Hitting on this subject AGAIN!

I LOVE knowing hospitable people! Yesterday I got ANOTHER three invites for dinner sometime from people in my new church, and I went to lunch at my cousin's place, and then I Carrie came over for our annual catch-up chat, and then I had bible study at these awesome poeople's house... It was a joy! Granted, I was in my church clothes all day, and didn't get a chance to go for a run, but it was still nice.

More discussion on slavery and sex trafficking and religious people's inconsistencies... Classes at a secular university can be so interesting at times! We also spent all most all of my Early American Lit class going over how to write a paper, and guess whose paper was used as an example of excellent transitions between paragraphs?! Which, I have to admit, is a HUGE blessing, because when I turned that stupid paper in I was STR-ESSED! The writing lab tore it apart and I thought I'd never have a shot at even getting a passing grade... Whew! I still don't have it back, this prof is notoriously late getting papers returned, but I figure if she used it as an example it can't be TOO terrible!

I just realized how dark it is and am moaning the fact that I won't get a run in today yet either - let this be a lesson to you, oh reader, to NOT DELAY on runs! I put it off this morning because, well, I just didn't want to run!

In other news, I have been greatly encouraged by this study on Delighting in the Lord that my Sunday night group does (and my Wednesday group too, actually - same leader). The chapter I was reading today was focusing on just spending time with the Lord. I so DO desire to find my satisfaction and purpose in life in who God is and what he's done for me, so this study has been timely in giving me ideas on how to get into the habit of turning to the Lord first in whatever circumstances - pain, joy, sorrow, frustration, etc. Although I didn't go running, I did get to spend a solid 10 minutes laying on my floor just chatting with my Heavenly-Daddy. How refreshing it is to just walk into his open arms and have a heart-to-heart! I mean, I know he already KNOWS everything that I'm thinking and feeling and wishing for and dreaming about and stressing over, but to acknowledge his presence and his ability to direct my steps and care for me along the way is so freeing! So go find a quiet spot (crawl into your closet, I do that sometimes!), set the time for 10 minutes, and just approach God as the loving, perfect, caring, patient, welcoming Dad that he is... And may your time refresh you!

Hamburger hands and heart

As I type, my hands feel like they're being poked by 378 needles. As usual on Fridays, today I worked in my landlord's yard. My bloody hands are evidence of all the rose bushed I got entangled in during my pruning.

I started a sermon series on Proverbs this afternoon. Mark Driscoll was discussing how God has given us believers a heart of flesh, that causes us to seek the Lord. On our own, we're like people with a hearts of stone. I was thinking of how flesh can experience pain - like my hands. Sometimes I don't like pain - especially the emotional type - but deep down I want to be like Jesus, and he certainly didn't shy away from experiencing pain, probably because pain and love seem to go hand-in-hand.

The series on Ruth I just finished challenged me. I aspire to be like Ruth - a woman who is growing in her faith in the Lord, who loves the people in her life and is committed to blessing them, a woman with great character and work ethic and trust in God's providence. It's been insightful to consider how Jesus is our "glorious Boaz" as Spurgeon penned - I've always loved the story of Ruth and Boaz, and seeing it jointly as both a great love story and ALSO an allegory of Jesus as our redeemer and His love for the church resounds a positive chord in my heart. As a bit of a hopeless romantic, I can't help thinking, "What an honor, a blessing, a priviledge, to be the recipient of such an overwhelming expression of boundless grace as part of the bride of Christ!"

In other news this week, the theme of hospitality popped like yet another daisy out of the snow. Anthony-from-Texas-who-I-met-in-Morocco was coming through the area, visiting his grandma, aunt and uncle before heading to a conference up North with his Dad. When depositing him at his family's home Wednesday, I received an invite to breakfast with the entourage on Thursday. Anthony had remarked, "My family doesn't know a stranger," yet I underestimated the sincerity of his comment... His aunt introduced herself to me as "Aunt Bonnie" and his uncle made me laugh so hard I had to blink back tears at the "misadventures of the wet nose in the chicken coop" story... Hearing from "Aunt Bonnie" about how she picked "Uncle Joe's" picture out of a yearbook months before she ever met him had me convinced that she's a true kindred spirit! Anyone with that much spunk and impetuousness MUST know what it's like to be a little on the crazy-free-spirited side! This has got to be one of my absolute favorite things about being back in the states and having various Christ-believing circles around... There are always storues to hear about God's faithfulness!

Speaking of Christian circles, my last subject for this meandering blog simply MUST be on the two guys I met at my new favorite coffee shop today. I promise, I wasn't TRYING to listen in on the conversation between the gentle, tatoo-sporting, latte-sipping duo, but I couldn't help hearing them talk about what the Lord has been doing in their life lately, and sharing with each other things they would desire prayer for. As I was leaving I stopped by to tell them I'd been encouraged to overhear their conversation. Several months ago I was really burdened to start praying for Christian men between the ages of 15 and 35, specifically asking that they would have wise Christian mentors to come alongside them and show them what it is to be a Man of God, a Tender Warrior. Issues of masculinity and femininity have always intruiged me. As I aspired to be a genuine, God-honoring woman, with a character reflective of Jesus Christ, I see a widespread need for Godly men as well. These two guys meeting and keeping each other accountable and talking felt like God's little encouraging-blessing to remind me and prompt me to keep praying for the men of my generation. That, and our 20 minute conversation was really just quite fun!

That's all for tonight. I pray that you would have "hamburger-hearts" - that God would instill hearts of flesh in you, drawing you closer to him.

Library musings

It's cold tonight as I sit in the library, typing away on one of 18 identical computer stations. I'm the only person at the computer lab, and the building is quietly humming semi-warm air through the vents. I've been wearing scarves for a couple weeks now, but it's only just recently become a necessary accessory!

I've been storing up treasured images of this season in my heart to come back to once the winter rains commence. I took a nap on my cot-bed this afternoon in a patch of sunshine. I went running this evening in pants and a long-sleeve t-shirt and hat, but rolled up the sleeves and took off the hat because, even though my fingers were frozen, I was warm. I guess that's what my friend Jessee used to call the "core body temperature." I try to take a second, long look at scenes of autumn splendor, the sun streaming in shafts through the large firs by "my" tree farm, the graceful arch of a golden tunnel when I was traipsing around the countryside Sunday, the whisps of smoke coming from the chimneys of old farm houses... I really dread the grey-gloom of the coming months, so I'm taking purposeful action to try to thwart the icky-ness of the winter! Of course, it's always worse in my head. In reality, even if it does rain here a lot, there ARE sun breaks. I remember my years at the JC, and sometimes even if it was misty and depressing in town, as I drove over the big hill between my parent's farm and civilization, I would round the corner and see piles upon piles of magnificent clouds in the sky, with sunshine coming through a hole and casting the whole scene in pale shades of winter-splendor! That's a beautiful thing about Washington - you learn to appreciate good cloud formations!

This week I've been blessed by hospitality. I dropped in on some farmers down here today that my parents know. Their house was built over 100 years ago, and they showed me all the beautiful nooks and crannies and sat at the kitchen table chatting. It was so fun to hear about their days farming chickens and vacations to Hawaii! My cousins had me over for dinner on Sunday afternoon, and then a young couple hosted a Bible Study at their house Sunday night. There is something beautiful and wonderful about being invited in to someone's home. I want my home to be like that!

Other than that, life is going as normal! Papers, reading, writing, classes, etc...

Oh, no, there is something else worth mentioning. I've been listening to Mark Driscoll's sermons as I go running, and may I just present that I hope IF I ever get married, my husband has spent some time under Mark's teachings? Wow! GREAT stuff for young people (and older people, I presume!) to hear. So men... and ladies... go find some Mark Driscoll! The series on Ruth has been especially good!

OK, getting kicked out of the library, both by the librarian and my desire for a real dinner...

Currently Annoyed...

... at the oh-so-highschool-sounding girls sitting at the computer behind me in the computer lab. For the past 15 minutes every few seconds has been punctuated with high pitch giggles and gasps. Normally, I'm cool with high school kids. I like them, in fact, I want to spend the rest of my life in their classrooms, so I definitely like them! But... I wish they'd take their chatter out into the hall! I'm pretty sure they're freshmen, they were talking about how something was "so highschool!" I took a brief glance behind me and they're sporting perfectly straightened hair and bright colored shirts and skinny jeans. They seem to be completely unaware of the fact that they're the only conversation happening in the library - they are surrounded by people silently working at their computers, and they're carrying on like they're eating lunch in a cafeteria with about 500 people - ie: LOUDLY!

Maybe I need food. Probably protein. My stomach seems to be eating my backbone! I wanted to finish researching some info on India for my unit project so I could go home and have lunch, but maybe I should run home for lunch THEN come back... At any rate, the girls just left, so it's quiet again!

While my Dad snores...

It's Saturday evening at the parentals' house. I drove up last night to hang with my little bro and sis while my folks had their monthly non-card-playing-Baptist-night-out (they play dominoes...) with a gang of sweethearts who they've been getting together with since they married 27 or some odd years ago. They were "the kids" back then, and they're "the kids" today. Some things never change, I suppose. I wonder what that makes me and my siblings, though, "the embryos"?

As it turned out, both Max and Liv deserted me to go to the football game - Olivia because she was having a sleep-over with a soccer friend, and Max with our buddy Paul who likes doing "manly" things with Max. For 11 year olds, they have amazingly advanced social lives! I ended up home alone, seeing as I went to all of about three football games during my entire highschool career and didn't see much of a need to break that record now. You might say I'm not much of a small-town sports gal.

But then again, you might say I am if you saw the way I clapped at a soccer game and volleyball tournament today. Or if you could somehow insert your sense of feeling into my nerves around my vocal chord and experience first hand the way they're scratching and screeching thanks to the serious amount of yelling I performed from the sidelines. Liv's soccer team tied 0-0 with a team they'd lost to twice this year, which feels like a victory! And Heath's VB team won the tournament at an annual invitational they go to every year.

It's sure fun to "get into" a game when your siblings are out playing their hearts out! Especially when you have siblings who are GOOD athletes and contribute mightily to their respective teams! Heck, by bearing my last name I'm practically a celebrity at the high school these days! A couple weeks ago I even walked into the gym to see a random dude wearing my shirt. I kid you not. HE WAS WEARING MY SHIRT!!! It had my last name and my soccer number on it, and it had a trademark sign of mine - tied knots up the sides - that I used to do on all my XL t-shirts to make them into "cute" tops. How he managed to squeeze into the thing I have no idea, not because I'm all that small, but because he wasn't a skinny, scrawny kid! Come to find out, Heath had supplied him and another guy with shirts emblazoned with our surname because they wanted to feel like "part of the team." Don't ask me how that leaped to my soccer (the sworn enemy of volleyball...) shirt, but whatever.

In other news, the weeks been a bit of an up-and-downer. It's been up because I've met some other Christians on campus, went to a Bible study, made cookies for and had mint tea in my 20th/21st century global lit class, and had great talks with my landlady while working in the yard yesterday. It was a downer because I turned in a paper I wasn't terribly happy about and made myself mad at me (how's THAT for alliteration?!?!) by skipping one class in order to try to repair the cracks the writing center pointed out in my paper-foundation that was due in the next class. How many times have I said, "I will NEVER be that student?" Well, never say never, I suppose!

But classes are classes, it's a grade, and I think a couple days and some re-aligning conversations with friends have gotten me straightened out. I praise the Lord for friends in this area (heck, even near this time zone!) that I can call or stop by and dump my guts out and have them gracefully, lovingly, mercifully, and honestly point out my complete lack of brains and grossly unbalanced priorities to help me get my life back onto a God-honoring track.

And speaking of God-honoring tracks, my latest running-boredom-beater is to listen to sermons on my shuffle. Mark Driscoll is a favorite, and listening to edifying, encouraging, and convicting sermons while getting a good cardio exercise feels like so much of a better use of my time... not to mention, I actually want to KEEP running so I can finish off the hour-long sermon! Or, at least keep walking or stretching or something. I'm glad the Lord saw fit to have the iPod invented during my lifetime!

I'm off to read "A River Runs Through It" with my pen in hand to annotate it for my Reading and Writing Methods class. Stay chill!

Photos of my house!

Since I promised them awhile back, I think...

Crispy Apples and Leaves and Such

Fall is in the air! I can feel it when I walk out of my night class and clutch my jacket around me, I can smell it as I go running in the afternoons - rain and mold and grass cuttings mixed together, and I can taste it in the fruit and vegetables I've been enjoying courtesy of my Mom's generosity... I love fall! It used to be my favorite season of the year, until I realized it always proceeds the winter rains, and then I decided I liked spring better because it meant summer sunshine was coming! But sometimes I still forget that I've made up my mind to like spring, and I revert back to my fall-favoring habits.

There's just SO MUCH to love about fall! School starts up again, bringing new intellectual challenges, old friends and faces not seen since the spring (or longer, for Miss-University-Skip-About here). The garden produce hits an all-time high in production level, resulting in LOADS of corn on the cob (dreamy!), cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, peppers, squash, zucchini... need I continue?

And the colors - oh my, the colors!

The angle of the sun, slipping southward, seems to just give everything more of a golden glow. The green evergreens stand stately and unchanged, the maples and alders blush and shine in turn, and the blue of the sky stands in stark contrast to puffy white clouds lazily drifting across the sphere. I think in color, dream in color, and I love to LIVE in color! Which may also be why the dreaded grey of winter is depressing... but alas, I'll save that topic for another day!

Fall has a particular sound, too, which is delightful. It's the sound of geese honking on their annual trek south. It's the whistle of referees at youth sporting events, and the cheer of the fans. It's the crack of a gun somewhere in the wilderness when a hunter takes a shot at a bull elk. It's the laughter of kids in a playground, relishing their time outdoors, and the chattering of students in a classroom discussing post-colonial and post-modern commonalities.

I love fall! Shh, don't tell that to my spring-loving head, but I'm afraid my heart is enraptured with it. I enjoy pulling out all my "warm" clothes I haven't seen since the sun came out of hibernation several months ago, it's like having a whole new wardrobe. And fleece, the staple of a "comfy" outfit for lazing around doing homework in the chilly weather, is one of my favorite non-person friends. Really.

To sum up and conclude and finish off this rant on fall, my challenge to you, dear reader, is to let me know what YOUR favorite season is, and why... serious, I'm interested!

Library's closing, gotta run!