Bucket List

I really loved "The Bucket List" as I remember as I watch an interview with Morgan Freeman here in my living room. I am a dreamer, and highly unrealistic at times, but it's what keeps me going. The excitement of taking on a new challenge and seeing if I can do it or not. Thank God for Ben in my life or I'd be more than broke by now ;-).

1. Write a book.
2. Finish college
3. Finish grad school (either seminary or marriage and family therapy)
4. Adopt as many children as God will give us.
5. Pray my entire family into salvation.
6. Record my own album
7. Help plant a church
8. Get completely out of debt
9. Be in the financial situation where I can give as much money as is needed to support ministries, missionaries, and people who need it, whenever I want to.
10. Visit every continent
11. Learn Japanese
12. Paint portraits of everyone individually in my family.
13. Not be able to get through any conversation without mentioning Jesus/God at least once.
14. Learn how to fly.
15. Get my concealed weapons permit (for target shooting).


Well, that's all that comes to my mind at the moment, but I am sure I will think of more later. This will be so exciting to see things get checked off.

These are definitely not in any particular order, but I think it's important for me to see the goals that God has set before me. Being obedient to the Lord is the most important goal of my life, but it is also the hardest to achieve.

One thing I did not list (because it does not have an end point) is to become a person of prayer. I enjoy having conversations with God, but being a young mother, I have a peaceful heart, but not a quiet one. It is difficult to have any quiet time when a number of the things on my bucket list hang over my head.

Andy Stanley challenged us to think about what we want people to say about us when we die. at Passion 2010. Obviously I don't want to be remembered for achievements, I want to be remembered for my character. My next blog will be my "eulogy list."

As I learn to become more obedient, I will learn to be more still and satisfied in His presence... and that is all.

Going into the Fall

Wow, well, it's pretty pathetic that one of my New Year's resolutions was to keep up with a blog this year... haha. My last post was from April 20, so I guess that resolution went out the window.

Life, at the moment, is never boring. Right now I am just riding out the rest of the summer, sleeping as much as I can in the anticipation of not sleeping for the next year or so. My student load is still kind of weak due to the summer slump, but people are steadily dripping back, so September will be a duzy.

Ah, September!

Noah will be starting preschool at Mount Ararat (I'm so proud). He's so excited, and I'm sure he will do great. He loves to learn new things, but my attempts have been pretty pointless because I'm the only one competing with all the other great distractions here at home. When he's in Sunday school and with other children he gets excited about what everybody else is excited about. I'm hoping that a year or so of that will help him learn to adjust to a structured environment for when we start kindergarten homeschool. He's so excited, though. We went out and bought him a Mario Cart lunch box, and he was so excited to show it off to everybody for the rest of the day.

September I will also be starting my classes again, once again trying to take a bite out of this undergrad degree that has been eluding me for the past 9 years. I am pretty sure I only have about 5 more classes to take, so if I can get a couple done before the baby gets here, then convince the department to let me do some work independently, I just may finish to graduate in May. ::sigh:: That would be so wonderful!

Speaking of the baby coming, we found out our little one will be a girl, so we've decided on the name Chloe. Chloe was on our list for if Noah was a girl, and just made it's way to the top this time. We are still contemplating middle names, but Ann and Rose are two of the contenders (both family names). We're still taking suggestions if anybody has them ;-).

Taking over Toluca Road has also been an adventure thus far. Of course, Summer is always sparse, both in attendance to Elevate, as well as availability of musicians, but I'm really excited about the people we have joining us this year. I will be even more excited when we have a full band to be practicing. We have a few welcome weeks off for the rest of August which will allow me to do some planning and organzing and decision making before we officially kick things off. I will be excited when we get to move into the new building at church, as well as getting a good repitoire of music together. God's going to do great things!

We are also gearing up for the next study with the young adult ministry, I-268. We just finished our two Summer studies, Song of Solomon and Francis Chan's "Crazy Love." Ben and I have been so encouraged with the attendance between both groups. We have had some great faithful participators between the two groups, and God has really taught us all some awesome things, while challenging us with some tough questions. The Song of Solomon class has also really stretched and challenged Ben and I to take a look at our marriage and how important it is to be living (and witnessing about) how God is a part of our lives and the reason our marriage works. It's definitely not perfect, but we are being sanctified, and sharing about our relationship has really helped us see that.

I am SO excited to see which people are going to be involved this school year and what we can do as a group to strengthen our core and start really establishing ourselves as a faithful ministry for our growing church and our community.

I would covet your prayers as we (as a family) go into this school year. We have a LOT of things that are weighing on our hearts, as well as a lot to be excited about, all of which are going to require a lot of prayer and a lot more energy and stamina than we currently have.

This may seem like a small thing, but I would ask for prayer that I be able to keep up with my housework and organzation this year. It seems like a trivial thing to pray about, but it keeps me awake at night, and it weighs really heavily on my mind when I don't feel like I'm keeping my household up to par, or being smart enough when it comes to fitting 4 people, a dog, and a fish in this little space. Tidyness has never been my strong suit, but it's important to me to make my best effort, so I am going to try my best not to "grow weary in doing good."

Hopefully next time it won't be so long between posts!

The "Next Blog" button

Have you ever pressed the "next blog" button? I did and I found a buncha cool things.

I found pictures from a guy who had taken a train ride in India and all the pictures he took of the people and things from the train.

I found one of a company that made girly business logos.

A WHOLE LOT of people who speak Spanish or some variation of such (I think).

I've found a lot of aspiring fashion designers trying to sell their stuff.

I found one from a lady who rescues border collies and her stories of all their adventures. Very intriguing.

I've found a few Japanese sites too. I don't know what they are about, but I wish I did.

A lot of blogs for pictures of their kids.

Lots of jewelry designers. Very pretty stuff.



What did you find?

Long overdue

As I sit here tonight I am by myself. Ben went to a birthday party for a good friend and co-worker who will be moving on soon, so I'm glad they're getting to hang out. It's extremely quiet at the moment, except for What Not to Wear blinking on my tv. I enjoy the quiet, but at the same time, it's kind of sad. Call me a cuke... it just is.

I have had a lot going on lately, especially since my last post.

Most notably, I have found out we are expecting our second child. Yes, this one WAS planned, fyi. I am completely thrilled with the anticipation of another little Noah running around. He has been the pride and joy of our lives, and many others, and I can't wait for another one. On the down side, I HATE being pregnant.

If you didn't know me when I had Noah, my pregnancy was really hard for me. I have a severe form of morning sickness that I can't pronounce (or spell), but it's basically so bad that if I am not medicated, I can't even keep water down. It's very painful, like if you've ever had food poisoning. I would rather dive into a swimming pool of razor blades than go through this nausea. Even medicated it's hard because I still have about 40% less energy, but 100% of my schedule still exists. I've always been able to make up for things in the evenings, but these days the medicine I take in the evening has a sleeping pill involved. Also, if I don't get enough rest in a day the medication doesn't help all that much. It's very frustrating.

It's even more frustrating because I feel like I am falling so far behind in my responsibilities, yet I can't keep up. My house is a mess, I'm super way behind in my school work (despite my professor's patience), and my students are no doubt feeling the effect of my inability to concentrate. It's very depressing to me to be unable to keep up and be efficient. My parents always taught me to be productive with the time and means that I have. At the moment, I don't feel like I can do much of anything, and my limits vary so much that I don't know from day to day what I can do.

I know that "this too will pass" but not knowing when, and anticipating that it will last as long as before (another 12 weeks), I am pretty bummed. If you think of it, I can use all the prayer I can get.

On the up side, I'm very excited about all the other things going on. I am excited to be part of the student ministry leading Toluca Road. I really love to worship and to lead it, and I am so excited to be able to lead very tallented musicians to understand more fully what it means to commit your lives and your passion to God.

Well, I have to be up early for Girl's group (which is awesome by the way too), and then to tackle that homework and the 8 page paper that's due Sunday! ......HELP.....

Trusting God

So, God is taking me through a lot of things lately. Sadly, many of those things I can't really share with many people, which only makes the struggle more taxing. I had a lot of things hit my lap last week, and because of them I am tired, and spent, and frustrated, and afraid at times. But God knows.

God knew that I needed to hear the "Indescribable" talk from Louie Giglio a few weeks ago in Sunday school. He knew I needed to remember how infinitely huge he is and so far above the problems that I consider worth fretting over. He knew that I needed to remember that he works everything together for the good of those who love him. He also knew that I needed to be struck by John 16:33 posted on the bathroom wall in my dorm my freshman year, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (my emphasis added). I still remember looking at that verse scribbled on a piece of construction paper; something I would have ordinarily passed by.

I think the times that make me trust God most is when the things I need to pray about I cannot share with just anyone. Sometimes, those people are just not accessible at that moment, and that makes me feel more alone. Those are the times that remind me how sweet it is to have people who can help bear my burdens. I also know that God will quicken people to pray who may not know what they are praying for.

If you get the time today, pray that I would trust God. Please pray that I would have peace and also have the strength to do the things I need to.

Thank you friends.

Song of Solomon

Over the past couple weeks Ben and I have been talking and thinking about which study the I-268 ministry should do after this church campaign is over. One that came to my mind, since we loved doing his Ecclesiastes study, was Tommy Nelson's Song of Solomon series.

Now, I don't recommend going through it the same way Ben and I did - engaged in a rather large group of people who had been married for many years... talk about awkward. But the actual videos were just incredible. Tommy Nelson just has the amazing ability to bring awe-inspiring light to the Bible.

The amazing thing about this series is that I believe it holds everything an unmarried person should know about marriage and romantic relationships. It is also just amazing that we were a little concerned about the fact that the series we watched was filmed back in '95 and so many of the pop-culture references are pretty dated. Lo and behold, when Ben goes to check it out at their website, they have a 10th Anniversary Edition, filmed in 2005! Updated references and all.

I am also stoked about the fact that the other bible study for young adults will be joining us too! I am so excited that so many people will be getting such invaluable information. You never really understand how much God knows about marriage and romance (and sex) until you actually take the time to study such a rich (and largely misunderstood) book as Song of Solomon.

Googling myself

Dude, don't Google yourself.

I did, and oh my gosh... the first 4 PAGES of links are all ME. Like, nobody else in the world has my name apparently. I mean, seriously, there are even mentions of comments that I posted to people's guestbooks from years ago. You can see for yourself!

Google yourself today. See what comes up!!

I know I totally just contradicted myself, but I wanna see if everybody is as well-documented as I am! It would make me feel better if you were. :-)