I had every intention on going to school to get some work done, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I have had such a relaxing and fun weekend. Friday I left work at 4:20 (the earliest in a while) and got ready to go to the Kimbell Art Museum. I went with my friend Brandon that I worked with last year.
We saw the Picturing the Bible Exhibit that I have heard about since November and I absolutely loved it. I was amazed at the difference in how we express our faith these days from the early Centuries. They were not distracted by media and they knew their Bibles hands down and created artifacts with Biblical images on them that were amazing. Why don't we do this today? Why don't we act on our belief the way they did back then? Why are we so complacent when they were so obviously not? Another observation is that there was so much emphasis on a certain scenes, Noah in the Ark, Moses striking a rock (learned that it symoblized baptism), Jonah going in the animal and being spit out of the animal, and Adam and Eve. Those four images were on about 85% of the items we saw there. I loved it, was encouraged and convicted by it, and recommend it to all of you. It goes until the end of March I believe so go see it. It is half off on Tuesdays all day and on Fridays from 5-8 PM. After that we walked around in the beautifully cold weather and then went to eat at Gloria's Restaraunt. It was a little on the pricey side for my taste, but good and a fun environment...and good company as well.
I got home and later fell asleep on my couch, one of my favorite things to do. Then Saturday I relaxed all day, something I have needed to do. I ironed clothes, cleaned my closet, played on teh Internet, organized some, started the Falling in Love with Jesus Bible study, napped for almost 4 hours Sat. evening, and watched a lot of "Best of Friends, volume 1 and 2" What a great day it was, and how I long for more of those? I refuse to feel guilty for lack of teacher productivity.
Today I got to sleep in a bit and then went to church to hear about putting God's Kingdom first and how that can be evident by if I put him first in my money management. It was neat to finally get to tithe 10% of my new salary. I have never got to come close to tithing as much as I get to now, and it felt great. Then instead of going to work as I had planned I went to the grocery store and then went home to much, watch more Friends, and now type on the computer.
I can't wait till the summer and I can have more than the weekend to relax, that will be fabulous. By the way, don't get used to me coming on here and giving you a rendition of what I have done over a certain period of time. For one, I do not have Internet so I am just taking advantage of getting it in the office finally. For two, I had to record my relaxation weekend since they are few and far between.
I feel God restoring and bringing me unto Himself and it is amazing! I pray this for you as well.
Love,
Your sister
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Finally back online!
Hello friends!
I created this and then didn't look at it much. I do not have Internet at home and almost everytime I have come to the apartment complex office to use their computers, it hasn't worked. Well, I figured I would give it a shot today and it worked. Now I am thankful I do not have Interent at home becuase I have been sitting here over 2 hours doing nothing, but browsing the Internet. I even have people to email and things to do online and I haven't even done it. I have just spent a lot of time on people's blogs and was inspired to give a quick update. I also know that not many people have this blog address so I need to figure out how to get it out to people.
I have an update letter started as of about 2 weeks ago, but still have not finished it to get it ready to send out.
Let's see, I haven't written since October. Wow, I do not even know how to sum things up since then. It's hard to believe I am now over half way through with my first year of teaching. I keep hearing that it will get easier and that the first year is the hardest....I hope so, I really do hope so because I love the kids so much but I have to admit that I am sick of working 50-60 hour weeks. I did decide to take this semester off of graduate school and I am glad because I have no idea where I would fit that into the semester on top of work and new Bible studies. I am thrilled to say that I think I have found a church and am getting involved with it! It's been over a year since I was involved with a Bible study with other women and now I am doing several. I think I might need to drop one of them though becuase I don't want to spread myself to thin, hence the reason I am not taking grad school this year. hmm, we'll see.
Anyway, God has been bringing me closer to Him and teaching me much about prayer and dependance on Him, and Him alone. One of the Bible studies I am apart of is from the book called "Falling in Love with Jesus." I think I am in love with Him now, but I know going through this study will show me that I am not nearly as I would like to be. Instead, it will reveal to me His mysteries and I will fall more in love with Him...and I'm incredibally excited!
Anyway, I better get going b/c I'm on the phone and I just wanted to give a little update.
I created this and then didn't look at it much. I do not have Internet at home and almost everytime I have come to the apartment complex office to use their computers, it hasn't worked. Well, I figured I would give it a shot today and it worked. Now I am thankful I do not have Interent at home becuase I have been sitting here over 2 hours doing nothing, but browsing the Internet. I even have people to email and things to do online and I haven't even done it. I have just spent a lot of time on people's blogs and was inspired to give a quick update. I also know that not many people have this blog address so I need to figure out how to get it out to people.
I have an update letter started as of about 2 weeks ago, but still have not finished it to get it ready to send out.
Let's see, I haven't written since October. Wow, I do not even know how to sum things up since then. It's hard to believe I am now over half way through with my first year of teaching. I keep hearing that it will get easier and that the first year is the hardest....I hope so, I really do hope so because I love the kids so much but I have to admit that I am sick of working 50-60 hour weeks. I did decide to take this semester off of graduate school and I am glad because I have no idea where I would fit that into the semester on top of work and new Bible studies. I am thrilled to say that I think I have found a church and am getting involved with it! It's been over a year since I was involved with a Bible study with other women and now I am doing several. I think I might need to drop one of them though becuase I don't want to spread myself to thin, hence the reason I am not taking grad school this year. hmm, we'll see.
Anyway, God has been bringing me closer to Him and teaching me much about prayer and dependance on Him, and Him alone. One of the Bible studies I am apart of is from the book called "Falling in Love with Jesus." I think I am in love with Him now, but I know going through this study will show me that I am not nearly as I would like to be. Instead, it will reveal to me His mysteries and I will fall more in love with Him...and I'm incredibally excited!
Anyway, I better get going b/c I'm on the phone and I just wanted to give a little update.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Very neat plus HOCKEY
As most of you know I had to have 2 brain sugeries back in 2004. Well, my mom called me last night to say that Extreme Makeover Home Edition this past week was for a family that has endured this "disease." I quote that b/c I literally had no idea it was so serious and took it very lightly, or else the Holy Spirit literally lessoned my burden drastically.
There are some links below. The second link is the Extreme video link so that you can watch it for yourself. The others are information about Chiari Malformation (the 2nd surgery I had). I also found out that hydrocephalis (my first surgery) is perhaps caused by the Chiari disease. I was under the impression that the cyst I had caused the hydrocephalus, but now I wonder. It is a really neat story and I can't help but be grateful to God for the timing and the miracle of the entire situation.
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/science/article_212110401.shtml
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/extreme-makeover-home-edition-the-carter-family/1613811329
http://www.chiaripeople.org/events.php
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/chiari/chiari.htm
http://www.neurosurgerytoday.org/what/patient_e/chiari1.asp
In addition to this, I was just graciously given two hockey tickets for Halloween night, for FREE. All I have to do is pay for parking and I get another person in. If anyone would like to go, let me know. It's at 7:30 next Wednesday!
There are some links below. The second link is the Extreme video link so that you can watch it for yourself. The others are information about Chiari Malformation (the 2nd surgery I had). I also found out that hydrocephalis (my first surgery) is perhaps caused by the Chiari disease. I was under the impression that the cyst I had caused the hydrocephalus, but now I wonder. It is a really neat story and I can't help but be grateful to God for the timing and the miracle of the entire situation.
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/science/article_212110401.shtml
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/extreme-makeover-home-edition-the-carter-family/1613811329
http://www.chiaripeople.org/events.php
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/chiari/chiari.htm
http://www.neurosurgerytoday.org/what/patient_e/chiari1.asp
In addition to this, I was just graciously given two hockey tickets for Halloween night, for FREE. All I have to do is pay for parking and I get another person in. If anyone would like to go, let me know. It's at 7:30 next Wednesday!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Where am I in life right this minute? This might be long as I have just finished a large cappuccino from QT.
As for a current, yet short, update on my life as of right now, here it goes. New Years Day of 2007 I woke up around 5 AM finally saying yes to the thought of being a teacher. I had run from it for far too long, mainly out of fear. Then I realized that I was running from it and started pursuing it. I started substitute teaching, applied for my alternative certification, attended two job fairs, applied for jobs, interviewed, and then actually received a job offer. I am now a Special Education teacher for Keller ISD for a school that is actually located in Fort Worth, TX. I live with a friend that I have known since my Freshman year of college. We didn't keep up all too well but were talking in the Spring about life and substitute teaching. Who knew we would end up living together and that we would do so well being roommates? She is a blessing to have in my life right now seeing that I don't really have any friends out this way (Fort Worth).
As far as work goes, I love my job. I love my students and find myself thinking of them constantly. It is sooooo hard though. It is something I am having to constantly rely on the Lord because it is probably the most difficult thing I have ever done. I can't even get a day ahead in planning and have never even submitted one lesson plan, and we are 7 weeks in to the school year. It's an amazing opportunity and I am so thankful for it, despite how hard it is. It is something I will look back on and praise God for bringing me through and maturing me. It is something I hope I will never forget. I don't have a team at work because I'm Special Education and all of us do our own thing. Plus, Life Skills (my class) is the only one on our campus and it's new to campus, so I don't have anyone at my school to get ideas from, etc. It's hard, but I hear that it will get easier as the years go by. We'll see. I hope to do this for awhile, at least be at my school for awhile. I love it so much and know God has me there for a reason. In my job search I kept hearing, "you have to know people to get a job," well I didn't know anyone. God opened the door wide open and I walked through it.
Grad School: If you have 10 burners on a stove, I feel like this is the furthest back burner. It's been hard to focus on grad school with everything else on my plate. This year is all about survival and so grad school gets neglected. I do my work, but my heart is not in it this year. I am practically getting paid to attend school this year and it's probably the only and last time that will happen now that I am making a salary, so I needed to do it. I'm currently deciding what I should do about next semester as far as continuing or taking a break. I need to decide fast as registration is probably right around the corner. In case you don't know my major is Community Counseling. As I think about being a Counselor though I wonder b/c the people that I want to reach out too can't afford counseling and have problems to deep for a counselor to help. For instance myself, I have been to three different counselors and still find myself absolutely in so much pain over the same issues still undealt with. So I don't know, we'll see.
As far as everything else goes: I'm still trying to find a church out here and still can't bring myself to email the Village to say that I no longer go there. It's too far to drive but I'm afraid to say I have stopped or to not call it my home, b/c I don't have a home to replace it with. I don't have a family and need one so badly. I don't feel like the same joyful/optimistic person I used to be and I think part of that is not being surrounded by a body of believers. I have believers, dear friends, that I still talk to but phone conversations and a godly roommate are not nearly the same as what is commanded by Him. I have prayed and prayed and nothing seems to be happening. I attended a church two Sundays ago that I finally felt that I liked and some guy hit on me and made me feel incredibally uncomfortable, and now I don't want to go back there. My spiritual life is not what it used to be, but I still learn some in little doses about God and it's strange b/c I am hit by the simple truths that I have known for years, but still have to be reminded of as I sit here alone. I have to keep telling myself that God will not abandon me, even when I feel abandoned. And I have to tell myself to not be discouraged and to be strong b/c God tells me not to be in Joshua 1. I feel my faith is weak compared to the past, but how do I know if that is a lie or reality, not sure, and trying to find out. I think it's reality b/c it's hard to pray whole heartedly like I used to. Most of my prayers these days are me crying out humbly asking for help, rather than praying every second like in the past.
I know this is a lot for a first days post but it is an update to those of you who have asked and I have been short with or not known how to express. I needed to get this out in writing so that I can reflect back on a time when I didn't feel or see God's presence, but it was there the entire time.
I apologize for the length and depth of this post, but I should not have to apologize for the depth, isn't that what sisters and brothers in Christ are for?
Peace.
As far as work goes, I love my job. I love my students and find myself thinking of them constantly. It is sooooo hard though. It is something I am having to constantly rely on the Lord because it is probably the most difficult thing I have ever done. I can't even get a day ahead in planning and have never even submitted one lesson plan, and we are 7 weeks in to the school year. It's an amazing opportunity and I am so thankful for it, despite how hard it is. It is something I will look back on and praise God for bringing me through and maturing me. It is something I hope I will never forget. I don't have a team at work because I'm Special Education and all of us do our own thing. Plus, Life Skills (my class) is the only one on our campus and it's new to campus, so I don't have anyone at my school to get ideas from, etc. It's hard, but I hear that it will get easier as the years go by. We'll see. I hope to do this for awhile, at least be at my school for awhile. I love it so much and know God has me there for a reason. In my job search I kept hearing, "you have to know people to get a job," well I didn't know anyone. God opened the door wide open and I walked through it.
Grad School: If you have 10 burners on a stove, I feel like this is the furthest back burner. It's been hard to focus on grad school with everything else on my plate. This year is all about survival and so grad school gets neglected. I do my work, but my heart is not in it this year. I am practically getting paid to attend school this year and it's probably the only and last time that will happen now that I am making a salary, so I needed to do it. I'm currently deciding what I should do about next semester as far as continuing or taking a break. I need to decide fast as registration is probably right around the corner. In case you don't know my major is Community Counseling. As I think about being a Counselor though I wonder b/c the people that I want to reach out too can't afford counseling and have problems to deep for a counselor to help. For instance myself, I have been to three different counselors and still find myself absolutely in so much pain over the same issues still undealt with. So I don't know, we'll see.
As far as everything else goes: I'm still trying to find a church out here and still can't bring myself to email the Village to say that I no longer go there. It's too far to drive but I'm afraid to say I have stopped or to not call it my home, b/c I don't have a home to replace it with. I don't have a family and need one so badly. I don't feel like the same joyful/optimistic person I used to be and I think part of that is not being surrounded by a body of believers. I have believers, dear friends, that I still talk to but phone conversations and a godly roommate are not nearly the same as what is commanded by Him. I have prayed and prayed and nothing seems to be happening. I attended a church two Sundays ago that I finally felt that I liked and some guy hit on me and made me feel incredibally uncomfortable, and now I don't want to go back there. My spiritual life is not what it used to be, but I still learn some in little doses about God and it's strange b/c I am hit by the simple truths that I have known for years, but still have to be reminded of as I sit here alone. I have to keep telling myself that God will not abandon me, even when I feel abandoned. And I have to tell myself to not be discouraged and to be strong b/c God tells me not to be in Joshua 1. I feel my faith is weak compared to the past, but how do I know if that is a lie or reality, not sure, and trying to find out. I think it's reality b/c it's hard to pray whole heartedly like I used to. Most of my prayers these days are me crying out humbly asking for help, rather than praying every second like in the past.
I know this is a lot for a first days post but it is an update to those of you who have asked and I have been short with or not known how to express. I needed to get this out in writing so that I can reflect back on a time when I didn't feel or see God's presence, but it was there the entire time.
I apologize for the length and depth of this post, but I should not have to apologize for the depth, isn't that what sisters and brothers in Christ are for?
Peace.
Like I really needed this...
Hello everyone!
As if I didn't spend enough time procrastinating online, facebook, xanga, etc., I decided to add yet another website to get addicted to. I spend enough time reading people's blogspots so I finally caved and got my own so that I can be more efficient as I read blogs of those people I love and admire. I will use this to share prayer requests, praises to my Heavenly Father, and updates on this life that I am learning how to live minute by minute.
Please join me on this journey of life as you read my blog and pray with me on a regular basis.
Thank you in advance!
As if I didn't spend enough time procrastinating online, facebook, xanga, etc., I decided to add yet another website to get addicted to. I spend enough time reading people's blogspots so I finally caved and got my own so that I can be more efficient as I read blogs of those people I love and admire. I will use this to share prayer requests, praises to my Heavenly Father, and updates on this life that I am learning how to live minute by minute.
Please join me on this journey of life as you read my blog and pray with me on a regular basis.
Thank you in advance!
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