I Wish it Was Obvious

This post is part of my weekly Time for Honesty. I do my best to share something that's on my heart that is honest, sincere, and transparent - something that will get you thinking and get you to be honest with yourself.

Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish it was obvious.

I wish you could see how tired I am. How worn out my body is. How I feel well for about 2-3 hours a day.

Sometimes, I wish it was obvious.

I wish you could see that I'm not coughing because I'm nervous. I'm not coughing because I have a cold. I'm coughing because (ironically), it helps me get better.

Sometimes, I wish it was obvious.

I wish you could see when I'm walking next to you to your dorm room how hard it is for me to keep up with you. I don't choose to walk slowly; it's the only way I know to get around.

Sometimes, I wish it was obvious.

I wish you could see that when I miss class, it is because I'm tired. But not because I haven't slept. I'm sick, you see. I'm always sick.

Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish it was obvious.

And then I realize.

God sees me in my pain.

He sees my tiredness. He knows why I cough so much. He understands that it's hard for me to keep up. He gets that sometimes, sleep just isn't enough.

Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish it was obvious.

And then I remember.

To him, it is.

Question: Do you deal with anything that you wish was more obvious to others?

I'd love to hear from you about this (or anything else)! Just drop me a comment or send me an e-mail!

All Natural Air Freshener

So I woke up at 4:45 AM for the first time this school year. And yes, it's only the second day of school. I see how this year is going to be.

Today, I want to talk about one of my favorite goals for this year: Goal #10.

Why exactly is it one of my favorites, you ask? And why am I talking about it? 

Oh, you didn't ask? Well, sadly, I misheard you, so you're going to have to hear me out.

Allow me to enlighten you:

My Reasons for Loving Goal #10 on my 111 in 2011:

A. It's goal 10, which just an awfully nice number. Easy to remember. Easy to divide. Easy to conquer.

B. It involves my wonderful wife, Kalyn, who is by far my favorite. Except Jesus (most days). And it involves making her happy, which always seems to bode well for me.

C. It also involves flowers, which aren't my favorite thing in the world, but they smell good, and thus help ward off the "there's clearly a dead weasel in the basement" odor that currently permeates our house.

Oh, wait, you don't know what Goal #10 is?

Well, that's tough.

Last time I checked, you didn't even want to know why it's one of my favorite goals.

Just kidding.

Goal #10 for 2011 in my book involves buying my beautiful wife (as already mentioned) a truckload of flowers (sort of already mentioned). Not a literal truckload, mind you, but only because we don't have a truck. More like a truckload in the sense that there is a truck somewhere full of them and I'm supposed to bring them to her, one bouquet at a time.


This week, I chose these flowers. I like them. She likes them. Dillon's likes to sell them to me. So we're all happy campers around here. Except that weasel. Someone really needs to do something about him...

Do either you or your spouse enjoy flowers? What about them do you like? What other sort of nice things have you intentionally done for them this year?

I'd love to hear from you about this (or anything else)! Leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail, and if you enjoyed this post, share it with your friends!

This Past Week

School starts today and I'm already planning on dropping a class. Darn sickness.

I'm baaaack.... again!

Okay, I admit it. You probably didn't miss me nearly as much as I'd like to think you did. After all, who takes two separate week-long breaks from their blog in one summer? That's just not very nice, if you ask me. 

Hopefully, though, you haven't forgotten about me. This last week has seemed like the longest non-blogging week ever - I swear it lasted at least a month.

And in case you were wondering, I've done a lot in the past week since I've been gone.

Did I mentioned I missed you?

Here's what I did...

Spent two and a half hours of my life enrolling for school.
Got my $4,000/month medicine... again.
Finished another book in the Bible (one of my goals for the year!).
Watched some more episodes of Psych.
Got to attend what I would call my "home" church (even though it's not in my hometown!).

Here's what I didn't do...

Wrestle a bear.
Re-design the blog.
Finish Radical Together.
Go skydiving.
Anything that required walking more than about 20 feet.

So as you can see, my week off was pretty productive, and yet unproductive at the same time! I mean, who goes a week without wrestling a bear?! A pretty lame week if you ask me.

I ramble, though, mainly to let you know that I'm thankful if you're still around and reading Life Before the Bucket. It's one of the small joys I have in my life and I enjoy sharing it with you. Though I've been more sick than usual as of late, I figure that if taking breaks from blogging helps me continue to blog in the long-run, then it's a good thing. Oh, and then there's that whole getting better from the sickness thing, too (yeah, right).

But since school is starting back up again today, I figure I need to resume blogging regularly, mostly for my sanity. And maybe a little for yours. So, as you can guess, things will be returning to pseudo-normalcy around here this week. And I liiiiike it. Hope you do too!

Sick of Being Sick

Hola, friends!

I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be taking another week-long break, as I did earlier in the summer. The infection in my lungs (the bacteria is called pseudomonas if you want to look it up) went away, but now it's back and kicking my butt.

In the meantime, I'm hoping I'll be able to find time to renovate the good ol' blog - I found a layout that I think I want to implement that is similar to the one that I'm currently using.

Have a good week, and don't miss me too much!

Beauty

In the next 3 days, we'll be in 3 different cities. Gonna be crazy!

It's Friday. And a pretty special Friday, at that. This is the last free Friday I'll have this summer, so I'm relishing in that today.

Part of that relishing (which is a weird word, by the way) includes, as usual...

Five Minute Friday!

If you're a little clueless, allow me to fill you in. Three simple rules:

1. 5 minutes to write - no more, no less. And no editing! Just write!

2. Link back to The Gypsy Mama (where this all originates from!)

3. Go comment on the blog who "links up" (via The Gypsy Mama) before you!

Simple enough, eh?

Here's today's topic:

Beauty

Ready... Set... Go!