Balance

One of the things I seem to be in a constant search of in life is balance. How do I balance personal time with God, work, time with friends, time spent at church, time with my fiance? How do I give quality energy and focus to each area of life so that I can better maintain a healthy, energized lifestyle? And, for those of you who understand that struggle, isn't it funny how right when you think you might be getting there something changes that throws a wrench in your whole search for balance?

Well, I was reflecting on this yesterday, and realizing that one area of my life has finally come down to being much more manageable. That area? Work! As most of you know, I have set out on an adventure this year as a dyslexia therapist, and I am LOVING it! Since the end of July when my training began there have been moments of absolute craziness, but now that the routine of school is in full swing I cannot tell you how deep I can breathe now. I feel fulfilled at work these days instead of drained. I feel purposeful instead of like I'm grasping at straws. I can leave work at a very reasonable hour, and have plenty of energy to spend time doing other things such as working out, running errands, Bible study, and spending time with Taylor. I can cook for Taylor and I without feeling like I will fall over from the exertion of standing in the kitchen. All of this to say-work does not have control over the way I feel for the rest of the areas of my life anymore! It is the most refreshing feeling. It's amazing how when one overwhelming area of life becomes less overwhelming, you start realizing that maybe you can achieve balance after all. Now, in no way, am I the know-it-all of balancing life...I am simply reflecting on a little more balance my life has been feeling in the past few weeks.

God is so good, and I am so grateful that I have this job. I look forward to a long future of working with dyslexic children even now while in the district and in the future with private therapy.

God bless you as you journey towards balancing all areas of your life. The key: Keep God at the center, and He will guide all else!

The Lord's Provision

I posted a while back that Taylor and I were patiently waiting for God to provide him with a job. I realized this past weekend that I never came back and updated the final outcome of that situation. So, let me go back and tell you a little story.

The last week of July found Taylor, yet again, as the #2 guy for an incredible assistant band director position. We were hurt and scared about the possibility of him not getting a job. Taylor began exploring his options of putting himself out there as a private lessons teacher for the school year. We were not sure how we would make ends meet once we got married, but we were praying fervently that God would provide the students.

On Friday, July 31st Taylor came over to pick me up for a date. He walked in the door excited because he had been called (at 6:00 on a Friday night!) to interview for a position as a percussion director. There was a "bad news" side to this exciting announcement. The position was not with the school district. It would be hired by the band at a much lower salary than a district employee. However, it was a guaranteed pay check for 12 months unlike searching for private lessons students. In addition, he would corner the market on private lessons for the high school and its two feeder middle schools and be able to charge for those as well. We were very excited at this unusual, unexpected, but hugely welcome surprise. The next morning (a Saturday) Taylor drove to North Richland Hills to interview at Birdville HS. The interview went extremely well, and we were back to praying that this would work out. Sunday afternoon at 12:15, the director called to offer him the job! He was to begin work at 7:00am the next morning. We went from scared and frustrated to overjoyed and in awe of God's work in a matter of 4 days!

We were ecstatic!!!! We had prayed and prayed for the best fit for him. The way that it came was not at all how we pictured it, but it was a huge blessing! Taylor is doing very well. He loves it, and the kids have really taken to him. We do not know what next year holds...it is really not ideal for Taylor to stay in a position that is not with a district. But, for now, we are thanking the Lord for His provision and praying about what He might have in store for us next year.

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us! The Lord is good and faithful! We will continue to trust Him with our future!

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."
Matthew 6:34 The Message

I Love You, Taylor!

My fiance is amazing! There are so many things I love and appreciate about him. Because of this, I wanted to share some of these things with you, my readers.

-I love the way that Taylor talks to me. He is so respectful and so sweet. Even during frustrating or tense conversations, he speaks to me in a loving manner.
-He is incredibly sensitive to how I am feeling in any given situation-emotionally, physically, spiritually, and mentally. He knows when my introverted side kicks in and I need a "people-break." He knows when I just want to be quiet and not talk. He knows that sometimes when I get quiet I am either tired or upset, and he always checks to see what he can do, if anything, to help.
-He knows when to listen and not "fix-it"
-I love the way Taylor will reach over to touch me or squeeze my hand to reiterate to me that he is still right there next to me-not going anywhere, ever!
-Taylor spends a lot of time thinking and praying about ways he can better lead our relationship spiritually. We continually have conversations about ways to keep areas of our relationship strong, and he will go away from our conversations contemplative. He will bring it up in a day or two telling me what revelations he has had.
-I love that Taylor is so involved in making our wedding day special. We are striving to make it more than just a pretty day, but to design it to represent the life commitment we are making to each other. It is going to be a wonderful day!
-We laugh all the time. I am so blessed to be marrying a man I can play with. We can be silly. We find things we enjoy doing together, and we can laugh until both of us are crying. Life will hold ups and downs for us along the way, but laughing together will be one of the most healing things we can do. I love laughing with Taylor!
-I love watching Taylor become my husband. As we progress closer to the wedding date, we find ourselves making more and more decisions as a couple. Taylor takes to his role as the man of the "house" so well! He spends time thinking about things, putting pencil to paper, looking at issues involved, and coming up with plans. We talk through all of it, and in every conversation his tone of voice just drips with the enthusiasm of providing for and protecting us.
-Taylor is wonderful with kids. We have done a little babysitting together and had an absolute blast! I am so excited that one day I will get to watch him be a daddy to our babies! I cannot wait to be parents together!
-I love Taylor's heart! It is so genuine, caring, and authentic. He wants what is best for people. He strives to be a better man of God every day-longing just to touch people's lives with Christ through him.
-When Taylor sings, I melt! God has blessed this man with a voice that glorifies Him each time his mouth.
-Taylor spoils me. I would love him even if he didn't, but I appreciate the way he showers me in all kinds of displays of love and affection from quick jotted love notes on a scrap of paper to flowers to tickets to a musical I am dying to see and everything in between. He is SO thoughtful!

There are so many other things. I could go on and on for the rest of the night! I am so in love with this man! God has so richly blessed me, and I am thrilled to be spending the rest of my life with him. He is my best friend and sweetheart, and I love him with all my heart!

Thank you for loving me Taylor!

Catching Up

Man, it's been a long time since I've posted. Life has changed so much for me in the last few months I guess I've just been to focused on other things to keep this up and going. Here's an update on the exciting things going on in my life:

-Taylor and I went on our first vacation together!!! We spent a day in Amarillo, TX visiting some friends, then 9 days with my parents in Abq, NM, and 1 more day in Deming, NM with one of Taylor's old roommate's and his family. We loved NM!!! Albuquerque was beautiful, and we could have stayed another week! We are going to love vacationing together in years to come!

-We bought a washer and dryer together a couple weeks ago. It was delivered today, and laundry is running as I type! It's really exciting to me to own a washer and drying. Not sure why, but I'm feeling very domestic!

-We are having our first official date night tonight!!!! Batman at a drive-in theatre! I cannot wait!!!!!!

-The wedding is 4 months and 19 days away! Sometimes that amount of time seems just perfect to get everything done. Other times it can't get here fast enough. The planning is going extremely well. All the big stuff (besides recording music and sending out invites) is done, and now we are just handling little things as they come along. Planning a wedding is super fun, and I am so thankful that I have a fiance who is excited about the wedding and is very involved in making our day just perfect! Taylor and I are having a blast being engaged. This summer has been a dream of being able to have limitless amounts of time together after spending 10 weeks apart. Of course, as school gets closer, that time is drawing to a close; but we are thrilled to be living in the same town just the same. We have grown closer together as a couple during the summer spending the majority of our time laughing, talking, and just being together. Yes, we have officially had our first little differences of opinion, but we came out of it better appreciating the love that we've been given! :) We are very ready to be living in the same house and starting our lives together as the Belts!

-I have officially started my training to become a dyslexia therapist. This week was my first week of class. I have two more weeks of training before school starts. We'll meet regularly during the school year for training seminars, and then I'll have more next summer and school year. In the summer of 2010, I will be able to take my ALTA exam which we certify me as an Academic Language Therapist. I am so excited about this new journey in my life. I am exhausted and on brain overload at the moment. The learning curve is huge, but I've been told by October all the craziness of getting started will start settling down. Despite the current overwhelming task, I am loving it. I can't wait to get in there and start meeting with my students!!! I am thrilled that after I complete the exam in '10 I will be able to do private therapy. What a blessing for the future I have been given. I will be able to stay home with my family and do therapy on the side so that I can continue to make a difference in the lives of struggling readers. Once again, I am so blessed to have Taylor as my fiance. He is just as excited as me about this opportunity. He's even told me he'd build a room onto our house if that's what it took for me to be able to do therapy from home!! I love the fact that he dreams right along with me!!!

-Along with the learning curve for becoming a dyslexia therapist, I am learning how to become the best future wife for Taylor that God can create me to be. We have had some difficult times this summer as Taylor has searched and searched for a job, but so far it has evaded him. We are both wondering why he keeps being told, "You've blown us away, your resume is fantastic, but we gave the job to someone else." He's in the process of pursuing plan B as a private lessons teacher, and we are praying so fervently for a good number of students to make themselves available to him. We have prayed and prayed since March (actually, Taylor's been praying since before that) that God would bless him with a position at a school that would be the best fit for him. Obviously, God's plan has not involved any of the dozens of school's he's applied to. But, what is the plan? And, what does being a supportive future wife for Taylor look like for me right now as he strives to be the provider for us? Needless to say, it's been a little bit of a roller coaster this summer. But, we are holding on to God so tightly knowing that despite all of our confusion and questions He will not let us down. He knows the plan, and He will take care of us.

So, that is my catch up in a nutshell. There is much going on. I will try to making blogging a more regular thing, but we'll see where life takes me in the next few weeks!! I pray blessings on all of my readers! My God bless your life journeys with new and exciting (even if difficult) chapters!

"You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you."
Isaiah 26:3

Engagement Pictures Part 2

On Monday night my dad took pictures of Taylor and I at the golf course. We were going to do a third session in different outfits, but we loved these so much and have so many to choose from we decided we have plenty! He took about 250 shots...the following are some of my favorites! Enjoy!

Engagement Pictures Part 1

Taylor and I have asked my dad to do our engagement pictures. Part of the advantage of using him is that we get to take them several different times! Today we took pictures in Albuquerque on the golf course, and we plan to do another round at sunset before our trip is over. Parts 2 and 3 will be in future posts. The bottom two pictures in this post are from the day he proposed. All the rest were round 1 of engagement pictures taken the day after Taylor proposed while we were still at Harding. Enjoy!

Vacation with my Fiance!

Taylor and I are in Albuquerque, New Mexico visiting my parents.  We've been gone since Wednesday the 2nd, and are not returning to Dallas until the 13th!  So far our vacation has comprised of:

-Taylor playing golf with my dad

-Me reading my novel, taking naps, and sleeping late

-A trip to Santa Fe where we saw some sights and went to eat at a really cool restaurant where the wait staff sang Broadway show tunes.

-A minor league baseball game where we could see the mountains from our seats!

Our plans for the next few days include:

-Mom and I driving the carts while the boys play golf tomorrow, then we're off to get massages.

-Laying by the pool

-More reading and napping

-Card games and movies

AND

-Engagement pictures!!!!

This has been a wonderful vacation and we're really excited about the next few days.  It has been so relaxing and tons of fun!  We've talked multiple times on this trip about how excited we are that we get to do vacation together for the rest of our lives.  I promise to work on downloading some engagement pictures sometime soon after we get back home!  Happy July to everyone!