frappy friday

One of my favorite memories from college is Frappy Friday (shoutout to my boys, Loges & Robo). It consisted of friends gathering in the SLC and sharing a frosty joe from our beloved coffee shop, Jittery Joes.  It was the highlight of my week every week.  I haven’t found anything like it since graduating from college.  It’s something I miss dearly, so I thought it was time to bring the frap back in a new way.  Every week, you guessed it, on Friday I’ll share a new post made up of things I’d like to share with you. Sit back, grab a frap, and enjoy!

1. One of my go-to playlists on Spotify is New Music Friday.  It’s the best way for me to keep up with the latest releases.  Today, the playlist featured the title track from Thomas Rhett’s newest album, Life Changes.  *swoon* It’s so good.  But I also think Thomas Rhett can do no wrong, so I might be a bit biased, but you should give it a listen and form your own opinion.
2. You know how now-a-days, everything can be delivered to your door?  Well, you can add vitamins to the list.  I just signed up for a monthly subscription of vitamins with care/of and I’m in love.  From the quiz you take online to the packaging, everything feels personally catered to me! Big fan.
3. Currently, the roomies and I are watching The Jinx on HBO.  It’s about the disappearance of real estate heir Robert Durst’s wife.  I’m a sucker for a good crime thriller, and this six-part series had me hooked from the very first episode.
4. If we’ve ever met then you have most likely heard me mention Ben Stuart.  He used to lead Breakaway Ministries at Texas A&M before he and his wife, Donna, joined the Passion City Church team.  Now, he lives in DC where he will be heading up Passion City Church DC.  All that to say, he does a series called Single/Dating/Engaged/Married and it’s incredible.  Highly highly highly recommend you give it a listen on the Breakaway Ministries podcast.  But, if you want more, he just wrote a book by the same name and I can’t wait to give it a read. The book is currently available for pre-order.
5. Winky Lux Glimmer Balm. I’m a sucker for packaging, so when one of the fashion bloggers I follow posted the products involved in her daily makeup routine, I fell in love with it right away.  A cute blush tube and glittery balm?  Sign me up!Supposedly, the clear balm reacts with your lip’s pH levels to create the perfect shade of pink?  That’s pretty cool too.  Can’t wait to try it.
6. Two weeks ago I heard about the Pretty BIG Movement and was so inspired. These folks are wicked talented.  Check ’em out.
7. I’m almost afraid to even mention it, but I can’t NOT.  Look What You Made Me Do. Taylor Swift’s new song.  I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t spend a majority of my time online reading all the different theories about the new music video. But the three most recent posts by Morgangster were some of my favorite.   Not to mention, we got some pretty cool dances out of it too, like this one and this one.
8. Hurricane Harvey.  Watching the devastation has been heart breaking.  Watching people come together to help those affected has been heartwarming. If you are considering donating, but are nervous about the legitimacy of an organization, try out Charity Navigator. They evaluate different charities and their legitimacy. For an in-depth description about Charity Navigator, click here.  Brene Brown recently took to her Instagram page to post about the need for underwear.  Thanks to a friend’s recommendation (looking at you, Mo), I recently purchased a Texas Forever Shirt from Magnolia.  All proceeds from August 28-September 30 will be donated to Hurricane Harvey disaster relief efforts.
9. Go Dawgs!

That’s all I got for today.  Hope to see ya back next week!

Peace,love&fraps,

Ash

One of my favorite quotes comes from Shauna Neiquist’s book Bittersweet. She quotes a close friend who is always giving her the following advice: God doesn’t always speak to people the same way, but he usually speaks to the same person the same way.  I’ve never heard God’s voice….directly.  I’ve never been walking in nature and heard a deep thunderous voice shake the grounds and speak from above.  I’ve never heard Him speak gently in my ear in a hushed whisper.  Even in my thoughts, I have trouble discerning which voice is His.  But that doesn’t mean I’ve never heard God speak to me.  I think He probably speaks to me more than I give Him credit for.  I often hear God’s voice in the way my friend cleans my room because I’m too heartbroken to get out of bed.  I hear Him in the coffee a friend brings to me in bed, just the way I like it, because I overslept and didn’t wake early enough to make it myself. I hear Him in a half dozen box of doughnuts that a friend bought for us to share for breakfast one rainy Sunday morning.  I hear Him in voicemails…a lot, because now that I’ve graduated my friends and I have different schedules and sometimes all we can do is leave a short message for the other one to find.  You might be thinking, Ashley you don’t hear God in any of those things, rather you see God.  You, reader, you are correct. I see God in these moments, but I also hear Him.  You know that phrase actions speak louder than words? Well, it’s kinda like that.  My friends’ actions speak God’s words.  For instance, when a friend cleans my room because I can’t seem to move because my body aches from a broken heart, I hear God say, “it’s okay sweet girl, let me take care of you.” Or when a friend brings me coffee in bed, He says, “rest dear darling.  Let me serve you today.”  Or when a friend buys me doughnuts, I hear the Big Man say, “Treat yo self!” Or when I receive a voicemail, He nods and says, “know that I’m here with you.”  I always use to envy people who heard God’s voice, the people who so easily heard Him when He spoke.  But I’m learning, note the present tense, God speaks to me in a different way.  And I kind of like to think its “our” thing.  No one knows me better than the Man Upstairs, so it makes sense that he would speak to me in a way he knows I would recognize. That way just so happens to be through those that are closest to me because He knows if He were to speak to me directly I would doubt if I heard Him at all. He gets me, and He gets you too. He’s speaking to you, I am sure of it, but only in a way that He knows you’ll understand.  What’s that for you?

Can we agree on something? No matter how much you prepare, whenever it’s time for you to leave the nest and face the world on your own, it hits you hard and knocks the breath out of you. Would you agree? I know I wasn’t the only student to graduate in May. I know there are hundreds of thousands of other newly crowned post-grads out in the world trying to make sense of this transition. But despite that knowledge, it is so easy for my mind to trick me into believing it’s me against the world (the lesser known single from the hit girl band play).  One day, I’m a full time student whose biggest concern is passing all her classes.  Then the next day, I wake up to my own office and extension and am expected to fill out a W-2 form.  (On a side note: how was that not a class in college?  It would have been very helpful.)  I have worked for this moment for the last twenty-one years.  I only know life as a student, and everything I have been working towards is to prepare me for this: a full time job.  Regardless, post grad life has caught me off guard.  I now live in the big city.  My friends are no longer all within a ten mile radius of me, and I am realizing the world is much bigger than my college town. Naps are no longer an option and a lunch box has become a part of my daily routine again.  The phrase, choose joy, has never been more real to me and the word budget has now become my daily vocabulary word.  Naturally, in the beginning there are tears and lots of wallowing.  There still are.  Those first few weeks I flew back home to the nest, A LOT. I still do.  On the bright side, I showed up for work today and I consider that a victory.  Really and truly.  Life right now scares me, so the fact that I was able to get of bed this morning is saying something.  I tend to not want to tackle something until I have a game plan, but currently the drawing board is blank.  Right now there are lots of changes and transitions, both of which I do not handle well, but I am in the process of accepting that I’m never going to be prepared for the world, but that doesn’t mean I can’t face it head on.