I’m a yelper and I’ll review if I want to

Firstly, puns, oh how great. "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to..." "I'm a yelper and I'll review if I want to..." No? Ok. Moving on. 

Yelp. A great website/app that allows you to review businesses based on your personal experience. If you’re in my neighborhood and want to know if that Taco place is too hot to trot, or causes you to spend the night near a toilet/trash can, then yelp is a great resource!

So what’s the backstory? I made a yelp account I don’t even know when, but back in May 2014, my friend Justine invited me to a yelp event. I remember thinking “Yelp has events? Say what?” It was at Dorinda’s Chocolate by the River. And it was an Elite event. “What’s an elite?” I thought. We got to go behind the scenes in Dorinda’s chocolate making kitchen and get the lowdown and know how on some of the techniques behind their confection affection. I had a blast. I then furiously and meticulously took pictures of things I received at places, paid closer attention to customer service treatment I received and placed all of that information on the app. I started RSVPing to the local events that I was interested in, and then the end of 2014 rolled around. It was Elite nomination time. I nominated myself and explained why I would make a good Elite yelper.

2015 rolled around. The golden email came. I was selected to be on the Elite squad! Oh joy! What an honor to have been entrusted with a rank of truthful reviews (Some lengthier than others), to know other yelpers and general populous alike would be looking to my reviews about a location.

I’m now 3 solid years into the yelp game, 2 years into being Elite and I’m having so much fun. I now look to other yelpers reviews of places, I check the ratio of overall star review (4 of 5 stars, 2 of 5 stars etc) to the number of reviews posted. Then, I make my decision whether or not to give the business my money.

Yelp is also great because it can help you find local places, little mom and pop shops that are trying to make it, despite the big wig chain places (Dorindas vs. Sees’, Hub vs Starbucks).

Ok, we’ve heard your spiel on the awesomeness of yelp. That’s cool. How does that relate to your life as a Godfearing woman?

Wouldn’t you wanna have a resource to access truth and history and “reviews” of places you’ll go in life? Wouldn’t you want to hear the consequences of ordering from that place? The Israelites ordered up a whole bunch of false idols and selfish pride. The consequences? Disease, plague, defeat in war. We have the timeless Bible to reference as review of our history. As a testimony of trial and error, trial and success. We can go read and sympathize, “Yep, I did that too”. While we can’t add to the Bible by review or picture, we can share about, much like we share about great restaurants, poor service at a dry cleaner, or a great nail tech who absolutely kills it every time.

 

Be intentional. Be truthful. Be genuine.

 

Amen and Amen

 

This review of yelp.com is not sponsored; I was not asked to write this. I was not paid to write this. Opinions are solidly my own.

Well Watered Women

Recently I've been a huge fan of LifeLivedBeautifully. It's an amazing ministry for God's Glory. One of their mottos is to be Well Watered Women.
 
That's rad. We're gonna be watered by the word. Like flowers. Without the water we die. I got it.
Until today.
 
I was listening to Christy Nockels' podcast, Glorious in the Mundane. She and her guest Rebekah Lyons in Episode 12 were talking about wells, to go deep, be deeply rooted.  (Side note, this podcast is AMAZING and I'm sure I'll be blogging about it more)
 
Suddenly "well watered women" took on a new meaning for me. We are to be watered not just by the word but by a well. Wells aren't shallow. They're deep in the ground. They're full of delicious pure water. If they get tainted, you need to find a new well. (Maybe, I'm not quite sure how well water works)  Well water is free, it's not owned by the city. Well water is your own. You must go to the well to get your water. It's not just gonna appear.
 
Whoa.
 
So I'm just gonna soak in that today.
 
I'm going to the well and converse with Jesus, like the woman in the bible whom Jesus describes her lifestyle and just fyi, that's the longest recorded conversation in the bible. How amazing and poignant must that story be? How significant is a well then?
 
Amen and amen indeed
 
- - - -
 
Sorry for the long-ish absence. Life has been relatively busy the last few weeks. Inspiration hasn't hit as heavily as this well did today. So enjoy :)

I can see clearly now, the veil is lifted

 So this week, I couldn’t think of anything to write about for yesterday. I was struggling to think, “What is worth the time to compose a post that people would enjoy reading?”

 

And then I got my windshield replaced yesterday. Then, inspiration hit.

 

A few years ago, I was driving in the slow lane after merging from one freeway to another. I wanted to make my way to the fast lane. I moved to the middle lane behind this big semi truck. I checked my mirror, checked my blind spot, and then 2 things happened at the exact same time. The first, some Speedy Gonzales came flying up in the fast lane, blocking me in the middle lane. More slow cars had filled in the slow lane. The second, a huge gust of head wind blew, informing me that the construction style semi truck in front of me, was a gravel truck, without a cover over the gravel. My windshield got splattered with gravel. Ok, so maybe this was more than a few years ago, I think it was a year or 2 after I got my car, which was 2009, so perhaps since 2011 I’ve been driving around with a windshield missing minute chips.

 

The crack. You can see the curved part and then where it begins to straighten out across the windshield.

So after this crack appeared, I’m assuming one of those gravel chips evolved into the nearly halfway across the windshield mark, I was ecstatic to get a new windshield. I was thrilled to be able to start fresh. Last night I picked up my car and got in and looked out at a fresh windshield for the first time in years.

This was taken this morning. No crack. No chips. No dent. Just frost.

 

I didn’t realize how distorted my windshield was. I didn’t realize how “fuzzy” I had been seeing. For those of you who wear glasses, you know that moment where you clean your glasses after looking through dirty ones and all of a sudden everything is bright and clear as day? For those of you who don’t, you know when your phone camera gets dirty and you realize in your camera preview things are fuzzy, then you wipe it clean and all of a sudden everything is bright and crisp?

 

It’s also like, that moment when your life is chaotic, messy, perhaps dangerous and life threatening. It’s that moment when you realize that you’re spinning and lost and dizzy and you don’t know which way is up. It’s that really dark scary moment where you’re ready to give up and let go. And. Then. God. Then God comes into the picture. Then He saves you. Then He shows you what a good life looks like, what true unconditional no strings attached love is. Then He shows you that all He wants is you to love Him and follow Him. Then He tells you that you need to do NOTHING but believe.

 

It’s THAT moment, when you feel free. It’s THAT moment, when you can finally see clearly. When all of a sudden, your vision is bright, clear, crisp, focused.

 

I was reminded of that yesterday. I was reminded that we have THAT moment, every morning when we wake up, a chance to start fresh with God.

 

Oh yesterday was such a good day.

 

Amen and Amen.

Just Breathe

Day 2 of 40. Day 2 of going through the Psalms. Day 2 of spiritual attack. Day 2 of clinging close to my Heavenly Father. Day 2 of an expectant heart excited to see how God is going to be God and move greatly in this study.

 

I’m spending 40 days in the Psalms, thanks to Life Lived Beautifully (LLB). (That’s a link, go check out their blog post about the study!) I’ve done a few studies now. The first 4ish or so I did were through She Reads Truth (SRT). They were pretty good, the first few were Philippians and Colossians and they were pretty basic. The Lent study was a revamped format and the book is beautiful! Though I wasn’t able to finish it, so I can’t speak to how much I learned (or didn’t) from it. The most recent study I did was through Proverbs31 ministries: Finding I Am (FIA), where it went through the book of John and the 7 “I am…” statements Jesus made about himself. This study was pretty good, and I liked it. A common factor between both of these ministries was they allowed the weekend as a “catch up” time for you to do what you can.

 

So now, going through a 3^rd ministry for a study, Oh I’m so excited to learn and grow.

 

The previous studies had verse cards and I didn’t know what to do with them. The SRT ones never got used. The FIA  ones I hole punched and put them in my planner, but I never referenced them. Then, Gretchen Saffles of LLB in one of her instagram stories had a great idea for using them and seeing them on the daily. She hung them by the kitchen sink, so as she did dishes she would see them. That is so brilliant. So I did that. My window that I hung them off of isn’t super big, so I only put 5 of the 10 cards up.

 

 

Halfway through the study, I will switch them out for the other half. My husband really likes the idea too. He says its great and decorative and it’s furthering our House to Home endeavor.


Verdict so far? This first week is a slow week, slowly getting into the study, taking the study book a page at a time. Yesterday and Today are Heart Checks. And I really like that. It's really having me focus (and anyone else doing the study) on where I am and where I need to be. Today's was all about moving forward on your knees: aka Humility. Oh this is so good for my soul. I'm loving this already.

So, here's their post about Lent and resources and awesomeness. Will you join me for a Lent study? Do you want to Breathe and pray through the Psalms? Comment down below what you'll be doing for the 40 days of Lent, I'd love to hear about it and be on my knees praying for you.

Amen & Amen.

Brand New Life

Today, the world said “Hello!” to Sophie. Today, Sophie entered the world. Today, Sophie is brand new. Today, Sophie has done nothing wrong. Today, Sophie hasn’t said one bad word. Today, Sophie hasn’t cursed anyone. Today, Sophie is flawless. Today, Sophie is perfect.

Today, she is new.

Today, I am new.

Today, you are new.

We are new because of Jesus. Every day, we are entering the world after sleep. At the start of every day, we are brand new. At the start of every day, we have done nothing wrong. At the start of every day, we haven’t cursed anyone. At the start of every day,we haven’t said one bad word. At the start of every day, we are flawless. At the start of every day, we are perfect.

At the start of every day, we are new

At the start of every day, Jesus loves us.

At the end of every day, Jesus loves us.

We are like babies every day, given the chance to start again. (Yes, as babies, we are born dead, born into sin, and it’s our free will to choose eternal life in Jesus, but let’s roll with the metaphor right now.)

We are pure, untouched, clean and not tainted. Just like sweet Sophie.

Today, my husband and I were blessed to become Godparents. Today, we have a new responsibility to love Sophie and share just how awesome Jesus is. Today, our best friends were made father and mother (Not that they haven’t been for the past 9 months). Today, we get to start cheering them on in parenthood, to offer what wisdom we can. Which, if I’m being honest here, I think my husband will do a grand job at, he’s the youngest of 8 and has like 16 nieces and nephews. And then there’s me, I babysat from like age 13 to age 18ish. 9 years later, I’ve only sporadically helped out in my church’s childcare area from like 2009-2012. Today is the day I start again. Today, I am excited for my best friends to embark on this parenthood journey. Today, I continue my prayers for Sophie, for her parents.

Today is a really good day. Remember that.

Today. Today. Today.

Amen and Amen!

 

(By the way, Sophie is absolutely adorable and precious and 8 lbs of sheer beauty. Since she isn’t mine, it isn’t right for me to post a picture. But just think of the most precious baby, and multiply by like 10, and you have the Sophster.)

Rewriting the script: My identity

I’ve got some identity issues going on. And they’re related, and I can’t seem to figure it out. So I’m going to just brain dump my thoughts here


Now that I’ve been married for 5 months and 3 days, you’d think that I’d be totally accepting of my new last name. I write it on work stuff that I sign, but it still doesn’t hit me. When I see it on my Facebook everytime I post something, Facebook has a weird glitch. Occasionally I’ll be writing my draft as “Samantha Jo Pfisterer”, then, as it posts and loads in that semi-grayed out it’ll still show that, but when it posts, it corrects itself to “Samantha Jo Wolcott”. But, I am a Wolcott.

For 27 years I was a Pfisterer. So, I can see the difficulty in trying to break that habit of seeing who I am. It’s. Still. Weird. to me. Every time I write it, it comes off that I’m like a high-schooler, writing my name with my crush’s last name. But I am legally a Wolcott. I did get married. I did profess to our 150 guests that I will love my husband until my dying breath. I changed my name legally on all the important documents (minus my passport, but I’m working on it) I am a Wolcott. I no longer “belong” to my parents, I “belong” to my husband. Instead of parents over boyfriend, it’s now husband over parents. I am a Wolcott.

So that’s issue number 1. Issue number 2, is as follows.

I am a child of God. I am a daughter of the King. I have a destiny in the Eternal Heaven of God.

But I still find it hard to accept that. I still struggle through, who am I really? What does following Jesus really mean? What does His death on the cross really mean?

God’s been leading me through Joshua and Judges. And he’s been teaching me some really great things about my identity in him: Obedience brings victory; God uses the least, the unexpected to bring His glory to light; Among other things, there's just so much.

How cool is it that God uses stories from the Old Testament, from hundreds of years ago to teach us the same lesson He was teaching our forefathers (and mothers). I can't wait to keep reading through the OT and find what other nuggets of His great love He will reveal to me! I'm also trodding through Leviticus and that's been oh so cool to go through too! Who'd have thought right?


When you are in the dark about where you should be, or in the dark about who you are, turn to the Book of Light, the Book of Love, the BIBLE and open it up. There is where I will find who I am. There is where you will find who you are. There I am learning what it means to truly follow God, to have a friend in Jesus, to be reprimanded well, justly, but not cruelly.


I'm so excited to keep walking on and reading daily all that He has to say! Will you join me?


Amen and Amen <3

It's a Gift: Art for the King

I’ve always had a love for the arts. As a kid, I would come home from school, or in my free time on the weekends or at lunch, and I would write. I would write stories and illustrate them. I’d color in coloring books, I’d draw tons of doodles. And once, I picked up a thin (on cardboard like) canvas and I painted it with watercolors. It was a house, and I was in elementary school.

I’d like to think I got it from my mom. She took art classes at the community college when she was in her early 20s, working full time and having a social life as well. She painted this beautiful mural like piece, gosh it has to be like 30”x50” or something ginormous (I haven’t seen it since I was a kid, so it might be smaller). And it was amazing. It hung up in my grandparents house. After they died, she got it back, and now it’s at their house in Las Vegas. It was of a roadrunner and a cactus. Oh how I wanted to be like her. I wanted to be artsy and create the next amazing painting, or write the next Great American Novel.

But instead, “Good grades, Hygiene” in high school. “Good grades, hygiene” in college. It was straight from one set of schooling to the next, so I could make it with a good paying stable job in the adult world.

I wasn’t really allowed or encouraged to pursue arts, or I just changed my mind too much with what I wanted to do that my parents didn't want to "waste money" on a hobby I wouldn't keep up with. Sure, I could join National Honor Society, Book club and cheerleading. I think now, of course, hindsight is 20/20, if I had really pushed to be creative and really go for that artsy line, I could have made it work. I could have learned a lot and maybe been the next Picasso. But I didn’t.

Now, however, my artsy drive is resurfacing. I have a new fire burning in my body to make art, to paint, to write stories, to create poems, to do what I loved to do growing up. Where did this rekindled passion come from?

I’d like to think it rekindled at Picasso and Wine, a local paint and sip place here in Reno. You show up, and they walk you through step by step how to paint with acrylic paint on a canvas. You can enjoy wine and Mimosas with your friends as you take 3 hours of your day to paint. I went to 2 of them here in Reno. And Summer 2016, my husband (fiancé at the time) and I went to visit my parents in Kansas City and my mom and I went to a paint and sip there.


But here's the real story: God blesses us with gifts and talents that just come naturally to us. And artsy creativity is where one of my gifts takes root. There are times I wish I was musically inclined, because who doesn't want a set of awesome pipes? Or Furious Fingers on the piano or guitar? But that's not where God's called me to be. I didn't "Got it from my mama" I got it from my Father, my Heavenly Father.


He's called me to the creative: the writing and the painting, and perhaps the drawing. I've taken one step to let Him be the director of my art. Our Family Bible Study/Home Group had a Prophetic Paint night at the end of January this year. And it was amazing. God moved in so many ways that night. He spoke to me through my painting and my second mother (mother-in-law). It was so cool.


So if you have a God given talent, use it. Pursue it. Take means and measures to make sure it gets done. Listen to that quiet whisper in your heart and mind to lead you in your gifts.


I'm looking into taking some classes at the community college and maybe get an Associates Degree in Painting or the Arts. We'll see where life takes me. But either way, I'm making art for my King for His Glory, to spread His Gospel, to spread His Light.


Amen & Amen.