Box of Shame

Ready to stop wasting your life shaming yourself?

Get out of your box of shame. For more in depth information than I can adequately give, check out the links below. One to read, one to listen and hear truth from. And a TedTalk because I can!

THIS DOESN'T HAVE TO BE YOU. :)

Defeating Guilt and Shame

Unashamed - Starfield

TEDTALK Brene Brown: Listening to Shame

Nothing Like Some Sex Questions to Make People Feel Awkward!

For the sake of you more conservative viewers, you might want to peek at the questions under the video and if those are questions you feel uncomfortable with, you might want to skip this whole post. :)

Q: What is the purpose of sex? (Or, what should sex not be about?)

Q: Who should be allowed to have sex? (Or, who should not be allowed to have sex?)

Q: Does sex require two people?

Q: How do you know when sex has taken place? And/or, how do you know when you've lost your virginity?

Q: Who should use birth control? Is there anyone who should not?

Q: Who should be responsible for birth control?

Q: Is abortion birth control?

Q: When does life begin?

Q: Who gets to decide the answers to all of these questions?



Honestly, I encourage you to talk about these questions with a couple people who are close to you or good at thinking and discussing - I was surprised at how hard it was to answer (most of them I couldn't even come up with an answer for!!) these and how much I thought about them! Even as a Christian in a world where the instinctive answer is - "Whatever God says in the Bible!" That answer doesn't really work - because the Bible doesn't lay out answers to these, so good luck trying to find a verse that does! :)

HEAD-LICE APOCALYPSE

THIS CLOSE to finishing out my last, first week of class!

The big happening of the week came on Monday. I was at therapy with my little kiddo, looked down at his hair and saw a bug crawling around. Over break I was visiting some friends, there was a question about bed-bugs, which obviously meant we all needed to watch the episode of the Office about head-lice (better to know something loosely related, than nothing at all?).

Of course, seeing the bug, of course it had to be lice. WHAT ELSE KIND OF BUG WOULD BE IN A LITTLE BOYS HAIR. Upon further research, we found a picture on The Interweb that was identical to the bug I was holding in my hand (gross, but desperate times call for desperate measures). Upon further scalp inspection I found some suspicious looking black dots and determined it was time for parental information - time to call the real professionals.

This brings us to a very pertinent question:

Q: Why should I keep hanging out with Hannah Crabtree if it's possible she has head lice?

A: I shaved my head.

Just kidding. Keep reading - I guarantee I do not have lice.

After conferring with the mother of said child, I re-loaded kiddo into his car seat and our adventures ensued as follows:

- Across town to a hair-dresser (you would think that of all the professions in the world, THIS ONE would know how to check for lice...) only to be told if a person is suspected to have lice, legally they can't touch their hair - we were told to try a doctor or maybe the pharmacist at Walgreens

- Across the street to Walgreens, haul kiddo in and back to the obscure pharmacist window, surprise, they also will not look at your child's head, nor were they particularly well-informed on head lice - re-directed us to UrgentCare (are you kidding me? and blow two grand getting my kid checked for lice!?) or "a school nurse would probably know" (why this more fiscally responsible option wasn't given first, I do not know.)

- Back across town to school, pull the two girls out early, get to the nurses, have them all head-checked

- LICE FREE! HALLELUJAH!

However, since said child's mother is a little bit of a self-proclaimed germaphobe, the army of nanny's combined with her will-power, determination, and extreme disgust of bugs (particularly the word "larvae") we have successfully lice-shampooed everyone's hair to be safe, vacuumed every piece of upholstery that cannot be washed, and laundered EVERY CHAIR/COUCH COVER, BEDSPREAD, SHEET, PILLOW, PILLOWCASE, SLEEPING BAG, STUFFED ANIMAL, AND PIECE OF CLOTHING in the house in the last five days. Just to be safe.

Long story short - we can still hang out. :D

The Last First Day

Pretty excited about my binders!

IT IS HERE. The LAST FIRST DAY of undergrad EVER.

This is a big deal, people. If we rewind precisely a year from where I'm at right now I was this close to giving up. It's incredible to look back on that season of my life and see where it's brought me now (look for Member of the Prozzac Nation - coming soon! - for the 365-days-ago story).

What is it bringing me this semester?

Still working a fair amount as a nanny and taking 18 hours of class! Doesn't that sound exciting?! I've got all my syllabi printed out and organized into the correct binder and yes, I did read through them ALL last night.

If you haven't found it yet, my little sister
Carol is a pretty neat lady and she just
started her own blog!
Check it out:
Joyfully Restless
She's way cooler than me already
and she's still over 800 days behind me!

If you've been following along sporadically this past semester, you might have picked up on a little bit of nervousness about the future - what is my purpose, what will I be doing when I graduate, blah, blah, blah. You hopefully also noticed a peace that came about all that stress - it is crazy how much my mind has changed in the last couple months.

Over the course of the last semester God has opened my eyes to how incredibly complex I am and really been showing me the talents and strengths that I naturally posses. If you have never heard of or taken the Strengthfinders 2.0, take it. Then send me your top 5 themes so I can analyze and better understand you and make my day! Anyway, out of my top strengths and putting a lot of time, effort and thought into how I can best develop those, what they look like in my life and such as well as looking at goals for my next, last six months here at UNL I thought I should pass some little thought tidbits on to you. Senioritis is a real thing and I'm determined not to waste my last six months dragging my feet and whining (stewardship has been a big theme for me lately and I want to be a good steward of my time - my job and classes counts as part of that).

Stewarding:

- Because of Christ, I have authority and power to manage the gifts that He has given me

- I have positions of privilege and how I use those is part of that power

- I occupy a lot of different roles (to name a few: nanny, student, friend, etc.)

- The roles I occupy are my primary alters for worship (this will change how you see washing the dishes...)


As you're going back to school or work or whatever it is you do every day, maybe you are feeling a little hum-drum, maybe you hate what you are doing. I think everyone goes through that, probably a lot more than you might think. But as you're going back to your daily routine, think about that - what are your roles? How do you have power? What does it even mean to have authority through Christ? How in the world can you worship and glorify God through something you might not find any enjoyment in anymore?

The roles I have been given are my primary places of worship. Christ has given me power and authority to step up and fully live in those and give glory to Him through everything I do.

31 Days of Cold Showers

New Years Resolutions...I kind of have a policy against making them. To be honest, I feel like the majority of resolutions people make are made out of shame. I think that is not a healthy basis for a resolution. I believe in long and short term goals - but making  up a ridiculously idealistic list of things to do to turn yourself into a "better you" for 365 days? Meh. I'll pass!

However, this year I made a semi-resolution, a.k.a. a short-term goal.

31 days of cold showers.

Sounds a little crazy, I am aware. Trust me, freezing cold showers by choice are an indication that someone has a genuine streak of crazy in them. Why am I taking 31 days of cold showers? Blame it on TedTalk. If you want the whole story, feel free to watch the talk (Click Here!), but the gist of it is that cold showers make you feel uncomfortable and get out of your comfort zone - doing that by taking cold showers shows that getting out of your comfort zone will not kill you, and hey, you might just learn something.

Me: "GET IN THE WATER."
Me: "NO!"

Day two of freezing cold showers. What have I learned?

Let me tell you that there is nothing at ALL that I am enjoying about the showers. Sometimes, when I have to get up in the morning and don't want to, I have to verbally bully myself into getting up - the same method is being employed.

"Hannah, you get in that shower... Now."

Getting in is possibly the worst part, but having really long, thick hair is no picnic either. I have lost any desire to work out - I can't risk having to shower twice in the same day - it's just not worth it.

Full disclosure: I feel kind of awesome and like I've conquered something after forcing myself to willingly tolerate 15 minutes of freezing cold water. And as much as I hate to admit it, it is actually helping me to think about getting out of my comfort zone.

Sometimes the biggest obstacles are in your mind and aren't actually real - cold showers are one of those obstacles that I can overcome.