Recovery is beautiful.

Yesterday, I completed my first social work internship (HOLY CRAP, I'M HALF A SOCIAL WORKER!) at Pine St Intensive Residential Substance Abuse Treatment. I started out at a Residential Detox and moved into Pine St. about halfway through. All of this was through Tarrant County's MHMR- Addiction Services. This was assigned to me back in November, and when I first got this assignment.... I was pissed.

Like a little toddler in the Walmart cereal aisle, I shook my fists and stomped my feet at the idea that I would have to spend 5 months dealing with drug addicts and alcoholics. I considered changing, but I was worried that if I traded, my next option would be worse than this one. So I grumbled. And moaned. And griped. And complained. All of my friends got WAY better  placements than me. I felt cheated.

The first day I walked into detox, I probably had a scowl on my face. I parked my grumpy butt in the office of my new supervisor, Todd. He asked me what drew me to Addiction Services, and like a little brat, I was honest. I told him that I wasn't drawn to it, it was picked for me. Ha! He gave me the run down of what happens in Detox and gave me some things to look up. I had explained to him that I didn't think I would do very much good for Addiction Services, as I had no background in addiction. Frankly, I didn't know jack squat. Todd was very patient.

So for the first week, I sat and watched. I got to assess all the new clients, which scared the everloving crap out of me. I sat and watched the groups. Holding my clipboard like a little security blanket, I sat in the group room chairs and listened to the conversations around me. One lady plopped down next to me and asked me what I was about. Another man across from us, a veteran with one leg, sat across from me and leaned forward.

"Are you a drunk?" he asked.

"Uhh.... no."

"Are you a junkie?"

"No."

"Then why are you here?"

I froze. I didn't even know anymore. I wasn't afraid of him, I just didn't want him to know that I was just here because I had to be. "Umm.. I'm an intern. I'm here to learn."

The lady next to me asked me a series of questions, and it was really the first time I had been in a real conversation with a client. It wasn't until the next day that I would learn her life story. It broke my heart. I heard all the client's life stories that day. Sundays were "timeline days" when each client would go through their life and their addiction pattern. Sundays were rough.

Slowly, I grew to enjoy detox. I got good at assessments, I got to know people, and the clients were mostly nice to me. But more than anything, everyone was patient. I heard all my friends complaining about their internships, and I sat there thinking "my internship is pretty sweet, its not half as bad as theirs." My supervisor (Todd) in particular, was VERY patient with me. He sat through my fumbling through questions about addiction that google couldn't answer. He was open and honest with everyone about his own recovery. I heard him ask questions of clients that I couldn't imagine asking. Any time a client would start to have a tantrum and say that they would do what they wanted, he would response "And how is that working out for you?" I was floored.

I had never met a person that was so tough, yet cared so much about his clients. I wanted to be like that... And 6 weeks into my internship, Todd got moved upstairs to the 30 day treatment program, Pine St. And through a series of circumstances in which I desperately sought to learn more about addiction and recovery, I moved to Pine St a month after that.

April was a hard month. I was spending almost all of my time at Pine St. I was on the Men's Unit, and we had a fantastic group of guys there. I loved being there. I was able to learn so much about Chemical Dependency Counseling, I got to watch how Todd worked and wished that I could be half the counselor he is. I got to do Treatment Planning, it was awesome. I woke up every morning (EARLY) so excited to go spend the day at Pine St. I wanted to do everything. I wanted to do ALL the paperwork, make ALL the copies, go to ALL the groups. I wanted to work there. Working there for free was awesome enough. Imagine getting PAID for this?! I started applying for jobs at Pine St. like a crazy person. I loved working at Pine St. for free more than I enjoyed getting paid at my other job! So... like a normal person.... I quit my job.

Yep, I quit my job so that I could do more hours at my unpaid internship. Because that's what people do, right? That was a hard week, but I couldn't be more happy that I did it. I woke up early in the morning to go to Pine St, worked as hard as I could while I was there, then went home and tried to learn as much as I could so I could go back the next day and do better.

I had to complete 400 hours by May 14th, but as of 2 days ago, I had more than 500. I want to work there. I couldn't be more grateful of the change of heart that I had, that could only have come from God Himself. Seeing the growth from the guys on the unit, grieving the relapses, and affirming the discharging guys on their way out, it changed everything. I was blessed. I got to see miracles happen. I got to see a broken man come into detox and watch God begin to put him back together. I got to witness my heart change in my chest. I got to see the Power that comes when a man breaks down to his core and resolve to make a change, just for today.

Addiction and Recovery are scary subjects, but everyone has been touched by it. Everyone knows at least one person who is addicted to a substance. But yet so few are able to see the beauty of recovery. We get so bogged down in the guilt and shame of addiction that we cannot see that recovery is a wonderful possibility. Recovery is hard, and it's messy, and its wild, but it is beautiful. I cannot think of the number of people that have heard someone say "I'm in recovery" and think "Oh, they have a drug problem." Someone in recovery is focusing on a solution. They are protecting their lives, guarding it with everything that they have. It could not be more noble or more honorable to say "I have a problem, and I cannot fix it alone," and take steps to walk away from it. God loves recovery. He grants serenity, courage, and wisdom to those who ask for it. We can no longer be afraid to talk about recovery.

Last week, my last week at Pine St. I got to begin Morning Group by myself. One of the guys asked me when I was done. I told him, "I was done with my hours back in April. They kick me out next week." He asked me "Well, then why are you here?" And I couldn't believe my answer.

"Because I want to be. They haven't kicked me out yet, and they can't get rid of me this easily."

Because they can't. And I will be back.

Thank you to MHMR- Addiction Services. Thank you to all of the staff at Pine St and at Billy Gregory Detox. Thank you to my wonderful husband, who heard me talk 24/7 for the last 5 months. Thank you to my parents, who let me call them on my rides home for virtually the entire year so far. And a very special thank you to Todd Garlington, my supervisor, who shows the love of God to those around him every day.

Make-It Monday: Baked Pesto Chicken

Ok, so I have a couple of people asking me how I do the things that I do like crafts, cooking, baking, etc. I thought I would try to incorporate that into my blog maybe once a week or so, so here is the first segment that I would like to call "Make-It Monday". This segment will feature all sorts of different things, even some things that I may make and sell! So if you ever wanted to know how it was done, you can come here. This will also be a place where I try out different things I see on Pinterest, and let you know if they're worth their salt.

To start us off: Baked Pesto Chicken. I got this chicken recipe off of Pinterest, but you can find the full recipe on Kalyn's Kitchen, if you get confused.When I found it, I was looking for a recipe that was yummy, healthy, cheap, and quick to make. You can find all three in this recipe. All you need are chicken breasts, pesto, and mozzarella (and maybe a smidge of salt).

The recipe calls for 4 chicken breasts, but I could only find packages of 3 for some reason, so I just made sure they were really huge (Pamela Anderson-style chicken). I started by cutting the chicken breasts (Sorry, Pam) into strips and "trim the fat" which in Ginger Spice-speak means, "get rid of all the oogies." I don't like oogies in my chicken, and I especially don't like getting rid of them myself. But, I only gagged once! So in the end, you have strips of oogie-free, Pamela Anderson chicken.


You should spray your baking dish (I have a 13x9, and it worked fine) and then spread the bottom of the dish with your pesto. I just used Buitoni Pesto because I was in a hurry (read as: I'm lazy), but I'm sure you could make your own pesto and use it just as well. After you spread the pesto, lay your strips of chicken in the pan, and cover them with pesto as well! Whoa crazy!

Then cover with foil and put into the oven for maybe 25-ish minutes. You're not looking for it to cook all the way through or it will be overcooked by the time you add the cheese. With that said, take your chicken out of the oven and sprinkle with some low-fat mozzarella cheese, and put it back in the oven for 5 minutes on bake. After baking for 5 more minutes to melt the cheese, switch it over to broil to brown the cheese a little bit (maybe 4-5 minutes).

Then Ta-Da!!! All done!

Chavo and I really liked this recipe, it was fast, quick, and healthy. It maybe took me 45 minutes to make it, including cutting up the chicken to start off with. I'll definitely be making it again. I added a tiny bit of salt to mine, which really enhanced the flavor, but Chavo didn't add anything to his. Definitely a win! I hope you enjoy making this at home. I'm off to go find some more recipes!

See you next whenever!

T-GlF! What being a fake grown-up is like.

Happy Friday! In honor of this warm January Friday (after like, 3 days of bonkers cold weather), I'm here to present another GIF post! A lot of you really enjoyed The Summer in GIFS and The Last 11 Months in GIFS, so I thought I'd bring it back... Mainly because it gives me an excuse to look at GIFs all day long and ahem... not work out.

I've been really enjoying being a fake grown-up. Basically, I don't have a real "big girl" job anymore, I have a bunch of little jobs. I have the craft store, I'm a professional babysitter, and I'm about to be a *gasp!* tutor! Yep, I just signed on to be a part-time one-on-one tutor at a learning center, and that is basically the most mature job I have right now.

Because really, as a babysitter, I spend most my time doing this:

And a whole lot of this:


And when I'm not doing that, I am usually at home doing this:

When I should be working out, but I mostly end up like

And on my freaking instagram feed, twitter feed, and Facebook news feed, everyone keeps talking about graduating, and getting a grown-up job, and buying a house, and having kids and when I see them in public I'm just like:


but when I get home, it's more like:

Because,



Because everyone seems to be becoming an adult so easily, and I just can't figure it out!

Until I remember that, hey, I can go make stuff for my store! And then I get all



And pretty much remember that I like being a pretend grown-up. Because big-girl jobs can be really sucky, and I'm glad I get the opportunity to do the jobs that I have, even if I don't make as much as I want to. Because, I've had a big girl job... and it paid really well, but it sucked!!! So now, I get the opportunity to say



Because I may have 3 jobs at any given moment, but I have not sold my soul yet!





So take that! I'm going to go to my teenager jobs, do my thing for a little while, and not be ashamed of my immature reaction to finding out someone brought brownies to church.


Because people usually just look at Chavo whenever this happens, and he's like



I'm going to go enjoy being a fake grown-up now! Hope you enjoyed this new GIF post, and I'll be back soon!

See you next Whenever!

What do you want to see?

Hey y'all!

So, I've been thinking I should blog more often. I'm thinking once a week isn't good enough.

Yes, I realize that I do NOT in fact post once a week. But I'm supposed to! And I think that the reason that I don't post with discipline is that I don't do it enough.

You know that feeling after you go to the gym and you think "Wow, that was awful! But I don't want to make it worth nothing, so I guess I'll do it again." Yeah, that's kind of how writing a blog is. The more you do it, the more you WANT to do it.  I've also been working out, and it was Jon Acuff in Quitter who said "Discipline begets discipline." Or he may have stolen that from somewhere else... Oh well, I read it in his book.

But NEVER FEAR! I'm not going to start blathering on about stupid things that no one cares about. I want to know what YOU want, as a reader. All I have to go on is what my Pinterest followers tell me right now, so if you know something you want to see, please either comment below or post it on my facebook wall! All I know right now is:

1.) People like knowing how to make stuff, like crafts and food. I can show you what I know!
2.) People somewhat like when I post about things like "short term missions" and the church. And I do have a good bit to say about it, so I can do that too!
3.) People like guest posts! I guess that means that you want to get rid of me, and I can do that too!
4.) People really like that picture that I posted of my sunburn a long time ago. In fact, a very large portion of my readers have found my blog through that picture. If you look up "ginger sunburn" on google images, you will find that picture of me on the first page. Go figure. Oh well, I can post more ginger stuff too.

Anywhoodles, if you have any ideas to throw at me, leave them in the comments, or post something on my facebook wall, I will try to get back to every comment in a timely manner. If there was something that I have talked about before on my blog that you enjoyed, please let me know so I can get more things out there like that!

Comments are like Blogger's crack. We can't get enough of them. So please let me know what you would like to see here on "Ginger Spice and Everything Nice" so that you can get some more enjoyment out of this blog.

See you next Whenever!

I'm A Coward...(but please still be my friend)

I realize that it has been a while.

The reason that I have not posted in so many months was because I had something that needed to be said, something negative, something that spoke ill of some other people, something that could make people see me as kind of obnoxious. And I didn't want to say it. I moved to Texas over a year and a half ago, and I finally have friends, and a community, and a good church family. It's so nice being at church and knowing people again. I just so desperately didn't want to lose friends. 

But if I didn't say anything, it would have made me pointless as a blogger. I'd just be another happy, sunshine, idiot blogger that writes a bunch of pointless, irrelevant fluff that doesn't have anything to do with the price of tea in China. Gag. Just gag. I tried to avoid it, and I succeeded for a little while, but  soon after, every time I opened up my blogger dashboard to write another post, my fingers froze. It got to where I couldn't write anything, except for the one thing that I so desperately didn't want to write.

I prayed about it, I prayed that God would take away the guilt of not being able to write what so desperately needed to be written. But He didn't. I talked to friends, I finally talked to my husband about it (seems like he should have known first... right?), and the conclusion has been drawn that the reason that I cannot avoid writing about this topic is because I really really am SUPPOSED to.

So here I am. And here is the blog I should have written months ago:



As many of you know, Chavo and I went to Guatemala in June, just a few days after I lost my job as a teacher. I posted a little bit about how our trip went, because we were there for almost 3 weeks. To give you a bit of an overview on WHY we were there, we spent the first week on a short-term mission trip with our church. Then, after they left, Chavo and I spent 10 extra days there, seeing friends and family and stuff. The last 5 days were spent with my parents, who joined us for the very end of it.

I talked a little bit about the 2nd part of the trip, the seeing friends and family part, but I didn't really touch on what happened during the mission trip. Honestly, I've been really struggling on how to word what happened on the mission trip. I know, previously, I mentioned that I had been praying for the church members going on the trip to have grace when things don't go our way, and that prayer was answers tenfold. The group that went on the trip was absolutely fabulous. Chavo and I made some new friends, and it was great seeing the group really work together for the people that we were serving. I couldn't have asked for a better group.

That being said: I should have prayed harder for those that were hosting us. This trip to Guatemala was supposed to be more of a "seeking out" trip to see where the church could put its resources in the future, so we weren't sure what to expect from where we were going, which made us rely largely on our hosts.

From the beginning, I felt that the specific mission that was hosting us was more focused on us doing more typical "gringo missionary" stuff. We were to sit and listen to story after story of people that were a part of this mission, most of which were trying to convince us of the lack of funds for their different projects and sub-missions. We also painted their courtyard. From someone who has seen many a church-group come through Guatemala, it was a little maddening to see able-bodied men WATCH us do their jobs and paint (Don't get me wrong, I take no issue with doing physical labor when there are no able-bodied individuals who can do so, like children, handicapped people, or the elderly. But literally, the men who watched us were the maintenance men and groundskeepers, whose work we were taking).

We also went to a place, outside the mission that was hosting us, called the Comedor in San Juan del Obispo (SJO). The Comedor can only be described as a "place where children go to eat dinner". We helped prepare meals and brought food to the people of the SJO that the Comedor served. Unfortunately, the hosting mission, in not so many words, lied to several of the team members and made it sound like the mission had basically done work that they hadn't done, to help the mission. They took credit for work in the Comedor that many other ministries had done, including Chavo's own church in Guatemala. We were amazed at what our ears were hearing.

Chavo and I have been familiar with the Comedor for a while, it has been in place for years by a wonderful couple that literally serves these children out of their homes. When Chavo and I had previously talked about serving in Guatemala long-term, we wanted to partner with this couple. They are truly wonderful and God is going to bless their everloving socks off in Heaven. Chavo and I got to spend some time individually with the couple, where we were given the chance to look at a piece of land that they want to build a good school for the children of SJO. The Comedor was a place that our team truly felt they were helping. SJO is in desperate need for relief, rehabilitation, and development. We know that the Comedor is a good place to serve. I don't want to give people the impression that this trip was the worst thing that has ever happened in the history of ever. We know deep within us that our team was able to serve in a place that would help them briefly, while knowing in the future where to put resources to reinforce their already-great ministry.

There, I said it! And while it may have not made any of you faint from scandal, it was a difficult thing for me to write. I wanted people to know that they needed to be very careful and prayerful over any short-term mission that they go on, or this could happen. This post is meant to remind people to really pray for your hosts before you consider going on a mission there, and do your research. In some places, the best thing you can do is paint and do a VBS, but in other areas, that could be the worst thing you can do! Do research, especially with your team, on how you can be good short-term missionaries to reach your target community specifically. If you don't know how to assess how to best serve your target community, I recommend the book When Helping Hurts. I highly recommend that any team or individual going on missions, short or long-term, read this book.  Unfortunately, I read this book after the trip was over, and I know most people that go on short-term missions trips won't read a book, but some of them may read a blog. People can learn from mistakes, even ones that others have made. I hope that you will learn from my mistake, instead of making the same one.

PSA: Weirdos at the gym

Over the last month or two, I've been trying to make myself go to the gym. I don't really like going to the gym, and I can't really deal with it when people say they "LOVE cardio." Mainly because cardio makes me hate everything. I literally do cardio to not die of diabetes or heart disease. I run because I imagine Death is chasing me. 

Chavo and I go to the YMCA. It's close to our apartment, it's cheaper than the other gyms, and we can typically avoid people that are super in-shape that judge us with their eyes. We are trying to go 3 times a week, so that the membership fee doesn't become a fat-tax, but we haven't gone this week so far, and I went by myself. Anyway, all that to say, I went to the gym today, but I had to psych myself up for about an hour to go.

It was pretty empty, there was just one other guy on one of their 20 treadmills. So I got on another treadmill a reasonable distance away. While I am not a man, I do know urinal etiquette, and treadmill etiquette is pretty similar.

Then there he was... I couldn't see him yet...

But I could smell him.

A man... I don't want to call him "old," because that seems mean. I'll just call him "retired." Because that isn't an opinion, it's a statement of fact. This retired man came into the gym, wearing a LOT of cologne. And got on the treadmill right. by. me.

At this point, there are three of us on treadmills. Before this man walked up, there were 18 treadmills that were totally free. But, he picked the one right next to mine. I had to breathe through my mouth because of the cologne that he had on. I was running and couldn't breathe through my nose. It epicly sucked.

I considered moving to another treadmill, but it would have been super obvious I was moving away from him. I didn't want to be a jerk to this man who obviously didn't know proper gym etiquette, it wasn't a cause for panic yet. I could still breathe through my mouth.

Then, he kept looking at my treadmill, very obviously. Now, I know that I like to sneak a peek at my neighbor's treadmills just to make sure I'm not too much of an out-of-shape loser. After all, if we get chased by a bear, I don't have to run faster than the bear, just faster than you. So I let this slide. However, my mind has already given this man 2 strikes. Too much cologne, and obvious staring at my treadmill are annoying enough. At least I have my earbuds in, so I can just pretend that this man isn't bugging the crap out of me, and just imagine how I'm going to tweet about this later.

The cologne smell is getting out of hand. As I type this, I want to take about 12 boiling showers, because I can still smell this cologne in my hair. Gross. It smells like an old church pew that has been marinating in Bengay and stale TV dinners.  And this man keeps staring at me, so I know I must be mouth-breathing too loud, but he's the jerkwad that chose to wear his nasty man-stench to the gym. Like, seriously, I barely even shower before I go to the gym. Deodrant smell is expected. Not this onslaught of smell that was from the treadmill on my right.

After my workout, I went to the stretching area, only to see this man two minutes later, looking at me. He then got on the stretching machine right next to me AND TRIED TO TALK TO ME. He asked me my name, but I pretended not to answer him.  This man isn't ignorant of gym etiquette, he's a creepazoid!! Dude, I'm not wearing makeup, I haven't showered, and you have no business talking to me right now. I have my earbuds in, I clearly don't feel like being all "Chatty Cathy" with you. You're older than my awesome grandfather, and you wear too much cologne! At that point, my manners flew out the window. I got off the stretching machine and ran out of the gym. Stupid cologne man.


I know that many of you know proper treadmill etiquette, but it seems that it is not common knowledge. So allow me to share.

1.) Do not get on a treadmill directly next to someone that you do not know, unless it is unavoidable. When in doubt, leave at least 1 or 2 treadmills between you.

2) Perfume and cologne are not only unnecessary, but a sensory insult to those around you at the gym. Your sweat makes it even worse. Deodrant however, is demanded.

3) If someone around you had in earbuds, and you do not know them, striking up a conversation is annoying.

4) Someone people don't feel like being hit on at the gym. In fact, I don't know any people who LIKE being hit on at the gym. But generally, if there is a girl that is not wearing any makeup and clearly hasn't showered, don't hit on her! Just say no.

Anyway, that's my public service announcement for this month. Treadmill etiquette, learn it, live it.

The more you know.

Can't figure my life out

Lately, I've been lazy.

I mean, I've been doing stuff, but only because I sort of feel like it.

I haven't worn makeup in 3 days. I haven't woken up before 9 since Saturday, and the only reason for that was because I had a craft show to do. And before that Saturday, I probably haven't woken up before 9 for about two weeks. I haven't showered before one in about two weeks. I'm not depressed, I'm really not. This crafting thing has been so much fun for me. The craft show that I did last Saturday was so much fun, I'm looking forward to the next one. But I just have been so messy lately.

So, I was in Michael's yesterday, and I was just wandering around, looking for ideas for my craft booth for thiscoming Saturday. Of course, one of the employees was making sure this unshowered, sweatshirt-wearing chick wasn't going to shoplift all their stuff and sell it for drugs. She asked if she could help me find anything, and I laughed and said "sorry, no, I can't figure my life out." She laughed, and said "when you figure your life out, let me know, then maybe we can't figure my life out, next."

I laughed, and I wandered a little longer. We talked a little bit about some things that I could add to the stuff in my shop, and she had no idea. So we wandered together. I found some stuff, and I'm sure it'll go over really well this Saturday. And I really hope that she wasn't just following me around because she was afraid I was going to hide all those items in my sweatshirt and run, but who really knows?

This crafting thing... I really love it. I'm having a blast selling my stuff, but I'm not going to lie, it's been a little discouraging. People really seem to like my stuff, which is fun, but I'm just so afraid of failing. Its been weird, liking my job so much, that I'm afraid that I'm going to fail and have to go back to a job that hates me. I like sitting on the floor, in my jammies, with a hot glue gun and a xacto knife, watching old episodes of trashy TV shows that have long since ended.

I'm not sure if I'm asking for help. Maybe I am. I just want this shop to work so bad, I can feel it in my heart. I know I love this. I love making things, and baking things, and glueing things, and painting things. I just want it to work so I don't have to do a job I don't like and never be home. I'll take all the hot-glue singed fingers in the world to keep this going.

So, if you would like to see what I'm all about, go to www.gingerspiceandeverythingnice.com and see my shop. My new items this week are leather cuff bracelets made from baseballs. They're so cute! And if you're in the DFW area, I'll be in Denton Community Market this Saturday morning. So come say hi!

See you next week!

Spare the rod, spoil the child

Hey, remember the time that I opened up a store and then promptly fell off the face of the earth for two weeks? Yeah, lets pretend for just a minute that that didn't happen. Because I want to share something really really cool.

Let me start off by saying that the story I'm about to tell is 100% true and did actually happen with me present:

So, once upon a time, I was sitting in a sermon, in a country/state that shall remain nameless, listening to a preacher that shall also remain nameless because... bless his freaking heart. In this sermon, he read from Proverbs 13:24 KJV "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." Yeah, we usually think of that verse as the "spare the rod, spoil the child verse".

Anyways, this nameless pastor used that verse to say that spanking your children with objects is not only biblical, but demanded by God as punishment. Yeah, I wish I were making this up. You know what else I wish I was making up? He brought CHILDREN up on the stage, as he had a large cane in his hand, and asked them individually "If you were disobedient, and I hit you with this cane, would you disobey again?" And as each child gave an obvious, timid "no," the pastor looked into the congregation with a smug grin, knowing that his way was right and we were all stupid and could go crawl in a ditch. Yeah, there wasn't a person in the audience that wasn't thoroughly uncomfortable during this sermon. It was all people talked about in church for the next several weeks.


The rest of this blog post is internet research, speculation, and a hearty dose of opinion. So put your big girl panties on, because I'm about to tear that terrifying preacher a new..... uhh... patch in his blue jeans. Because I've had my coffee this morning, and I'm ready to kick some hineys. I'm not going to try to delude myself into thinking I'm some sort of theological mastermind. I'm just really good at googling stuff.

So, I looked it up (Thanks Google, who needs an Masters in Divinity when you have the INTERNET!) and I saw that the Hebrew word for "rod" in Proverbs 13:24 is "shebet". Other parts of the Bible use "shebet" as a term for a "shepherd's rod."

Get ready for the jump.

I would like to place some speculation and say that the "shebet" in Proverbs 13:24 is a shepherd's rod. Whoa, hey now!

Guess what else I learned? There are five ways that a shepherd uses his rod.

1) A symbol of guardianship over the sheep.
2) To ward off invaders or animals attacking the flock.
3) The rod could be thrown very far, on the ground next to a wandering sheep, startling it back into the flock.
4) Counting (sheep were counted as they passed under the rod)
5) The rod was also used to part the wool of a sheep so that they shepherd could check for infections or wounds

The rod was not actually meant to hit the sheep! To hit the sheep with the rod would make the sheep both fear and hate the rod and the shepherd. It's a little hard to watch over a flock of sheep when they are afraid of you or hate you. So the rod was used for Authority, Security, Guardianship, Protection, and Care. Hm..

Get ready for another jump.

This verse is not supposed to be a verse on punishment. This is a verse on how to take care of your kids! Show them who the parent is, protect them from danger, warn them from trouble, watch over them, and make sure they're healthy. Obviously if you refuse to do those things, there is something weird about how you feel about your children. If you don't spank your kids, it doesn't mean that you don't love them.

This is not some sort of anti-spanking stance, I still don't know how I feel about it yet. But puh-leeeeease don't try to justify spanking your kids with this verse. It doesn't make sense. Find another reason. And if this verse was your only reason for spanking your kids, you may have a lot of thinking to do about punishment.

Take that, What's-His-Name!

I may send him this link... But that would be witchy. Muahaha!

See you next W...whenever. Maybe next week. Maybe not. It's a mystery.

I'm going to go find a stick to beat my dogs with now.

Poisonous

So if you have seen my Facebook or Instagram in the last 24 hours, you know that Chavo and I added another animal into our house two days ago.

Her name is Roux. She is fabulous.

Our other dog, Beignet, has been a little jealous of this newest addition. Now he actually has to SHARE attention, which he is not a fan of.

Yesterday, Chavo and I were out of the apartment, and I decided not to take my purse. I've been on a weird anti-purse kick because I got tired of carrying around a 7 pound bag of my own trash. However, Beignet managed to find a Hershey bar, that I had gotten from a friend's wedding, in my purse. He also managed to eat the entire thing just before we got home.

I found maybe 1 1/2 pieces of the bar left, it was still wet, and Beignet had chocolate all over his face. Roux was across the room, acting like chocolate was beneath her. So it was no doubt that Beignet had consumed this entire chocolate bar alone. I grabbed my keys and practically flew to CVS and got the biggest bottle of peroxide I could find. Then I hauled butt back to the apartment.

And it. Was. On.

I yanked Beignet down the steps and onto the grass, and poured as much peroxide as I could down his throat. I pulled, pried, sat on, wrestled, and begged my poor baby to drink this peroxide and rid himself of a poison that would surely make him very sick, if not die. And he fought me, bit me, and scratched me to try to stop me from force-feeding him this peroxide. The panic in his eyes broke my heart. The poison was just so delicious.

I cried and cried and cried. What had I done to this poor dog? I love this dog so much, and it was my fault that he made himself so sick and miserable. I just wanted to erase the last hour and take my purse with me to wherever it was we went. Oh, and I locked us out of the apartment and had to carry Beignet to the office to get the spare key. All the office needed to give me a spare key was my drivers license, which happened to be in my pocket thanks to my anti-purse kick.

I laid on the ground, petting my poor retching dog, with snot running down my chin and sobbing. My neighbors think I'm a peach, just FYI.

After soaking both of us from head to toe with peroxide, both of us with stains of dog barf on us, we laid on the apartment floor and were miserable together. And I just started think about why Beignet would eat something so bad for him.

It was the same reason most of us do things that are bad for us. The poison is just so delicious. We fill ourselves up with poison until we are sick or dying. We kill ourselves with delicious poison, and we fight those who would do anything in their power to save us. We kick and bite and scratch at those that love us most. Those that would have, and have, died so that we don't have to hurt like this anymore.

But ridding yourself of the poison hurts. It sometimes hurts worse than the poison before it kills us. We don't like it, we don't want it. Just bring us what we think will make us feel better, the old poison, or a new one.

Beignet is fine. He didn't ingest enough chocolate to cause serious damage, but for a little while, I believed that I had grievously harmed a creature that has done nothing but loved me since he saw me. I know though, that no lesson was learned. He would eat that bar of chocolate and ten more if he could. I have to protect him from himself. But he is a dog, he doesn't know any better.

Do we know any better? Or are we just as bad as my chocolate-loving dog? How much poison will we ingest before we finally put it down and walk away?

This summer in GIFs

Considering that it is now August, I thought that I could finally write a GIF post about this last summer, because it's been super-weird.

For those of you that didn't read my last GIF post and you don't know what a GIF is, it's like a tiny little video clip. I dunno. But they're awesome.

But as I was saying, this summer has been really strange. As some of you know though, I lost my job 3 days before Chavo and I were supposed to leave for Guatemala. And I was all



But then I did this






And a little bit of this












Chavo and I then left for Guatemala for almost 3 weeks.





Which was awesome, but when we came back, I was very

So I had to think about what I wanted to do for a job.

So instead of looking for a job, I started making stuff, so it was all very

 But then I was like,

\

 

I can make stuff AS A JOB!

 

 

So I started looking into it, and I totally can!
 





Stay tuned, guys! Because it's about to get really really real up in here. So, to all the followers of Ginger Spice and Everything Nice,

Thank you for the encouragement to go after such a crazy endeavor. Y'all are the best. Applause for everyone!

My Super-Awesome Craft Table (AKA- Worst DIY Tutorial Ever)

Last week, I mentioned that the Chavo was helping me to build a craft table right out of my imagination. Well, it is complete!!!

"But Ginger Spice, that is a framed chalkboard!" Oh, but it is not JUST a framed chalkboard. It is pure magic. A craft table that folds down, and looks like a beautiful picture when up? Genius, I know.

I wanted to share this magic with everyone, especially considering that Chavo and I could not find a tutorial on something like this. We found one, but it totally sucked. And I am not about to waste my life building a sucky craft table with directions that I don't understand, so we made our own directions. Like bosses. Here are all the magical instructions that you need to build a wicked sweet craft table like mine.

Step 1: get supplies.

Chavo and I planned for this to be a 2' by 2 1/2' table with about 4" depth for cabinet space, so we got all the junk for it. That junk being 2 pieces of wood that were 2 ft long, 2 that were 2 1/2 ft. We also went ahead and got the wood for the frame, which was just wood moulding and some rod- looking like things, in the same dimensions. We also got a 2 by 2 1/2 ft panel that was thick enough that it won't break if I put my sewing machine on it. Also got 6 Small hinges. Don't worry too much about measurements, because they will get all screwed up later and you'll just end up eyeballing it anyway.

Step 2: Make a wall box.

Get the whole family involved, if you have to. This is not the frame, this is the part that is mounted to the wall, which also serves as a little space to hide a bunch of crap. Whatever, just screw the pieces together. If you are like the Chavo and me, the wood we got was super-hard (hehehehe) and took forever to screw together.

Step 3: attach the panel to the wall box.

Find some sort of magic fairies that will help you line the panel just right so you can put the hinges on without it being all crooked. We used 3 hinges, just for good measure. Two would probably work fine, but we don't know what we're doing.

Step 4: Make the frame!

A problem that Chavo and I faced was that we couldn't find moulding that was sturdy enough to serve as table legs, so we went a different route: we cut a frame out if slightly smaller wood that was sturdy enough, attached the hinges to that, and then glued the pretty frame on with wood glue. 

Your craft table is now ready to be put up!

Step 5: Mount that mother to the wall!

This is by far the hardest part. I wish there was an easier way to do it, but I have yet to figure it out except to drill serious holes before screwing it into the wall, make sure you charged the heck out of your screwdriver, and try not to get into a fight with your husband. He will win this one, because he has the power tools.

Find some way to mount this thing to the wall. If it takes you less than 3 days, congratulations, you were faster than us!!

Ta-da! The table is done!

Now slap some paint on that bad boy!

I wanted to try an antique-ish look on the frame, as well as have a chalkboard. So I painted the frame and then used homemade chalkboard paint. 

Side note: homemade chalkboard paint is simply 1 tbsp of Nonsanded tile grout for every 4 oz. of acrylic paint. Color doesn't matter!! I got the Nonsanded grout at Home Depot. I went for a simple black chalkboard though, because I'm boring.

Now, all you need is a way to keep is closed when you're not using it! I went for a super easy eye and hook latch. You only need one. How do I know that? Because I broke the second one. Go me! 

And voila! Your table/picture is now complete! 

See you next Wednesday!!

An Exciting Change of Pace

I cannot believe I am even able to say this out loud, much less post it on my blog.

I opened my own business!

It's true! It's true. "Ginger Spice and Everything Nice" is no longer just a blog. It is an actual business. I am doing something that I truly love, making things with my bare hands. It also helps that I have the ability to watch TV while doing all of this. I am making handcrafted items, focusing mainly on jewelry and home décor. My current favorite is metalwork rings.

I have to say, that I could not have done this without the Chavo. Even as I type, he is outside, on our balcony, cutting a wooden frame for my craft table, with a handsaw. He has sat next to me, gone over every point, every doubt, every tear, and believed in me. He saw what it was like for me to be unhappy with my job, and he is now doing everything in his power to see that I am happy with my work and enjoying being at home. That also includes building me the most awesome craft table from my wildest imagination. He truly is my biggest cheerleader, my #1 fan, and my most loyal supporter.

He's also pretty sexy.

With that said, I would love for my first customers to be some of my Ginger Spice and Everything Nice Blog-Readers. I set up my Etsy store, but I got a little bogged down with all of that, so keep your eyes out for new things to crop up at my store. I will try to post my new things weekly. GSEN will also be going on the road for craft shows, so you may get an opportunity to buy my stuff in person! I'll also try to keep in touch with where Chavo and I will be for craft shows, so people can come out.

I am hoping that this is the sign that things are getting better. I love being home more. I love being with my dog and my husband, without worrying that neither knows me anymore. Maybe this is the start of something really good. We could really use a win right now. I know I could. It's looking mighty nice so far though.

See you next Wednesday!

Best of: Things Your Kid Says

While I was teaching last year, my students said a LOT of funny stuff, and I managed to get it all written down, hoping to write this post. So allow me to share with you. The Top 20 Things Your Kid Says.

20. "How many years has it been since the A-Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima?" Your Kid: 3958 years

 

19. Your Kid: Miss Garcia, do you know how to do this? Your Other Kid: Breaking news, dude, she's smarter than you!

 

18. Me: What can we be prepared to do if 9/11 were to reoccur? Your Kid: Invent holograms so the plane goes right through.

 

17. Me: Someone name another thing that was invented in the 1920's. Your Kid: Catapults!

 

16. "I think WWII is like a guy fight, and the Cold War is like a girl fight. Just two countries not talking to each other."

 

15. "Miss, is this how you spell 'wedgie'?"

 

14. "Ms. Garcia, how come smart people like you always use calculators to solve math problems?"

 

13. "Ms. Garcia, were you alive during the Civil War Reconstruction?"

 

12. "Is George W. Bush still alive?"

 

11. Who was the Great Compromiser? "Dr. Phil"

 

10. "Did your dad fight in the Civil War?"

 

9. "What was Henry Clay's nickname?" Your Kid: "Kunta Kente"

 

8. Your Kid: "Are you pregnant?" Me: "No." Your Kid: "Are you just fat?" Me: "Yes, I'm just fat.

 

7. "Ms. Garcia, will you help me get this pencil lead out of this bear's butt?"

 

6. Counselor: "What do you do when a stranger is at the door?" Your Kid: "Hit them with a bat!"

 

5.  "Mrs. Garcia, are you mad? I just saw your nose flare up."

 

4.   Do you always have to say "Mon" after you say "Jamaica"?

 

3. Somebody, quick! Tell me a noun! Your Kid: YOLO!

 

2.  What COUNTRY does spaghetti come from? Your Kid: KROGER!

 

1. Where was the Mayflower Compact signed? Your Kid: At the bottom.

 

 

----------

 

Well, there you have it. The top 20 funniest things my students said this year. I'm going to miss them, but I hope they give their 6th grade teacher as much entertainment as they gave me.

 

See you next Wednesday!

And we're back!

 After a turbulent airplane ride and being detained for two hours in Customs, I can finally say:

We're home!!!!!!

But most of you don't care about that, you just want to see pictures. Well, I'll give a little bit of insight into how this trip went.

We started out with our church on their short term mission trip, and honestly, I took ABSOLUTELY no pictures. For real. Chavo took them all, and he won't give me his memory card (ahemjerkcough). But then....

Chavo and I were set free, and this was the first place we went! (Not really, I just love showing people this picture.) A boob-squirting fountain, it doesn't get any better than this.

We saw dear friends.

 We saw beautiful, beautiful things.

We ate the most AMAZING PANCAKES OF MY LIFE! 

Yeah, really, that's a pancake. Chavo and I met an 82 year old woman who owned the hotel we stayed in with my parents. She was definitely, hands down, the most interesting person I've ever met. She is the only person with the recipe for these Hugonote pancakes, and I do believe that secret recipe will die along with her. Fluffiest, most delicous pancakes I've ever had.... What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, we saw some kind of fascinating, yet terrifying things too. We managed to go to San Juan on their Patron Saint Day, just in time for their procession. There was incense and fireworks everywhere!

Tell me that isn't freaky looking!

We saw a really pretty waterfall.

And we got a lot of rest and thinking done. It was a good trip. Chavo and I are thankful to be home though. We are thankful to have such a great home to come to. It makes this Independence Day so much sweeter. We are grateful to be in a place where we are not afraid to walk the sidewalks in the daytime or flush the toilet paper down the toilet. We have done a lot of thinking about going to Guatemala long term, and we still have not reached a conclusion that is confirmed by God. At this point, it looks a lot like we won't be going to Guatemala long-term, which makes me very sad.

That said, it doesn't mean that we won't be doing missions long-term, we just are not sure that Guatemala is where God wants us. I don't know. It seems like a lot of things that we wanted really are not going to go how we planned for.  But like it always goes, God doesn't care about our plans, but we know he has better ones. It's just kind of hard to look at now when all you see is that door that just got slammed in your face.

Anyways, it's getting a little unnecessarily depressing, so here's another boob-squirting fountain!

Happy Independence Day, everyone! Go flush some toilet paper and shoot some fireworks! Im'ma go get me a hot dog.