Pentatonix World Tour! [And The Preceding Adventures]

This past Tuesday was AWESOME, to say the least.

Dear reader, let me tell you how it went down.

Otaku Ramen

My girls and I decided to go get dinner at Otaku Ramen in downtown Nashville. I fell in love with ramen shops during my visits to Los Angeles, and when Otaku Ramen opened its full-service restaurant near me, I was so thrilled, and I couldn't wait to share it with the girls.

I'm happy to report that our ramen adventure was a resounding success!

To finish our food adventure off before the concert, we went to Barista Parlor Golden Sound. (Always an excellent time...plus, one of my friends hadn't been there before, so we had to get coffee to go before we went to the arena.)

The Concert!

We literally walked into the arena as soon as the first opening act (AJ Lehrman) came on, so the following pictures were taken before and after the second opening act, Us the Duo (who were AWESOME...don't be surprised if you see a song by them in a "Mondays are for Music" post at some point).

Then, Pentatonix came out on stage...and the crowd went wild.

It was probably one of the smaller concerts I'd been to in recent years, but it was SO much fun. You could tell that they were having an absolute blast, and all of the songs were fantastic live.

My favorite songs they sang were: "Na Na Na", "Can't Sleep Love", Kevin's cello-boxing (beatboxing + cello = magic), "Papaoutai/Radioactive/Say Something", "Daft Punk", "Aha!", and "Light in the Hallway", which was sung mic-less (and it gave me chills in the best way).

Overall, Pentatonix was amazing. I'd see them in concert again for sure.

Have you been to any concerts recently, or any that you're looking forward to? Let me know in the comments! :)

Mondays are for Music: Spring Favorites 2016

It's been awhile since I've done a "Mondays are for Music" post.

Let's fix that. ;)

Over the past few months, I've discovered some really great new stuff. Some has been brand new, while others have been from old favorites. But regardless of where they came from and when, I've been happily playing these around the house, while working, or in my car whenever I can.

So, without further ado, here are my current top songs of the season:

What have your favorite songs been lately? Let me know down in the comments. :)

How I Use a Day Designer for Work

I'm a big proponent of lists, y'all. Ever since I was in school, when we were required to carry little tiny notebooks to write our homework in, I've used lists to keep track of major tasks I've had to do.

Now that I've been in the working world for some time now, I appreciate a good list. It's very easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of tasks I have to do during a work day, like editing, writing...stuff like that.

Enter the Day Designer.

How exactly do I use it? Well, for starters, I use it specifically on each day that I'm working. When I sit down and work from home or in the office, I crack open this bad boy and start making lists.

I don't make super-stringent, plan-by-the-minute lists, mind you, but I do like to organize what needs to be done and when I'm doing those things so I can keep track and make sure that those things actually get done.

So, that means that on the right side, where there are check-boxes for to-do's and other such things, I write down stuff that I can do today. The nice thing about the daily layout of the Day Designer is that I can focus specifically on today. That helps with lowering that overwhelming feeling of having so many tasks to do in a given week. Then, once I sit down to work, I can outline my day on the left side where the hours are noted.

Additional sections I use often are the "Top 3" section at the top-left corner of the page, the "Due" section at the top-right, and the "Daily Gratitude" section at the bottom-right (for praises and answered prayers and other little happy things).

Also, I color-code my tasks. (Pictured here: pink is for work, turquoise is for article-writing) The pens I use with my Day Designer that I've been capital-"O" OBSESSED with are the PaperMate InkJoy gel pens.

How do you like to manage your tasks? What works best for you? I'd love to know, so feel free to drop a line in the comments! :)

Quick disclaimer before I sign off: I am not sponsored by Day Designer or Paper Mate. I just wanted to share the things I've been loving with you. :)

Is Comparison the Thief of Joy?

Hey, y'all! :)

This is a short piece I wrote a week or so ago, and I wanted to share it with you. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading!

photo credit

Theodore Roosevelt said, "Comparison is the thief of joy." If you think about that statement, it rings true. We often compare ourselves to others...not just appearance-wise, or even job- or possession-wise, but when it comes to faith. It's easy to look at fellow Christians around us and compare our walks with God to theirs. For example, it's easy to say that we're better than the Christian who sins publicly, but it's also easy to say that because everybody else isn't perfect, or we feel less mature in our faith, that we may as well not even try.

Think about this for a second: God wants a real, loving relationship with you (John 10:14) . If you're constantly comparing your relationship with God with others', it's like you're comparing the relationship you have with your own family and friends with other folks who know completely different people.

So, is comparison truly the thief of joy? It can be.

But instead of comparing ourselves to others, why don't we get together and build our faith together? Fellowship and Bible studies are a great way to do so, and these can better equip us to evangelize to others and bring them into our fold. Outside of our congregation, we can study what God has to say and pray together within our own and our friends' homes. We need to encourage each other and build each other up, not comparing each other to ourselves from the sidelines (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

At the end of the day, we're all human, and comparison is sometimes inevitable. But instead of letting it get us down, we can evaluate ourselves and make sure we are walking the straight and narrow path Heavenward (Matthew 7:13-14).

Instagram Roundup: 36 Hours in Atlanta

Hey hey! :)

So, last weekend, I spent 36 hours in Atlanta. I visited family and attended a pretty rad convention. That sounds like not that much on paper, but it was the most jam-packed, fun whirlwind of 36 hours I've spent in awhile.

Let's get into the roundup, shall we?

1. My beautiful cousin went to prom this weekend. I'm a proud cousin. :')

2. Mom and I attended Southeast PlannerCon! We had an absolute blast. We attended workshops, heard speakers (including ladies I've seen on YouTube, like MissTrenchcoat), and shopped at various sticker vendors. I got to meet The Reset Girl, Belinda Selene, and even more amazing ladies. And I got to spend awesome quality time with my mom, which is always so much fun. We took this photo at the Pipsticks booth.

3. I took this quick snap before I boarded the plane back home. One of the workshops I attended was hosted by Maureen Vazquez, who runs Pipsticks, and she talked about ways to up one's Instagram game. She was SO sweet, and was actually kind enough to critique my recent Instagram posts. She suggested that I take more black and white photos, so I tried some black and white editing with this one. I may do black and white photos more often now.

Welp, that wraps up this roundup! :) How was your weekend?