this and that no. 5

From time to time, I like to go back to writing these posts which I like to refer to as "this and that" because they are just a jumble of different things happening in my life lately! Sometimes I'll share a new album I'm into, shows that have caught my eye, an embarrassing story, random thoughts that pop up in my mind - all the random things!

I have quite a lot to share today, so go grab a nice cup of coffee and get comfortable on your couch or bed!

1 // Do you use a phone car mount? It's been on my to-do list for over a year, yet it has never become an urgent task for me so I just never got around to ordering it. I finally researched a little on Amazon, and settled on this one from Vano. My criteria for a car mount was extensive, but practical. I wanted one that could slide into my air vent easily but wouldn't block it too much, and that could easily be adjusted but was also sturdy. I also wanted it to be magnetic so I could easily take my phone on and off the mount for efficiency.

This one does the trick. I never realized how convenient mounting your phone was. It's so much safer when I use my GPS or change music, and I love how convenient it is to take on and off. Definitely a game changer for me.

2 // Along the same topic with car-related things, my AUX input in my car stopped working a few months ago. I thought maybe it had something to do with my AUX cord since I've used the same one for as long as I've had my car (8 years). So I started listening to all the CDs in my car everyday, which got pretty tiring after a few months of the same artists going through the listening cycle.

But when I ordered a new AUX cord and tried that one, I still couldn't play music from my phone. I researched online and learned that sometimes you need to change out the AUX input in your car system every so often. I bought the parts I needed on Amazon and watched a Youtube video, and after a few attempts replaced my AUX input with a new one. I felt super useful and handy and just plain proud of myself.

3 // Have you listened to the new Ed Sheeran album? I just got around to giving it a listen, and I love it! I appreciate the Irish influence in his songs this time around, and his storytelling in his songs is always great. Not to mention the songs are just so dang catchy. I'm currently loving Eraser, Castle on the Hill, Galway Girl, Happier, Supermarket Flowers, and Nancy Mulligan (is this song too Irish for you? I love it. Like L O V E it). Sorry, I just realized that is like half the album, but, hey, they are good songs!

This song is especially fun to sing to when driving down the road.



And this song just makes me want to dance!



What are your favorite songs on the album?

4 // I don't watch too many up-to-date Netflix shows, but I am currently in love with The Great British Baking Show. It's kind of an odd choice for a Netflix show, but it's so addicting! I even got my roommate and her boyfriend into it! Think your typical baking show minus the silly drama Americans put into it plus British accents, polite-as-can-be contestants, and scrumptious baked goods. It feels so classy and I appreciate how every week focuses on a new technique or type of baked good. I just finished Season 1, but I'm sure I'll exhaust all of the seasons by the end of my spring break.

Are you into baking shows? If you're not, maybe this one will change your mind ;)

5 // Open House for my school was last week. Oh, did I tell you I was a teacher? I teach Kindergarten and it is quite an adventure every day. I don't remember what it was like attending Open House as a kid, mainly because my parents both worked and I don't know maybe we just got lazy? But now that I'm on the other side as the teacher, I kind of have to laugh at myself because I now refer to these people as oh thoooose parents. Anyways, wow, Open House for 5-year-olds basically looks like the teacher doing 75% of the work - backing projects with construction paper, stapling, cleaning like crazy, laying out all the work. I love my kids and my work, but I am exhausted!

6 // Have you seen Beauty and the Beast yet? I thought it was cast well, music by Alan Menken was beautiful as always, and Emma Watson is perfection (I mean, seriously, is there anything she can't do?). I watched it with some close friends in a beautiful theater in San Francisco called The Alamo, and I couldn't have thought of a better place to watch. The theater is beautiful inside - kind of reminded me of Pantages Theater with its historic feel - and it just fit the movie so well. So fun! My favorite song is Something There :)

And that's all the this and that I have for tonight!

3 must-have Korean skincare products

I've loved trying out different Korean products (thanks Lilly for getting me hooked on Banila Co - seriously that oil cleanser is the most amazing thing), and, honestly, they have been a game-changer for me in the way I see and approach skincare. The products always smell so good, make my skin soft, and are just gentle enough for my sensitive skin. They are also super affordable! I purchase my Korean products from a website called SokoGlam and I love it. They have all the products I use and more, carry a ton of great brands, show a lot of user reviews, and ship quickly. All good things.

B A N I L A  CO // Clean It Zero 

I apply it on my dry makeup-wearing face with clean hands and just massage it into my skin until I'm sure all of my makeup has melted away. I massage in an upwards, circular motion. Then, I rinse it all off using warm water and go straight into my foam cleanser.

K-Beauty refers to this as double cleansing (cleansing your face twice at a time) to really make sure all the makeup and dirt is out of your pores. It has really made a difference for me and I feel like my skin is so clean afterwards.

M I S S H A // Mild Essence Sun Milk 

I apply this as my last step in my skincare routine, and right before I apply any makeup. I just put a little on my fingertip and rub all over my face. I use a couple drops on my fingertip each time I use it.

I used to always want to wear sunscreen, but every one I used would make my skin either chalky, dry, or oily. This sun milk is not the case!! It is a lot more liquidy than any other SPF I've used, but a little goes a long way. This tiny bottle has lasted me over a year and I use it everyday AM and PM! I particularly like the way it doesn't make my face dry when I start applying makeup. In fact, it makes my face feel so soft after.

K L A I R S // Freshly Juiced Vitamin C Serum 

I apply this right after toner in my morning and nighttime skincare routine and right before I put on moisturizer. I usually use about 2-3 drops in the palm of my hand, and then use my fingertip from the other hand to massage it into my skin. A little goes a long way.

I am new to using serum, but I feel like this product has helped to reduce some of my acne scars.

So there you have it! These are my 3 must-have Korean skincare products, and you can get them all for 20% off when you sign up for Sokoglam and make your first purchase of $25 or more! The Banila Co Clean It Zero oil cleanser is also on sale for $5 off right now. Heck yeah. I've already stocked up on two.

Grab your fun discount H E R E. Sokoglam also offers free shipping for orders of $35 or more!

The website is also a great resource for Korean skincare information through their blog, and I love how they mark all of their best-sellers and award-winning products.

I'm about to order their Son + Park Beauty Water toner and some of their fun face masks. Let me know your thoughts if you purchase any of the products I recommended or check out other things on their site! I love trying new things :)

my current skincare routine

About two summers ago, I walked into the vast world known as skincare. Don't get me wrong, I was washing my face every morning and night since I was young, but that was pretty much it. No moisturizer, no toner, nada.

Over these last two years, my skincare regimen has changed and grown as I continue to learn more about different products and what my skin needs are. I started using different oils to wash my face through the Oil Cleansing Method (which turned out to be the worst disaster for my face), and then started using more Korean skincare products to try and reverse the damages. I'm definitely no expert when it comes to skincare nor do I have the perfect skin, but I've learned a lot from friends, the internet, and family about skincare that I wished I had known from the very beginning.

I currently use a mixture of Korean products and other things in my daily skincare routine. These are the products I currently use on a daily basis:

M O R N I N G // A.M.

Step 1: Murad Renewing Cleansing Cream (USA) - I use this to wash my face every morning. It's slightly on the pricier side, but a small amount goes a long way for each wash so it lasts me months.

Step 2: Thayer's Witch Hazel Rose Petal Toner (USA) - I always use toner after I wash my face. It helps return your skin to its natural pH and helps absorb the next products a lot better.

Step 3: Clinique Moisturizing Gel (USA) - I actually use this and another moisturizer I got from my facial lady interchangeably, but I like this one for my oily skin because it doesn't leave any residue and melts into my skin pretty quickly.

Step 4: Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin C (Korea) - I just started adding this serum to my regimen a few weeks ago, and I think it's working! It's supposed to help fade out lines, prevent pigmentation, and brighten and even out the skin. I think for me it's also helped to heal some of my acne scars.

Step 5: GinZing Refreshing Eye Cream (USA) - Honestly, I don't know if this helps, but I use it anyways. Truth. So I'm currently looking for a new eye cream that helps to depuff and minimize dark circles if you wanna help a girl out.

Step 6: Missha Mild Essence Sun Milk (Korea) - This is the gold mine of all things skincare in my opinion. It's SPF that works brilliantly because I can't even tell I'm wearing sunscreen. It melts into the skin quickly, leaves my skin feeling super soft, and one of these tiny bottles has lasted me over a year (and I use it everyday!). Pure magic I tell you. If you are not a believer in wearing SPF everyday, let me convince you now this is the easiest and most magical thing to have entered my life. And I used to hate putting on sunscreen because it would make my skin feel either super chalky or oily.

E V E N I N G // P.M.

Step 1: Banila Co Clean It Zero (Korea) - Sorry, did I say the SPF was the gold mine? Because this actually tops the SPF, which, wow, I have no words. This is an oil-based cleanser that I apply on my dry makeup-wearing face. I massage it in for about 2 minutes until my makeup has melted away, and then I use lukewarm water to rinse it all off. Gets all my makeup off, leaves my skin feeling super soft, and it just smells amazing.

Step 1.5: Korres Wild Rose Exfoliating Cleanser (Greece) - About twice a week, I use this gentle exfoliator before I wash my face with a foaming cleanser to remove any dead skin cells. It just makes my face feel a lot smoother after and it helps to clear out your pores by making way for new skin cells underneath.

Step 2: Murad Renewing Cleansing Cream (USA) - I use this to wash my face every night. Makes my skin feel soft afterwards - love!

Step 3: Thayer's Witch Hazel Rose Petal Toner (USA) - I always use toner after I wash my face, no questions asked. I might change to the Son + Park Beauty Water after I finish this one.

Step 4: Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin C (Korea) - I just started using this serum morning and night, but I think it's shown results!

Step 5: Korres Wild Rose + Vitamin C Advanced Brightening Sleeping Facial (Greece) - At night, I use this moisturizer because it makes my skin super soft when I wake up in the morning.

Step 6: GinZing Refreshing Eye Cream (USA) - Honestly, I don't know if this helps, but I use it anyways. Truth. So I'm currently looking for a new eye cream that helps to depuff and minimize dark circles if you wanna help a girl out.


What skincare products do you use? What has worked for you? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below :)

nothing to prove book club

I'm doing something scary today, but I'm excited to see what might come out of it. Books have always been a huge joy in my life - they take me into worlds unknown; they make me cry, laugh, and go "what the heck?!" all in one sitting. They are a treasure.

I also know how easy it is to read a book, feel changed or compelled in that moment, and then forget about the whole thing a week later.

I heard Jennie Allen once say, "We are in the noisiest generation that has ever lived this earth. It is a loud world. We have got to learn discipline." and I couldn't agree more. We need discipline to read our bibles more, to pray more, to be more intentional and the list goes on. More than all these things, though, we need discipline for changed lives. We need discipline to know our God better so we can know more clearly when and how He's speaking into our lives.

I want to extend an invitation to each one of you - whether you love reading, hate reading, want to read but never have time, or can't overcome the halfway point of a book - to join me in this book club as we read and talk together over coffee, some good vinyls, and my bomb chocolate chip cookies.

How book club works:

1 // Get a copy of the book (there's a giveaway that includes this book happening on my IG right now - go, go, go! @breighdang)

2 // Get plugged in to our book community before we read

3 // Read a few chapters, meet to discuss, read a few more chapters, meet to discuss

4 // Be open to sharing and loving on one another the best we can

This season, we will be reading "Nothing to Prove" by Jennie Allen. You can get a copy of the book on Amazon here.

If you are interested in joining this book club, please fill out this form to get plugged in to our community. I am happy to have you, friend!

So friends, whether you are near or far, join us (virtually or in person) as we learn what it means to stop trying to prove ourselves in a world where we will never be enough and learning what it means to be okay not being enough in His kingdom. If you forgot to fill out the form above, please fill out this form if you are interested in being a part of this book club community.

Women, let's build a generation in a small way today by gathering close together, investing in each other's lives, and arming ourselves with more Truth to battle this noisy world that keeps telling us we are not enough.

F A Q s // My list of answers to all the ways you are doubting this commitment fun thing

How often will this book club meet?
We will meet twice a month to discuss the previous chapters, share what's going on in our lives, reflect and respond.

What if I can't meet physically?
Guuurl, that's a-okay. I will be sending out emails after each book meet with discussion questions, thoughts on the chapter, etc so you can be kept accountable if you can't make a meet or you live across the country. We will make this work!

What if I don't have Amazon Prime to order the book?
Let me know by commenting below or writing in the book club form, and I will order the book for you (please venmo me of course).

What if I am not interested in this book, but want to be a part of book club in the future?
Hopefully if God is gracious, there will be more books in the future to read and more women who want to read these books with me.

Will book club always be Christian books, or will there be other genres as well?
I love all books, and I hope to start a book club for novels (my other love) as well in the future. So stay tuned!

Can I share this or invite a friend(s)? 
Please do - the more the merrier! Feel free to share this link with whomever you think might be blessed through this opportunity. Encourage someone in your life that might need some extra lovin'. I think this book is a great way to open up conversation about the Gospel for non-believers.

discipling a generation: If:Gathering

It's not usually in my nature to do this, but I couldn't help but share. Because when something is too good you can't help but share that goodness with others, and you guys. this. is. so. good. I'm not connected to this organization at all, but I believe in it and the women behind it.

I'm watching the recorded sessions of If:Gathering alone in my apartment in pjs, eating take out. But I know there's a community around me right now, on a Sunday night, that's rallying for and with women across this state, this nation, this world to come together and to know Christ deeply.

Community has never meant more to me than it does now. These last few months have been a ride. I've weeped. I've thought. I've belly laughed until I've cried. I've listened. More than all these, though, I've learned what it's like to walk through life in community. To be surrounded by people who invest in your life and you in theirs, to struggle and ask the hard questions together, to go day-to-day knowing you have a tribe that is actively loving and pursuing you.

I'm convinced there's nothing sweeter in life than this.

God created us to be in community. To do life together, not apart. To love each other like Christ loves us. We grow in the context of church, alongside other brothers and sisters actively pursuing the same God.

So who is your community? For me, it's the friends I never get to see but always get to text, it's the people at church that make me feel less of the "new person", it's the virtual friends who encourage like no other a group of women they don't even know. And these people, whether they know it or not, are giving me opportunities to grow in my faith, encouraging me, rooting me on.

I'm sitting here listening to Jennie Allen and feeling like what she is sharing is so dang simple but so true. We love Jesus, not because of a book, or a blog, or a sermon. We love Jesus because of someone. And that someone loved us so much they needed us to understand who God was and what our mission in life was. And we were changed because of that one person.

We live in a generation in which community abounds - through school, and church, and social media, and work, and roommates. But I think often times we miss the point of community because we're swept by the notions of this world instead of the notions of our God.

So if you're like me, and you're stressing about work or school tomorrow (in my case, work is school), take a pit stop. Refuel your soul with Truth alongside a community of women who are actively pursuing the same God as you with the same earnestness, hurt, doubts, and longing as you are.

Until tomorrow (Tuesday) midnight central time, If:Gathering is offering free access to all of its recorded sessions. Don't miss it, seriously. Take a break from the busyness of your life and spend more time with the God who wants for you to know Him better.

Access to If:Gathering's recorded sessions: http://live.ifgathering.com/livestreams/

"God works through the regular, humble people who pray."

I totally believe that. He's working through you, and in you, and I have a feeling He wants to use you in ways you don't even know right now. Let's disciple a generation who is hungry for a God they might not know. Let's love the people in our lives in the small ways God intends for us.

dream, rest, hope.

I am a dreamer. I plan, and hope, and wish, and plan some more. I find joy in little things and magnify them into big dreams that get tucked away in the corners of my mind.

It is exhilarating to be a dreamer. It is what pushes me to keep going each day, to seek satisfaction, and to achieve. But, paradoxically, it is also what restrains me from the best version of myself.

Let's take a step back. In order to be a dreamer, you have to be idealistic in the way you view life and your situations. You shoot for the stars and allow your mind to imagine great things. But what if there is dissonance between your ideals and reality?

I was reading a book this summer called A Fall of Marigolds (highly recommend. ugh so good) and these very thoughts were mirrored by the heroine of the story.

It's an in-between place...about fulfilled expectations not being as satisfying as the dream of them. Heard melodies are not as sweet as the tunes we can imagine hearing. Do you believe that an unfulfilled desire is better because it's something you can still dream about? 

By the last page I felt like I was talking to a dear friend, walking through the rhythms of life - the hopes, the letdowns, the moments and people we sometimes can't seem to shake. Has this ever happened to you?

I more often than not find my own story pagemarked by dreams that never make it into my reality. The business idea that got started and never came through, the friendship I wanted and lost, the boy I looked up to and fell hard for, the job I wanted and didn't get. The list goes on. I think as humans with limited time on this Earth, we feel pressured by time and space to make the most out of this life we are given.

We are confined by the prisons we build for ourselves.

We're afraid to fail because we just want to get it right the first time and not waste any second of our internal clocks that keep on ticking. On the one hand we have high hopes and dreams, but on the other hand we have fears that hold us back.

Rather than trudge through failure, we tend to keep our dreams as just dreams and quickly sweep away moments of failure. Over the last few months, I've taken risks that I probably would not have taken in the past. I've failed more times than I can count and felt the heartache and pain that comes with failure. But I think there's a beauty in failure that we often times miss because we don't rest and allow the organic process of it all to unfold.

I sat. I weeped. I rested.

And then I felt hope because I knew my spirit wasn't broken. I was being renewed day by day.

Our God uses our low moments to bring Him high. He uses our failures to remind us that there's something greater for us ahead.

So dreamers, go on and dream big. Take risks and give it your all. Be content when dreams don't make it into your reality. Rest in failure. Hope for greater things ahead.

life lately

Life these last 3 months have been very full to say the least (as you can tell from my lack of posts). In the midst of a new job, moving back to LA, figuring out church, and trying to balance work and me-time, I kind of lost myself. But before I get into that, let me rewind and update you on where I am now.

I teach Kindergarten at a STEAM-focused public school with 23 awesome kiddos (aka my guinea pigs).

I live in a wonderful apartment in downtown Culver City with my college roommate - what a dream, right - and her brother.

I commute back to Orange County every weekend for family and church.

God has blessed me in so many different ways, and ultimately has answered prayers both big and small. However, somewhere in between moving and starting my daily life as a Kinder teacher, I lost sight of both myself and who God was. I became so engrossed in the smaller things like setting up my classroom, lesson planning, dealing with day-to-day behavior issues, and trying to figure out food for the week that I completely forgot God's part in all of this.

I was turning to myself, the internet, co-workers, friends, and family for help when I should have first been turning to God. But God, being great in mercy, brought me down to my knees at one of the lowest points in these last 3 months, gently reminding me that He was still there. That He who knew me deeply also loved and cared for me deeply. And the following memory from almost 2 years ago came to mind:

See, it wasn't me fixing me anymore. It was God fixing me. It was God speaking to me the things I tried to block out for so long. 

While these last few weeks have been far from perfect, it's been comforting to know each day is in God's hands. Though my days with 23 kinders are crazy and challenging, they are also filled with joy, laughter, a ton of learning moments (more so mine than the kids), and always some tears (surprisingly more of the kids' than mine). 

Thank goodness for daily grace. I am in much need of it.