The Holidays Are Here!

    Hurray for the holiday season ! I find it odd (at least for me) that the time leading up to any holiday is more exciting than the actual day itself. Because the holidays are still to come I have much to be excited for ! The best part about the holidays is being with friends and family. I have been so very far away from my friends and relatives this past year, however my family was able to come up this past week and we were able to celebrate thanksgiving together. 
    I have always held tightly to memories and traditions, which means that getting married and moving far away has been especially hard for me. Having my family come to spend time with us and celebrate Thanksgiving was a huge blessing ! God certainly does understand me and my needs.
    I am also super excited to run around Chicago with Steven during the holidays. There are so many lights to look at and things to go see. I don't only like holding onto memories from the past, but I like to make new ones too ! =)

Chicagoland Summers

    I love Chicago in the summer! I must admit that the vast majority of the time I very much dislike Chicago. It's expensive, dirty and really not all that pretty (unless your somewhere up high looking out on the city...at night). I'm more of a country girl than I realized. I love mountains and nature! However, summers are really not that bad. I think winters are worse because I'm cooped up in the apartment and don't really have anywhere to go, and when I do have somewhere to go I have to walk there in the freezing cold! In the summer, on the other hand, the city is full of life, it's warm, and there is so much to do!
    Steven and I have gone out roller-blading the the past two nights, which has been lots of fun! Last night we went out by the lake and tonight we went out to Barnes and Noble for some fruit smoothies (buy one get one free). We spent a while reading books too.
    There is also all kinds of ministry going on in the summer to be involved in. Child Evangelism Fellowship has their summer ministry in full swing-so that can be a lot of fun. Steven has been teaching at a VBS in a Korean church this week, and today I went along to help. The Korean people are a very hospitable people. Afterwards, one of our Korean friends took us to us house and served us tea. It was lovely.
    In short, I am enjoying my Chicagoland summers a lot more than the winters.

Provision for Life

    I absolutely love how God always provides. I feel like every time he supplies for all of our needs it's a new revelation! Woah! God really does provide! Amazing. Reading through old journal entries is one of my favorite things to do. It can be so uplifting, because I can look back and see all the ways that God has provided. I have entries where I am crying out to God because I am empty handed and in need. In those instances everything looks completely hopeless, but I have to always keep in mind that nothing is impossible with God. All I have to do is flip and few more pages and there is always an entry about how God worked the situation out and provided for me needs.

    My parents would always talk about how God always provided for them when they had absolutely nothing. There was a time when they had nothing in the house to eat, yet they had company coming over for dinner. My mom prayed and groceries showed up at the door. This was only one of the many times that God gave them what they needed. I have seen many of them for myself as well, but it never seemed to make that big of an impact on me. I had everything I needed- a roof over my head, food, and people who cared for me. I never had to pay the bills or worry about them. Because of this, God's provisions for the family never seemed that big a deal. 

    Now that I am off on my own and working, it's a lot more stressful knowing that I have to pay the bills and buy groceries. Yet I can see God's hand so much more clearly! We really should not be able to pay rent every month because it's so expensive and we don't make that much money;however, we make it every month and still manage to have some money to buy groceries! It can be nothing other than God's hand upon us.

Philippians 4:19-And my God will supply all your needs... 

The Joy of the Lord is my Strength

Tired, frustrated, and perhaps a little bit angry-these are all feelings that take place when we are struggling to accept a lesson that God is trying to teach us. This past week and a half has been one of those times for me. Christian Youth In Action (CYIA) (Child Evangelism Fellowships training program for teens) has been going on since last Tuesday. I have wanted to be involved as much as possible, but I have had to work most days. So my schedule is crazy hectic. I get up at 5:30, go to CYIA, then I'm off to work until midnight. This right off the bat, causes a little bit of irritation. I was also frustrated because we had no money to pay our bills and there was not anything I could do about it. I was starting to get angry about having to ride the CTA everyday with loud, dirty and annoying people. I disliked being away from Steven so much, because it's something I am not at all used to.

After having so many upset feelings going on inside of me, everything from there on out was just so incredibly annoying! This of course is incredibly ridiculous and uncalled for, but I thought they were perfectly legitimate reasons for me to be grumpy all the time.

After a few days of this, I was asked to lead a devotion for the girls last minute. The only thing I could think of to share was a devotional that I had shared on a missions trip I went on a couple years ago. The devotion started out talking about Paul and Silas when they were imprisoned unjustly. They endured incredible hardship for no good reason and yet in Acts 16:25 it says that they were praying and singing hymns to God! This is a picture of real joy. Joy should not be dependent on our circumstances. Joy comes from God and therefore it can not be affected by whatever is going on outside of us.

From there I went into talking about how the joy of the Lord is our strength! In 1 Timothy 6:12  it says that we are called to fight the good fight. In order to do that we need strength and the joy of the Lord is our strength. The ironic thing is, that when we need strength to endure hardship and we need that joy to do that, we tend to get discouraged and upset instead of joyful. This was me. Discouragement and frustration was what I chose instead of joy.

The most difficult part about learning this lesson is that it isn't something that we can learn once and then be done with it. It is the easiest fruit to lose. We can't live off the joy that we had last week or even yesterday. This is why we are told in Philippians 4:4-Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS. It is a habit that we must get into the practice of doing constantly.

Also, joy is not happiness. Happiness comes from the word "happen". Therefore, happiness comes from what is happening around you. Joy does not work that way. It does not rely on what is happening around you, but comes directly from God.

This is a hard lesson to learn, over and over....and over again! But every time the lesson is learned, we are filled with a an indescribable joy from God. Then life doesn't look so grim and dreary, but instead every mundane and seemingly frustrating situation can be turned into a joyful experience. Those hours of dreaded work turned into joyful service, those dirty CTA rides turned into opportunities to pray for the unsaved all around me, those days of little sleep turned into energy run off of joy, and those unpaid bills were in God's hands (and he did provide for our needs above and beyond what we needed for this month).

God is good all the time.

And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:19

Home sweet home

School is out now, which means most people are leaving campus. We have found this to be quite a treat! That sounds kind of awful, however it's benefits are just so wonderful. First of all, no people means no one to disturb! Of course there are still people on our floor, but our neighbors on the side of the apartment near our computers, are gone. Also, people are more than likely not studying anymore. Now for the really exciting part: free stuff!!! When people leave a lot of them just get rid of all their stuff by dumping it at the end of the hall. So Steven and I were able to find  enjoyment in being little pack rats-traveling the elevator to every floor and snatching all the stuff. We got a bunch of great stuff!

Our lovely sink area. The silver canisters were a free item.

I decided to decorate above our oven. =)

The vases were a free item. The art is something I
put together a little while ago. the back is actually part
of a paper bag from Panera, then the black border on the top and bottom is just construction paper. The green and blue is tissue paper that I glued to pieces of glass from inside a few picture frames. In between the tissue paper and the glass there are two of my wedding flowers.

We moved our furniture around a bit. Our table is now in front of our window.  Free item: a curtain rod for those curtains to hang on.

Our bedroom. Kind of obvious...

The polka dotted purse on my dresser was also a free item!

The blue curtain thing above the door was also a free item.

Some more art. I took some scrap booking paper with all different
designs and glued some of our pictures to them. A little memory wall. 

Our bathroom. Some of the wash clothes were brand
new and free.

Heres little box we got as a wedding present that you can put a picture in.

This is one of our favorite free items. A pull up bar! Every time we exit the bathroom we must do pull ups!

On the floor in front of the sink is a blue rug we got
free.

The big white light cover was also for free!

We got these side tables for free. And also some of the
pillows that are on the couch

Everything on this table was free.

Here are our little plants...which are not so little anymore! I made these little steps out of
boxes from the mail room and then i covered them with wrapping paper. Seemed to work
out pretty nicely.

I wrapped some boxes from the mail room and put some stuff in them to hide clutter.

The clock was free!

This lovely blue carpet was free!

These little carpets were free!

Mothers Day

Yesterday I was sitting on a train across from a young mother. She got on the train pushing her son in a stroller, holding a cup of coffee and carrying two very large bags. She was a very small Asian woman, so as you can imagine this was a quite a feat. The train started moving and she almost fell over while trying to care for her young son. She kept trying to get the stroller in a good place near a seat, but it was not working out. So finally she sets her bags down on a seat, parks the stroller, grabs her son out of the stroller and stumbles over to a seat. It is then that I see she has coffee stains all over her white leggings and white jacket. Her son keeps squirming and is hungry, so she grabs some food out of a bag and gives it to him. She takes out a box with some sort of child vitamin and starts reading the contents. The little boy knocks it out of her hand, and she struggles to pick it up and put it back in the bag. I'm sitting there thinking, wow, I would be so frustrated right now if I were her. However, she was perfectly calm and joined her son in a few exaggerated "woooooow's", as the door opened at every stop.

It was at this point that I thought about my mom and all she must have gone through raising me. All my mess, sleepless nights, tantrums and so much more. It takes a special person to be a mom. I am eternally grateful for the wonderful mom that God has blessed me with. She has been at my side all my life to laugh with me in the good times and cry with me in the bad. She has been the greatest friend one could ever want. In honor of Mothers Day I would like to share a poem that I wrote for my mom when I was little.

Years are coming, years are going

And as time passes, love keeps growing

It takes some time to learn to love

It's something that's sent from up above

Those who do it are blessed indeed

But love must grow like a tiny seed

Moms are people who love all their lives

They care for us and dry our eyes

Moms are special yes indeed

For their love has outgrown that tiny seed.

I love you Mom!

A Work of Art

Art is such a relaxing hobby. There is no pressure to meet a standard and there is not time constraint-it is simply what you make it. I find so often that people become perfectionists when trying to tackle an art project (and I guess I can be too, depending on what it is), but art is pure creativity-there is no need to become a fussy perfectionist, because whatever you design is unique and therefore perfect. Big name artists get paid big bucks for putting a blog of color on a canvas. This is simply their unique and perfect form of creativity. That is my drawn out explanation for why I love art.

This is the cover I doodled for the book Steven writing
and hoping to complete by the time he is forty.

I am especially fond of scenery. 

Flowers are great fun to draw.

I did this one with oil pastels.

I'm watching you!

Panera was my inspiration for this one, of course.

This one was a bit of a flop...I haven't finished it yet.

I'm not sure this one needs a caption...but...Meowth!

Bleeding hearts. I like using my own art to decorate the
apartment. It feels a little more homey and personal.

I found some cardboard outside of our apartment building and
put it to good use.

I love cherry blossoms! This one is also done on cardboard.
I painted it with acrylic paint first and then made the branch
with oil pastels. 

A Life of Protein

I'm a health freak! I love being healthy. I am the girl who stands in the produce section or the "healthy people isle", simply staring at all the food-trying to decide which food would give me the most valuable vitamins. Not a typical hobby, I know, but you do what makes you happy, right?

Anyway, my most recent health endeavor has been protein consumption. I want to start building some more muscle so, I started researching how to do that. I found that eating a high protein diet-especially after a hard workout, helps build muscles. There is a long scientific explanation for how this happens, but in short, when you exercise you are tearing down your muscle fibers and in order to build your muscles and help them recover you have to consume lots of protein. This of course makes sense when we take into account the fact that our bodies are made up of protein.

I have also decided to try eating small amounts of food-five times a day. Doing this gives me energy all day long and keeps my metabolism going. I purchased a Whey protein powder and started drinking that after my workouts. A lot of the ideas for food and exercise that I use, I have gotten from www.bodyrock.tv. She has great workouts and recipes in abundance!

A yummy drink I tried the other night with my protein powder, was a non-alcoholic pina colada.
It consisted of:
-1 Can of coconut milk
-1 Can of pineapple (next time i'm going to add at least another half a can though-I would recommend this)
-1 Banana
- 2 scoops of vanilla protein powder (you can make it without this...i just stirred some into mine after it was finished-tasted good without it though)
- Add just a little bit of chilled green tea and some ice
- Blend and drink!


Little side note-when I say I want to build muscle, don't worry, I'm not trying to become the next Arnold Schwarzenegger! Muscle is just another step in my health journey. =)

My happy thought

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of the word "Work", is: exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil. The parts of this definition that jump out at me are: exertion, effort, labor, and toil. If it is something that really interests me, I may not have such a hard time with this. However, when it is monotonous and uninteresting work, I seem have a hard time of getting into the laboring and toiling mood.

I have been working at Panera Bread for about four months now. During the past couple weeks I have been dragging myself to work and spending the part of the day I do not work, at home moping about having to work! This is obviously a terrible routine, but working at a restaurant, as a cashier, serving stressed and grumpy people all day, tends to make me apathetic towards the line of work.

This past Sunday, Steven and I attended Park Community Church and listened to a sermon that fell right in line with my dilemma. The pastor was talking about how we are made in the image of Christ, as well as made to become more like Christ. He referenced different places in the Bible where it talks about God being at work. We know that God is always at work. He did not create us to be completely lazy people, but to be workers. We are to be imitators of God. When we are working, we are serving.

I realized then, that when I am working, and helping those stressed and grumpy people, that I am serving. Maybe they need to see my smiling face and a genuine interest in their needs. I am also serving my husband by making money so we can live and he can go to school. My most important thought and driving point needs to be, that I am not simply serving man, but I am serving God.

This does not mean that I can't enjoy my days off though. His last point was that God also models rest for us. He created the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested.

This is now my happy thought at work. =)

Plasma!

Oh the joys of pinching pennies!....not. Recently things have been a little tight financially, so I decided to turn to my dear friend, Google-the solver of all problems. In desperation, I asked my question bluntly: "How can I make money?" And Google, being the oh so wise search engine that it is replied with this answer: http://christianpf.com/ways-for-teens-to-make-money/ . The part I liked about this site was that they weren't a bunch of the really impractical get rich quick solutions. I read down through the list and saw "Sell Plasma". I decided to research this one a little bit and discovered that it is perfectly safe and incredibly practical! Not only am I helping others by donating my possibly life-saving plasma, but I am also making money. So the next step was to see if there was one close by, and sure enough there was! Right at the end of the brown line (which is half an hour away, but that is close for us). I talked to Steven about it and he was for it, so yesterday we took a trip out to Kimbel and donated plasma! It was really an intriguing process. You had to go in and read a bunch of papers, get an exam, they pricked our fingers, weighed us...ect. Then we go into the room where they have a bunch of reclined chairs. They hooked us up and off we went! It was a really weird sensation. When they put the blood back inside with a new liquid to take the place of our plasma it feels cold. For our first time including the exams and paper reading and everything took a couple hours, but when we go back it should only take an hour or so.  I quite enjoyed the process. Steven, on the other hand, confessed as we were walking in, that he just realized he doesn't like needles. It all went well though, and we walked out of the place $60 richer. What makes this even better is that we can do it twice a week! Of course it won't always be that much money, but still, it's more than we had when we walked in. So, in short..(a book later) if you need a practical means of making a little extra money and you are healthy and able to qualify, I would definitely look into this!

Change

Life is full of change. During my short lifetime I have moved many times and in each instance I would have to adjust to the changing of homes. Along with changing homes I had changing friendships-those who I had once been the best of friends with slowly faded away as new people came flying into my life. As we grow our body's change and that is an adjustment as well. Our perception of life changes, our tastes change, and our feelings change.

Personally, I have never been a huge fan of change. It rips away all those things I once held dear and gives me something new and unfamiliar. In those times of change feelings of loneliness would creep up on me and I would cry and wonder why my life had to change. Why did I have to move? Why did I have to leave my friends? Why does my body have to change? Why do I have to grow up? etcetera...but then I realized that not everything changes. There will always be a constant in my life and it is the most important relationship in life. "I the Lord do not Change" (Malachi 3:6).

 At that point I realized that we are thrown into all these changes in order for us to cling to God and put our trust in him. Because I have been through so many changes in my life already, I have had so many opportunities to put my trust in God and cling to him. It is also through those times that I see him working the most. Of course he is always at work, but it's during those times that I am clinging to him so tightly and looking to him to be my solid foundation that I am able to see what he is doing all around me. 

It is wonderful to be able to look back at all those changes and see where they have brought me today. I can certainly rest knowing that God has my best interest at heart. Today I am very happily married to a wonderful guy whom I love very much. The best part of this is there are going to be many more changes in life and now I will be able to go through them with someone else. We will be able to cling to God as a couple and watch as he works all around us and through us. 

Growin little plants =D

On my way to work

The parking lot outside Jenkins. I go through that fenced area to go to work.

It wasn't a very nice day out yesterday...all the tall buildings are covered in the fog.

This is moody's yard that I walk through...it's nice to be one of the few places with grass.

Walkin down the sidewalk next to moody. 

I wonder what this door does when you press f9...hmm...

Looking ahead to the intersection where I need to cross.

Foggy buildings

Walkin through a construction area.

The McDonald's that is always crowded.

A cool looking church building of sorts.

There are a bajillion ways to walk to Panera, so I usually just follow this guy.

Gettin closer. Walking on a brick sidewalk =D

I need to walk down Erie. 

I love the lights this restaurant always has =)

This place looks cool.

I love their little courtyard. It's so cute.

Another cool building. Idk what it is..but it's cool.

I gotta walk across Michigan. I got there just in time to walk. =D

People walking across Michigan.

This is my last block

Hurray Fairbanks! Tis where I work. =D

This building looks cool. I think it's part of the hospital.

And again.

Theeeeeere it is! I work there!

This was my dinner during break. I got the mediterranean veggie sandwhich without the bread and cheese. Twas yummy.

All done! =D ...back to work....