a weekend list.

{1}

I'm convinced that Beyonce is the most beautiful woman in the world. I'm also mildly obsessed with her. I mean, seriously. Just look at her.

{2}

I. love. crafting. This is a new thing for me. I used food coloring to make some pseudo-watercolors and just went to town. 

{3}

I'm trying to be a runner. Meaning, I really, really want to be a runner. Partly because I want to feel like a little bit less of a poser when I wear nike running shorts every single day a lot, and also I think it'd be good for me. This could be a really long process for me, because the longest I've ever run in one sitting was 4 miles, and I'm pretty convinced that was some kind of freak accident, because it's never happened before then or since then. So anyway, we'll see how it goes. 

{4}

This weekend, I've dreaming about being married one day. I tried not worry about the effect that it would have on my emotional health, if it was not okay to do, what if I don't get married til I'm 40, what if I never get married, blah, blah, blah. I think sometimes it's just okay to dream. Then I read this quote, which only furthered my potentially-emotionally-damaging-but-really-fun day dreams:

Marriage is those two thousand indistinguishable conversations, chatted over two thousand indistinguishable breakfasts, where intimacy turns like a slow wheel. How do you measure the worth of becoming that familiar to somebody - so utterly well know and so throughly ever-present that you become an almost invisible necessity, like air? 

-Elizabeth Gilbert-

[I hope we build forts together.

 & that he makes me laugh]

here's to change.

here's to change. the good kind. the kind that sneaks up on you like a pleasant surprise.

the next thing.

Sometimes I want to skip ahead in my life. On to another phase. Around the next corner. I dream of the future and all the awesome things I'll get to do then. And I start to get dissatisfied with the things God has me doing now. I think they're boring, or just not quite as awesome as the picture of the future that I have in my head.

I was reminded this week by my dear friend Anna Kate of Elisabeth Elliot's saying, "do the next thing." I constantly want to skip ahead and look for other things to do, all the while ignoring the next thing that is right in front of me.

And for me, the next thing is going to work. It's teaching well. Loving my students. Interacting with my co-workers. Figuring out how to teach well in the weird situation I'm in. The next thing is coaching adorable 4th grade girls on Saturday and teaching them how to play sports and honor God in that. The next thing is leading students at my church in worship on Wednesday nights, and singing in the choir on Sundays. It's being a good sister, a good daughter, a good friend.

I have so much, and the Lord has been so good. He has given me so many wonderful next things. And when it's time for that hypothetical awesome future to get here and become a next thing, I'll embrace it. But for now I want to soak in this season of my life, because I don't know how long it will last, and I don't want to miss it.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven... he has made everything beautiful in its time. 

good advice.

"Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish." 

John Jakes

saying yes.

Lord, help me to say yes to my adventure instead of longing to have someone else's. 

things making me happy [december edition]

{1}

In honor of December's arrival, I made these little guys last night :)

{2}

Christmas music has started! Here are my favorites this year:

[1] Santa Clause is Coming to Town - Justin Bieber

[2] Hark the Herald Angels Sing - Josh Groban & Brian McKnight

[3] Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Andrew Ripp 

[4] I'll Be Home for Christmas - Michael Buble

[5] God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman - Bethany Dillon

[6] O Come O Come Emmanuel - Maeve

[7] Oh Come All Te Faithful - Faith Hill

[8] Joy to the World - Sufjan Stevens

[9] Silent Night - Sarah McLachlan

[10] What Are You Doing New Years Eve? - Ella Fitzgerald 

[11. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Frank Sinatra

{3}

I bought a MacBook. I'm mostly in love with it so far, and spending way too much time playing around on it.

{4}

Funny things my students write on their worksheets. 

{5}

These adorable silver-tipped matches I discovered at my house

{6}

Hilarious conversations my family has on this group messaging app we started using

{7}

Reading the Chronicles of Narnia. I'm embarrassed to say it's my first time to ever read them. 

best days.

oh, for more days like these. 

the truth about trust

"We often presume that trust will dispel the confusion, illuminate the darkness, vanquish the uncertainty, and redeem the times. But the crowd of witnesses in Hebrews 11 testifies that this is not the case. Our trust does not bring final clarity on this earth. It does not still the chaos or dull the pain or provide a crutch. When all else in unclear, the heart of trust says, as Jesus did on the cross, Into your hands I commit my spirit."

"The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined, clearly delineated plan for the future. The next step discloses itself only out of a discernment of God acting in the desert of the present moment. The reality of naked trust is the life of a pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without any rational explanation to justify the decision or guarantee the future. Why? Because God has signaled the movement and offered it his presence and his promise."

[both quotes from Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning]



oh, for grace to trust Him more!

in the hands of the Potter.

 "I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him."

Jeremiah 18:3-4