Project 52 Date #46

This date night was to play a video game of some sorts. We actually broke out a gift that we received a few Christmas ago which was an Atari game box to hook up directly to your tv. It was a blast. There was only a handful of games that I knew, but JT seemed to know alot more of them so I can quickly tell you who dominated in the best out of three challenges we had! Great fun and very simple!

He says: So the name of the game was to play a video game. Xbox was out because Mia's not very fond of Call of Duty or Halo etc. So I busted out an old school Atari console (not an original) that has something like 50 games on it. We played Asteroid, Pitfall, Outlaw, and Frogpad! It was alot of fun to go retro and play game where all you have is one button and a 4-way joystick. Loved it!

Love is….. undefinable (week 46)

The last 10 months have shown me that, ultimately,love is undefinable. Trying to write little excerpts for this blog has only reinforced that knowledge. I struggled each time to clearly explain howI understood love.

Merriam-Webstersays that love is:

1 a(1):strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties

(2):attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers

(3):affection based on admiration, benevolence,or common interests

b: an assurance of affection

I am a huge fan of dictionaries. I quite enjoy looking up new words, verifyingthat the one being used is correct, etc. But for the first time, I think Merriam-Webster’s definition is very incomplete. When I am asked what I love about my husband,I can rattle of a list of physical, emotional, and intellectual reasons. And the list keeps on growing. The only problem is that by the end of that insanelylong list, it still feels weak and incomplete. It doesn’t even begin to touch the feeling that I have for him. I cannot happily condense it into a simplestring of words either. If someone wereto ask the same of my family, friends, and puppies – I would be equally at aloss.

I think that is why they say “to each his own” whenit comes to love. Love is undefinableand each person sees and feels love differently. Itmight also be why it is so easy and difficult to determine if you love. You know it when you feel it but you cannot express why you lovesomeone/something because it is ultimately impossible to properly define.

- Therasa

Project 52 Date #45

Desserts in Greece
So this date was done last week and for all those that think you are just to busy to find the time to do a daily date night, please read on! We spent the last 9 days in Thessaloniki Greece on a mission trip with the amazing A21 Campaign Another story for another time but it was a life changing trip! Anyway, every night the teams came together for dinner and of course there was always an amazing dessert. Our date night plan was to choose a few desserts and decide which one was the best, so it really didn't leave us much options. Also in most of the European countries dinner is much later in the evening like 9-10 pm, so even if we wanted to go get extra desserts it was much too late and the places were closed.
Except for one evening, we had a chance to get dinner on our own with the team and we actually went to TGI Fridays ( I know, but it was the only place that would take credit cards). We got some desserts to-go and went back to the hotel to have date night. Honestly compared to all the amazing Greek desserts that we had all week it was nothing to but it was good non the less.
As luck would have it, Jonathan was talking to one of the A21 Greece Team members(shout out to Phil for sending us there) at our last meal together with the team and he mentioned this amazing little dessert place that he referred to as a museum of desserts! Well of course a map was drawn on a napkin and the plan was set. So later in the evening we had some down time on our own and we had such a late lunch (5pm) that we really weren't hungry for dinner but desserts sounded fantastic.
So we grabbed Dee Dee, I mean you really can't leave anyone behind for this excursion, and off we went to brave the streets of Greece alone in hopes of fantastic desserts..... and we were not disappointed. Pictures do not do it justice but it was just amazing, so amazing that we saw these two older Russian women looking in the window and one was so intent on the desserts that she smacked right into the window pane. Of course she laughed it off and came in to get her desserts right away! So we started to pick, and I just couldn't pick one piece for each of us so we ended up with four...I mean think of the baby right!?! :) So we boxed up our desserts and went home to see if they were as beautiful on the inside as they were on the outside.





We were not disappointed. Jonathan's favorite was the white chocolate birds nest and mine was the lemon pie. But lets be honest, there wasn't a scrap of food left in those boxes when we were done! Great date night!



Jonathan Says: So Mia alreay explained that we were out of the country and short on available time for a date night due to our crazy packed mission trip schedule. We grabbed some desserts from a TGI-Fridays one night but it left us both feelings like we could have done better I think. It just so happens that at our last meal together with the Greece team that their fearless leader Phil mentions to me this bakery and dessert place called Ble and says it's something like a museum of desserts and draws me up a map of how to get there. And as luck would have it we had some free time that night and it happened to be right around the corner from our hotel. This place was amazing! Almost more art exhibit than bakery. Beautiful desserts under glass diplays like ones you see in a jewelry store. Soo amazing that one lady bent over to look at a dessert and hit her forehead on the glass! It took forever but we finally settled on 5 different sweets. We went back to the hotel and grabbed some forks and let the taste test begin! They were all very different from each other and amazing in their own right but we both finally settled on this lemon meringue square that was hands down one of the best desserts I've ever tasted. Cool date night idea that we were lucky enough to do at the coolest dessert bakery in Greece!

Love is ...self-regard (week 45)

I recently read an article that a friend posted on Facebook about a woman who earned money by performing lap dances. As I remember it, she spoke very little about how she got into the industry but focused instead on what it did to her self-image. She was not in the industry long when she opted to have breast implants. Why? Because men were constantly explaining to her why they didn't want HER to give them a lap dance, including that her breasts were too small. She was daily bombarded with the requirement to do more and go farther in order to make enough money and with the obvious disregard the men had for her. This beautiful, confident, and capable woman was unable to hold her own in that environment and eventually grew to believe herself "ugly." And she used that word to describe everything about herself.

I also had a friend on Facebook recently berate herself and her life, quite publically. And all I could think of was The Help, "You is kind. You is smart. You is important." I hurt for her. Her self-regard was incredibly low.

All of this made me think, for about the millionth time, about my own self-image and of the self-image that my friends and family have. It has always been hard for me to see myself in a respectful light – whether it was physically, emotionally, or intellectually. And yet it is easy for me to see so many beautiful and wonderful things about my friends. I know that they see the same in me because they tell me so regularly. And how do I take it? I down play it. I disregard it. I think, "yes, but" or "if they only knew." They do the same. And it irritates me because I want them to love themselves as I love them.

Some time ago, I made what I believe was a momentous decision in my life. Every time I begin to think this way, I remind myself to say thank you and to believe the words being said to me. Thank you to God who made me with my looks and abilities because He loved me and He called me beautiful. Thank you to the person who complimented me. After all, they wanted to give me a gift of their praise or appreciation and to do otherwise is to show distaste for that gift. Thank you to myself for having self-regard. I like thinking well of myself.

It is important and good to have self-regard. Our self-regard teaches others to have it in themselves and encourages others to treat us as though we are worthy of respect. And by practicing it regularly, I found that I have an easier time believing in myself.

As for the lap dancer? She indicated that by the time she got out of the industry she had no self-regard, but I think that she had found finally found it, again.
- Therasa

Love is ...gratitude (week 44)

John 13:34 tells us to love one another. To me, that sounds like an awful lot of effort. How does one show love to EVERYONE? Especially when I am almost hit by a passing car because the lady was trying to text while driving. I don't particularly feel loving in those situations.

But I have incredible examples in my life. While in Wickenburg, Arizona for my wedding, people at stores and restaurants kept on commenting on how "nice" one of my friends was. I heard the same thing in at least 6 places. At every turn she was smiling and saying please and thank you. She showed gratitude for their service and she did it naturally and honestly. She even tried to play it off as being from Texas. To me, her behavior didn't seem odd. Her behavior is normal for her and for all of my friends whether they are from Texas, Alaska, Colorado, or California.

But what they were really saying was that they were feeling loved. Her simple but honest please and thank you meant a lot to them. Apparently they were rarely thanked or praised for the work they did and so my friend's gratitude was greatly appreciated.

We often think of loving one another as performing a service for them or by creating a lasting and deep relationship. But truly, to do that with everyone and for everyone is impossible. The effort required would be too much for a single person. My friend's behavior showed me why it is so important to simply be polite, to be "nice." When we do those things we are showing respect for each person and gratitude for their presence in our lives no matter how small it may be. In other words, we are showing them love.
-Therasa

Project 52 Date #44

JT Says: The assignment for tonight's date night was to create your own private drive-in movie somewhere secluded with just the two of you and a dvd player. I had to bend the rules a bit but we did end up in the back of my new truck on an airmatress under blankets with a laptop and what turned out to be a pretty good movie. I backed my truck up in our cul-du-sac under the big oak in our front yard. If you've never noticed it's pretty dark in our little roundabout at night. We curled up in the back of the truck and watched HANNA. The movie turned out to be much better than I thought it would be. And the weather was perfect(even if Mia was kinda going crazy with her hair blowing all in the breeze...). Super low key and really enjoyable date!

Mia Says: This was a really cute date that JT did up perfectly. I was toasty warm, comfy and the movie was good! He also set us up so that we were facing the house and had the monitor in hand just in case, made me feel even more comfortable! Great job honey!

Love is ... pain (Week 43)

Love is....pain.

Love is so many things. They are the things we love Love to be. It is fun, sappy, romantic, giving, innocent, etc. But let's all face it, no matter who you are or where you go Love is sometimes about pain.

I have seen a parent sobbing in prayer over her wayward adult child, his life riddled with drink, drugs, bad women, and worse environments. I have seen a young girl in her most formative years strive to forgive her mom, a mom she still loves deeply, for neglecting her, permitting drugs and evil men near her, and worse things that I don't even want to remember. I have seen spouses and significant others mentally, physically, and emotionally abused and yet they still love the abuser. I have seen friends hurt themselves with feelings of inadequacy, drugs, etc. I have been hurt by others I loved and called friend. And I have seen siblings fight viciously in the way that only one who knows you well can.

To love is to risk, and to risk inevitably involves pain. We risk so much when we love. We make ourselves vulnerable in all ways to the ones we love. We invest time, money, and effort in them. And we desperately want the loved to be happy and to love us in return. So when those things don't happen, it hurts. And it hurts severely.

I can easily provide a list of a million ways that Love can cause us pain. But I also know something that makes that list seem slight. There is no good without bad, no right without wrong, no Love without Pain. It is the dichotomy of life that even makes us aware that Love exists. We would not be able to recognize just how wonderful Love is if we did not know the pain that is its opposite. And I suspect that if you love already, then you too know this.

I said at the beginning that it mattered not Who you were, Love would cause you pain. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (James 3:16 KJV) Jesus came to this earth with one purpose and to achieve that purpose He went through Gethsemane, scourging, being nailed to a cross, being denied, and watching those He loved watch Him die. Is there any greater pain that can be endured in this life than to watch and feel the physical, emotional, and spiritual absence of Love and Hope around you?

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." (Matthew 10:29-31 KJV) I read this and I remember just how much my Father loves me and that He knows all that happens in my life. And I know that every time I choose other than what He would for me, He watches in pain. Am I, therefore, so special that I can love without it? No. I must simply endure the pain that comes with the blessing of Love. I must accept it and hold on to both in order to feel the one. I must welcome each into my life and know that they are equally important. And I must recognize that Love is sometimes pain.
- Therasa