Adorable Maternity Swimsuit

If you’ve followed “That’s the Brandi Talking” long, you know how I feel about swimsuits and modesty. (No boobies or two-pieces here.) Gosh, last summer, I threatened to you that I was going to buy a wetsuit instead!  (I did buy a wetsuit but sent it back because it was so stiff I couldn’t function.  “I…am…a…ro…bot…” comes to mind.)

Bearded Woman

I think I’m growing a beard.  NOT that I’m trying to, believe me.  Pregnancy, y’all, pregnancy.

I just want it to be known, IF YOU CLAIM to be my friend, you will tell me (sweetly) about the long black hair on my face.  Okay?

Gosh.  Don’t you just hate that when you look in the mirror and the light catches everything just right and you see it?! Maybe you don’t know!  Well, lemme tell you, it’s embarrassin’.

Following the Rules?

I’m a first-born, so a natural rule follower by nature.

I floss my teeth daily.  I drive 10 and 2.  My toddlers stay rear facing until the proper weight.  I change the batteries out on the smoke alarms once a year.  I use a meat thermometer nearly daily.  I wash the filters on my vacuum cleaner because the owner’s manual says to!  (And, yes, I read the owner’s manual for my vacuum cleaner…)

I have a confession to make that grinds against the “following the rules” grain: I don’t buy organic, I don’t go to a chiropractor, I don’t exercise daily, I don’t recycle and I use a microwave.  I know, I KNOW!

“This is the confidence which we have in Him…”

1 John 5:14-15

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁴ And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us.

¹⁵ And if (since) we [positively] know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted us as our present possessions] the requests made of Him.

So many times, I doubt God’s plans for me.  I don’t doubt them because of God–because He is I AM, He is huge and nothing is impossible with Him.  I doubt those plans He has for me…because of ME.  I know what I AM NOT.  I know where I fall short.  I know where I am inadequate.

100% Authentic

Something happened when I hit my thirties.  All of a sudden, I felt permission to really BE who I WAS.  I felt like I had earned the right to be taken seriously and not thought of as “oh, she’s still a kid”.  I no longer felt an obligation to “have it all together”.  I was finally able to accept myself.  Warts and all.  (I really don’t have warts, real ones. But, you know,  the figurative kind or the metaphorical kind.  Whatever.  You know what I mean.)  Accepting myself meant that I wasn’t afraid to disclose those weaknesses to others.  I decided I had no problem hanging all my dirty laundry and struggles out in the open so that I wouldn’t be alone in trying to sort it all out.