Pages

Thursday, May 16, 2013

An Update on Life: Softball, First Day of Work, and Books

     Well, I obviously haven't written on this blog in a while, and last I did I was terribly behind in sharing my list of one thousand things I'm thankful for. So, I'm attacking this from a different way.
     Life's been pretty busy lately with work (finally begun!), school (terribly behind), softball (undefeated so far!), and life in general. Most days I wake up running and go to bed as soon as possible- which doesn't leave much time to write a blog post. Since I still want to share all the days I've written out the gifts God has given me, I will be posting them as often as I can. I often get spurts of inspiration to write up tons of post and post them in a day. Instead, I'll write up all those post and post one each day until the next inspiration hits. There will still be days where nothing goes up since I tend to have a sporadic schedule. I think for now I just need to focus on some other things before I can commit to a schedule with posting. I know I also need to give myself the freedom to post whatever I want to- even if I'm behind in sharing my list. In this way I hope to give you a bit more than a ton of posts one day and then none the next two weeks haha.
     As for a more thorough update on life: I just had my official first day of work a week ago and really enjoyed it! I love my boss! She's totally awesome and quite funny as she's a rule breaker. :o haha Plus, she likes Enya. Bonus points right there! :) Right now my room is quite a mess, as usual, but I'm trying to clean it up. Read: I need to do loads and loads of laundry. And I need to sort through papers- it's crazy how many I collect. As for school, I'm behind, but finishing things up. I hope to be done with two classes in a few weeks. I don't know how I'm going to finish lit class anytime soon. :P Another thing going on is that funding for my missions trip is rolling in. I'm so thankful to everyone that has sent money so far!!! And I ask that everyone keep praying that God continues to work in me. I've been slacking on devotions and need to pick that up pronto.
     Lately I've been missing my friend Jess W. and have felt the desperate need to get together with her to just chat. It's sad that she's in college group and I'm not. :( We definitely have to work harder on getting together to catch up. Thankfully, I have the opportunity to do so tomorrow for 8 hours. Yah! I want to catch up so bad that I'm going to miss the youth group event of going to Comedy for a Cause and instead go with her when we drop our siblings off and pick them up.
     Softball: we are undefeated still! Last Monday we had a practice and that finally got me back in the swing of things. I was feeling so off when batting up until that night when I finally got it again. Tonight I hit every hit real good. :) And I made it to first and beyond. I don't think I got out at all! Yahoo! So softball's going quite well, though I can feel that my running isn't as good as last year's since I'm more out of shape. :P
    I believe the last thing I would like to say is that I finally got my books for Battle of the Books, and I already finished one: Seabiscuit. It was quite good. The cool part was feeling the exhilaration of horse racing, which I know I could never do since I'm not anywhere near small enough to be a jockey- too tall. This book was one of the first to really make me identify with the quote that says something along the lines of readers can live a thousand lives. I feel as though I really lived the life of a jockey though I didn't. Perhaps the reason I identified with that quote only now was because I actually knew the quote. But I must say that the book by Laura Hillenbrand was worth the read despite the few shocking parts (all pretty much contained in one chapter that mentioned a building of prostitutes but thankfully didn't go into any sensual details).
    And since I don't want to end on that note I'll mention that the next book I have my eyes on is Grace for the Good Girl. I finished One Thousand Gifts, and I'm thinking about doing a book review. I'm also really excited about the A Beautiful Mess app, which I really want to get! One last "event" is that I finally picked my guitar back up after months of not playing. I was pleased to find I could play most chords, transition well enough, and could even play some chords that I had found difficult before. I also just looked up how to transpose, and I finally got it! Well, until next time! Ta ta for now!

Monday, May 6, 2013

Yummy Fruit, A Car Full of Family, and Spending Time Reflecting on Life

     This morning began wonderfully with my mother making French toast for me. I had to go to the library to shadow Meri and rushed down there with only ten minutes to get there. During my walk, my shoe came untied and begged me to retie it. So on the cracked and familiar sidewalk by the slow moving river I bent to tie the silly little shoe. While kneeling there, I heard, as though for the first time, the sounds of the birds: the duck quaking and the robin singing. I heard the water slowly passing on by. And it was beautiful. Sometimes when I get so caught up in life I forget to experience the beauty of God's creation. It's something I need to work on. Just listening.
      I also wanted to note on is the section that I wrote, "A car full of family". To that part I want to say that at that time I was not happy to be in a small car full of kids all talking and arguing about where to go out to eat (a special treat from Dad). I realized that this is family, and big families bicker and argue but we all love each other. The small arguments will pass over and calmness will prevail. Soon afterwards we all easily decided where to go to eat.
      This being written a few weeks after I don't remember where we went, but now I remember something Ann Voskamp said in her book. She said that the thanks always precedes the miracle. I suppose that happened in the car in a way. I became thankful for that car full of family rather than bitter about it, and suddenly we could easily and peacefully decide where to go to eat. Not particularly what I would call a miracle, but personally choosing not to argue brought a lot of peace.
       This day I also spent about an hour just reflecting on life and writing out my thoughts and emotions. It felt wonderful, and I plan on doing it more often.

April 23, 2013
292. The smell of French toast
293. Getting things done
294. Obedience. I'm thankful for that feeling when you choose to just obey.
295. Good weather for walking
296. Messenger bags, great for walking
297. Green melon (honey dew melon)
298. Really good strawberries, the ones that out taste all the rest :)
299. Hummus- so good!
300. Blackberries oh so yummy!
301. Reflecting on life. Just writing out my emotions and what I'm thinking.
302. Clouds reflecting in the sideview mirror
303. Another dentist appointment to tell me I have really good hygiene. I was just disappointed that this year wasn't so perfect as others. Apparently I really need to floss every day. My gums are starting to feel the effect of hardly any flossing in 17 years. (yikes!)
304. Sharing a good book title with a worker in the dentist office (she saw the book one thousand gifts and seemed interested in it!)
305. Having to stop to tie my shoe. It made me hear the beautiful nature sounds that I was missing as I rushed to the library. The beautiful sound of water and ducks and robins made me stop for a moment and praise God for His creation :) Sadly, I couldn't enjoy it long since I really did need to get to the library quickly!
306. A car full of family :)
307. Big, heavy raindrops on our roof