On FIVE DAYS TILL SCHOOL (!!) and Moments that Change You

This might not turn out as well as I'm hoping, but here goes nothing...

Hey everyone! M. here!!!

(So just to confirm how awful my motivation/inspiration/will to write is currently, I wrote the two sentences above TWO WEEKS ago and then was sidetracked for the day and then I forgot about them and then I continued life as usual and then I procrastinated and then I CAME HOME and then I started packing and can you tell that blogging hasn't been a priority lately????)

How are you all doing? Comment below with your lamest pun involving a banana, a buffalo, and a pair of socks. :D

GUESS WHAT?!?!?!?! I move into my new dorm in 5 (five) (cinco!!!) days!!!
I can't believe it. I'm literally dancing in my room right now. (And you can't prove me wrong cause you're not here to see it! So there.)

Anyway, on to my simplex observations of the day!

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Life is funny. It changes so quickly yet we expect it to stay fairly consistent. We expect our perceptions of the world to be consistent, which really is the strangest thing to expect at all!! This is because our perception and our "brain filters" or "worldview lenses" are always being added to with each new experience every day.

Think back to a year or so ago. Didn't you feel so much younger, or immature, or less knowledgeable? Well, that's because, obviously, you were younger. You probably were more immature. And you were definitely less knowledgeable, whether in head knowledge or experiential knowledge. And all of the moments in the last year of your life have brought you to today! And each moment is going to move you forward. To some degree, what you ate for breakfast today actually is going to change the outcome of your life!!!!

But don't freak out - it's NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL. Something that trivial is probably not going to change your life in a negative or positive way. It's a more neutral event in the grand scheme of your years of life. But there are some events, some moments or days that leave a mark on you.

And you are forever different because of it.

Maybe it was a moment in first grade when you made an awesome friend - or an "enemy for life." Maybe it was your first day at a job. Maybe it was a graduation or the receiving of an award that you worked really hard for! Maybe it was the day when someone close to you died. Or maybe it was a period of time when you struggled with doubt or anxiety or depression. Maybe it was a moment of laughter you shared with a friend. Or maybe it was the week you spent at youth camp.

Whatever it was, it changed you. And it's so weird that we expect consistency in our own lives when we have moments or days like that.

I had more than a few days like that this summer. In fact, my whole summer was an experience that changed me!! Going away for a month to a place out of my comfort zone, to a job that fulfilled me and exhausted me simultaneously, and to a spiritual craving for God unlike my usual walk with Him really grew me and stretched me in ways I didn't expect or ask for.

I'm finally home and have had a week to get back "to normal;" just in time to start packing up for school! But a recap is always necessary for me to really get some good closure.

Here's a short little list of things that hit me this summer during my summer job/weekend trips home/vacation with family:

• It's actually ok to be homesick!!!! (In the past I viewed it as a weakness and therefore to be avoided like the plague. But it's real and it's healthy!)
• Hard work doesn't always pay off. But wise work does.
• The timely encouragement of a friend is worth more than gold!!!
• Car drives were made for loud music. And singing at the top of my lungs.
• Taking pictures was one of my coping methods. And also one of my ways to save up priceless memories. 
• I really really love the visual aid of life as a story to remind myself that Jesus is a better author than I'll ever be.
• I missed my piano SO MUCH over the summer!
• I had some long days at work, but the last week had one of the hardest because I was so spent of energy.
• My time spent with God was different because I was in a place of daily reliance on Him much more that I do at home. And I want to trust Him that much all the time, recognizing that every little thing I have is from His will.

This summer changed me. God changed me in a good way, though the path wasn't sunshine and rainbows all of the time. In fact it was often clouds and downpour, both figuratively and literally!! But now I see life a different way and it's brought me closer to God and to other friends!

And now, in just five days, I'm going on another new adventure. God's called me to the school I'm headed for and He's opened every single door I've needed to follow that calling. And I can't wait to make so many memories and have those moments that change me forever as God molds me into the girl He wants me to be.

See you guys next time!!
-M.

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...

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

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     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.

Sore Feet and a Cloudy Sky

Hi readers! M. here with a simplex story of my weekend.

WHAT HAPPENED:
1. My feet got sore, and 2. It rained. Fairly simple weekend. Sounds boring, you say. (Yawn) So why on earth am I blogging about such a dull weekend?? (Haha, silly question. That's what ALL bloggers do!)

I had a few realizations about my sore feet and the rain. I felt inspired, and I learned a few somethings about God and myself from them.

That's the simple story. Here's the rest.

On Friday and Saturday I attended a homeschool convention. For a few hours during the weekend, I ran the exhibit hall, serving the vendors in small ways. (getting water, coffee, etc.) I forgot to get some comfortable shoes before the weekend and had to borrow my mom's shoes, which didn't fit quite right. Hence, sore feet! Not very interesting, you say? Well, it isn't. The thoughts I had on the way home, however, were.

I was thinking about thankfulness. I want to be a grateful person, and I try to thank God for His blessings each day. I wondered how I could be thankful for sore feet, but soon realized that I was thankful.

I was thankful because the fact that I had sore feet meant I could walk.
I was thankful because the fact that I had sore feet meant I could walk and had shoes to walk in.
I was thankful because the fact that I had sore feet meant I could walk, had shoes to walk in and had the convention to walk around at.
I was thankful because the fact that I had sore feet meant I could walk, had shoes to walk in, had the convention to walk around at, AND the freedom to walk around in this homeschool convention in America.
I was thankful because the fact that I had sore feet meant I had feet!! Get the picture? It wasn't that I was necessarily thankful for the soreness of my feet, but rather the reasons my feet were sore and the blessings I had in spite of this annoyance.

Simplexity #1 - check. Let's move on to the second event of the weekend.

RAIN.

Like I've mentioned before (repeatedly and perhaps to an annoying extent) I really love rain. It always reminds me of God's love for me. I collect my "rain stories" and store them in my memory for, well, other rainy days. Or late nights. Or blogs like this. (Stop rolling your eyes!)

A few stories:

When I was about 9 or 10, my family and I were on a road trip. It was late at night, and I had finally thought that I had picked out the big dipper. Without warning the car was in the midst of a torrent for no longer than two minutes, but it stopped, also with no warning. My mom remarked that it felt like a bucket had dumped tons of water on our car, then ran out just as fast as it poured.

I remember when winter rain came once, my brother and I put on our heavy snow coats and jumped on the trampoline in the rain.

There was one time when it started pouring in the middle of class. A few minutes later, our teacher let us out on break, but the rain had stopped and the sun shone vivid through the clouds. The crystal reflections on the walls and pavement flashed brightly.

At a mission trip meeting, the first of our summer storms hit. We finished before the downpour did and went outside to party. Let's just say over 80% of the group left for home soaked.

Two of my favorites happened at camp.

1. We were at Bible lesson time, in a tin-roofed building. A pile of hundreds of muddy shoes sat near the door, and as a Dad in the group taught, the rains came. The sound was deafening, words no longer discernible. I thought it was beautiful.

2. Last August. We were about to begin a team-building exercise when the skies opened. Of course we HAD to be doing the rock-climbing activity right at that point! The rain stopped a few minutes later, but everyone and everything was wet and slippery. We finished team-building and headed back to camp about a 1/4 mile away, but the storm was far from over!! No one got back to the cabins with even an inch of dry clothing. I loved every minute.

Sorry for the memory dump. Anyway, back to this Sunday's simplex rain.

It was different. I had fallen asleep in the afternoon due to my exhaustion from the weekend. I woke to the sound of the skies screaming. Normally I delight in those moments, but this rain, this torrent was angry. It was sad. I was usually overjoyed for summer showers, but when I heard this one, I knew something peculiar existed within the deluge. I still don't really understand why this rain made me feel bitter, for a storm has never done that before.

The simplex thing about it was that I had a chance to open up my rain-memory book and tell myself the joyful stories again, the ones above along with others.  The peaceful recollections brought a sense of acceptance. This rain reminded me of the song "How He Loves," in which the lyrics say this:

"He is jealous for me

loves like a hurricane, I am a tree

bending beneath 

the weight of his wind and mercy."

God's creativity astounds me, reminding me that I've had hundreds of rain stories to collect and yet none are alike! AND I could be thankful about the rain too, the way I learned this weekend!! I don't think I've even learned the whole lesson yet, but these little thoughts were definitely part of it.

Thanks for reading, as always! I hope you enjoyed my attempt at making my weekend sound interesting. :) See you next time!
-M.

Rain and Storms

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Just stopped in today to post something new.

Yesterday it was raining most of the day. It's weird, but rain makes me so happy. I love watching the clouds ever so slowly invade the sky before a storm. I enjoy playing the weatherman and predict when the storm should come. I can smell a storm in the air sometimes. I breathe deeply and smile at the world's ceiling, hoping the downpour would hurry up.

That first drop is almost always a surprise. I wince, then second guess myself, looking up to see if I imagined it. Another hits me after its flight down to the earth. "What's it like up there?" I wonder. To touch the clouds, that would be my life's dream. (I know that they probably don't feel like cotton candy, but I still want to know what they're like!) 

If I'm inside when the storm starts, I'll listen to the melody of the rain and the wind weaving its way in and out of the song. I'll look out the window and watch two drops roll down toward the ground, seeming to race towards the dirt. 

The pavement will be slick for the rest of the day. The park by our house will be flooded. Some people will become grumpy and wish the storm would go away. I still smile every time it rains. 

It's interesting, though, how the Bible talks about storms. A storm is usually at the point of the story when someone is trapped in sin or going through a really rough time. I'm reminded of the disciples in the boat when Jesus walked on the water to them. The wind was against them, and though it wasn't raining as far as we know, we are told that Peter was in a storm of doubt and fear. Yet when he was trusting in Jesus, he could walk OVER the waves! 

It's weird. I love rainstorms, because I know it will cause the ground to flourish and it honestly is fun to watch. Do I embrace God's tests and trials in the same way? Do I smile when God is pushing me out of the door into the storm, knowing that he will use the rough times to cause me to grow? I have to follow Peter's example when he stepped out of the boat, and have the faith in God's plan and focus on Jesus's face that Peter did. 

Have a great Thanksgiving! I hope that you are enjoying this blog. 

-M.