i love:

the next posts will be about things that i love. it could range from people to clothes to places to jewelry to food. who knows.

today's love:

i love "white christmas." it is my favorite christmas movie of all time. closely followed by "a charlie brown christmas."

christmas time is here

wow. HUGE blog neglect. my b. i guess that christmas break is as good a time as any to come back.

i have nothing to say right now really. it's good to be home. good to have time to do little artsy things.

here's one thing you have to watch for christmas.


sorry to have left you, little blog. and a merry christmas!
more soon.

'we can drink the runoff'

i'm not a worrier, usually. i tend to let things fall where they may and accept situations as they are. but i think my personality lends itself to the phenomenon of 'bottling,' where i let little things build until i explode all those pent up things at once. the result is usually dramatic and/or unnerving.

but i was thinking about the verse that says 'my cup runneth over..' which sounds alot better than 'my bottle explodeth.'
and i realized that god doesn't always give good things in huge measures. little pieces of beauty and drops of joy are always added to my 'cup.' when i can't even see it, he will give me a tiny bit more courage...or he will will hold my tongue when i need to be gentle.
all these things bottle up and lead to a glorious overflow. and the most wonderful part of it is that i can take no credit for my own joy or anything good that comes from the cup of my life. i can only drink deeply of an abounding grace and live to share that grace.

summa.

there's nothing better than being tan, hanging out at pools, seeing old friends, eating at newks, playing tennis, and watching glee all in one day.

oily avoidance

well hello! how's your summer going? good? good.

well the last thing i want when i go to the beach is a gratuitous flow of oil, so i'm getting ready to go to cashiers, north carolina with my family slash grandparents. if i knew how to post pictures of it, i would. but it's beautiful, regardless.
mountains, rivers, lakes, fishing, boats, hiking, cooking, reading. some of my favorite things. i'm really excited.

i've finished lost. i unashamedly cried, and i'll miss it, but i'm taking desmond's advice and letting go. it was a good 6 years.

babysitting. lots of that lined up for the summer. (cash money to support my thug life.)
tonight i took care of 4 kids- angus, grey, riley and brady. for 2.5 hours.
in those short hours i: made a pizza, kept brady and angus from using the couch cushions as moon bounces, listened to an impromptu violin recital, read thomas the tank engine books, taught how to play thumb wars, and made a large batch of strawberry, blueberry, banana...raspberry...pear...smoothies.
god help mothers. i don't know how in hades they do it.
but i loved every minute of it. such happy chaos.



ok. long post. winding it down.
so i'm just really used to staying up til like 3 am....i get all awake and can't fall asleep and sooo i've started listening to tim keller sermons on my ipod.

in this one, he quotes lewis on significance.

‘the weight of glory’

“there are no ordinary people. you have never talked to a mere mortal. nations, civilizations—they are mortal! their life is going to end. and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

it is immortals with whom we joke, work. it is immortals that we marry, snub, and exploit. everyone, someday, will be an immortal horror or an everlasting splendor.

this does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn—we must play. but our merriment must be of the kind which exists between people who have from the outset taken each other seriously…the weight of your neighbor’s glory is a burden you should put on your back everyday, and only humility will carry it.”
-c.s. lewis

aaah. so beautiful. and heavy. and motivating. i wish i could fully understand it. but i love it.

on that light note, i hope that all of you have beautiful summers. i'll be writing campers and emailng international travelers. if anyone gets in a desperate need of any strawberry cupcakes or pumpkin bread, i'll send packages. just text me.

home

i will have a new little nook next semester. and it will be cozy and great. and some of the people i love will be close by. and i'll get to DECORATE.
plan:
-different shades of white in tons of textures
-yellow pillow i saw at moxii
-paint some art for my walls
-mint green rug from urban

check.

i've gone crazy online shopping today. the day before my cumulative biology final. bad life choice.

we learn that through all of life there runs a ground note of cosmic disappointment. you are never going to lead a wise life until you understand that. jacob said, "if i can just get rachel, everything will be ok." and he goes to bed with the one who he thinks is rachel, and literally, the hebrew says, "in the morning, behold, it was leah." one commentator noted about this verse, "this is a miniature of our disillusionment, experienced from eden onwards." what does this mean? with all due respect to this woman (from whom we have much to learn), it means that no matter what we put our hopes in, in the morning, it is always leah, never rachel.

...when the lord saw that leah was not loved, he loved her. god was saying, "i am the real bridegroom. i am the husband for the husbandless. i am the father of the fatherless." this is the god who saves by grace...he loves the unwanted, the weak and unloved. he is not just a king and we are the subjects; he is not just a shepherd and we are the sheep. he is a husband and we are his spouse. he is ravished with us--even those of us whom no one else notices.

...who can i turn to who is so beautiful that he will enable me to escape all counterfeit gods? there is only one answer to this question. as the poet george herbert wrote, looking at jesus on the cross: "thou art my loveliness, my life, my light, beauty alone to me."

-counterfeit gods