The Liebster Award

I'm beyond excited and SO honored to announce that Currently, Kelsie has been nominated for The Liebster Award. This award is given to new bloggers with less than 200 followers on a social media site, such as Bloglovin', as a way to help discover and promote their blogs. Safe to say I'm thrilled and I'd like to give a huge thank you shout out to the wonderful Julie at A Modest Vessel  for the nomination. Her blog is beautiful, and full of inspiration and heart-felt encouragement. Y'all should definitely check it out.  As part of the award, I'm answering some fun questions so you can get to know me better, then I'll nominate other newer bloggers! 

1. What is one item that you could NOT live without?

Music. I love singing, dancing, and worshipping. A world without music would sure be a sad one.

2. Who is someone that really makes you laugh?
My hubby, Aaron. He is a major goofball, but so am I, so it works. I'm never bored in life with him, and we laugh on a daily basis. Whenever we get into a bit of a disagreement, we always know we're over it when it ends in laughter (and it almost always does). He helps me see when I'm being ridiculous, and like my momma taught me, I'm never too cool to laugh at myself.

Leading Songs for Vacation Bible School This Year

3. If you could change your first name, what would you change it to and why?

I wouldn't. I actually really like my name, even with the -ie spelling. Plus, then Currently, Kelsie  wouldn't be here! If I HAD to pick something I guess I would go with Keslie, since Aaron already calls me that.

4. Why did you start blogging and is this your 1st attempt at blogging?
I share a little bit about how and why I started blogging here. This is my first attempt, and it's something that I've always wanted to do. When it came down to it, I love to write, remember, reflect, and share life with others, so I felt like Currently, Kelsie could be a great place to do just that. I also wanted to share my heart, helpful tips, and faith with others, while enjoying life in my current state.

5. What is the story behind your blog name? 
There were numerous times that I found myself wishing away my current years so that I could be on to the next phase of life: if only I was dating someone, or married, or had a house, or had babies, or insert whatever you want here. I had to stop and remind myself that I am only blessed with a short life, and that I'm never guaranteed another moment on this Earth. I sure better enjoy every single second that I'm given, while still setting my eyes on eternity. This is why I landed on Currently, Kelsie. I want to enjoy every stage of life that I'm in, without living in the past or rushing to the future. I want to live with purpose and adventure, saying yes to the important an eternal things, and no to the things that will only bring me down. I want to look back at the end of my life and think, "Yep, I did it right. Would do it all over again if I could." I want to be true to my heart and my God, and to know that I found joy in the little things, without worrying too much about the big things that I couldn't control. See more behind this, as well as my mission to love fiercely, learn fearlessly, and live full here. 

Candlelight Dinner Watching the Sunset on our Honeymoon

6. What is the best thing you have ever splurged on for yourself?
Our honeymoon. We had an amazing time at the gorgeous El Dorado Royale in Riveria Maya. It was an all-inclusive, which was oh so relaxing and wonderful. Our biggest decision was which restaurant to go to for dinner, and I'm cheap so I loved knowing that we had paid for everything up front and I could have all of the food or drinks I wanted without paying a dime more. 

7. If you could spend the day with one celebrity, who would it be?
Oh, this is a toughie. I'm not necessarily a huge celebrity person, but I would really love to spend a day with Francis Chan. He has some powerful books that I've read (particularly You and Me Forever and Crazy Love) that have really made me think and live out my faith in a new way. I've seen him speak numerous times, and he is a passionate, vulnerable man of the Lord with so much wisdom, and I just think it would be amazing to meet and talk with him.

8. What did you want to be when you grew up?
A teacher. Guess I had it pretty well figured out! The only thing that changed was that I started out thinking I would teach math. One calculus class in and I hated it. Totally should have realized that I love reading, writing, and speaking, so English is totally my scene. Plus I get to be creative, read fun books, and lots of other things.

9. What is your favorite place in the entire world? 

Jury is still out on this one. Talk to me in a month after I visit Ireland, England, France, Switzerland, and Italy. For now, I'm a really huge fan of Frisco, Colorado and home sweet home.

Our Home Sweet Home

10. If you had a superpower, what would it be?
Flying. I could get anywhere anytime, and in a hurry. I love flying on planes and parasailing, so I can't even imagine how great it would be to fly. 

11. What is the greatest advice you've ever been given?

In reference to relationships and finding the right guy, I was once told, "Run hard towards Jesus, then look around and see who's there with you." This is what I finally did and guess who I found right there alongside me? Aaron. The God-fearing man and leader that I'd been waiting for. The rest is history, which I talk more about in The Story of Us.

12. What book are you currently reading?
I'm diving back into the book of Mark with my Bible Study girls, and then I just started reading an early birthday present from a friend: The Day I Met Jesus: The Revealing Diaries of Five Women from the Gospels.

THANK YOU! 
I just wanted to take a minute to thank each and every one of you all for reading and commenting on the blog. It has been such a fun adventure these last six months, and I am so thankful for your encouragement, your conversations, and your hearts. Thanks for sticking with me as I started this journey. Thank you for making a crazy little dream into something that has been so much fun. I am so grateful for you all.

Now I'd like to introduce you to my nominees. Please take a minute to explore their amazing blogs!

MY NOMINEES
Kayla from The Felicity Jar
Abby from Winstead Wandering
Lauren from Sobremesa Stories
Brandy from The Dutchman's Wife
Ashley from Grace Mountain Diaries

NOMINEE INSTRUCTIONS

-Answer the questions given to you below by the person that nominated you. Please comment on this post with your link when you are done so I can see you answers! 

-In your post, link back to the person/blog who nominated you and give a little thank you shout out.
-After completing the questions, nominate at least 5 bloggers with under 200 followers on the social media platform of your choice (I chose Bloglovin'), and give them questions of your choice.
-Notify your nominees of their nomination, and provide a link to your post so they know what to do.

QUESTIONS FOR NOMINEES:

1. What is one item that you could NOT live without?

2. What is something/ who is someone that really makes you laugh?

3. If you could change your first name, what would you change it to and why?

4. Why did you start blogging and is this your 1st attempt at blogging?

5. What is the story behind your blog name?

6. What is the best thing you have ever splurged on for yourself?

7. What is something you're learning right now?

8. What did you want to be when you grew up?

9. What is your favorite place in the entire world?

10. If you had a superpower, what would it be?

11. What is the greatest advice you've ever been given?

12. What book are you currently reading?

I'm so excited to see all of your answers! Have fun.

Currently,
Kelsie

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Behind the Tagline.

You may have noticed the three little fragments up at the top of my blog, right under Currently, Kelsie:

LOVE FIERCELY. LEARN FEARLESSLY. LIVE FULLY.

You may be wondering, what do those mean? Why did she choose those? If that's the case, you're in luck. 

Contrary to popular belief, I did choose these words for reasons other than the fact that they all are verbs that start with "L" followed by adverbs that start with "F", (sorry, I'm an English teacher. Yes, this parallelism did make me happy). Anyways, I chose these words because they are really things that I want to live out. I want people to see the real me as I strive to love, learn, and live with the best of 'em. It's part of my mission.

I squint when I smile. But I'm usually laughing, so this is the most accurate picture of myself I could share in a post that talks about being genuine and tackling my life missions.

LOVE FIERCELY.

One of the things that I really want to do most is to love other people well. I want to love my husband, my family, my friends, my students, my YoungLife kiddos, and anyone who may wander into my life- and I want to love them well. Obviously I'm not going to be in head over heels, tingles when they touch your hand kind of love with all of them, but I want them to know that they matter. I want them to see that I care and to put their needs first. I want to do this so fiercely and so genuinely that people can't help but wonder why. I want to choose daily to love them more than I love myself, which is a challenge for sure. It's a goal of mine to choose love in the moments when I'm most angry or upset. Though this may be easier said than done, it's worth it. I want to love others fully and with grace. I want them to see that I love them because Jesus first loved me. I want them to feel valued.

The head over heels, tingly when you touch their hand kinda love is reserved for this guy.

LEARN FEARLESSLY.

Though I like to be right (I'm a bit stubborn...), I've come to terms with the fact that I don't know everything, and I never will. There is no shame in needing help from someone to learn something. On the contrary, it is rather freeing and exciting to truly learn something from someone else. As a teacher, I'm a firm believer in being a life-long learner. There is always something more to learn, something to improve on, and someone who is better at something than I am. These teachable moments are not to be feared, but rather to be embraced with excitement. And they're actually kind of fun! I'm constantly learning how to be a better wife, a better friend, and a better communicator. Heck, I'm learning to drive stick shift this summer (hopefully), with the help of my hubby, and I just taught him to ski. Teaching and learning go hand in hand, and it's one of my goals to never be too afraid to learn, or too worried about how it will make me look. Admittedly, I'm a work in progress.

Thankful for life's moments that give me the chance to learn and grow. Through failure, we learn the most.

LIVE FULLY.

This was the original purpose behind the launch of Currently, Kelsie. As a twenty-something woman living in today's culture of social media and Pinterest, I found myself struggling with comparison and jealousy of others. I found myself wanting what they had, or wishing I could change something in my past to be more like they had done it. I found myself wishing away my current years so that I could be on to the next phase of life: if only I was dating someone, or married, or had a house, or had babies, or insert whatever you want here. I had to stop and remind myself that I am only blessed with a short life, and that I'm never guaranteed another moment on this Earth. I sure better enjoy every single second that I am given, while still setting my eyes on eternity. This is why the last part of my mission tagline is to live fully. I want to enjoy every stage of life that I'm in, without living in the past or rushing to the future. I want to live with purpose and adventure, saying yes to the important and eternal things, and no to the things that will only bring me down. I want to look back at the end of my life and think, "Yep, I did it right. Would do it all over again if I could." I want to be true to my heart and my God, and to know that I found joy in the little things, without worrying too much about the big things that I couldn't control. 

This is my wish for you as well, dear reader. Love fiercely: make a difference in someone's day, in their life, in their world. Learn fearlessly: never be too old to try something new, to let someone help you, or to fail at something. And live fully. Enjoy it. Have some fun, but not too much to regret it.  Thanks for coming along on this journey with me, to learn from the past, look with hope toward the future, and to live fully in the current.

Currently,

Kelsie

Need help with your own tagline? Want to come up with your own mission statement? Shoot me a message on the Facebook page, or share a comment below. 

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It Took Me Long Enough

Hi. I'm Kelsie. Most of you probably know that, but I've always felt that meeting without introductions was awkward. So now we're covered. I'm so glad you're here, just in time for me to share a little about how the blog began. Grab a comfy seat, something yummy to sip on, and stay for a while. I hope you're check out more of the blog as I share my heart, and know that you're always valued and welcome here!

I'm a high school English teacher with a big heart for my kids. This is my faculty photo from this year (lucky number 4). If you'd like a copy, I probably still have one, since every year I give one to my mom and then have nothing to do with the rest of them. I'm also a wife, an avid traveler, and lover of Jesus. Here's more about me.

At least once a year, my students blog. All of them. I teach everything from the highest gifted class to the lowest sophomore class. And they all blog. So naturally, you'd assume I've been blogging for decades. And your assumption would be wrong.

Before Currently, Kelsie launched in January of 2015, I had never blogged before. I've always wanted to. I love writing and sharing my ideas with others. I love to talk- to the point where sometimes I get really excited and people can't get a word in. It's not intentional; I just love to interact with people. Blogging is perfect for me, because I can write all I want, but then edit and tweak without ever sticking my foot in my mouth. Then people can choose to "listen" by reading, or not. And no hard feelings. Plus it offers the beginnings of beautiful, honest conversation as comments and community begin to build. And these things are incredibly important to me!

After a sweet friend of mine decided to start a blog, my desire to start one of my own finally crept back into my life and drove me to the point of actually doing it. So here I am. Here you are.

I can't begin to tell you how many nights I lay awake in bed thinking about what to call this blog. As an English teacher, words are crazy important to me, and I was not going to throw down just any old title without giving it a little thought. After many notes and google trips to the thesaurus, I landed on "Perfectly Imperfect". I loved the way that I could tie in my ideas to this theme, and wrap it all up in what was most important to me- my faith. But then I found out that this was already a blog about home decor and refinishing......bummer. Well-played, Shaunna West, well-played.

So it was back to the drawing board. I was forced to do more self-reflection, which brought me to this: This world is constantly moving and changing, and every stage of life is so precious. Through the midst of so much adjustment, I have to remind myself that change can be good, while also enjoying the place I'm at right now. Thus the title of this blog: Currently, Kelsie. Not Tomorrow, Kelsie, not Yesterday, Kelsie. Currently. After a few months, I came up with a tagline that I liked as well, which is: Love fiercely. Learn Fearlessly. Live Fully. Check out the meaning behind these words here. I've also got a huge heart for vulnerable conversation and feeling united in shared stories and experiences, which is what you will find in the moments tab.

 So here I am now, sharing my own stories and suggestions about life, love, and living it up in all my (current) favorite parts of this crazy, ever-changing world. I'll hope you'll check out Currently, Kelsie and spend some time sharing your heart and story with all of us. Thanks for coming along on this journey with me! I'm so glad to have you!

Currently,
Kelsie

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