Abby’s Saturday // One Hundred Seventy-Six

Highlight of the Week

I chopped my hair off. Correction: my wonderful friend & hair-stylist extraordinaire cut my hair off. And I love it. I was a little nervous that I’d have to go thru some withdrawal, but nope! I’m obsessed. Here’s the deal (and the lightbulb moment that went off in my brain): I love my hair long (as of Wednesday morning, it was longer than I have ever had it) but I also love the fact that my hair is naturally curly. There’s a problem though: those two factors cannot coexist. My length was pulling out my curls and literally making my hair look awful. So awful, that I’m looking back at pictures & saying: “Why did I not see this sooner?!” So, when I went for my (yearly) haircut on Wednesday, I told her: “Look, I love my length, but I do not have time to straighten my hair every day. I love my curls, and especially for this season of life, I need my curls to be at their best & easiest.” And thus, we chopped off a ton of hair (and by “we” I mean – you know).

I absolutely love it. It’s not at the shortest I’ve ever had it, but it’s perfect. If I’d straighten my hair, it would lay just past my shoulders, but with it curly (and with all that excess weight pulling it down gone) it bounces up just above my shoulders. It’s amazing and perfect and I’m so in love.

Yes, This Happened

• On Thursday night, our little chapter of the Rising Tide Society prepped, served, and cleaned up from dinner at the End Hunger Cafe in Latrobe, PA. For the month of November, all of the groups scattered across the nation & world are strongly encouraged to give back to their communities. And this year, we decided that serving at the End Hunger Cafe was the best way for us to do that. We had a blast! We have such a great “core” group of people who attend every month (along with a pretty steady revolving door of newbies & less-regulars) and it was so much fun to get out from the circle we usually sit in & do something together.
• I wrote Part 8 of Derrick & I’s love story this week! I know it seems like I’m dragging it out, but I seriously am loving this process of re-reading old (old) emails & remembering what it was like to be in that process of falling in love. It’s so good.
• Advent officially started for us last night! I wanted to do something fun with Braelynn to count down the days until Christmas & decided to do a “book calendar”. So, I rounded up 24 Christmas books (some we owned, some I borrowed from my Mom, and some I bought), I wrapped and numbered them all, and every night before bed, she’ll get a new gift to open.
• I had lunch with my friend Tiffany this week at – yep – Chick-Fil-A! It’s been such a blessing to reconnect & rekindle our friendship over the last 2 years. We met in college & used to hang out all the time, then distance separated us & we kind of did our own thing for a few years, but now we’re back to doing life together & it’s so good.
• Wait, how is it December already?!
• As I was working on Jess & Mike’s wedding blog that posted this past Tuesday, Braelynn came in & saw a photo of Jess on my screen. She said, “Mommy, she’s SO pretty.” It’s notable because I’ve literally edited tens of thousands of photos over the last few months, and she’s never commented on anything she’s seen me working on. I agreed with her that Jess is indeed, gorgeous. So, then I showed her a photo of Jess & Mike together, and she said, “Mommy! He has angry eyes!” and then she tucked her chin & glared up at me. I was laughing so hard!

Feeling Blessed

Last night, we were able to go see The Star for free! All this weekend, Projecting Hope sponsoring faith-based movies at our local theater (so if you’re local and want to see a movie this weekend – check it out! Unfortunately, it looks like every single showing of The Star is already sold out – but there are lots of other movies to choose from!) The theater was packed, which is always fun, and Braelynn did so good! She sat on my lap & dutifully ate popcorn & watched the whole movie. It was a super cute film – it told the Biblical account of Christmas in a way that Braelynn would (sort of) understand (she’s still a bit too young to fully grasp it). When we got home, I asked her what her favorite part of the movie was, and she said: “Baby Jesus in the manger.”