1. dance. and I mean like crazy. one of my favorite things about JMU is their awesome dance parties. everyone just dances like no one is watching and it's so much fun! it's such a great stress reliever too. but not even at dance parties...just try dancing when you're doing normal day-to-day activities. you'll love it. i promise.
the most recent dance party: a black and white semi-formal
2. marvel at God's creation. i feel like i haven't been doing this enough, but in the last week there have been some pretty sweet times where i have been able to just stand amazed at the world God has created. for example, the other week (after a dance party of course), some friends and i were driving home and decided to just pull off the side of the road (lots of country roads actually), get out, and lay in the middle of the street and star gaze. it was perfect. God's creation is perfect. i have never seen the stars look so beautiful and bright. we saw multiple shooting stars and had such a fun time freezing in the middle of the street coming up with reasons why we believed God created the stars.
3. relax and unwind. you need to take time to just sit back and not work or stress about work. this is hard for me to do because i feel like i should always be doing something. but last week kayla, kaitlin, abby, and i went to do get pedicures. ahhh they are the best. not even kidding, having clean and good-looking feet is one of my favorite things in life!! go do something that will relax you and help you to distress.
love a good pedicure!
4. go hiking. so. much. fun. some of sarah, ali, and i's best friends from tech came and we went to shenandoah national park to a mountain called stony man. somehow (i still can't figure out how) we got lost. although there were arrows pointing us to where to go, we still never made it to the very top of the mountain. we did make it to little stony mountain along the way which was really cool. it was a great time to get to know each other better and laugh at our humorous situation. the best part? i would say eating this fancy cheese with crackers that lauren and christie brought at the top of little stony man. so, go hiking and if you get lost, just laugh.
the gang
cheese and crackers...yum!
beautiful tech girls :)
jmu ladies
5. ponder Revelations. i say ponder because i don't think anyone will be able to fully comprehend this chapter of the Bible. i love it though. i've been studying it for awhile and it is so sweet. chapter 4 is my ultimate favorite because it is such a great image of what the throne of God looks like. my small group has been talking about it for the past few weeks and our study on it this week was really neat. we all just realized how such a mysterious and smart and just God we serve. if we completely comprehended everything in Revelations and knew everything that was going to happen in the future, i think we would be bored and not have this sense of mystery that God gives us by not straight forwardly telling us everything. read Revelations.
6. go with the flow. i can't believe i just told you to do that. it kills me to say it. i am such a "i-need-a-schedule" person and it stresses me out when we don't have a plan which is why i probably end up making the plans most of the time. this weekend i had a challenge to not make plans at all. it was hard and stressed me out a little, but it turned out to be one of my favorite weekends yet! now, my goal is to be to be more and more go with the flow and not follow a set schedule all the time.
7. learn frisbee. i have never played frisbee more than in these past 2 weeks and it is so much fun!! it's perfect for sunny days on the quad and you can learn all sorts of tricks. i am not pro or anything (yet) and have a ton to learn, but look for me in the future on a national frisbee team (yeah right)!
8. drink tea. tea is incredible. there are so many different types and it's a great way to socialize with people. my favorites are chai, peppermint, earl grey, and any white teas. last week my parents came to harrisonburg and went to my favorite place downtown, Earth and Tea, (go there if you live in harrisonburg!) and shared a pot of white tea and just talked. talking with them and sipping tea with them and just the conversations we shared was definitely a highlight of my year. and not to mention, the tea is delicious!
i hope you will try some of these things. i know some seem silly, but they have all helped make these past couple of weeks super great even in the midst of chaos and stress. hope you have a marvelous monday!
xoxo,
erin with a p and a double r
