Something Beautiful

Tiredness seems to be physically weighing me down right now. It has been such a good day at home, though. I cleaned and did laundry and finished some paperwork and made some food for my Home Fellowship Group with church tonight. I made sweet potato salad, and I have officially stated that I will never made plain potato salad again. I just like the sweet potato version so much better. I have a job interview tomorrow morning. This is the first place that I have applied that I'm actually excited about working at, so I'm really hoping that the interview goes well. I would love to have a job again!! Last night in one of the book studies I'm in at Potter's House my friend, LE, said that God had laid Romans 8 on her heart, so we read it aloud. It just hit me so much that I went back and re-read it today during my quiet time. There is just so much good stuff packed into that one chapter. And it was just so completely relevant to my life right now. God is sooooo good!! "For...

Lately I've felt like I'm in a hot air balloon. Having never been in a hot air balloon, this is simply the best analogy that I could think of to describe how I've been feeling. Kudos to Sarah Moore of on the brightside... I feel like I'm completely up in the air. The winds of change keep blowing me all over the place, and I have no control over it. I'm simply sitting in the basket waiting for it to land so I can see where I'm at. Until it does settle down and land, I'm just waiting...again...still. This weekend was very long. There was a lot of driving, and I dealt with a lot of emotional stuff (while driving), and the bottom line is that I feel like I need a weekend from my weekend. When I got home tonight, though, my lovely roommate surprised me with a ring that she made for me. It is sooooo pretty, and exactly what I needed to brighten my day. We also caught up on each other's weekends (and let each other vent as needed). I am so incredibly blessed to...

I have been back to pondering love lately. Yesterday when I was praying about a specific situation I had a verse from 1 Corinthians 13 stick out in my mind: "It [Love] keeps no record of wrongs." I was thinking about how I don't do this. When people hurt me, I keep track of it. I mark it down in my little file I keep in my mind, and I remember what they did or said that hurt me. I keep my "wronged" record. That is so unhealthy for my relationships. It doesn't help anything, and it just flavors my relationship with that person. It changes it and adds a dynamic that wasn't there before. And it isn't something that I like about myself. I don't want to keep a file of all the ways people have hurt me. I want to live each day with the fresh, healthy love of one who hasn't been hurt...a mature love that understands I can't control (nor am I responsible for) other people's feelings and emotions. I can only control my own. I want to make the c...

This has been a good day. A very long and exhausting day, but a good one. Bible study with a dear friend at a friendly coffeeshop was a lovely mid-morning happening. That combines three of my favorite things: friends, coffee, and God. :) I applied for two more jobs, and I actually got a positive response for one of them. I hope it actually turns into a job. That would be awesome!! I just found that out when I got home and checked my e-mail...so that's a good note to end the day on. That and some milk and chocolate chunk cookies...yum!! I had a long and lovely quiet time today, and lots of good prayer time. I worked on paperwork for church. I ran some errands. I made banana bread. I did laundry. I should really put the dishes in the dishwasher before I call it a day and hit the hay. My body is getting to the state of exhaustion where it doesn't want to move, so I should finish this up and get ready for bed. And my lovely roomie just told me that the tea we ordered directly from ...

After some encouragement from The Wander and The Runaway , I have decided to start a blog of my photography. Feel free to check it out. In other news, I'm really excited about some possible job opportunities that came up today. Maybe one of these will actually work out...that would be grand!! I love chill Sunday afternoons. A nap, some delightful tunes, a new ring, a free piece of pie and a cupcake, dinner at home with my roomie, and chilling out watching movies. A good day. :) Peace out yo!

Botanical Gardens, Wellington, NZ I have been thinking about trees a lot lately. I have a special love of trees. I don't quite know why I love trees so much, but I do. I think part of it has to do with the fact that trees are often used in the Bible to symbolize righteous people as well as symbolizing God Himself. This is the verse in particular that has been on my mind. "He [the righteous man] is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, in all that he does, he prospers." - Psalms 1:3 I was sitting in the backyard earlier this week, and I saw a leaf flutter through the air, and I started thinking about where it had come from. It didn't look like a leaf from any of the trees in our backyard, so I was wondering where it had come from, and the adventures it had gone through to get to my backyard. Oh, to be that leaf and to be able to fly through the air on great adventures! Then the still, small voice whis...

I wear a lot of blues--dark blue, light blue, teal blue. Almost all of my wardrobe (until last week) was white, blue, tan, and teal. I got some new shirts and dresses last week that added a lot of pink and purple to my color scheme, but my fallback is always blue. I have been wanting to get a pair of TOMS Wedges all summer, but the store that I usually get my TOMS at didn't have the color and size that I wanted, so I haven't gotten any...until today. I went into a different store that I knew had them on a whim today, and they had aqua wedges in my size!!! I was so happy!! And to add to the happiness, they were on sale for 20 dollars off!! That just made my day about 200 times better!! I also took care of an errand that I needed to run, and I applied for a job at a wine store. Maybe my like for wine will lead me to a job...hopefully!! In the meantime... The Runaway and The Wanderer have asked me to shoot some pictures of them. So we are meeting up here in just a few minutes to...

Thank you Norah Jones for this delightful song which came onto my Pandora station: Turn Me On . Life is never the way you expect or plan for it to be. I picked up a book the other day called The Beautiful Ache , and I have been forcing myself not to read it all in one sitting. It is transforming the way I view the achy-ness of my heart. The author challenges the reader that instead of pushing the ache out of one's heart or minimizing what one feels, that the reader would welcome the work God wants to do in her heart through that ache. I don't know about you, but this is kind of a revolutionary concept for me to wrap my head around. I never really just let the ache sit there (and I certainly don't offer it a cup of tea!). I usually deal with it, and move on with life. I think there is a little piece of me that is afraid that if I actually did invite the ache in, it would take up permanent residence. I would never get rid of it, and then I would slowly become overwhelmed by i...

Misty rain clouds and the chill tones of Jack Johnson are setting the mood for this day. A glorious morning muffin straight out of the oven is the perfect accompaniment to a glass of cold milk. This is a perfect day to stay inside all day and bake and watch movies. I'm craving a little Anne of Green Gables. Maybe I will have a movie marathon later and watch both of them and bake cookies. I got the call about the job yesterday, and I get to stay in SGF for another couple of months. I'm so happy and so excited at the same time. The timing is going to work out perfectly. It is also a tremendous relief to have a better idea of what is going to happen. I'm also excited because I get to be involved with my church for a little longer before I go. And I have no idea what all will happen in the next three months. I do know that there will be good times with friends, memorable moments that I will treasure forever. There will be nights spent watching movies until well after we should ...

There are times when I am a slow processor. It can take me a while to figure out what I really think and feel about a situation. Granted there are times when I just know right away (such as deciding to drop grad school), but for as many of those times there are an equal or greater amount of times where I have to sit down and spend time working through things. Sometimes processing just means giving myself time - sometimes it means really thinking and working through things. I am considering moving away from my dear SGF...it's just for a year, but it's still a really big decision. This last week, I went up to NE to visit the children's home I am considering working at. It was a kind of exhausting trip. A change in my sleeping schedule contributed to that--it's been a while since I have gotten up at 6am. And the day that I came back was long and exhausting in itself. Granted there were a lot of fun things piled into that day, but it was still a 22 hour day. I didn't ha...

My sister recently got engaged, and I got to take their engagement pictures. It was a fun afternoon spent with them and enjoying all their cuteness. :) I'm really glad that I get to be a part of this exciting time in their lives. So much excitement coming up in their future!! Peace and Mercy.