Dressing Like a True Valentine

It's Valentine's week and I've been on my #dresslikeavalentine campaign for the past four days! But some people have been asking me why and I feel the answer deserves a blog post. Yes, it's a week about getting my lady friends to put on pink and sparkles and to empower themselves with girl-power energy. But it's about so much more than the outfits...

St. Valentine was, as his name implies, a true saint. His story is only speculatively known, but the most common tale about his life I found goes something like this: he was executed on the 14th of February in the 200s for helping persecuted Christians in the Roman empire by marrying them in secret. That's all I really know about St. Valentine...but what I don't know intrigues me. For whatever reason, this man of faith felt compelled to protect and savor the tradition of godly marriage. This is beautiful! So why would I want to dress like him?

Haha, orange robes are not really my jam.

But "being" a Valentine, to me, not only means that I am standing for the sanctity of marriage, but also for the fruit of the spirit that is love. I have been a long-time believer in Valentine's Day being all about the ladies. I mean, really, single women are a lot more likely to do something for themselves on February 14th than are single men. Why? Because it's a day of fun and frills that really doesn't have to include a man! Now, don't get me wrong. I am oh-so-grateful for my boyfriend and can't wait for the little surprise he has planned for me on Friday...but part of the reason I love him is that he gets my need to celebrate the women in my life ALL WEEK LONG and he so gives me the space to do so.

So by wearing pink, red, purple, and other various shades of girly this week, I hope that I'm doing more than just showing you my cute selfies, friends. I hope to encourage you, women, to SEE how truly loved and valuable you are...to me and to Jesus.

So go on, #dresslikeavalentine.

P.S. Here's a link to wikipedia and catholic.org...where my speculative research was found, hehe.

Happy (Orthodox) New Year!

Today is January 7th, Orthodox Christmas: a holiday my mother's side of the family celebrated in days of old; a holiday God graciously reminded me of in the nick of time. You see, my New Year pretty much stunk as I came down with the stomach flu right in time for the 1st. I was vacationing (which adds a whole new level of miserable to being sick, wouldn't you say?) and I was very frustrated that I could not have a fresh start to the year; I could not begin my resolutions as effectively as I'd imagined.

So I'm starting over today. This is the day the Orthodox church celebrates the birth of Christ and since I already had a great Christmas, I'm taking another shot at the new year. Appropriately, I treated last night as my New Year's Eve and feasted on pasta and frozen yogurt. My resolutions are not really life-changers, more just life-get-back-on-trackers. I'm planning to:

-Eat really clean for the next 90 days, which means: only whole grains and natural sugars, as well as only organic animal products and organic produce from the dirty dozen list.
-Work out 6 days a week for the next 30 days.

After my 30 and 90 day periods, I will continue to eat well and exercise, but I find that giving myself a specific time frame for these stricter rules makes them both more manageable and purposeful. Its sort of a boot camp healthy cleanse for my body, without making myself feel like I am forever deprived. I most certainly believe in feasting and I believe there is a healthy way to do it!

I have a whole list of ideas floating around in my head about other resolutions I would like to pursue...like blogging once a week, going to 2 services every Sunday, recycling more consistently, and taking cod liver oil...but I think these are things I will just do, rather than resolve to punish myself for not doing. Does that make sense? It's like: being ambitious is ok, as long as it's backed by reality-groundedness, hehe.

So Happy New Year, everyone! If you fell off the horse already, get back on today!