#4 - Quiet

Life has been busy this week.  Between Alex working to launch a new business, sharing the car multiple days, a couple of visits with friends, meetings at work, and a failed early morning swimming adventure (turns out the pool was closed. Not what you want to find out after dragging yourself out of bed and having convinced yourself that it's a good idea to hurl your body into cold water...), we are tired. This morning as I was driving to work I heard a thumping noise, immediately recognized it as a flat tire, and so pulled over and awaited the arrival of AAA before heading on to work. I was just grateful that the tire had lasted my drive to and from Pasadena where I had visited a friend the night before.

Coupled with the busyness of this week is the fact that on Monday I gave a deposit to a graduate school, and so will be officially moving forward with a very new stage in life! All very exciting, and of course, causes me to jump into planning mode -- apartments, summer school, summer trips, weddings, parties, moving costs, and work transitions. Needless to say, thinking this far ahead, aside from not being entirely necessary, is also mentally exhausting.

So, at the end of a week like this one I am tired, have become easily irritated by others, and am distinctly aware of my inability to trust the God who loves me with the details of my life. BUT - I'm grateful for the rest I have this night. Alex is out with a friend and our house is quiet. I have a chance to read, to be and reflect. To watch silly shows. To lounge in my pajamas after a nice shower. Blessings in the form of quiet and being.

Easter (and #3)

Rainy day. Baked Oatmeal. Joyful church service. Family and friends to be with. And beautiful, sweet, red strawberries, sliced to be used in an Easter dessert (#3).

#2 - The roses blooming

...one in our backyard is about the size of my head. It catches me by surprise every time I see it.

#1 - Morning light

...shining through our dining room windows.

One hundred gifts

Ann Voskamp is a name you might not have heard before.  She is a farmer's wife who lives in Canada where she raises (and homeschools) her six children.  She is also the author of the book One Thousand Gifts, a book wherein she chronicles her journey towards living a full and joyful life, even when life is her life on the farm and will not (and should not) be anything more glamorous. She tells of her discovery that our gratitude for the many gifts God gives is key to our joy:  "Isn't it here? The wonder? Why do I spend so much of my living hours struggling to see it?..."

Ann begins to list out, until she reaches one thousand, the gifts she sees in daily life. I was impressed by her list, and impressed as I saw her joy and wonder grow while she captured even small glimpses of glory and beauty, including things that may seem silly, like the pile of freshly grated cheese on a pizza she was making --
"...Happy in all these things that God gives. Ridiculously happy over slips of cheese. That I am, and it's wild, and oh, I am the one who laughs. Me! Changed! Surprised by joy! 
Joy is the realist reality, the fullest life, and joy is always given, never grasped. God gives gifts and I give thanks and I unwrap the gift given: joy."

I could go on about this book, but suffice it to say it has inspired me to begin a list of my own: one hundred gifts. I am one who all too often thinks only of what I do not have, and grasps for it. I miss the receiving part and think of only how to provide for myself, and so I miss God's provision to me in the present, and so I do not recognize His love and I forfeit joy. When I stop grasping and instead pause and take note of what has been given, maybe I will see that it is enough. At least that is what Ann saw.

What better place to post a few of these things than my blog? Point-and-shoot camera in hand, here begins a new series...

A New Favorite (2).

In case some of you haven't heard of it, I thought I would pass on the name of a design and furniture store which is a new favorite of mine:  West Elm.  Here are a few things from their website that caught my eye:

(all images from westelm.com)

Househunting

Since there is a chance that we might move, I have been on Craig's List, perusing the findings. Lest you think this premature (or perhaps it is), let me say that I am not searching to find anything, I am searching for fun. I'm sure at least some people can relate to the unexpected enjoyment of looking at real estate -- when I was in sixth grade, waiting for my Dad to finish work so we could go home after the school day (his work and my school were at the same place), I would sit on the computer, sometimes for hours, and look at homes in the area.

In the past year, I have perused Craig's List for apartments in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Fullerton, Chicago, Scotland, England, and New Hampshire -- anywhere I could imagine us living (okay, New Hampshire was just because I wanted to live somewhere with snow). The following are the priorities I have decided on for our next apartment. I will admit, it is ridiculously unlikely that a place with all these qualities exists:

-Good lighting. Bright. Sunny. Two windows in the living room, one in the kitchen (preferably above the sink).
-Hardwood floors. Old.
-Tall Ceilings. Maybe a little molding at the top.
-A nice color painted on the outside. Maybe not part of a huge complex.
-Kitchen counters with a square footage that exceeds (doubles? triples?) what we have now.
-WASHER AND DRYER
-Allows for a dog?