Sweet Southern Pearl

As I sit watching Duck Dynasty with Granny on the last evening of 2014, I'm reflecting on what this year has been to me.  It's been bad and it's been good.  It's been painful and joyful.  It's been sad and happy.  It's been hard but necessary.  It's been a year of immense growth.  When I think back, I like to remember the very great things that happened:  Ready for 2015 and what The Lord has planned for me!  eBa

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer Our spirits by thine advent here Disperse the gloomy clouds of night And death's dark shadows put to flight Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, o Israel. I was thinking the other day how this will be the first Christmas without a lot of people, and I'm not gonna lie, it hurt quite a bit. For me, the closest people I'm missing this year are my uncle Kenneth and Honeygirl  (yes, she was a person-at least to me).  And in the past week, so many relatives of friends have passed away. SO many!! The above verse of O Come Emmanuel always comes to mind when I'm tempted to be sad about death, though. Death's dark shadows put to flight. Death casts dark shadows and gloom over us, making us very sad if we're not careful. But because of Christmas - because of Emmanuel's coming - because of the birth (and eventual death) of JESUS - we don't have to fear the dark shadows of death. His coming and dying...

f e s t i v i t i e s  continue... Week two of December (8-14) consisted of a much-needed GIRLS' NIGHT (Mexican and shopping with coworkers) on Tuesday night... shopping and dinner with Granny and Ashley on Wednesday... #ootd Snapchat ridiculousness... Friday night consisted of dinner with family, a Jamberry nails party at Joellyn's with some fine ladies (I tried Jamberry nails for the first time and LOVED them), and Krispy Kreme with some friends. On Saturday I let Ashley drive me to the youth girls' Christmas party. From what I've seen, she's such a good and careful driver! I had a lot of fun with the girls. I hadn't climbed a tree in forever!! It was pretty cool to do so, and capture the moment. The weather was so perfect it's not even funny. Saturday night, a bunch of our family and friends went to the community Christmas celebration at First Wesleyan Church. Thirteen churches in High Point c...

It's so hard to believe that my graduate school graduation was a year ago today. That day will always be very special to me. It was a cold, rainy day in Boone. In fact, there was a bit of freezing rain. I saw the Nutcracker with Taylor the night before. We went back to the apartment. I carefully picked out my outfit and steamed my gown.  My family and friends got into town the next morning... As I sat on that Saturday morning with all the other graduates and listened to the speakers and their motivational speeches, I knew this was it. I was finally being released (forced) into the real world. No more putting it off. Granted, I wasn't sure that I was graduating, because I had turned in a paper two days prior to this commencement that I felt was totally inadequate and might even cause me to fail the class and have my diploma revoked or held until I could pass, but whether that happened or not, I was still on the fast track to the REAL WORLD. I had...

"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing and rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." TITUS 3:4-7 O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free And rescue us from Satan's tyranny From depths of Hell Thy people save And give them victory o'er the grave Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel. It's funny because in our Word of Life books that our church youth group does, those exact verses from Titus were in our reading today and I immediately thought of "O Come Emmanuel." Jesus's coming rescued us from Satan's tyranny . We are not slaves to Satan's temptations because of Jesus. The only thing saving us from he...

  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel , which means GOD WITH US . ISAIAH 7:14     Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear  Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel!   This is one of my favorite Christmas hymns, and it's been on my heart all season, not only because I've always loved it, but because I've been paying close attention to the words and what they mean. AND because at FCS yesterday, Ashland showed us a sermon from her church based on the song and how Jesus was the most unexpected, unwanted, unsurpassed gift. I was inspired. I want to do a post for each verse.     Israel had been waiting for a Savior. The WORLD had been waiting, longing for a Savior.   Without the hope of a Savior, life is bleak. Without the hope o...

Hello December! This is what I've been up to the first week of December:     Emery getting her first real experience with Christmas decorations...     I saved a weensy tree from the tree lot and put it in me and Emery's room. Julie and I twinned at work on Friday. hashtag twins hashtag Festive Friday   hashtag Simply Southern. I went a little cray in Hobby Lobby because Christmas crafting is LIFE >>>   I WENT TO BOONE ON FRIDAY NIGHT AND WENT TO A BIBLE STUDY WITH FRIENDS AND THEN TO MY BROTHER'S APARTMENT AND WE PAINTED NAILS AND TALKED AND IT WAS WONDERFUL. After staying up til 5am, hitting up IHOP with my brother, sister, and Morgan and just enjoying the wee hours of a Boone Saturday morning, we spent the afternoon with friends picking out a tree for Michael's apartment and a precious elderly man sawed it down. That was my first REAL experience getting a Christmas tree in the mountains, besid...

* H a p p y   D e c e m b e r ! *   Today my family (and Morgan) went to get our Christmas tree!     We always go to the same lot to get it... I'm all about tradition.   The weather was awesome, as you can tell.     I love us <3         ...and my new Christmas shirt.        I'm so excited for December and all the wonderful things it will bring!~!         "O come, Desire of Nations, bind all peoples in one heart and mind. Bid Thou, our sad divisions cease. And be Thyself our King of Peace."         eBa

It's very very early on Thanksgiving morning - about 2am. Thanksgiving week is probably one of my favorite weeks out of the year, if not my favorite. There's an excitement and anticipation in the air. The crusty brown leaves that are left over are blowing around outside and the temperature is usually really awesome (welcome to the South) and you only have to work Monday and Tuesday and your friends are in town and you do fun things like get coffee and go to movies and laugh your head off. You spend time with your family and all seems right with the world. Thinking back on past years and reading posts from past Thanksgiving weeks, this has always been a wonderful week, no matter what. It's just always so magical. Christmas is basically here. People are decorating and shopping and Christmas music is on the radio but at the same time it's Thanksgiving. And Thanksgiving is great because you still have all of the Christmas season to look forward to. It's a time of re...

I wrote this last November after seeing a lot of Facebook statuses, complaining about people listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I thought I'd share it again! "CHRISTMAS MUSIC BEFORE THANKSGIVING?!?!?!?" Sure, why not? So what if someone wants to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving?  That's their choice.  Chances are, it brings them happiness, so who are you to say that they shouldn't do that? I know when I'm stressed or upset, at ANY time of the year, all I have to do is listen to some Christmas songs and I instantly feel better. What's wrong with listening to songs that celebrate the birth of Jesus ? Songs that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Songs that make you wanna be a better person? Songs that remind you of memories and Christmases past and precious time with family? SONGS THAT MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE! What's wrong with wanting the Christmas season to start sooner so you have more time ...

The title I gave this post hurts my heart because y'all know how much I adore that five-foot-two blonde ball of sass, stellar fashion sense, wit, humour, and sheer gorgeousness. But no one is perfect! Years ago, I read in a magazine that Jessica Simpson had said something like: If you are dating someone and thinking about getting married, you should take a break for about a month and make sure you absolutely can't live without them before you commit. Sounds logical, right? So here I am, with this advice always in the back of my mind for a few years, looking for the one I can't live without. It's almost as if God allows me to think and say certain things just so that He can prove me wrong. Because I found someone I was certain I couldn't live without. What a rude awakening when all of a sudden that person isn't there anymore... but hey, I'm still living! I'm still living and breathing, but why? This is why: There's actually no one I can...

Back in the summer, I was going through a very hard time. I would do something almost every day that I've only done a few times in my life - I would lay in bed literally all day and watch TV (mainly The Kardashians). I did that for a while. I wallowed in my misery. I indulged in my pain and suffering. I felt better when I saw the episodes where Kim and Reggie broke up and she was heartbroken and depressed and laid around the house all day like I was doing. But you can only do that for so long. At some point, you have to get up and say, "I'm not going to let this hardship define my life and who I am and where I go from here. The show must go on." And so you pick the pieces up, even when nothing makes sense. And you keep going and smiling and "faking it til you make it" because you cannot stay in one place, lethargic, wallowing in self-pity, asking God "Why?" Instead, you thank Him for what you have, because 9 times out of ten, the go...

Last weekend in Boone... Margaret, Morgan, and I got there Friday night and hung out at the apartment with Michael, his roommate, roommate's sister and cousin, and other friends. I drank out of my fabulous Christmas mug that I keep there. It was 30 degrees. All was right with the world. On Saturday morning, Margaret and I got up and went shopping. The Belk in Boone is fabulous. At least I think so. I got some good stuff for my Mama's birthday. We met friends at the brand new IHOP!! It was so yummy. Sarah arrived in Boone. Kacie met up with us. WE WENT TO THE GAME AGAINST LOUISIANA MONROE. It was Black Saturday (blackout game) but I didn't have a heavy black jacket. And it was F R I G I D. So I wore my big brown Carhartt barn jacket that I got for my 18th birthday. I was just glad to be going to a Black Saturday game because I haven't been able to go the past few years.  After th...