Win of the Week

It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday...!

(You know you've missed that song.)

Terrible songs aside, we've made it, my friends. It's the end of the week, and we can all let out a collective sigh of relief. Let's do it together, shall we? Ready? 1... 2... 3!

Yeah, that feels better.

And now it's time to party! Why? Because we've made it through another week. We've survived the ups and downs of life once more, and we could really use a moment to rest. 

That, my friends, is why we gather today to celebrate our Win of the Week!

In case you're unfamiliar with this post, it happens every week. We've all been through some highs and lows, but we really want to focus on the highs today, no matter how high or low they are. So we celebrate together, shamelessly sharing the highlight of our week, also known as our Win of the Week.

And because we're party animals, we don't just celebrate one win, we celebrate two! We distinguish between our "real" lives and our "digital" lives, because sometimes, we forget that they're separate and we need that reminder. So two it is!

Personally my real-life Win of the Week would have to be my workout on Tuesday. I'm in the middle of a running schedule I found that is perfectly suited for someone like me. The first week was all walking. The second week introduced a little jogging.

I was absolutely terrified of running. I haven't been able to run at all since early college or high school - my lungs haven't quite been up to it. However, I didn't let that fear stop me from trying...

And I nailed it!

I ran for a minute straight, followed by 3 minutes of walking. And then did it 4 more times! It felt incredible. And I know it seems like a very, very small step, but for me, the mental hurdle of running has been huge. It was an incredible release knowing I could do it. So I did it again on Thursday!

It was amazing.

Meanwhile, my virtual Win of the Week occurred yesterday. Recently, I've hit a wall in blogging. I get about the same number of pageviews/visits every day, regardless of what I post.

Yesterday, though, destroyed that rut. Obliterated it.

Yesterday, I shared my story, along with the stories of my wife and mom, about my journey with a chronic illness.

More than anything, I desired exposure for PCD, because the more people are aware of it, the more can be done for those of us with it. And it was huge! I had quadruple the pageviews of a typical day (which still isn't a lot - don't get me wrong). And I appreciated each and every hit I received - I imagined every single one of those as a person learning about PCD for the first time, and it felt incredible!

So there you have it! Those are my Wins of the Week!

... ... ...

What about you? What has been the highlight of your week? Anything exciting going on with your blog/website? Feel free to shamelessly share a link or two in the comments section, along with your other Wins of the Week!

Win of the Week

It's Friiiiiiiiiiiiiiday!

And goodness gracious, it's about time.

This has been one of the longest weeks of my life. I've spent nearly 30 hours in school since Monday (there's more to come today), and it has been utterly exhausting. But regardless of how up or down this week has been, we've reached the end together, my friends.

And since we've achieved such a great feat, I'd say it's time to celebrate. It's time to pat each other on the back and say, "Job well done." It's time to share our Win of the Week!

Per usual, share as much or as little as you'd like about your week. We like to celebrate our "real life" wins and our "virtual life" wins, but if you only have one or the other, don't worry! We still want to hear how epic your week has been!

My virtual Win of the Week has to be the flexibility and willingness of this week's guest posters. They whipped up some amazing posts with some amazing speed, and even though I was a little (read: very) disorganized, they were still willing to share their writing with all of us. Because of this, I'd like to give a HUGE "Thank you!" should be given to Tessa Hardiman, Jim Woods, and Andi Cumbo!

My real-life Win of the Week feels very obvious to me, and is most likely very obvious to those who have seen me this week. I'm utterly exhausted physically, and really, everyone in our Master's program most likely is. I think I hit that point about two days ago, though, so I'm just excited to still be alive. I might resemble a zombie more than a human at this point, but I'm here nonetheless. So three cheers for surviving the most tiring week in recent memory!

So there you have it, my friends. Your turn!

What has been your Win of the Week so far? Feel free to shamelessly share your own blog or any posts you've written as a part of your celebration! 

Win of the Week

Whew... We made it. 

Let's take a collective sigh of relief, my friends... because it's Friday!

No matter how high your highs or how low your lows, you survived. You've cleared the hurdles and you've completed the course. Congratulations!

Around here, we like to throw a party, blog style. Because it's Friday and because we're always looking to encourage one another, it's time to share our Win of the Week!

Now, as before, we are each going to share two Wins of the Week so that we can get double the pats on the back. Share one "real life" Win of the Week and one "virtual life" win of the week.

For example, if I had won a million dollars this week, that might be my "real life" win of the week. Meanwhile, my "virtual" Win of the Week would be something like hitting 10,000 pageviews overall. Of course, if you don't have a blog or a virtual Win, you can most certainly still participate! But if you do, this is your time to shamelessly share yourself. Plug away, my friends!

Personally, my real life Win of the Week would have to be working out every day so far this week. I've been taking part in the most recent 6 Week Challenge over at Nerd Fitness (run by the awesome Steve Kamb). My workouts have been walking (aerobic) and body weight circuits (strength). This is very important to me, as it will help keep my lungs in tip-top shape, allowing for the fullest, longest life for me possible.

My virtual Win of the Week has to be my successful reentry into the blogosphere. After being gone for so long, it's difficult to find a rhythm again, but I think I've got this figured out. Of course, I start school next week, so that could really throw a wrench in my plans, but that's for then. For now, I'm stoked to be back!

So there you have it! Those are my Wins of the Week!

What about you? What has been your "real life" Win of the Week? What has been your "virtual" Win of the Week? This is your chance to shamelessly share yourself!

P.S. - I've been thinking for a long while about making my Win of the Week post a link-up, where those of you with blogs could participate by posting about your Win of the Week alongside me. Those without blogs could still comment, but this would really help to share the love with more people.

Would you be interested in this? Please let me know in the comments section!

Win of the Week

It's Friiiiiday!

I know I've been gone awhile, but a few of you have mentioned that you really missed Fridays around here. To tell you the truth, I did too! So let's get down to business, my friends.

Around here, Friday means one thing, and one thing only: we party like it's 1999. Why? Because we're celebrating our Win of the Week! 


In case you're new around here, this is how our weekly Win of the Week post goes. Basically, we mull over our past week and share the highlights of our week together! More recently, we've begun distinguishing between our real life and virtual Wins of the Week, so be sure to shamelessly share about anything of note that you've accomplished on the internet!

Personally, I've had a rather ho-hum week. Obviously, I started getting back on the internet and blogging, but I wouldn't consider that the highlight of my week. Instead, I'd say that my Win of the Week would have to be... my wife starting two new jobs this week!

I'm really proud of her, especially for starting work at a maternity home here in town, which is something she would do for free. So when you comment, remember to mention how awesome Kalyn is!

My virtual Win of the Week would have to be... Trimming down my Google Reader. It sounds bad, but I'd rather fully read 10 blogs than skim 100. I enjoy interacting on other's blogs, but when I feel like I have a million to read, that becomes a lot more difficult.

So there you have it! Those are my Wins of the Week!

So what about you? What are your Wins of the Week? Feel free to shamelessly share about your achievements!

Win of the Week

This is undoubtedly one of the most exciting Fridays of my life.

Exciting for a number of reasons, to be sure.

First of all, our families are coming into town today. It's always a blast to have them over and I'm looking forward to seeing all of them!

Secondly, the weather's pretty nice right now, so I'm enjoying it while I can. Before I know it, I'll be roasting in the sun.

And most importantly... it's our last day of undergraduate classes!

In other words, there's a lot of cause for celebration on this side of the world. And that's perfect, because today we're celebrating our Win of the Week!

Keeping with the last couple of weeks, we'll share both a "real life" Win of the Week and a digital/blogging Win of the Week. This is your chance to shamelessly share something you've written or something you loved reading/watching/listening to!

So, obviously, I have to say that my real life Win of the Week is surviving my undergraduate program. We graduate tomorrow, and it couldn't come soon enough for me. I can't wait to move, to start a new life, and to start in my Master's program!

Meanwhile, in the digital world, I have a lot to celebrate.

First of all, I love that new people are discovering Life Before the Bucket and interacting with the micro-community we have here. And if you're new here and want to follow along, check out the Updates page to find a way to follow along!

My ultimate blogging Win of the Week, though, has to be being accepted as a finalist in Foundation Care Pharmacy's blogging contest! I've been blown away by how many of you have voted for my entry, and I can't thank you enough for your generosity in that. I'll try to find a way to reward you if I come in 1st Place!
So if you haven't already voted, check out the contest and vote for Entry #1!

(Edit: The contest is now closed. Thanks to all of those who voted for my entry!)

So those, my friends, are my Wins of the Week.

What about you? What was your real-life Win of the Week? 

What was your digital/blogging Win of the Week? 

Feel free to shamelessly share anything you've written/read/watched/listened to this week!

Win of the Week

It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday...

And around here, while we're getting "down" on Friday, we're also celebrating! We've finally made it through another week. Time to breathe a sigh of relief and take a moment to reflect and remember the ups and downs of this past week.

It's time for us to share our Win of the Week! 

Again, I want to divide this between virtual and real-life, because that distinction is important. So, first off, my virtual Win of the Week would have to be finally getting set up with Amazon Associates!

I'm not sure why I hadn't done it prior to now, but I already made a few pennies, so I'm pretty excited about that. So if you decide you're going to buy something through Amazon, consider clicking through Life Before the Bucket first! It's an easy way to help support the blog while paying money you would already be paying anyway!

My real life Win of the Week could be a number of things. Getting stuck in an elevator made for a great story. It's also the end of the next to last week of our undergraduate program, which I'm stoked about. I'm excited to begin our life in a new place soon! Or it could be getting to go on a great date with my wife earlier this week!

My real Win of the Week, though, is something much simpler. I spent a lot of time this week reading on my Kindle, which I love and don't usually have enough time for. It's an easy way for me to keep track of all of my books and a great medium to receive free and dirt cheap books from. I think my Kindle and I will be spending a lot more time together in the near future!

Also, a bonus win has to be seeing this video. I promise you'll love it - it's hilarious!

What was your Win of the Week in real life? What was your virtual/blogging Win of the Week? Feel free to shamelessly share your own content!

Disclaimer: This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase anything through the link, I will receive monetary compensation for your purchase.

Win of the Week

Do you ever wake up at the end of a week and think, "Man, this was a decent week!"? That's where I'm at today.

I wouldn't call this the most memorable week of 2012 so far, but it was definitely a positive experience.

And since today is Friday, it's time to ceeeelebraaate good times, come on!

(Okay, got that out of my system - sorry about that.)

But seriously. It's Friday. And around here, that means sharing our Win of the Week!

I think, as a result of watching this TED Talk (H/T to Richard Beck), I'm going to start distinguishing between my Win of the Week for my real life and my cyber life (namely, blogging). This may or may not last, so if you don't like it, don't worry. It'll probably change soon.

Also, something I'm considering: making the Win of the Week a link-up post, so others can flesh out their wins, link-up here, and we can party like it's 1999! What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts in the form of a comment!

So, my Win of the Week in real life has got to be... finding a French Press Coffee Maker at a garage sale that our church is putting on! This seems rather lame, but considering it is on my Bucket List, I think it's pretty fantastic. Plus, I made some awesome coffee with it this morning!

My virtual Win of the Week has got to be posting consistently this week. Since I had great content to use (thanks to Luke Reynolds and Aly Lewis!), you guys consistently visited the blog, making it one of the best weeks (statistically speaking) to date, even if none of the posts were record-breaking.

Also, my Win of the Week, Part B has got to be finding this image. I found it last night, and I still think it's funny this morning:

You can't possibly read that without at least smiling (H/T to Steve Kamb). Seriously, it's physically impossible.

That's all I've got, so that means it's your turn!

What was your Win of the Week in real life? What was your virtual/blogging Win of the Week? Feel free to shamelessly share your own content!

Disclaimer: This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase anything through the link, I will receive monetary compensation for your purchase.

Win of the Week

Ugh.

It has been a nasty, downright sick week for me. I've been sick since Wednesday - I had some sort of reaction to a new medicine I'm taking. I'm still recovering and not feeling fully conscious two days later.

Even the worst sickness couldn't stop me from celebrating, though. After all, it's Friday! And around here (and most everywhere in the world that has a 5 day work week), Friday is a cause for celebration. No matter how rough (or how good) our week has been, we reflect. We think back. And then we share.

My friends, it's time for a nice, virtual pat on the back. This is your chance to share your Win of the Week!

Personally, it's difficult for me to pick out a particular win this week, especially with being sick and rather helpless for the last 48 hours. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a "good" part of this week!

My Win of the Week would have to be... Getting some new guest posts for our "Living to the Fullest" guest post series! I was worried for a second that the series was going to come to a screeching halt, but alas, you saved the day by stepping forward and contributing! Thanks SO much to those who continue to help make the series possible.

And if still want to help by contributing, but aren't sure what that entails, check our the original "Living to the Fullest" post for details. I would love to hear any ideas you have for a post! I'm just a quick e-mail away!

So, although it's been a pretty lame week, that's my Win of the Week!

What about you? What was your Win of the Week?

Win of the Week

Howdy, friends!

It's time to give yourself a pat on the back (go ahead, do it now - I promise no one will see). You made it through another week!

This is an especially great Friday for us, because we're out of school for Good Friday (which is the oddest name ever, but don't get me started on that). So, because we remember Jesus' death today, we get a day off of school! Makes complete sense.

I plan on making the most of this Friday off, but in order to do that, I want to start it off right: by celebrating my Win of the Week! 


When I'm trying to think of my win each week, something usually immediately pops into my head. Not so much this week. Unfortunately, this hasn't been a very memorable week. It hasn't been terribly bad, either. Just nothing to write home about.

But, because I want to celebrate with you guys, I do have a win. The highlight of my week, as cheesy as it may sound, was celebrating Easter a few days early at our school through our chapel service. Easter is the pinnacle of Christian holidays, even if it's celebrated rather confusingly by the rest of the world (a rabbit that lays eggs? that confuses us all).

I have some great memories associated with celebrating Easter, and I also have some rather mundane ones. But, when it comes down to it, the hope that I have in Easter is enough to help spark a flame within me for the rest of the year. It's beautiful to me, though I can't capture it in words like I want to.

So that, my friends, is my Win of the Week.


What about you? What was your Win of the Week?

Win of the Week

It's just been one of those weeks.

It seems like everything I touched broke this week - my fridge, my laptop, and, as you know, my blog.

Not a week I plan on remembering.

But it is still Friday, which is always cause for celebration around here, because we share our Win of the Week with each other!

Now, like I said, I had a pretty rough week. For a few days, I didn't feel like I could catch a break. But the week is over, and I think my "bad stuff" streak is coming to an end.

Luckily, this week, despite how rough it was, flew by at about a million miles an hour. That, in an of itself, is cause for celebration. Plus, it means we're only a month away from graduating!

But my real win of the week is something rather small and insignificant, in the grand scheme of things. You see, when I have bad days, I try to look for the little things to cheer me up - a kind word, a relaxing moment, or a funny meme on the internet. 

That 'little' thing for me this week was my wife's amazing cooking. On Tuesday, she made us Chickpea Pot Pie, which I loved and devoured, despite never having chickpeas before. Then, on Thursday, she made us Penna Rosa with Shrimp & Spinach - a sort of imitation recipe of Noodles & Company, and it was to die for.

So... What about you? What was your win of the week? 

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I'd appreciate you subscribing to Life Before the Bucket and sharing it with your friends. Thanks a million for reading!  

Win of the Week

If the Monday of Spring Break is the best Monday of the year, then the Friday of Spring Break is the worst.

It's the end of an unusually relaxing week for us, but for those of you with real jobs, it was probably "just another" week.

Or was it?

Around here, there are no "just another" weeks. Why? Because we celebrate every week, regardless of how boring, good, or bad the week was. We share our victories and give each other a much-needed pat on the back.

It's that time, my friends. Let's share our Win of the Week together.

I'm going to be a little greedy here and share two, mostly because it's (most likely) my last Spring Break.

My first win involves Life Before the Bucket. Together, we were able to raise $125 for World Water Day! And even though we weren't able to fully fund a well-worker, we still helped change the lives of over 1,000 people who don't have access to clean water because their well has broken or they didn't have a well to begin with.

Also, the organization we partnered with, The Adventure Project, reached it's goal of raising $25,000, which means that The Prem Rewat Foundation is matching their funds dollar for dollar. This means that we effectively raised $250!

Also, a small added bonus was seeing a few people come out of the woods who don't usually comment! Thanks to everyone who participated - many lives were changed through your generosity.

My second win was more personal. I've managed to almost read 3 books this week, including rereading The Hunger Games, which released in theatres last night. We're seeing it today, which I can't wait for! And yes, you'll probably be reading a blog post about it - if I can come up with something original that someone else hasn't already written.

So what about you? What was your win of the week? 

Win of the Week

It's here. It's finally here. Friday is upon us, my friends.

Another week is almost in the books, and around here, that means we do a little something to celebrate.

We share the best moments of our week together, sharing virtual pats on the back as we go.

My friends, it's time to share your Win of the Week!

Despite the headache I have right now, this has been a fantastic week. First of all, it's been about 80 degrees (F) everyday (26 degrees Celcius for the people with normal temperatures that read this blog). For the 2nd/3rd week of March, it's incredible. Heck, we could have even turned on our air conditioner! However, I have a strict "No A/C before Spring Break" rule, and I'm a man of principle, so we didn't.

Beyond great weather, this is the week before Spring Break, which is cause for celebration in and of itself. I can't wait to relax for a week. Plus, Spring Break signals that we only have about a month left of school, which is mind-boggling to think about. We'll be graduating a month and a half from now!

However, neither of those things top my Win of the Week. My Win of the Week has got to be...

Receiving my acceptance letter into the Master's Program I applied for! 

We're so excited to finally know what we're going to do with our lives after this school year. People have been asking us, and we always told them that this was our "Plan A", and that we didn't really have a "Plan B." We brainstormed and came up with some crazy ideas for Plan B, but we didn't end up needing it!

So, in the fall, I will be continuing my education at another school back in Wichita, where I'm from. I'll be pursuing a degree in Family Therapy so that I can obtain my license to become a Marriage and Family Therapist! I'm going from being a Crusader to being a Falcon (a drastic improvement, to be sure).

They interviewed about 100 people, and around 30 to 35 were accepted. And hey, I completed a goal on my 52 in 2012 by making it into this program!

So that, my friends, is my Win of the Week.

So... What about you? What was your Win of the Week?

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I'd appreciate you subscribing to Life Before the Bucket and sharing it with your friends. Thanks a million for reading!

Win of the Week

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...

You've made it through another week!

Congratulations!

Personally, this was one of the longest weeks of my life. Between mourning the loss of a good friend's child and waiting for my acceptance/denial letter into my Master's Program (which still hasn't come), I'm tired. Exhausted. Spent. Kaput.

So I don't know about you, but I had a pretty rough week.

But, regardless of circumstance, we celebrate. Regardless of whether we enjoyed the week, we remember the good. Regardless of how big or small our victories are, we share them.

My friends, it's time for you to share your Win of the Week.

Like I said before, this was a tough week. I've faced a lot of tragedy and death in my life, but never have I had to wrestle with the death of a child. It has been one of the most emotionally exhausting weeks of my life.

However, I did have a win this week.

Yesterday, I managed to talk to a good friend about what was going on. The conversation was brief, but it was meaningful to me. I needed to let part of my load off onto someone else. Now don't get me wrong - there's still a lot of weight hanging around. But talking to someone about this sort of stuff (for even a few minutes) is a pretty big deal for me. Typically, I'm a clam up and deal with it sort of guy, so this was a step in the right direction for me.

So that, my friends, is my Win of the Week.

So... What about you? What was your Win of the Week?

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I'd appreciate you subscribing to Life Before the Bucket and sharing it with your friends. Thanks a million for reading

Win of the Week

...Huh? What?

Oh, yes, yes. Hi there.

I feel like I've been knocked upside the head with a sledgehammer.

BUT, regardless of how I feel, today is Friday!

(cue the party hats, streamers, and balloons)

And, since it's Friday, regardless of how we feel, we celebrate. We share our Win of the Week with one another, because, after a long week, we sometimes need a pat on the back!

I'm having a difficult time deciding on my Win of the Week. It's been a pretty exciting week. We were able to spend time with family this past weekend. I also had an interview for a potential Master's Program earlier on in the week. Then, later on in the week, we turned in our "big" senior paper (which I finished a couple of weeks ago - but more on that later).

It's so difficult to pick sometimes, which I suppose isn't a terrible problem to have.

I guess I'd have to say that my Win of the Week would have to be... guest posting at Kerry's blog! Kerry has recently started following along here at Life Before the Bucket and brings an entirely new perspective to me as I write. I thought I'd return the favor to her by posting about rest, so be sure to check it out sometime today and leave your thoughts on the post that I wrote!

So... What about you? What was your Win of the Week?

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I'd appreciate you subscribing to Life Before the Bucket and sharing it with your friends. Thanks a million for reading! 

Win of the Week

Not-so-surprising announcement: We're still looking for guest post submissions! Just check out this post on Living to the Fullest and then send me an e-mail with your guest post idea!

Whew. It's been one of those weeks.

It feels like Monday through Thursday sucker-punched me in the gut.

But it's Friday, so I'm almost done with the fight. And so are you. Congratulations, my friends.

Here, we champion our weeks, no matter how rough they were. We look on the bright side, even if it doesn't seem bright at all.

We share together, as friends, each Win of the Week that we have had.

This week, like I said, has been a doozy. I reached an entirely new level of tired, but thankfully, my medicine finally came in. It tastes like soap (as always) and takes entirely to long to use (20+ minutes twice a day), but it's more than worthwhile.

Soon enough, I'll have energy again, and the monster that is our dishes will be slain.

So that, my friends, is my Win of the Week.

Also, Bonus Win: printing my 45 page paper (a week after I finished it). It was more stressful than you'd think it would be...

So what about you? What was your Win of the Week? Share with us in the comments section of this post!

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I'd appreciate you subscribing to Life Before the Bucket and sharing it with your friends. Thanks a million for reading!  

Win of the Week

Did you hear about the epic guest post series we're starting up? The first post will be next week, so get your submissions in ASAP! Here's my e-mail if you're interested: awaller1990@gmail.com. And remember, you don't have to be a writer or a blogger to contribute!

If ever a week was a roller coaster, this one would be it.

Thankfully, the ride is just about over. The bar is about to lift, and that pressure will be gone. We can step off together and breathe a sigh of relief that we survived.

There were highs and there were lows. There were moments that flew, and others that crawled with anticipation.

Here, in our celebration of this wonderful day known as Friday, we spill with our successes, our brightest moments in the past seven days. We share our Win of the Week.

Now, like I said, this week was a roller coaster for me. There were points when I just wanted to go to sleep and wake up in the middle of next week. There were also a couple of points when I wanted to freeze time and take comfort in the joy of a moment lived well.

The moment that I'm proudest of, though? Well... That would have to be yesterday's blog post.

It was the least viewed of the four posts from this week, but it was also one of the most difficult for me to write. First of all, I was feeling like death the night before and the morning of that post. I couldn't shake a nasty headache and an overwhelming tiredness. Secondly, I'm not one to spill my guts often. I'm open if you ask, but I don't usually volunteer personal information like that.

I'm grateful that I did it, though. I got some great responses from you guys, as well as some responses from friends who had read my blog that day. It was a moment of vulnerability for me, but it was worth it.

So that, my friends, is my Win of the Week.

... ... ...

Questions: What is your win of the week? Was it something small? Something big? A moment of vulnerability like my own?

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I'd appreciate you subscribing to Life Before the Bucket and sharing it with your friends. Thanks a million for reading! 

Win of the Week

It's Friday, Friday. Gotta get down on Friday...

The not-so-official Win of the Week mascot

Just kidding.

We don't do the Rebecca Black around here. Nope. We've got something much better up our sleeves.

Around here, we celebrate because we've been given the gift of another week passed. We celebrate milestones. We celebrate the insignificant, because we find it significant. We're sharing our win of the week.

This week hasn't been very exciting for me. Call it a post-birthday week letdown. Mostly, I've worked on our final Senior Paper, which seems like a big deal, but really isn't. And I suppose I've learned something from the experience, especially this week.

As I've watched people stress and fret over these passages of Scripture we're examining, I've found myself confused. Why are they stressing? What's to fret about? I see people staying hours and hours and hours on end in the library, only to take a stack of books home with them to work on. What's the point? Is that really living?

I've found that, though I'm not organized in most things, I seem to be able to organize my time well and not allow my schoolwork to bleed into my time to work out, eat, sleep, or be with my wife. These are all things that are higher on my priority list than our paper, and for that, I'm grateful.

So I'm calling this my win of the week. I've learned to be disciplined and not to overwork myself, and that's a skill that most people struggle to learn. Sure, we work, work, work. But what about rest? What about play? What about life?

I can only thank God that he's exposed me to an assignment this ridiculous so I can get my priorities straight.

... ... ...

So what about you? What was your win of the week? Leave a comment that says "My win of the week was..." and it might just get shared on the Life Before the Bucket Facebook or Twitter page!

If you enjoy what you've read, I'd appreciate you subscribing to Life Before the Bucket and sharing this post with your friends. Thanks a million for reading! 

Win of the Week

Well, fellow Bucketeers, it's Friday.

And around here lately, that's meant one thing: sharing your win of the week.

I'm all about building community, so sharing our victories for this week is important to me.

Here's mine:

This week, my win involves a speaker that came to our school. It was most definitely one of the most popular events we've ever had, because the speaker, Shane Claiborne, is something of a phenomena.

Truth be told, though, I hadn't heard of the guy until I heard he was speaking. So I wasn't sure what to expect. 

What I found, though, was reassuring. Shane talked to us about being Jesus with skin on. About meeting the world's pain. And so much more. And I plan on sharing what I learned with you next week.

What was most reassuring, though, was the fact that I've been where Shane is at for a while. My faith has become less about me and more about making life easier (and better) for those around me. It was like God was reassuring me: "You're on the right track; keep going."

That encouragement was much needed, especially as I'm beginning to get bogged down with papers and reading assignments. It reminded me of what's important, and that has very little to do with any assignments I'm trying to finish right now. Regardless of how important the papers I'm writing may seem, they're not worth breaking my neck over.

So that, my friends, is my win of week.

What about you? What was your win of the week? 

Win of the Week

It's one of those days.

You know, the three-cups-of-coffee-won't-wake-me-up kind of day.

But, regardless of how worn out you are, you made it. It's Friday.

And around here, it means something relatively new.

We think we're pretty special people, and in living life as fully as possible, we get a little worn out. We need a pat on the back, and so we come here to get it.

This week has been exhausting beyond belief for me. It was our first full week of school. It was also my first full week off of my antibiotics, which means the darned bacteria in my lungs gets a chance to recover from my attack on them.

It was a great week, though.

A picture of a picture, because I AM that tired today.

My win of the week? Definitely getting to see our family both last Sunday (that was still this week, right?) and this coming weekend. Last weekend we had a birthday party, and this weekend, we'll probably just relax, play board games, and pick on my youngest sister, Tanna, because we all know she's smarter and more talented than the rest of us and want to feel good about ourselves.

I kid, I kid.

So what about you? What was/is/is going to be your win of the week?

Win of the Week

You made it through another week!

Guess what?

It's Friday.

You made it.

Breathe a sweet sigh of relief and enjoy it while you can.

I think I want to start a new "tradition" around here. I'm definitely borrowing it from one of my favorite sports blogs, so hopefully they don't sue the pants off me (because it's cold and I really need my pants to stay warm).

Here's what we're gonna do. Every Friday, I want to keep it simple. I want to share our "wins" of the week with one another. Even if it's something like "I made it through the week without killing too many people" (not that I condone killing, but hey, a win's a win). I wanna hear it!

So here's my win of the week: I had band practice at church last night and was actually able to play guitar while standing, so I'm pretty stoked about that. I've had to sit while playing for most of the last year, so it's a pretty big deal to me.

So there you have it. No matter how big or small your win was this week, let's hear it:


What was your win of the week?