NAS: Vulnerability with Friends

Do you find that your non-single friends struggle with relating to you or vice versa? If so, in what ways? How do you handle it? What is something that you would like them to know or understand that they just don't seem to get?

Oh this one is rough.  I would say that I do not struggle with relating to my non-single friends as much as say that often I feel replaced by my friend's new boyfriends (normally by the time wedding bells ring they figure the balance out).  You know your friend talks to you all the time about waiting for the right guy, then about how much she likes this guy, and then about how awesome the first date was and before you know it that friend is talking about everything with the boy rather than you.  Yeah being "replaced" stings.   

However, not all friends have done this to me.  These friends I find have healthier relationships that don't allow the current guy to become their whole life.  They know when they need to spend quality time with their boyfriend/fiance and when to still spend time with their girl friends.  Many friends are so encouraging to me whether one of us has a significant other or not.   These friends encourage me in staying authentic and growing in my relationship with the Lord. 

So what is the simple answer to the questions?  Sometimes their is a struggle with a friend in a relationship relating to me as a single woman but more often not.  If there is a struggle it is because I feel like they replace me. I haven't yet figured out a way to handle it because I struggle with confrontation, even holy good confrontation. I would want these friends to stay deeply rooted in the Lord, and to keep their relationship deeply rooted in the Lord because when this happens balance tends to flow naturally.    

Have you ever felt replaced?  I can't wait to read you other ladies' thoughts!

Reads: My Life with the Saints

I finished this book forever ago but I am just now getting around to reviewing it.  I of course blame this thing called school.  And guess what this is my 13th book in my "13 Books in 13" Challenge.  The confetti is falling and the balloons are being released as we speak.

Well now that that is done on with My Life with the Saints.  (affiliate link if any of you would like to be so kind and buy it.) Most of this book was read while I was still nannying-oh that seems like a different life hanging out with my little 4 month old.  I choose this book because my mom already owned it and I thought if I liked My Sisters the Saints so much I would enjoy this book too.  I was right.

I love with both of these books I can learn so much about saints in a story format.  This book comes from a priest's perspective versus My Sisters the Saints which is written from a young woman's perspective.

Just like My Sisters the Saints, I would recommend this book to anyone especially if you want to grow closer to the saints.

Have you read either of these books?

Five Favorites: App Edition

I am cleaning out my draft folder so get ready for a few random posts.  

Confession:  Hi my name is Natalie, I am a 23 year old college student and I freak out a little if I don't have my phone with me for any length of time.

Typical. So my five favorites this week are my Five Favorite I-Phone Apps.

One.

Call me a hipster but one of my favorite apps is Instagram, affectionately refereed to as "the 'gram".  I can't get enough of it. 

Two.

The Nike + app. I really like knowing how many miles I have run and how fast.  Now if only I could run more miles faster.  

Three.

Bloglovin'.  I hate that I can't seem to leave comments through my iphone but I like that I can read blogs anywhere anytime in such an easy to read format.  

Four.

TMI ALERT.  Another favorite is the MyFertilityMD app.  I actually paid nearly $10 for this app but it was so worth it.  It is a very professional app that allows you to chart your cycles using the Creighton Model.  It has great resources including Ask the Doctor options and informational videos and FAQs.

  

Five. 

What kind of young adult would I be if I didn't mention Snapchat?  Why is it so great to send pictures to all your friends that can only be viewed for 10 seconds?  Who knows all I know is it makes the top 5 list. 

Honorable Mentions:

Overdrive

Facebook 

Lippincott's Review for NCLEX

NAS: Settling

I am sitting at home during my All Saint's Break (we take passionately Catholic seriously :) ) in my parent's Ikea Poang chair and am really excited to spend some time blogging and catching up on reading the last few weeks of the Not Alone Series so if you get comments on old posts you know why.

Ugh settling.  I don't think that word should be included in any conversation also concerning the words "holiness", "heaven", or "deeper conversion".  If we want heaven, if we want holiness, we can never settle. (See Blessed Pier Giorgio) Instead we must always be striving for deeper conversion, for more growth in our relationship with Jesus.  If our vocation and our husband are part of our path to heaven than settling here too is not an option.

I recently went on a vocations retreat with the TOR Sisters (check them out on Facebook) and at the end of the retreat I was talking with one of the sisters (who I had known from my time in Austria) all about how the retreat defiantly brought me so much peace and certainty that I am called to the vocation of marriage.  As the conversation continued, sister just said "but Natalie how are you going to make sure you get a "good" guy."  I smiled.  I have a heart that is ready to lay down my life for my marriage and family and I want to love, honor, and serve my husband.  It is scary to think of laying down my life for someone else and it not being reciprocal (talk about how Jesus feels but I digress). But all I can do is pray and trust.   The Lord will not let me settle.  He will put into my path a guy who will lay down his life for me, who will live in imitation of Jesus, who will treat me as a prized jewel, and who will live marriage on the path to heaven with me (will he fall short?-of course!).  I am not going to settle for anything less because I know the Lord wants heaven for me.  I need to trust that the Lord is bigger than any game of chance.  Each day I ask Our Lady to intercede for me and bring me a man who will walk with me to heaven.  

I challenge you. You too pray to Our Lady asking her to rid your mind of thoughts of settling, to show you your worth, and to lead you to the man who will lay down his life for you, because you are worth nothing less.   

NAS: Patience

Heroic Patience. Defiantly not one of Our Lady's easy virtues.  "Be patient" is hard to hear but especially for a woman who so badly wants to be a wife and mother.  I am not going to pretend like I have any answers, that I have it easier than any other woman because I am only 23 or that I have it any harder because I am already 23.  I am going to encourage you-encourage you to remain grounded in the Lord, to trust, and to make sure you know that I am praying for you.  You aren't the first or last person that lacks in patience but I do know you are not the first person that the Lord has forgotten about.  It really isn't surprising that we struggle waiting for our Vocations to start.  If we believe that our Vocations can and should lead us to heaven than of course we want to start walking down that path to heaven, that path that leads to eternal praise of the Lord.  I am confident that it is all worth it in the end.
Ladies, I am here for you to vent to, I encourage you, and I am praying for you.

WIWS (Vol. 31)

Joining the FLAP ladies because I knew you are just dying to see dorm mirror pictures.  

Dress: Old Navy 

Sweater: Cardigan 

Boots: DSW

Hair: New found love for the .5"-1" Curling Wand 

The Color Run-Pittsburgh

Photo dump from the Color Run I ran in Pittsburgh last Saturday.

Over the summer Maggie and I would always snapchat each other pictures pre, during, and post running but this was our first time actually running together!!

Maggie's First 5K!!

Me before the race!!

Three angels waiting to start!!

Our Team

After the race.  Some rain caused a mess of colors. 

Three sisters post race.

"Therefore since we are surrounded so so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1