Updates on Dreams and Goals for February

 

Happy Leap Day, everyone! Whether or not your day involves actual leaping, I hope you have a fun day! 😊

            I wanted to update you on how my dreams and goals went for this month!

ONE. Start leading a Bible study. I did accomplish this, and what joy it brought to my soul. My friend Julie and I are co-leading it. She knows more of the people involved, so she’s organizing it from a hospitality end, and I’m doing the bulk of the teaching. I have led studies in recent years, but not to a women’s group, and it is so encouraging to be back in this role. I am making new friends and loving the opportunity to share in a way that allows me to use my gifts! We’ve had two meetings so far, and I enjoyed both so much. (And I’m learning more about leading. SO MUCH to learn.)

TWO. Figure out our birthday trip. We don’t have dates nailed down (yet) but we do have an itinerary. It is different from what I thought it was going to be going into the month, because we had a surprise gift to us that ended up changing our route. It’s going to be so fun, though, and I’m excited about it.

THREE. Plan our Valentine’s Day adventure. Well, you read about Valentine’s Day! What a FUN day it was. We participated in the Not-So-Newlywed game at Ryan’s work, and then we had a sweet, romantic dinner at home, that we prepared together. We exchanged gifts and watched a movie – and it was just a great night. I was grateful for it.

FOUR. Work on crafting retreat/conference messages. I am excited to say that I have finished laying out two of the three messages I’m sharing in March, and the third one is not far behind. I had to rethink my topic after a date change, and I think I know what I want to share…I just need to pull it together. I also scheduled a vacation day for next month to hunker down and write hard for the retreat I’m speaking at in April. I feel good about where things stand for now!

FIVE. Keep working on my living room re-vision. I made the least amount of progress on this. All progress happened in my head, only. I have several ideas…I just need to figure out how to pull it all together. Perhaps I will reassign this to April. March is kind of busy.

I did accomplish a few other things that weren’t on the dream list. They included:

·         We hosted fondue night for our small group, and that ended up being a lot of fun to put together. I wrote about it already, but it was an unplanned adventure that turned out to be a win!

·         I spoke twice this month and enjoyed the chance to serve in both settings. I also had the opportunity to visit a women’s Bible study that is studying my Be Still book. It’s always a treat to get to meet groups studying my writing!

·         We hung out with our friends for the Super Bowl and had a good time spending an evening with them.

·         We met up with Mark and Lynnette when they were in town, and it was so good to see them! It’s been a really long time, it felt like, since all four of us were together. We had a great time.

·         Ryan and I were able to have a few dates and enjoy some quality time at home together this month, which I both needed and appreciated. Loved it.

I am grateful for a good month with a lot of strong memories preserved. Looking forward to March!

Fun Finds from February

 

            On any other year, today would be our last day of February, but did you remember we have a bonus day this year? One more day in this month! 😊 But I thought I would spend today sharing with you a handful of fun finds I’ve had this month. They’re random and unrelated, but hope you enjoy them!

·         A few weeks ago, I had a chat with Lynnette about salad spinners. She asked if I had one, and I don’t, but I do have one on my wish list. We really loved growing our own lettuce last summer and plan to do it again this year, but nothing made me wish for a salad spinner more than growing my own lettuce. This month, I stumbled upon this review of four spinners, and I found it helpful! If you don’t have a salad spinner and are considering one, maybe these pros and cons will help you! (The Cuisinart one is the one I already had on my wish list, so I was happy to see it did well on the review list.)

***

·         Ryan and I watched a travel show one night and the people were hiking (for less than a day) a tiny piece of the Appalachian Trail. I’ve looked at blogs about that trail before – written by hikers who have done the entire thing. I circled back to it and found this blog – which I may have found before and not remembered, I’m not sure – but it was FUN to read the good and the hard of their adventures. I told Ryan that I was pretty sure if we lived along the trail, he would make a ministry of bringing home hikers for a warm meal, shower, and bed to sleep in for the night!

***

·         When Ryan and I were at the gym a few days ago, I noticed they have the very same metal message boards that we have in our house! (We got ours at IKEA a few years ago…I don’t know that they carry them anymore.) It also looked like they had pushpins on them, which was strange to me, so I investigated. It turns out these are magnets that look like pins! WHAT?!!?!?! I came straight home and put them on my wish list. They’re small, so they don’t cover up a ton of whatever you’re hanging on your board. Genius.

***

·         You know how much I love the many different Bibles I have on my shelf. Each one represents a different piece of my life and the lessons learned in those years. But I have to tell you this brilliant idea my friend/pastor, Jonathan introduced to me this month. I’ve heard pastors talk before about their “preaching Bibles.” Many have one that is not their regular, daily study Bible, but they choose to use it from the platform each Sunday. Maybe for some, it has larger print that is easy to read…maybe it’s a certain version that is the one the church uses collectively…maybe it's the look of the Bible – crisp with gold edges or something. I’ve never had a speaking Bible, preferring to carry with me whatever I’m using as my own personal Bible at the time.

      But he recently purchased a new Bible for preaching – and it’s a journaling Bible. It’s a hard cover, so if he’s carrying it to read, the pages aren’t bending down on him. But here’s what I love. He plans to go through and mark every passage he ever preached from – with the date and the name of the message. That way, as he prepares sermons, he’ll know if it’s a book or passage he’s spoken from often – or never. Apparently, as he explained this idea to me, the look on my face was most priceless, and yes, Idid come home and add the same Bible (different cover) to my wish list. I’m not a pastor, but it would be so lovely to mark the passages I have used when sharing messages – and where I spoke, so I don’t repeat. Brilliant.

***

·         I nearly squealed right out loud when I realized that Becca from the Clothed in Grace blog did a new spring capsule wardrobe. It released Monday, and I love it. I love the colors, I love the mix of clothing pieces, and I love the mix of weights of clothing. Spring in Indiana is just such a gamble. You need sweaters and tank tops – sometimes in the same day! So if you’re looking for some inspiration, check it out! I will be making this a priority in March – combing through what I have and seeing what I need to add!

***

·         I think the last thing I have for today is just a fun idea our church did this past weekend. If you’re on any kind of planning committee at your church, I recommend trying it, because it was FUN. Our church does a great job of trying to encourage the generations to not just worship together, but to do life together. So they had an intergenerational game night Saturday night. There was a photo booth (YAY!), snacks, drinks, and we played different kinds of Bingo!

       When we arrived, they gave us Bingo cards that had all kinds of things on them. We had to mix and mingle for about a half hour, finding people to sign our squares. Someone who was in preschool. A grandparent. Someone with brown eyes. Someone who had been part of the church for over 10 years. Someone who had a dog. Someone with no pets. Someone who had read the entire Bible – things like that. It pushed us all to talk to people and learn more about them, including their names! Then they called off names, and if you had that person’s name on your card, you could mark your space. It was so fun!

       Then we played a round where all the squares were books of the Bible. Another round was all about hymns and Sunday School songs and kind of turned into a singalong! They had really cool prizes (of which I won none, but that’s okay) and it was just a super fun night. I loved it.

So there you go! A few fun finds for February. Hope you get a good idea out of one of them!

What to Do with a Free Day Off!

            

             Yesterday was a special gift in my life – and a most unexpected one. It started last Friday morning when my supervisor called me. She said, “Bekah, you’ve been working a lot of extra hours and you’ve had a lot happening at work lately. I looked at your calendar for Monday and you only have one meeting on the books that day. I want you to invite me to that meeting so I can run it for you, and I want you to take the day off and just enjoy it. A free day.”

            I started the obligatory protests, but I stopped immediately. I recognized the gift she offered. A free day off to rest and fill my cup so I can do well going forward? I accept.

            All weekend, Ryan said to me, “What are you going to do with your day off?” I couldn’t hide the delight in my eyes as I said, “I don’t know! There are so many wonderful things I would want to do – how will I ever choose?”

            Here is what I ended up doing!

            I got up at the normal time and settled in on the couch with coffee and my Bible to have an extended time of Bible study and prayer. I got up to pack Ryan’s lunch before he left for work – and then it was back to the couch. Lexi was SO EXCITED for a couch day. They don’t happen often, but when they do, she is so happy.

            After Ryan left, my first order of business was to prep for the new Bible study I’m leading every other week. It met last night, and I had some final organization and prep work to do for it, so I made sure that was done.

            Then I took time to read aloud and revise my next two event talks I’m giving. I learned from them, prayed over them, considered future changes, and felt great about what I got done!

            It was mid-morning by then and time to take a shower and get ready. I had the biggest smile on my face, because everything about the day had been so fully beautiful, and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet!

            I got ready, did a quick laminating/binder-making project, and then I drove to Ryan’s work to meet him for his lunch. We went for a walk on the trails, because it was almost 60 degrees outside – IN FEBRUARY! IN INDIANA! – and then I came back home to eat my lunch.

            I spent the afternoon working ahead on some blog posts, a hospitality project I have coming up, and catching up on other tasks I’d gotten behind on along the way. It was gorgeous outside, and I had HGTV playing in the background the whole time. What a perfect little day.

            When it was close to time for Ryan to come home, I took some time to pray over some things that are weighing on my heart, and then when he did get home, we took advantage of the truly GORGEOUS day and took Lexi for a walk. (Two walks in one day? What is this madness??)

            Then I was off to Bible study and Ryan and Lexi hung out at home.

            It was a really beautiful day (literally and figuratively) and I am already guessing I’ll need to start extra early today and stay late tonight to compensate, but I still treasured the gift of a day off!

Bekah's Bookshelf: My 2024 Reads So Far

 

This month has been both busy and short, but I have completed reading two books and am halfway through the third. I had hoped I would have it finished before I wrote this post, but alas, I do not. It’s okay! I can tell you more about it later.

            The first book I finished this month was Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis. It’s book 2 in The Chronicles of Narnia, if you read the books according to the original numbering of the series. In this book, the four children from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe find themselves back in Narnia. In the timing of Earth, they are just a year older than they were when they vacationed in the home with the wardrobe that led them to Narnia. But in the translation of time in Narnia, they had lived to adulthood, come back to the regular world, and now find it to be hundreds…thousands?...of years later in Narnia. In fact, it takes them a while to even recognize anything around them, because everything is overgrown and deteriorated from their previous visit there.

            The first portion of the book takes readers along with the main characters into a story time to hear all that has happened in Narnia since the time of the first book. A new prince (Caspian, as you might imagine) is in Narnia, but his guardian is trying to keep him from becoming the rightful king of Narnia. He tries to prevent Caspian from learning any of the stories of Old Narnia and understanding his role in the land. Caspian’s private teacher secretly schools him on the truth and then urges him to run away and become the king he should be. Caspian needs help to gain his rightful place, and that is what draws Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy back to Narnia.

            I was surprised (again) at how many correlations to Scripture I found within this book and how many times the simplest sentences took my breath away with their profound messages. I don’t usually underline in fiction, but if I’d had a pen on hand, I would have underlined several times in this one. I feared I wouldn’t like it as much as the first book, but I really did!

**

            Last fall – November 15, to be exact – I saw an Instagram post by Beth Moore that said, “Yesterday we spent the day as a staff learning the art of bread making and the healing and spiritual practice it can be! We had the joy of learning from the incredibly talented Kendall Vanderslice and had an absolute blast together as a staff! Y’all should check out her book By Bread Alone and keep an eye out for her new book coming out soon.” When Beth Moore says y’all should check something out, this y’all checks it out.

            I clicked over to Kendall’s account and scrolled through delightful posts of her work in breadmaking. The cover of By Bread Alone caught my eye, and I threw it on my Christmas list. My parents bought it for me, and I finally had time to pick it up to start reading.

            Friends, I gulped this book’s words. I curled up with it every chance I found, and if Kendall lived next door, I would insist upon being friends – even if she never baked me a single loaf of bread. She is keenly intelligent, gifted as a baker, and has a background as a dancer – and in those areas, we’ll never have commonality. But in SO MANY WAYS, I nodded in agreement until my head rattled. Kendall gets me. She knows what it’s like to ache to fit in…and not. To be single and aching to the core. To long to please the Lord and not be entirely sure what that entails. To search for purpose in work and writing. YES, YES, and YES.

            And with our recent foray into milling wheat and baking bread, I found myself drinking up her explanations about bread and how it really works. About the ingredients of bread and how they teach us about our faith. About our communities of faith, friends, and family, and how they form and shape us.

            In this book and in her livelihood, she weaves theology and breadmaking, and in that, I find such joy. The book wasn’t over my head, though her understanding far exceeds mine. She’s a friendly voice and comrade in the hard parts of life. I was so sad when the book ended. So much more that I wanted to learn! I underlined. I starred. I bonded with this book. How profoundly grateful I am that I didn’t miss that random post of Beth’s that pushed me to Kendall’s book and her delightful social media account. If you love the Lord and community and bread…you’ll love this. So good. Thanks for this gift, Kendall.

**

            The book I didn’t get to finish yet is book three in The Chronicles of Narnia, and it’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I’m finding much humor in this book, and a new character introduced in these pages might be my favorite character yet. His snarky personality is delightful. I’ll have to tell you more about the book when I finish it!

Sunday Sentiments: Answers to Prayer

 

            God has been teaching me so much this week. Perhaps, in fairness to Him, I should say that He’s always teaching, but I’m listening extra hard right now, so I’m learning. I wonder how many things I don’t learn, not because He’s not teaching, but fully because I’m not listening. That’s a topic for another day.

            But I wanted to share with you one of these lessons I learned this week. Maybe it’s just for me, but I have a feeling it might be meaningful to someone else too.

            How many times do you hear someone talk about something that went well for them, and they say, “What an answer to prayer!”

            I don’t want to make light of it. An affirmative response from the Lord to something we have begged to receive is worthy of celebration indeed.

            But sometimes the answer is no. And no is still an answer. It may not be the answer we want, but it’s still an answer. (I think we know this, but it bears repeating.)

            This, though, was the part God drove home to my heart this week. Sometimes when we beg and beg for God to do something for us, and He says no…and we continue to beg and beg…there’s a chance He may eventually say yes.

            And goodness – how quick we are to celebrate it!

            But do we ever consider that when we get that yes we crave so deeply, our yes might mean that someone else, praying equally hard about the same thing from a different end, now hears the no?

            I fear I have been so caught up in praising for the yes…the answer I want and perhaps sometimes even demand…that I never consider the person who heard no in order for me to hear a yes.

            It was such a sobering lesson for me. As I wrote to a friend, “As I have reflected on this, it made me wonder how many times a thing of joy and beauty for me has only been made possible because of a grief or loss for someone else. How many times does my celebration leave a wide swath of destruction elsewhere? May I not miss this as I pray. May I consider that when praying for an answer that in my yes, someone else may be grieving a no."

            Make no mistake: I believe we should pray boldly. But I also believe we should respect God when His answer is no. And I believe we should tenderly remember those who may grieve a loss so we can celebrate a victory.

Saturday Suggestions: Inspiration for Your Weekend

Good morning, friends!! Happy Saturday! Hope you've had a good week and this weekend affords you some rest. Here are a few things for your reading pleasure! 
 

ONE. 

When I told you about our Valentine’s Day adventures, I told you we participated in the “Not So Newlywed Game’ at Ryan’s work. We had as much fun “practicing” ahead of the game as we did playing! You can look up question lists like this one online – and this makes such a fun game for sparking conversation at home! Have a long road trip? Ask these questions! Planning a party with couple-friends? Play a round of this, even if it isn’t Valentine’s Day. You’ll learn a ton, and the stories that come out of it are funny!

TWO.

I wrote earlier this week about the things that inspire me, and I mentioned writing is one of my biggest inspirations. I’ve observed that some writers love writing in public places, like coffee shops, and others prefer writing in the privacy and solitude of home. I have tried writing in coffee shops before, and I get too caught up in people-watching to be successful there. But having a dedicated at-home space is HUGE for me. Here are some inspirations for making an at-home writing space in case you want to try it for yourself. I love my two desks and find both to be great places to think and create. BONUS: If you’re looking for an inspiring background for your home while you work on anything you enjoy doing, check out this ambient fireplace/snowy scene/soft jazz music. We have had a lot of this kind of thing playing in the background at home and love it!

THREE. 

It’s been about a year since I purchased a new (robust!) set of makeup brushes, and I love them. I’m not even sure what all of them are supposed to be used for, but I love having lots of choices and use a number of them every day. I also love that they come in this hard plastic case with a lid, so when we travel, I don’t have to put them in a baggie of any kind. I just throw the lid on the case and toss them in the suitcase!

FOUR. 

This is random, but one of my Facebook friends shared this link this week, and I liked it, so I thought I’d share it with you today. It’s a rendition of the hymn Love Divine All Loves Excelling. It’s not the traditional tune, but I still loved the presentation. I adore choral music and big anthems, so this fit the bill for me! Also – how cool is that organist up there in the middle?? BONUS: If you want something a bit more traditional, here’s their version of How Great Thou Art. I saw an introduction to this group and learned it is a choir comprised of musicians who have to audition to be part of it. Some are musicians in their vocation and for others it’s just a hobby. Either way – they sound amazing!

FIVE. 

I’m looking forward to the weather warming up (hopefully for keeps) and have been thinking about pushing some of the heavy sweaters to the back of the closet and bringing out some spring-like things instead! I’ve had a hard time finding as much inspiration for spring, but I’m considering this collection put together last year by Audrey at Putting Me Together to see if I can assemble the spring capsule from it.

SIX. 

This Dayspring devotional popped up in my inbox this week and was MOST perfectly timed. If you are walking through a hard thing, I encourage you to read it. If you know someone going through a hard thing, I encourage you to read it…and then encourage them. Some good words here.

BONUS:

This week’s capsule creations! 

Saturday, February 17, 2024:

Sunday, February 18, 2024:

Monday, February 19, 2024:

Tuesday, February 20, 2024:

Wednesday, February 21, 2024:

Thursday, February 22, 2024:

Friday, February 23, 2024:

Flashback Friday: Writing Your Story One Week at a Time

 

            We are a couple of months into this adventure of thinking about things from our lives that have been meaningful and significant to us – the things that have shaped us into the adults we are. It’s good to remember these things and record them to share with those who come behind us, and that’s what these Friday posts are meant to inspire.

            Today my question for you is this: What world events were significant to you as a child?

            You hear people talk about these stories – the first big events they remember.

            Mine was the Space Shuttle Challenger. By the way, that day was apparently 38 years ago, now, and that is beyond my comprehension! I’ve blogged about this a couple of times before, but I’ll revisit it today.

            I was a second grader, and though I know there were significant national and world events that took place in my lifetime before that day, this is the first one tied to distinct memories for me. We were in music class, but our school was undergoing renovations at the time, so we didn’t have an actual classroom to go to for music that semester. Our very pregnant teacher had a little cart she rolled around the school, visiting each classroom at its scheduled music time and holding class in there. I don’t think she loved the arrangement. I also don’t think she loved being pregnant or really anything about life during that time.

            We were at our desks when the principal interrupted class over the loudspeaker. His voice sounded tired, sad, and stunned, as he announced what had just happened and asked the school to observe a moment of silence.

            I didn’t fully understand what he had said, but I could tell from the look on the teacher’s face that this was very, very bad and was making her bad day/life even worse. None of us wanted to upset her, so we sat quietly at our desks, and I don’t remember anything else happening musically until our classroom teacher returned to claim us.

            As I’ve shared on the blog before, the stories of the astronauts captivated me, and I made my first ever scrapbook after this event. I cut out newspaper clippings and glued them to construction paper and tied the pages together with yarn. I wanted their lives and stories to be remembered and have a place. Somewhere, in a memory box, I still have that little book.

            I think I was in junior high when the Persian-Gulf War began – and I remember when it was called Operation: Desert Storm. We learned about it in school, and our teachers asked us to write letters to service members to encourage them. There was a guy from our church who was over there, so I chose to write to him, and I was thrilled when he wrote me back. I saved that letter for a long time and wouldn’t be surprised if I still had it somewhere.

            I didn’t make a scrapbook about that one, but the budding teacher in me did make a bulletin board about it. (Yes, I had a bulletin board in my bedroom, because I often pretended my room was my classroom. I would decorate the board just like the ones in my mom’s classroom.)

            I also remember the day Princess Diana died. I was in college by then and was a small group leader for members of the incoming freshman class. I had planned to take them out for ice cream and was waiting in the lobby of my dorm for them to meet me. The televisions in the lobby were all playing the news, and I did not want to leave – even for ice cream. I wanted to stay and watch and try to absorb what I saw, but eager freshmen appeared, hungry for ice cream. I don’t remember anything about my time with them that night and can only imagine I was a very poor host.

            Isn’t it interesting the things that grab our attention – and how they grab our attention? The things we do to try to understand and cope? The ways we preserve those memories and what they mean to us?

            How about you? What were the big events from your childhood that grabbed your attention? How did you work your way through them?

Capsule Wardrobe: What I'm Learning

 

            I’m almost two months into my capsule wardrobe project, and if you’re new here and am not sure what I’m talking about, you can catch up with the back story here and here.

            I spent the end of December putting together this capsule and my goal for the start of 2024 was to make it as many days as possible without repeating a full outfit. Some may look similar, but it is true that so far, I’ve had no exact duplicates.

            I’ve learned some things along the way, so I thought I would share them today!

·         This capsule had too many black pants in it for my liking. I had black denim pants, black flowy dressy pants, black leggings, black leather leggings, and black joggers. When I started, the only pants in the capsule that weren’t black were two pairs of jeans. So, part of the way through January, I eliminated the black leather leggings (which never did fit right anyway) and introduced a pair of tan pants that I found for about $5.00 at the consignment store. These replaced the tan pants that I had to retire when the zipper broke. I had owned them for several years and loved them, but you can’t sport pants with a broken zipper!

·         You might remember when I shared the post about the pieces in my wardrobe, that I included a tan skirt I already owned, but it wasn’t a good winter skirt. I ended up finding (for less than $5.00) a better option at the consignment store, so I made that swap as well. This skirt works on me better all the way around, so I’m going to consign/donate the other one and keep this one.

·         Based on my inspiration capsule, I only included one dress, but I think going forward, I would have at least two in a winter capsule. Depending on how many long I keep using the winter version of a capsule, I will have had up to seven speaking engagements and it would be nice to have more than one dress option for those. (Even if the same people don’t attend each one, I usually have pictures from every speaking event, and it would be nice to not always be in the same dress.) I don’t always wear a dress when I speak, but I still think it would be nice to have other options if needed.

·         I did add two shirts beyond what I originally included. I debated on this, because I felt like I should have enough with what I had, but I found a couple I really liked at the consignment shop, and both were pretty inexpensive, so I got them. One is a plaid thinner shirt that can easily dress up or down and the other is a pink sweater that I got specifically with Valentine’s Day in mind. I decided I liked the idea of incorporating some pink, especially as we ease toward spring, and I want to move away from darker colors.

·         Choosing to incorporate color overall was a good decision. I get really bored with the black/white/tan outfits and am always glad to add some color pops. I love blue – especially for winter – and will probably stick with that going forward.

·         Layering shirts is more of an art form than I realized, and I like it. This project has pushed me to see how many options I really do have that I have often overlooked. It’s been fun to layer up the shirts or the shirts/sweaters/jackets and see how they change everything!

·         I feel more put together when I think more carefully about what I’m wearing. Even though I have different shirts I have to wear at work, I would default to workout clothes/jammies after work, and now I feel cuter for myself and for Ryan. (He loves the outfits too and comments on them quite often.)

·         I really like the new shoes I bought for this project. I hadn’t realized how worn out my previous shoes were from the last four full years of wear. Those purchases were so worth it.

·         This entire process has helped me refine the colors and patterns I enjoy wearing – and some of the clothing shapes I prefer as well. Though I may not throw a piece out right now based on any of these things, understanding my preferences will certainly drive my purchases going forward.

With March looming, I’ll be thinking toward a spring capsule! Some of the pieces I have will work well for it, because spring certainly has its cold days around here! But I am excited to also bring in some warmer-weather pieces for the nice days I’m counting on having!

Routinely Speaking: Makeup

 

            I had fun writing the post back in January about my skin care routine. It was something different to explore, and I decided to try it again this month, this time looking at makeup!

            I didn’t wear makeup growing up, so it wasn’t until my college years that I started experimenting with it. Between the fact that I was new at it, and it was the late 90s, I had some interesting looks. Then I made friends with a Mary Kay lady and learned some skills. I used Mary Kay makeup for years and really loved it, but price points pushed me to look for something a little more affordable. I’ve tried a handful of brands since then – some you would know and some not so much. I have settled on e.l.f. – the same brand I use for my skin care products.

            As I stated last month in the other post, I know opinions run deep on affordability, production methods, ingredients, and more, and for this season in our lives, this is what works for me. I have been using it for probably close to a year and have only bailed out of one product! That feels like a good track record to me. 

            I’ll give you a rundown of what I use and what I like about them.

            The first item is brand new to me as of this week, so I can’t really tell you if I love it long-term, but I have loved my first applications! I decided to start using a primer, which previously wasn’t part of my routine at all. I saved up some speaking money to purchase a few new makeup items and the primer was one of those. The brand has several primer versions…hydrating, blemish control, etc. I chose this mineral-infused version because it felt like it most closely matched the clean and fragrance-free skin care products I use. I can’t quite describe how my face feels after I apply it, except…amazing. I’ll have to come back and let you know what I think after I use it for a few weeks.

            Concealer has been a journey for me. I don’t love the stick kind on my face, because it feels cakey to me. I have tried some of the cream/powder versions and didn’t love them either. But this liquidHydrating Camo concealer that I apply with a wand and smooth with a sponge has worked really well for me. I change the shade in winter vs. summer because I’m so pale in the winter! (My current shade is Fair Beige.) But I like the way it applies and covers. To be fair, I do not have blemishes often anymore. (I guess I paid my dues as a teen.) I’m mostly covering large pores and baby wrinkles. 😊

            Then I use a powder foundation, and again, I change up the shade based on the season – current is Light 210. It goes on smoothly, and I don’t feel like it gives me that weird orange jawline issue that can happen so easily. I do not use the little flat sponge that comes with this one. I use a brush from my brush set to apply it. I used to use those little sponges, and I felt like they always ended up pressing down the powder and making it oily. The brush keeps it light and loose. With the concealer and the powder foundation, by the way, I feel like I have to refill every six months or so. I can handle a purchase a couple of times a year!

            Another of my purchases this week was new blush. My old blush was a different brand and was beyond a good life span, so I sprang for this four color palette so I have options! I like having some that are more pink and others more of a brown tone, depending on what I’m wearing and what season I’m in. I am not heavy-handed with blush, so I’m anticipating this one will last a while.

            I do like to change up my eye colors frequently, so several months ago I chose two 10-colorpalettes. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed mixing and matching the browns, purples, and pinks! Some of the lighter colors in each one were starting to go bare, so this week I added another palette that has several lighter colors in it. Spring’s coming and I need to lighten up the eyes! All these go one smoothly and don’t crease in my eyelid, which I really like. The names of the three I have are: Everyday Smoky, Rose Gold – Nude, and Ombre.

            My sister recently tried out their shadow sticks, so I bought two this week. I haven’t formed an opinion on them yet and need to watch some tutorials, but I think they could work well on days that I don’t want to spend a ton of time on the eye makeup. I purchased Perfect Pearl and Magnetic Pull. I’ll report back on my thoughts once I learn how to use them better.

            I learned from someone on Instagram that I really don’t need an eyeliner pencil. All I need is a thin angled brush and some darker eyeshadow, and I can make a smoky eyeliner. SOLD! This is now what I do and it saves me from purchasing one more thing. (Plus, those darker eyeshadow colors live forever in my palette, so I have lots to work with.)

            I don’t stress out over my eyebrows the way most do, but I have recently purchased an eyebrowpencil (in blonde) to try to even out the look. I use it most days and like it, but I’m sure all the influencers would say I should be doing WAY MORE with my brows.

            The mascara was the one thing I did not like from this brand, and I actually had a friend tell me she had the same experience and threw hers away immediately. For me, it would stay super wet when I applied it, so I ended up with smears on my cheek and upper lid, and then when it did dry, it would flake badly. It was a mess…I was a mess…so I moved to thisbrand, recommended by someone I follow on Instagram, and it has been a full win. And the bonus? The price is just over $7.00 so it’s comparable to what I’m paying for the rest of the makeup.

            Lipstick is the last stop, and I am still a work in progress in this department. The e.l.f. website has a virtual try-on so you can try different colors, and I did…and they had NONE OF THEM in the store this week. So right now, the only thing I have is one tube of a fairly bright red. It’s called Shameless, and it’s not my style, but it works at work, where red is the signature color and we need to look alive on camera. I have on my list to get some much more muted options and some glosses as well.

            So that’s my routine! I do wear makeup every single day, because without it, I look very pale, and people often ask if I’m sick. I appreciate that this makeup goes on smoothly and has good staying power. It survives crying, unless said crying is a full meltdown, and then nothing survives that. It’s not a miracle product, you know.

            It fits our budget and I can purchase it easily online and in the store!

            That’s the makeup routine over here! 😊