without dying. Yay!

7. Find and buy a zumba workout DVD.

Nope. still gotta do this. *sigh* I just don’t want to sit down and research it a ton. Anyone know of a good video here?

8. Finish the books I am Malala and A people of hope.

I’m pretty sure I have severe book adhd because I’m in the middle of four books. So I’m not done with these two. Both are good and they will be finished soon.

Now for my February goals:

1. Finish the blog everyday in February challenge.

2. Write at least 3 articles for Live Action.

Ultimately I’d like to write once a week for them, so I need to start working toward that.

3. Name one baby each week through 50 Million Names and do a different gesture for each one.

4. Keep up the exercise, 9-5 thing, and adoration (when it starts).

I’m going to give myself concrete fitness goals, so here’s what I’m beginning with: right now I can do about 9 push ups before I’m keeling over. By the end of the month I want to be able to do 15.

5. Make an effort to do random acts of kindness at least once a week.

6. Finish the 4 books I’m in the middle of!

7. Set aside an hour a week to get back to reaching out to people online about abortion.

8. Share at least 1 inspirational quote or video on Facebook every week.

Time to hear your goals! Link up below or comment if you don’t have a blog.

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February Challenge Day 1: My Story

February 1, 2014 ~ Laura ~ 1 Comment

Welcome to the Blog everyday in February challenge! Today the topic is my story/testimony.

When I first saw this topic, what came to mind was church testimonies where people get up and say something about something Jesus did in their lives and everyone is like

funny (19796) Animated Gif on Giphy — Praise the Lord

Buuuut I’ve never done that. And I’m not planning on breaking that record anytime soon 🙂 So instead of a Jesus testimony, here’s my story condensed.

Once upon a time I was a young tween and dreamed of being a Broadway star. I ~~stalked~~ closely followed the actors from High School Musical and memorized every song from Les Miserables (except Lovely Ladies!) on my walkman in bed at night. Sometimes I would fall asleep with the music still on and the walkman fallen down the side of the bunkbed. No wonder why that one broke so quickly . . . Swim team is what I’d do in the summer along with camps my sisters started and I took on until graduating high school. School years were filled with school work which I don’t remember with a particular hate or love. Some of the papers I wrote were seriously lame (Anne of Green Gables book report, anyone?). Advanced biology was really interesting, though I discovered memorization is not my thing. I ran a girls group for young girls in my homeschooling group where we did service projects and learned about saints.

And then boom bam. Pro-life stuff happened. I went to my first Walk for Life in 2011 and after quitting my job at Sears that summer got a job with Live Action in the fall. I found my cause and have been writing and talking about it ever since. Don’t ask me how that happened because I still don’t really know. It’s just the way it was all meant to me. And I couldn’t be happier.

I’m now working on my business management degree at Benedictine. It’s by far one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life, and the challenges I’ve faced have been big growing moments. I’m thankful for every one of them, even if I can only do that looking back in retrospect. Sometimes I still don’t react that way I should to situations but I’m really trying to be a better person and become the person I’m meant to be. It’s a work in progress 🙂

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7 Quick Takes – Vol. 46

January 30, 2014January 30, 2014 ~ Laura ~ 2 Comments

— 1 —

Well hello again! Life has been busy. I’m plugging along in classes, and am just getting into a groove after being gone for the march. My favorite class is Christian Moral Life. It’s hard, but I’ve made a conscious effort to put a lot into it. The weather has been crazy awesome around here too (for it being nearly February). Stay as long as you like, sunshine!

— 2 —

Speaking of February, I’ve decided to be part of this blogging challenge.

Yes, it sounds ambitious 🙂 Here are the prompts I’m looking forward to writing on!

— 3 —

My computer is on the fritz right now. And this picture is most certainly an accurate depiction of how I’ve felt a couple times lately.

Thankfully my family had an older functioning laptop at home that I brought back after Christmas, so there’s that as a back up. But I like my old one. And it has all my things on it. But I know it’s not going to last, so I’m planning on transferring my things onto an external hard drive this weekend. The main frustration I’ve been having is with the charging cord which simply refuses to charge it. One day I have to shove it against a wall and position it just right for it to charge. The next I have to sit with it balanced just right awkwardly on my legs. AND THEN I have to sneeze or move and it stops charging. FOREVAH. Or at least until I find the next awkward position. But good news! The cord (which I just got in August) has a 3 year warranty. So after I transfer things I’m planning to get the cord replaced and let’s hope that fixes things for the time being.

— 4 —

This is a pretty powerful video. What do you think?

— 5 —

Something I’d love to do: be trained in how to debate. Objections people raise are so easy to see through sometimes, but finding the right words can be hard. This clip was pretty interesting and I liked how Lila was trying to bring it back to the point in question: What are the unborn? I don’t know if it’s a good thing, but I have WAY too much fun coming up with answers for debating people like this. It’s a good thing I don’t post about it often, though, because the snarkiness can be a bit much 🙂

— 6 —

Isn’t this so sweet? I wish our society valued the elderly more.

— 7 —

I have to say that I feel slightly accomplished because I FINALLY wrote an article for Live Action – for the first time since October. It feels oh so good to be back in that groove and there are many posts in the works. You know how people say you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone? It’s pretty true. I let writing for them slip by for a few months and now I’m so looking forward to continuing. It’s a lot of fun, and I learn so much by researching for each article. You can check out older ones here.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Finish This: Week 4

January 29, 2014June 25, 2014 ~ Laura ~ 10 Comments

I use my “green thumb” to . . . grow things? But I haven’t lately. The last thing I remember growing was Pete here, which was not much of a success. Flowers are lovely, though, and someday when I have land of my own I’ll grow things!

The secrets to life are . . . pretty simple. Love God and follow his will. Everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.

I get my money’s worth by . . . going for the generic stuff, using coupons, or just not spending money 🙂 College at it’s finest!

On the scale of 1 to 10, my level of organization is . . . probably about a 9 (when I want it to be of course). While I appreciate organization, you can always tell my level of sanity by looking at my bed/desk area though. It’s gotten REALLY bad a few times when I’ve gotten extremely stressed. So I guess you could say I’m intrinsically organized but aren’t always as much as I should. Though I do tend to be very organized with school, papers laying around, and my clothing. My closet is lovely right now. Oh, and the best time to organize? When I’m procrastinating of course!

A gentleman always . . . opens doors. No questions asked.

Handwritten notes are . . . almost better than chocolate. And that’s saying something. So I’ve heard about how people have different love languages and I have to say that I appreciate it when people take the time to do nice things without being asked. next best is written things. Online written things are fine, but man. Written letters are the bomb. I literally keep every card (and sometimes even sticky notes) people write because I love to look back on them. There’s just something about holding the same piece of paper someone else took the time to write on that I thoroughly enjoy.

And that’s a wrap! How would you finish these prompts?