Drawings

  Hey guys! Here's my most recent drawing/inking: dun-na nun-na nun-na nun-na...BATMAN!!!

I got the idea from a picture that my brother showed me. And I'm very pleased with how mine turned out..what do you think?

   I also drew this one from a series of books written by James Patterson, the Maximum Ride series

  And I'll end with this..it's a quote from a book that I'm reading..

"When we risk ourselves, our time, our careers for what we believe, we can accomplish things we never imagined. We can achieve the impossible" ~Bill Strickland

~E.

One Year Ago...

Guys...  

(*cough*and gals*cough* I'm apparently here to comment and fix any errors that M. made. -E.)

(BTW this is completely M's post! Don't tell her I'm here;))

Friends...

GUESS WHAT?! (What? oh hey people! It's L. I snuck into M.'s post:) (Oh hey L.! How's it going? M. doesn't know we're here, right?)  (Hey E. you can join me in sneaking around!  I don't know if she has caught us yet.)

It has been one (uno) (eins) (What??) year since Simplex began. Allow me to share the story with you....

"What should we call it?" E. and I deliberate as we sit in front of my computer. Ideas are tossed out quicker than bad cheese. "We could smush two words together and make a new word. It catches people's attention." (M.'s idea..) We go through a LOT of names... Something about a literary fortress? (M.'s idea..) Nah. We settle on mystery. (Also M.'s idea...) "Of what?"

"This is too complicated..." I say. Complex... hmmm. I thought blogging would be simpler than this!! Simple.. Complex.. "Simplex!" I call out.

"What...??" (I was more like: "whaaaaaaaaaaaa.....???) E. looks at me, confused. I explain. "Simplex is something that is simple and yet at the same time, it's complex. Like rain. Or God's grace." (M. literally thought of this in about 10 seconds!) That's M. for ya!)
"Just put something down!" (We have tried to make a name probably for an hour...) (ha! More like 'two' hours! :D it was roughly 11:00pm by then and we were both exhausted)

Here is a picture for you!

The story above may or may not be exact, (its pretty close;)) but the process for making the pages, first post, and design for Simplex went along those same lines of taking forever to make decisions...(like forever) :D But we made it. On October 12th, a year ago today, our blog went live online. And look where God has brought us today! (I'm still amazed at what He has done, and where He has brought me - all of us - since then;)) (I did not know that story until I read this. What troopers they are!)

We have a new author, L! (she mentioned me :)) We have published 58 posts ranging from random to theological (and just plain weird;) mostly by me:)). We've hit over 2,000 page views!!!! (Can I get a round of applause, people?! woot! woot!) The background has been changed multiple times... (mostly by M. once by me) and God's been glorified through it all. (AMEN!!)
Thanks YOU, readers, for making our last year of blogging a wonderful one! (Yeah thanks guys! Especially the three of you who comment! God loves you all though!)

Catch you later! Stay tuned for more Simplexities here! (Siml..sompx..coxcity...Whaaaaaa.....??? ;)) (What???)

-M. (and L.:)) (Don't forget about me!! Otherwise known as: - MOOO!! - *cough* I mean: - penguins are cool - AAAAHHHH I'm going insane!! -- insert evil witch cackle here -- E.)

THE AFTERMATH:

M: (scrolling)
M: (scrolling)
M: (scrolling)
M: (scrolling)
M: (scrolling)
M: (clicks)
M: (scrolling)
M: (gasps)
M: (viciously scrolling)
M: (screams; faints)
L and E: (high-five)

It's A Beautiful Day

  Hey everybody!! E. here. I know it's been a while since my last post...

ok correction: 'long' while, and you've been wanting to hear from me again(hopefully, 'cause if not...-insert whatever impending demise you wish-*cough* I mean..that's ok!! I still love you anyway!!) wow that just rhymed....weird...

   Anywho, I wanted to talk about rain. I know M. has sort of already done that..but rain is just soo cool that I just had to talk about it too! 

  and, also it has been raining the passed few days! Which is totally awesome!!(coming from the girl who has lived in AZ all her life) so basically rain is cool:) (no pun intended) and wet! And my favorite thing to do, is stand in the middle of it when everyone else(a.k.a. my family) is hiding under shelter. No matter what kind of day I'm having, as soon as it starts raining, my mood changes and I'm happy. 

('..because I'm HAPPEEEEEEEEE...')

   I remember when I was little I used to think about how, when there is complete cloud cover, even though I can't see the sun, it's still shining and as bright as ever! How cool is that?! I remember one time when I was younger, I though that the rain had put out the sun. I wondered if it would ever shine again, and then I figured God would light it again when the rain was over, and He always did! 

(Bunnies....my brother is obsessed with bunnies)

   I was never afraid of lightening, the explanation for this is simply that my mother always told me that the Angels where bowling up in heaven. It made me happy to think that they were having fun and probably laughing with joy:) sometimes I wondered if the rain was because they used cups of water, instead of bowling pins...hmmm...I wonder...

   I think that the main reason I love rain is that it brings back soo many memories!..how I would watch two rain drops roll down my car window, pretending it was a race..

(crunch)

asking--more like begging--my mom to let me and my siblings play in the rain, trying to reassure her that we wouldn't get struck by lighting, and then struggling to put on our swim suits as fast as we could, silently willing the rain to stay...jumping and sliding on the slick wet surface of our trampoline...

(crunch)

...scouring our house from top to bottom, trying to find an umbrella, just so I could say I used it that year, and look important while standing in the rain...

(crunch-*cough* oh sorry for interrupting 'food is good'!!) 

...jumping in puddles of water, trying to make a big enough splash to spray my siblings...these are just a few, happy memories I reminisce about when it rains. 

   The smell after it rains is one of pure happiness! And it's so refreshing! Sometimes I just stand outside and breathe deeply for a few minutes, and it always makes me feel better:)  rain is espe...

              *          *          *         *          

    Zig zag stripes are cool! And the amazingness of actually tying a shoelace!

              *          *          *         *        

     Penguins don't say "waddle..waddle"

     Cows aren't only black and white

     Ducks both fly and swim

     Goats don't eat just anything, they are actually very picky eaters (please don't ague with me on that one-I promise-you won't win)

              *          *          *         *

   ...cially amazing when it's cold out:) then I can bundle up in a bunch of blankets and read my favorite book! 

   Anyway, hope you've enjoyed reading this! And I hope you have many comments;) but for now..BYE!!!! And have a WONDERFUL day/week/month/year or whatever;)!!!!!!

I think my sister took this picture. -L.

~E.

Enough

"Dear God,

I tell you almost every day that I love you. I just forget a lot of the time that you love me too. 

You love me enough to make the right song play on the radio. 

You love me enough to give me a mind to stretch when I'm learning. 

You love me enough to give me a voice to sing about you. 

You love me enough to put people in my life that bless me all of the time. 

You love me enough to hurt me. It's kinda weird, but even though you cause me pain now, it will save me from worse pain later. 

You love me enough to correct me when I'm wrong. 

You love me enough to let me smile when I see a paper clip. 

You love me enough to let me rebel against you because you'd rather have a free will praise you than a puppet.

You must love me a lot. You died for me. 

Why don't I FEEL your love? I have to fake it sometimes. I desperately want to feel loved. Let me feel it. 

Amen. -M."

I wrote this in my journal almost a year ago. Lately, the thought that just keeps popping up in my head is that God loves me enough. 

Not too much. 

Not too little. 

Just enough is how much Jesus loves me. It's a lot, obviously; more than I can imagine, but it's the exact amount that I need. 

How do I even comprehend the love of Jesus? He created me, knows my past, my fears, and my scars. He knows who I was.

He knows the masks I wear and the true me. He sees me as I am today, not as a work in progress, but as a child of His, "holy and dearly loved" (Colossians 3).

He sees the things I desire, but He knows best what I need. He understands the dreams I have for my life, but it will be His story that turns out better than I could have ever imagined. Jesus loves who I am going to become in Him.

So, Jesus loves me with an incomprehensibly perfect love. Yet it's not too much. I think that there is no limit to God's love, and that's how much He loves me.

* * * * * * * * *

And you. (Yes, you!)

God loves you enough. Enough to time something just right in your day. Enough to give you the family, friends, home, and possessions you have now. Enough to write your story, however it may look like, exactly the way it is.

He loved you enough in your past to let you make mistakes and to learn from them. He loves you enough today to give you freedom to choose whether you will obey Him or not.

He will love you enough tomorrow to let you live the BEST life ever. I know it's the best because God planned it for you. :)

It's enough to bring a smile to your face or a tear to your eye when you realize He's using each moment in your life to say, "I love you SO much."

Why don't we believe this? Why don't we FEEL like God loves us so much?

Well, I don't know. (Really? SO HELPFUL!! Just kidding.) Some days I get it. I understand that God loves me and life is beautiful. Then some days I feel like God ditched me and ran to the other side of the universe. What's the deal with that? I have a few possible explanations.

Most of the time, when I feel distant from God's love, it's because I ran away. Not Him. Then I'd get mad at God and push Him away, and then I'd have to pretend everything was fine at a moment's notice when anyone asked how I was doing. So that might be one reason why, if God feels far away from you right now. But that's just from my personal experience.

The other theory I have was inspired by the a page in the book "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. This particular day I read about how Christians should have faith instead of emotion. The author writes, "If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again." So days like this one were truly a blessing from God, but we can't expect them to be the norm. Chambers goes on to say , "Never live for those exceptional moments - they are surprises... We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life - our work is our standard."

Sometimes, I think God lets us feel unloved (not become, mind you) in order that our faith might be strengthened. He still does love us unconditionally and watches to see if we'll believe that and continue to live in joy, even if we're not happy.

I know it's the song everyone's sick of now, but Oceans by Hillsong is a great summary of this idea. "Your grace abounds in deepest waters, your sovereign hand will be my guide," the song says. Trust that God loves you enough when you don't feel it. He hasn't left you.

Make sense? I hope it does. Thanks for reading!

-M