Fall, Movies, Excitement, and Other Random Happenings

Hi everyone!

Well, it's been way too long since I posted, so here's the collection of thoughts, projects, and happenings in my life lately. :)

• I'm back in school! I'm doing online coursework for the year before I transfer to university on-campus next fall. I finished a Christian worldview course about a week ago and REALLY enjoyed the class. It stretched my mind in lots of different ways, which you all know I love. :D Right now, I've just started taking Old Testament History!
• I work full-time now!! At least almost full-time. I nanny/babysit for two different families and I absolutely love it! I can't even think of a better place that I'd want to work right now. 
• I CUT MY HAIR OFF. Well, I actually paid someone else to do it, but ya know. :) It's kind of a longish pixie now.
• I recently got the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan and have just started reading it. So far, it's really convicting and theological and just all-around awesome. I also recently read C.S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory and I really loved that, too. Have any of you read anything interesting lately?? Comment below! :)
• Fall is finally here, and Winter is in sight!! Fun fact: Winter is my favorite season, hands down.
• I've been thinking about grace a lot lately. God's grace isn't clean, it gets dirty. Grace has to cover every sin, not just the "little" ones. When we understand God's grace, we become free from fear of perfection, because we are no longer required to be perfect. We are free to just be ourselves and chase after God with all of our hearts!
• I changed the blog background! (Again!) I went with blue this time, and I really like the new fonts I found. :)
• My brain is about to die. I've watched a lot of movies lately and have been thinking a lot about the worldview in each of them, (big surprise!) so hopefully I can still put together a set of coherent thoughts when I need to. (Which, looking back on that sentence, probably won't be happening anytime soon...) Recently I've watched The Maze Runner, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Citizen Kane, The Patriot, (edited) and The Magnificent Seven.
• We have a new page coming soon to the blog!!! L. had a really cool page idea for us to add, and we're excited for you to see it! Stay tuned...
• My friends are awesome. Jus' sayin. :)
• I color-coded the apps on my phone. It's kind of relaxing to just scroll through and see all of the colors. :)
• I'm running out of relevant information to put in these bullet points...
• Our cars have all been dying!!! And our house has lost power three times in the last week. It's freaking me out. 
• I keep waiting for something really exciting to happen, but I don't know why. Maybe I've just had too much routine lately. (But if there's too much excitement, I completely shut down and can't function until I have routine again...)
• Last Saturday, I got 7 pies smashed in my face. L. and E. were responsible for two of said pies. I'm totally getting them back for that, but I haven't quite decided how yet. :D
• I went to a concert over the weekend that was absolutely amazing!! I got to see Colton Dixon, Francesca Battistelli, Jeremy Camp, and Hillsong United, along with others, but those four were my favorite!! (I also got to start sponsoring a little girl in Thailand with an international program!!! I'm super excited about that!)
• Here's a verse that I fell in love with the other day! At Bible study a few days ago, the teacher had us do something called lectio divina with verses we were assigned. (Look it up on google; it'll tell you what that means...) The verse I got was 1 Corinthians 1:17 - "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel - not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of of Christ be emptied of its power." The phrase that stood out to me was "words of human wisdom" because words are so meaningful to me. I was  thinking that maybe the way we preach the gospel is with a language of love and grace, rather than words. The cross kind of transcends the very limited power of words, which I find fascinating. My mind's been on this thought a lot for the past few days.
• There are pushpins in my bulletin board in the shape of a heart. Just in case you wanted to know. :D

There ya go! Enjoy trying to decipher my life! (Hint: Oh, wait. There aren't any hints. I can't even decipher my life!) I guess you could say it's kinda... simplex right now! (Hahahaha! I see what you did there!!) Oh, man, I'm laughing at my own puns. This is really bad. I'd better go and save whatever dignity I've got left. Bye!

-M.

It's the Little Things

Hi readers! M. here; it's been WAY too long since I've posted. Apologies, guys! I've been branching out into other types of writing lately, like spoken word poetry and songwriting (!) but I'm back now with a Simplex story for you today!! (Just a forewarning: it was really awesome.)

By the way, how are you liking L's writing? I'm so excited that she gets to blog with us!

The story kind of begins on Friday night a few weeks ago. I spent the night at a friend's house and we stayed up till 4 in the morning, which was super exhausting but so much fun! We got up around 8:30 that morning and my friends introduced me to a TV show called "Once Upon a Time." I'd never seen it before, but I did enjoy the first two episodes.

While I was watching the show, I checked my email and I'd gotten two pins from L! They were super encouraging and I knew that today would be a good day.

I got home a little before lunchtime and went to get our 15-month old up from his nap. He wasn't feeling too well and had a runny nose, so I sat down on the couch and got to snuggle with him. Now, this child is not a snuggler; he's always up and running around, so I was really suprised that he sat there with me for several minutes! It definitely put a smile on my face.

At 2:00, I went to a lady's house to discuss a weekly childcare job for her kids. I got to meet them and they were so friendly! I was so excited to start working for them next week!

When I got home again, I had a great conversation with my mom about college stuff and got to snuggle with the baby AGAIN!! By this point, I'd started to notice that God was "up to something."

Other things that happened on that Saturday:

The sky outside was GORGEOUS!!
I got compliments on the shirt I was wearing twice in one day!! 
I was able to read several chapters of "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis, which I love!
I got to babysit a family from our church in the evening... 
When I drove home after watching the kids, I heard not one or two, but SIX songs on the radio in a row that encouraged me, blessed me, challenged me, and shifted my focus to Christ!! 
And I had to do dishes and shower when I got home, but I still got to bed before midnight!!!


By halfway through the day, I was starting to catch onto God's scheme. It was like he dumped a bucket of love on me, like never before. it was a day of lots of little things, but they sure counted!!

Lately, I've been using the phrase, "God chose." I've stopped asking God, "Why did you do this bad thing to me?" or "Why did you give me a bad day?" because I know the answer is always, "Because I did!" God doesn't need a reason for doing things in my life; he created me! And as a Christian, I gave Him control of my life, so questioning His motives is, honestly, really counterproductive!

I'm thankful. It really is the little things that make me feel blessed to be alive.

Thanks for reading! And I love hearing from you guys! Comment below!
Until next time! -M.

On Why I'm (NOT) in a Fandom

I've been asked the question many times. "Do you read/watch/listen to/like __________?" Most of the time, the answer is no.

-You all know I love (read: vehemently adore) reading, but I don't prefer to read many modern books or book series. 

-I criticize nearly EVERY SINGLE MOVIE that I watch. (I think everyone hates me for that!)

-My TV watching has been basically non-existent since I began my senior year. (And my criticizing is the same as with movies.)

-I listen almost exclusively to Christian music. (Musical theater is basically the only other genre I will listen to.)

This leaves me in the dilemma of being asked the "Do you like __________" question A LOT, and I don't have an answer. I'd rather someone asks me what I think about __________, because that's just the way I work. I think, rather than feel.

One time a girl asked me what "fandom" I was in. For those of you who don't know, a fandom is a group of people who follow (often to an obsessive extent) of a book series/TV show/movie/artist/actor that they watch/read/listen to. When I was asked this question, she had already asked me the "Do you like _______" question about five times. She wondered what people who didn't belong to a fandom did with their lives! (My answer: Schoolwork)

I stuttered for a minute and settled on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which wasn't exactly true. I really enjoyed reading the book series, because I think that Tolkien's writing is an art form. I wouldn't ever consider myself obsessed with it though. I haven't even seen all of the movies, and I don't know that much about the trilogy. I began to worry that I didn't have a "fandom" I could truly belong to, so I searched for one.

I started watching the TV show "Sherlock" and tried to fit into the fandom stereotype. However, there were too many issues for me in the shows, including language and inappropriate dialogue. I then switched to an obsession with Frozen. You probably know that I LOVE that movie. I spent hours on Pinterest for both of these, reading Tumblr theories and watching funny gifs. The more time I spent on these obsessions, the emptier I felt. 

I decided that I didn't want to be in a fandom. It wasted my time and left me feeling empty. Worse, I was pretending to be somebody that I wasn't. I've never really fit in with girls my age, and I decided that I was okay with that. After all, Jesus never told us to fit in.

Here are the five main reasons I'm not a part of a fandom:

(PLEASE understand, I am not trying to target anyone or to tell them to not be in a fandom! I LOVE all of my readers and all of my Pinterest friends who post fandom-related material. This is just my personal, humble opinion on the material, not the people. You're always welcome to disagree with me!)

• In Exodus 20, (the Ten Commandments) God tells us to not make idols for ourselves. When I thought about the hours I spent on the computer, compared to the few minutes I spent every night reading God's Word and talking to him, I realized that I was putting him second in too many places in my life.

• Many of the TV shows/books/movies I love contain only earthly treasures. Jesus tells us that "moths and rust" can destroy those things, but I found that those treasures are often the moths and rust that invade and corrupt my mind and heart!

• I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not. That's pretty self-explanatory. I know that I need to be me, and that's enough. By telling friends what/who I liked and trying to fit in with others, I was putting on a false impression and caused a lot of hurt for myself and others.

• 1 Corinthians 10:23 says, "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify." I'm not saying being in a fandom is wrong, I'm saying that I don't need to be fulfilled by something of this world. 

• Many fangirls admire their favorite actor/singer from afar. Instead of wasting my time pining for someone I'll likely never meet, I can "waste my time well" on building a close relationship with the one true God, who loves me and knows my name! That's more than most fangirls could say of their favorite person!

Again, I love all of you who read my blog! This is just my opinion on an issue that I wanted to share about.

If any of this makes sense or changes your mind about the issue, maybe God's trying to get to you! Who knows? I know God let me make some bad decisions and I had to learn the hard way. 

If you agree or disagree on the subject, please leave a comment! Thanks for reading! See you next time!

-M. 

On Recent Movies

Hi all!

Again, humble apologies for the lack of posts. At the moment, academic achievements are higher on my priority list than blogging. But thank you for reading anyway!

Well, here we are almost 1/12 of the way through the year! Only 11 months til Christmas! (Seriously? Where'd the time go???) I really haven't been to the theater in a while, but I thought I'd give my opinion on the past few movies I've seen.

There will probably be SPOILERS ahead. Just a warning.

#1 - Gravity

This movie is vast. It's really a simple setting, and a simple plot. Reminds me of Kaleidoscope by Ray Bradbury. It's really just two people attempting the impossible journey back to safety. 

Yet it's incredibly impacting. The visuals are stunning. The cast (of two people) carry the movie incredibly. The little amount of dialogue used tells of a bigger story. The inescapable meaning in life, in this enormous universe, shine through, as does the beautiful quality of hope. That's really what this movie is all about, is hope. 

Content-wise, there's some unnecessary language and the initial violence is pretty scary. (For me, anyway. I do tend to get scared somewhat easily.)

#2 - Frozen

I can't even talk about this movie without getting emotional. Seriously. What can I say that hasn't been said? Okay, a few things. They may have been said before though. 

First - the music is a-maz-ing!!! Every number is well made and the voices they have on the cast are top notch. I do wish that they had made a final number during the resolution, maybe a reprise of "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?" 

Second - the characters are extremely lovable. It was easy for me to identify with both Anna and Elsa, even Kristoff. And admit it, Olaf completely steals the show. 

Third - the story. I did NOT want to see this movie when we went to the theater. Within five minutes I was completely drawn into the lives of the characters and the plot that followed. It was predictable, up until of course evil Hans betrays poor Anna! I didn't really see that coming.

Content-wise, there's really no issues at all. The lessons mixed in, about not marrying the guy you just met, and the importance of family, are wonderful too. I honestly think Disney has finally produced another movie that will be among their most popular for ages to come. 

So, there's my modest observations on those two movies. If any of you have movies that you want me to share my opinion on, let me know! 

I'm planning to have a new creative writing prompt up by the end of the week, so look forward to that! See you all later!

-M.

On My Obsession Over Movies

Yes, I'm gonna talk about movies. It's okay; I'm kind of an odd person anyways.

I over-analyze every movie that I watch. I won't stay up late to watch a movie, because I'm really not a night owl. However, I like to think about the message a movie is trying to convey to the audience. I hate watching movies to be entertained; I want to learn something. Has anyone seen Catching Fire yet? I won't try to give away anything, but here's my opinion on the film:

The beauty of hope in the midst of great trials is astounding to me. Of course, I hate that it takes such a bad world and horrible things happening in the movie to highlight that hope. But the hope is there. It catches my attention and inspires me to have hope in the fact that God is in control. In the movie industry, values have seemed to have gone out the window. It makes me so glad to see a purpose in Catching Fire.

I love watching movies and TV, but I honestly end up not liking almost every movie I see. I'm glad to say that I learn something from almost every movie I watch, though. I learn a lot of things about myself and the world by watching movies.

What about you? What movies have you seen recently? What did you think about them?

Talk to you later!

-M.