Thursday, April 2, 2009
Wow
Warning: Do not read that last post unless you are extremely bored! I had no idea how long it was!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Just an update.
Writing is something I must feel motivated to do. When you see on your friend's blog that you haven't posted in five weeks, you get a little motivated. Life without work has been strangely busy. If you talk to anyone who knows me well, they could tell you that I am s-l-o-w. Seriously, I do not like to do anything fast. And yet I cannot remember when my life has ever been outside of the fast track. Some people joke that they need to schedule appointments to see me. And yet I spend an incredible amount of time alone. (And don't think I'm complaining!) I guess people only want to see me on days that I'm busy.
But no, in all seriousness I have never been able to watch this much TV in my life. Or spend time working on my hobbies. I like this. But I also look forward to change when my schedule is packed with class assignments and part-time jobs. That being said, I just handed over the last piece of my graduate school application today. Yesterday I took the GRE, and when I finished I felt like breaking out into a dance in the testing center parking lot. My score was not that grand, but I was on top of the world. All of that studying, all of that anxiety--finished. I went through an entire GRE study book only for the math portion. I had another book that I studied vocabulary words from. It wasn't that it was hard, but I felt like my future hung on my retaining every detail. And now it's history.
Outside of graduate school preparation, God has given me some really cool opportunities to work in my church. All of them have been perfectly fitting for me. All of them God has been preparing me for all along. First, I work with our elementary aged girls on Wednesday nights. My job has been to come up with a song and dance routine with the help of the sixth graders and teach it to the rest of the class. This song will be performed in a few weeks at the annual mother/daughter banquet. It is a bigger deal to the kids than it is for any of the adults so I wanted them to feel like it was truly their own. And boy is it. I have loved being a part of my church's "interpretive movement" team since I was 12. As funny as the idea of it sounds, (and I have been mocked by college roommates) I think it can be absolutely beautiful and have become as skilled as someone who has never taken a single dance class can be. So I was more than happy to take this on. I could have done it all by myself but chose to let the sixth graders take the lead. So special. That's all I have to say. I have learned so much in working with all of these girls.
Another thing I am doing is being a substitute for both Sunday school and extended session with the children. I've found that both of these have helped me really get to know the kids at my church. I like being there as well.
Lastly, the most overwhelmingly exciting thing has been that I have been helping to teach the high school girls small group Bible study on Sunday nights. I get nervous every time I go, because I have never really taught before, and never at all with girls this age! But I get so pumped when I am preparing and when I start to teach these girls. I want them to know God and know God's Word. I want them to learn to really love Him. I know they are capable. I don't know when was the last time I got so passionate about something. I go to the store, see things and think, gee I think the girls would love this, I oughta buy it. Ideas bounce around my brain, and the word of God pops off the page nearly knocking me over. It's so crazy, and I never thought I could be good at this. My biggest problem is trying not to get ahead of God, because I'm rarin to go! It has been really cool to look around the room and see girls who are truly interested in what the word of God is saying. So cool.
Enough of my tirade. If I'm ever talking about the book of James, it has to do with our study. I just spent all afternoon getting a craft ready for them, a little somethin somethin to keep their Bible study stuff in. $ .75 bags at Hobby Lobby, that's what I'm talkin about!
So, that's my church stuff. On another note, I've been working out and I think it's paying off. I'm not getting on a scale until after Easter because I gave up sweets for Lent. I don't want to turn my Lent commitments into an attempt to lose weight. Until then, I can at least say I'm feeling better.
I was looking at my new year's resolutions and strangely writing them out has proved to pay off at least a little. Now I'm not by any means keeping them all, but I was impressed that some things did stick.
Looking ahead to my summer, I have found that I am busy or gone every other week until I hope to be leaving for graduate school. Kinda crazy and I'm trying to fit more in. It will be wonderful. I have to remind myself of that.
A few weeks ago I went to Florida and took Lacie along. We had a very good time and I did a bunch of things that I was very sad to leave behind again. I thought I was going to be stuck there, which I was more than content to be, because my car was making funny noises. But fifty dollars later I had no explanation and I could not make my car make the sound until I had pulled off the dealership's property. Not fun.
Probably my favorite thing of the whole trip in all of its glory was getting to attend Christ Fellowship. We drove from Orlando to Palm Beach that morning and only missed the first ten minutes of the service, but I was smiling from ear to ear the entire time. Every moment brought me so much joy, and I even got to see their new building. And of all things I got to see the people who knew me the most. I mean seriously wonderful.
Other highlights would be beach time, picnics at my favorite two trees in the world, night walk on the island, Moe's Monday, late night at Jazzman's, running into people who were glad to see me, talking in Towers, sneaking around campus giving thank you notes and visiting with professors who showed a lot of interest in what I was doing and where I was going. Could hardly have asked for better. God is so good.
But no, in all seriousness I have never been able to watch this much TV in my life. Or spend time working on my hobbies. I like this. But I also look forward to change when my schedule is packed with class assignments and part-time jobs. That being said, I just handed over the last piece of my graduate school application today. Yesterday I took the GRE, and when I finished I felt like breaking out into a dance in the testing center parking lot. My score was not that grand, but I was on top of the world. All of that studying, all of that anxiety--finished. I went through an entire GRE study book only for the math portion. I had another book that I studied vocabulary words from. It wasn't that it was hard, but I felt like my future hung on my retaining every detail. And now it's history.
Outside of graduate school preparation, God has given me some really cool opportunities to work in my church. All of them have been perfectly fitting for me. All of them God has been preparing me for all along. First, I work with our elementary aged girls on Wednesday nights. My job has been to come up with a song and dance routine with the help of the sixth graders and teach it to the rest of the class. This song will be performed in a few weeks at the annual mother/daughter banquet. It is a bigger deal to the kids than it is for any of the adults so I wanted them to feel like it was truly their own. And boy is it. I have loved being a part of my church's "interpretive movement" team since I was 12. As funny as the idea of it sounds, (and I have been mocked by college roommates) I think it can be absolutely beautiful and have become as skilled as someone who has never taken a single dance class can be. So I was more than happy to take this on. I could have done it all by myself but chose to let the sixth graders take the lead. So special. That's all I have to say. I have learned so much in working with all of these girls.
Another thing I am doing is being a substitute for both Sunday school and extended session with the children. I've found that both of these have helped me really get to know the kids at my church. I like being there as well.
Lastly, the most overwhelmingly exciting thing has been that I have been helping to teach the high school girls small group Bible study on Sunday nights. I get nervous every time I go, because I have never really taught before, and never at all with girls this age! But I get so pumped when I am preparing and when I start to teach these girls. I want them to know God and know God's Word. I want them to learn to really love Him. I know they are capable. I don't know when was the last time I got so passionate about something. I go to the store, see things and think, gee I think the girls would love this, I oughta buy it. Ideas bounce around my brain, and the word of God pops off the page nearly knocking me over. It's so crazy, and I never thought I could be good at this. My biggest problem is trying not to get ahead of God, because I'm rarin to go! It has been really cool to look around the room and see girls who are truly interested in what the word of God is saying. So cool.
Enough of my tirade. If I'm ever talking about the book of James, it has to do with our study. I just spent all afternoon getting a craft ready for them, a little somethin somethin to keep their Bible study stuff in. $ .75 bags at Hobby Lobby, that's what I'm talkin about!
So, that's my church stuff. On another note, I've been working out and I think it's paying off. I'm not getting on a scale until after Easter because I gave up sweets for Lent. I don't want to turn my Lent commitments into an attempt to lose weight. Until then, I can at least say I'm feeling better.
I was looking at my new year's resolutions and strangely writing them out has proved to pay off at least a little. Now I'm not by any means keeping them all, but I was impressed that some things did stick.
Looking ahead to my summer, I have found that I am busy or gone every other week until I hope to be leaving for graduate school. Kinda crazy and I'm trying to fit more in. It will be wonderful. I have to remind myself of that.
A few weeks ago I went to Florida and took Lacie along. We had a very good time and I did a bunch of things that I was very sad to leave behind again. I thought I was going to be stuck there, which I was more than content to be, because my car was making funny noises. But fifty dollars later I had no explanation and I could not make my car make the sound until I had pulled off the dealership's property. Not fun.
Probably my favorite thing of the whole trip in all of its glory was getting to attend Christ Fellowship. We drove from Orlando to Palm Beach that morning and only missed the first ten minutes of the service, but I was smiling from ear to ear the entire time. Every moment brought me so much joy, and I even got to see their new building. And of all things I got to see the people who knew me the most. I mean seriously wonderful.
Other highlights would be beach time, picnics at my favorite two trees in the world, night walk on the island, Moe's Monday, late night at Jazzman's, running into people who were glad to see me, talking in Towers, sneaking around campus giving thank you notes and visiting with professors who showed a lot of interest in what I was doing and where I was going. Could hardly have asked for better. God is so good.
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