senior citizens...

my friend meredith and i are basically two old women...

on any given day if we are hanging out we would most likely prefer drinking some hot tea, eating oatmeal, talking about making quilts or walking around hobby lobby...

God made us so similar... we often joke about being the same person.

and i love her...

so much...

funny thing we've only been friends for a little over a year
(we actually had a 1 year anniversary of being friends date last week where we bought each other coffee and bright colored tights)

and although i've only known her for a short time, i consider her my closest friend.

she is darling....and would be embarrassed if she knew i was talking this much about her..

so i'm going to get to what i was actually going to talk about.

quilting.

one of meredith and i's goals for the semester is to make a quilt.

but we are terrible at making decisions.

i keep going back and forth over what i want my quilt to look like....but i think i've finally decided....

it will be a simple pattern with hexagons...

and a combination of navy blue, sky blue and oranges...

now i actually have to just decide on some fabric and start sewing....

mmmm i'm excited.

i need you.

there are some days when i'm ridiculously thankful for those around me.

recently my heart has been real insecure and my friends have been building me up like crazy...

somehow satan still seems to weasel his way in...

barf...

but i read this the other day and i thought it was pretty neat...

"be prepared. you're up against far more than you can handle on your own. take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. learn how to apply them. you'll need them throughout your life. God's word is an indispensable weapon. in the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. pray hard and long. pray for your brothers and sisters. keep your eyes open. keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out."
ephesians 6: 13-18 (the message)

so hey guys... we need each other... just so you know

don't mind me...just drinking my mint tea...

so... i originally hated the idea of 8 a.m. classes.

but i'm beginning to love the fact that i get up so early...

leaving the day full with so much more time and possibilities.

not that i've been productive today, well kind of.

class, work out, shower, a bit of laughter with the lovely people in my house.

for lunch i just ate 2 pancakes... and a side of peas and black beans with marinara and cheese...

yes, a ridiculous meal, i agree.

but i need me some veggies and fiber.

so now i'm sitting here, with some time before my next class.

i'm going to have a quiet time with my Jesus, which my heart desperately needs

...as soon as i stop being distracted by this jewel of the internet.

CRAFT GAWKER!!!!

please check it out, it's addicting.

so here we go...i leave you with the rest of the day.

what will you fill your day with?

i hope it's wonderful, and refreshing for your heart.

p.s.....here's just a quick bit of what i just read... it kinda got my heart all excited..

"Christians were never meant to be normal. We've always been troublemakers, we've always been creators of uncertainty, agents of a dimension that's incompatible with the status quo: we do not accept the world as it is." -Jacque Ellul

i really do love little bits like this that make me re-evaluate how i see the world i am living in.

a few letters on a thursday....

dear natural jif creamy peanut butter,

you are one of the greatest things that has ever happened to my taste buds. i am eating you on a slice of whole wheat bread right now...tremendous.

dear shakira,

zumba made me love you....and i just can't stop.

dear blank t-shirt,

i promise i will embroider you soon....for some reason i just keep finding other things that seem to be taking priority over you...lame.

dear ukulele,

i promise some day soon i will again play you.... i may be rusty...but it'll happen.

dear snow,

i don't care what all the haters say, i think you are absolutely beautiful.

dear muncie,

i think you have so much potential that i'll stick around after i graduate.... you have camped out a special place in my heart.

dear ashley,

thanks for laughing with me and keeping me accountable to not spend money on coffee. i think living with you would be positively supreme.

dear beans and rice,

i could eat you for every meal

dear david,

i love laughing at 'modern family' with you. you make me all giggly .... thanks for convincing me to stick around your place for a while this afternoon. yeah, i love you.

dear meredith,

lets grow old together...

dear VT loves,

i very much wish that i could hug you right now.... there are some days when i just want to run away to blacksburg and have a great big sleepover. my heart needs you, and you are all such a great picture of God's grace in my life.

we are made to love and to be loved

yes, i enjoy listening to bruno mars.

music elitists.....feel free to judge me.... i just can't help myself...

that being said...let's move on.

despite the treacherous icy conditions outside my day has been wonderful..

i started off the day by bringing my dear david breakfast. he wasn't feeling well last night and couldn't fight the urge to check up on him this morning.... i love my boyfriend...just something you should know about me. and if you're around me long enough you'll probably get annoyed with how much he comes up in conversation...i just thin

k he's pretty rad.

i then got to share breakfast with my beautiful friend meredith. we had baked apples in our oatmeal and peppermint hot chocolate. the people in my life are such a clear picture of God's grace in my life. meredith, for example, is one of the most patient people i know. she has one of the most level-heads and is so great at communication...uggg i think she is positively splendid.

we spent our morning giggling over how adorable our new favorite blog is..

please check it out...

teamboo2000.blogspot.com

blogs like this make me want to get school over with already...

so that i can become a stay-at-home mom sooner....

how adorable is their family.... for real.

the rest of my day is filled with some much needed time with beth...

some random homework....

taco night with david....

and hanging out with some great people from the Revolution downtown...

God is good today....and He is making my heart more and more grateful each day....

mmmm flannel bed sheets

i feel like in the past few weeks my heart has been challenged with some pretty difficult stuff...

but God has been gentle...

and the difficulties don't seem so difficult in the lens of community.

i'm trying to learn more about leadership..

because it feels like often there is pride in my leadership efforts...

my heart needed some humbling...

but again, God has been gentle...

and I don't know why that surprised me?

maybe because I can so easily be coarse and almost hurtful when i think it's my place to teach something...

but it turns out that you shouldn't force your own flaws onto God...

because He most definitely does not look like my flaws...

and for that I am thankful...

recently I've been reading a book that is co-authored by shane claiborne and john m. perkins.

it's a book about leadership and followership (yeah, i'm aware that's not a word)..

it's a really great picture of the importance of being a leader by first being a follower...

and it's been pretty outstanding so far... here's a taste:

"When folks share our demons, our struggles and our pain, they also will want to share our hope"

-john m. perkins

it's a friday and i have no responsibility until noon...

i wish my relationship with this blog wasn't so flippant...

i seem to forget about it most of the time

i guess that's just something else i need to work on.

so hey it's a new year, i know that's a statement that's about 14 days late, but i'm still writing my dates wrong so evidently i still need some convincing.

with new years come new resolutions

this is usually a tradition that i ignore

this year though, my best friend and i sat down and each wrote out 22 goals/resolutions for our 22nd year...

mine look a little something like this

1. sew more

2. send more snail mail

3. work on my relationship with my dad

4. take pictures with my film camera and keep some real photo albums instead of facebook albums

5. help my mom set up an etsy account

6. make up my own recipe

7. hang out with my friend beth every week

8. send more notes of encouragement to people

9. memorize some scripture

10. set up a budget

11. actually start a "book club"

12. be better about having intentional, authentic conversation and not just superficial small-talk

13. be more creative about the time that my boyfriend and i spend together, you can only watch so much hulu

14. be proactive about internship stuff

15. work at soup kitchen more

16. go on a roadtrip

17. do a different creative project every month

18. get another tattoo

19. visit my best friend at her school

20. talk to strangers

21. have daily quiet times

22. have 6 extended quiet times- at least 3 hours

bonus: make more lists...

its funny....

but even writing these things down has made me think about them more...

maybe you should think about making a list, eh?