Introducing….

Dahlia, Samara, me
Hold the phone! My friend Dahlia and I are kind of swapping blogs for a day, so tune in tomorrow to learn a whole bunch about this lovely lady! You can check out her blog here, and come back tomorrow to learn about her via an interview!

Meet my friend Dahlia!!!

 My real-life friend Dahlia and I decided to “interview” each other over our blogs. We each came up with 5 questions {hers are indicated with a D and mine are with a B}, and you get to read her answers here and my answers over at her blog! Oh, and we wrote an introduction for each other and we both approve, and we both are really excited for this!

Dahlia is a dear, dear "real-life" friend of mine. We have known each other for the past almost-5 years, and she is an amazing woman! She encourages and uplifts me every time we talk. Dahlia is about to start student teaching, and we're both going to graduate in just a few short months. Dahlia is a true gem, and I hope you enjoy getting to know her as much as I enjoy knowing her. You can check out her blog here.

1D. Why should anyone read this blog post?
It will only take a couple of minutes, and you might get a mongo revelation in the process. :)
1B. Why blog?
Great question!
I started to blog so I could reflect on experiences that I wouldn't necessarily journal about [particularly teaching-related stuff]. And I figured - hey, it's also a great way to let far-away-friends-and-family in on tidbits of my life. Oh, and another reason: I like to communicate through writing, so this is a way to do that.


2D. What's an issue you're passionate about?
Women! - living true to our identities, knowing we are female for a reason, seeking to complement [not compete with] the opposite sex.
2B. What is your favorite thing about keeping a blog?
I love comments, and I love reading blogs of people I know - not a fan yet of reading strangers' blogs. Makes me feel too much like an outsider [or intruder?]


3D. What could we use less of in the world?
Worship of sex in the culture, fruit flies [they're all OVER my house this time of year], government-run slash government-mandated programs, sarcasm, shallow conversation, and TV!
3B. What are (were) some of your New Year's Resolutions?
Well, you caught me there. I didn't make any. Scratch that -- I do have one: reading the Bible daily [which is made so easy through my handy-dandy Daily Bible, 365 readings in chronological order]! But some big words for me this year have been "consecration" and increased relationship with my parents and with the Lord.

4D. What do you see that is right and good in the world?
Ah! The sun shining over the mountains, coffee dates, worldwide action against the injustice of human trafficking, and pockets of the world where the people, families, and communities are kind, welcoming, generous, and loving.
4B. In your almost-four years of college, what has been the best thing and the most challenging thing?
The best thing has been the relationships formed and my personal growth. I have matured much since four years ago! The most challenging has been punctuality for me, which is related to time management.


5D. What is your dream [but totally feasible and foreseeable] vacation?
Okay, there are a few. Are you ready?
1. Prince Edward Island with Bek! [Summer 2013, maybe?]
2. East coast with my bro! [Possibly also summer 2013]
3. Mexico for an extended period of time, to refine my Spanish.
5B. What are some of your nicknames [if you're feeling free enough to share, haha]
The longest-standing nickname is definitely Ebony, from my Grandpa [since my sister's name is Ivory - and, yes, he would sing the song!]
Then, there's Dolly, from my oldest brother, uncle, and high school soccer coach
Finally, there's Dahls, from my MC class
None are embarrassing!
 
And there you have it, folks! Hope you've enjoyed getting to know Dahlia. If you have any other questions for either of us, please ask us in the comments. :)

“To Whom It May Concern”

Just fell in love with this song. Check it out!

P.S. My friend Dahlia and I are going to have a little fun with each other’s blog… this has been in the works for a couple weeks, so stay tuned!

Kicking that Bucket List

Over Spring Break, my bucket list took a beating. Within 2 days, I accomplished 2 items on that list. What now. I’m closer to a happy death…wow, that’s morbid. Must be the B.enadryl-like meds I took last night. Anyway. What did I accomplish, you ask?

I FINISHED LES MISERABLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Heck to the yeah!!!!!!  1,465 pages done and done. I was crying on the plane and everything! It was actually quite funny. I’m sitting in my window seat reading, wiping my eyes, sniffing, pausing to blink back a full-on dumping of tears, and I finally finish the book and sit there and bask in its wonderful glow, and then I put the book away, still sniffing a bit. The lady next to me has had her headphones in the whole time, and I didn't even say, excuse me, I need to go blow my nose. She just got up and I was like, oh, ok, I’ll go blow my nose so you don’t have to listen to me sniffle during our final descent. Poor lady. She should invest in those headphones that feel like they’re sucking your inner ear into your outer ear. Those babies don’t let you hear anyone sniffle.

Moving on.

On Saturday, a bunch of friends got together and went to someone’s grandparents’ field and we shot guns. Oh yeahhhh. I've officially shot guns now, and I must say, now I know how people get addicted. It was crazy fun! Loud, yes; thrilling, absolutely. Would I do it again? Probably.

My friend also had a really nice camera and he let me “play” with it, so I got to shoot other people shooting. Ha. But seriously, this camera was super fun to use, and gun pictures just turn out better anyway.

Well, there ya go. I’m going to go take a test now- wish me luck. It’s the beast-class… I appreciate your prayers!

Sacrifice

The word just keeps coming back to me. As I mentioned earlier, the Lord has called me to a season of fasting. Sadly, I have not been as faithful in this as I should have been. The Lord asked me “are you willing to sacrifice here so that you may reap the rewards later? Is {this issue} worth the cost now?”

At Awana last night, the kids’ lesson was about sacrifice. The teacher asked the kids to define a sacrifice. Their answer: something that costs something.

A teacher from high school and an overall incredible lady has been blogging about training, and I think training and sacrifice go hand in hand. You can read about her training here.

Bound4Life is a marvelous organization that prays for the end of abortion. The end of this blog post reminded me once again of sacrifices we must make in order to reap fruit.

P.S. I encourage you to research your products, because as we sacrifice time and convenience to purchase products untainted by abortion, companies must change their habits because of financial losses. More on that another time.

Another blogger wrote about asking the Lord to wake her up when He wants to spend time with her. How incredible. What a sacrifice. I’ll be honest: my first thought was, Lord, I want to spend time with You, but I want to sleep, too! My flesh does not like the sacrifice of getting up early to be with Jesus. But oh how my spirit grows.

So now what? Well, let me be practical. I've set my alarm for ten minutes earlier than normal {I know, ten minutes is not all that much, but if you were beginning to train for a marathon, would you go out and run 26.2 miles? Nope. You would start by maybe walking, maybe jogging a mile. You would start where you’re at. And besides, it’s what Jesus asked me to do, and to be frank, I at first begrudged Him those ten minutes.} These ten minutes are spent simply praying. I have to tell you- it is easier to wake up and pray in bed than it is to sleep ten more minutes and then just get up. Maybe it’s because you don’t necessarily have to be entirely awake to pray, but I find myself being totally awake and able to focus on Jesus. I think it’s because it’s what He asked me to do, so the grace is there.

And now as my prayer life is growing, I find myself praying more throughout my day. I walked to the gym today declaring the Blood of Jesus over my mind. The ten minutes in the morning get me hooked on Jesus; who needs caffeine when you can have the Lord??? I seriously crave Him; He’s my addiction and I love it… has anyone else gotten drunk in the Spirit? That is fun. Wanna get hooked on Jesus fast? Try it. Anyway.
Part of sacrifice is self-control, and I've got to exercise it right now and go work on a paper. :) Peace out. And leave comments. :)

60 days! and other musings

First of all, here’s another shout out to the sis that reads this blog. I miss you a ton, and will see you here in 65 days! Can’t wait to introduce you to my home-away-from-home, and to hear in person all that God has been doing in your life. Can’t wait, sister-friend! {name the movie that phrase is from}

Second of all, OMG GRADUATION IS IN SIXTY DAYS! Bah!

Thirdly, today was marvelous. :) My college is random and makes up its own holidays, such as today. This holiday is “Learning, Labor, and Exploration Day",” or otherwise shortened to Labor Day {not to be confused with the country’s Labor Day that my school does not celebrate…lol}. There are no classes on Labor Day, and only essential labor has to work {like the gym, cafeteria, library, etc}. The sun was shining today, and I wore a sundress for the first time in 2012. Praise Jesus!

In the morning, I met a friend and we did the 100 workout. Oh yeah. As my friend and I encourage each other, “burn the butter!”

After this lovely workout regime, I headed to my little students’ advising meeting {little students is a term of endearment, as is “cute little freshmen!”}. They’re all doing well, I think {most I haven't seen since last semester} and it was good to catch up a bit with them.

Lunch was in the gym {way to celebrate, I know} and it was fun to walk around afterwards and see the various booths with some friends. Then I headed to the local coffee shop to attempt to work on a paper with my roomie, but we both ended up just sipping our drinks outside and enjoying the sunshine for a bit. When we had soaked up our daily dose of Vitamin D, we went back to our room and worked {with the window open} and actually accomplished a lot. Yay, us!

This week has been fabulous. The weekend was amazing. Tomorrow is going to be wonderful. This weekend is going to be incredible {I get to see my mom!!!!!!!!}. My level of trust in the Lord has grown to new levels, and this is only the beginning of the “growth spurt” if you will. Jesus is so, so faithful to draw me into Himself, even {and especially} when I’m not drawing into Him. His love is so extravagant and His mercies really are new every single day. I can’t believe it; He blows my mind every day. Gah. I love Jesus!
My friends, we serve an amazing God. We are so loved. This song sums up my response {note- I’m a fan of the song only; the images I think are also meant to inspire praise, but I haven’t watched it and I hope the first clip doesn’t freak out any vegetarian readers I might have}. :)

add *this* to your music library

This song is soooo uplifting. I love how Jenn Johnson hears from Heaven and sings it out, and then the Lord can just go bam there you go. It’s incredible. Lyrics are written out on you.tube- sorry, nothing here. Just listen once. or twice. or three times. yeah, the song is that good.

Enjoy!