Another Birthday :)

Michael - Happy Birthday!!! It hardly seems like just a few months ago that those butterflies were in my tummy anticipating your trip to Raleigh to spend some time getting to know each other better. The butterflies have, thankfully, long since vanished and I have loved every minute of getting to know you and growing and learning together.

I'm indebted to you for introducing me to all kinds of wonderful things like Richard Bach and Conscious Living, not to mention pumpkin pancakes ;)


I'm so glad Dawn decided she needed to introduce me to her "little" brother, though I'm not quite sure how she knew we'd be so perfect for each other :)

I have to say I love your sense of humor :) But at the same time I'm very grateful that we can also have serious discussions and ponder deeper things together. I look forward to having many more such conversations and fun times!

The past few months have been full of changes and adventures; who can possibly picture all that life may hold in store for you in the next twelve months? I wish you a very special birth-day and the most wonderful year possible!!! Happy Birthday :)

For the Birthday Girl

Lindsey, I have to say your friendship has been one of the most unexpected blessings in my life over the past few years! You intrigued me when I first saw you at the library but I never thought we would become such close friends and now roommates :)
Our walks around Lake Pine were a huge part of the growth of our friendship. They gave us many hours to discuss our perspectives on life and to challenge each other to new ways of thinking. They even got to be shared with Shelley when she came to visit :)


I will never forget how well you took care of me after the accident. Taking me to the park so I could get away for a bit and allowing me to be more independent than anyone else would let me be. Somehow you knew that was just what I needed at the time.

In many ways it was also thanks to you that I was able to go to college. You provided so much encouragement and help and reassurance. It was such a blessing to get to take all our classes together my first semester as I was learning the ropes of being in a "real" classroom setting. We have shared so many memories, fun times, struggles and lessons. We've learned and grown together and I hope that continues for many more years to come!
May this year to come be a wonderful one for you! I know it will bring many changes and challenging times along with the enjoyable ones, but I pray that they will all bring growth and joy in the end. Happy Birthday my friend!!!

Homemake-y ;)

I have to admit that even with as stressful and change-ful as the prospect of moving out has been - I'm LOVING it :) ...kitchen towels, rubber scrapers, beautiful wooden spoons, green plates, being given the mixer/blender that I learned to cook with, tea for my cabinet, even tarragon ;)... I have no doubts that the kitchen is going to be my favorite spot in the apartment; we'll even have a counter for bar stools so I can enjoy company while I cook and experiment and enjoy being homemake-y :) For now its all in boxes though, waiting for Friday for things to find their way into cupboards and drawers!

My weekend in pictures...

Denver has such cool coffee shops compared to Cary!

"Katie Cat" and Carrot (consider yourselves privileged, not everyone gets to see me in my kitty ears, much less with whiskers!)


Tea tasting at Celestial Seasonings in Boulder (my favorites? Acai Mango Zinger and Moroccan Pomegranate. Oh and Echinacea too! Now I have tea for the apartment :) )
Promise ring :)

Changes and Lessons

Life has been a whirlwind these last few weeks, with extra shifts, a trip to Denver and preparing to move on the 26th on top of normal homework, teaching and work at the library. At least once a day I find myself thinking how insane I am for attempting all this in such a short amount of time. Then I have to stop and remind myself that with the way things have happened, it is quite clear that this is God's timing for things and that everything will work out just as He intends it, even if I don't see the way right now. I am continually being convicted of my lack of trust. I feel like I go around in circles: I fret and worry, God provides, I think how silly I was to worry and not trust. Then before too long I find myself worrying over something else, and the need is met and I think how foolish I was...

Life is an adventure, so many lessons to be learned, experiences to be had, difficult things to face. Life seems particularly adventuresome right now with so many changes occurring, but I pray I will be able to enjoy the adventure rather than focusing on the stressful aspects of it all. Needless to say, there is more to come: pictures, lessons, descriptions of the apartment...stay tuned for those of you who can put up with my infrequent randomness that sometimes pass as blogging!

Music

I've been discovering recently how starved I am for music, more specifically starved for playing with other people, people at a similar "level" (duets of Lightly Row are great and everything but they leave a bit to be desired). Matthew was home the other day right between right between some of my lessons and we spontaneously ended up playing some of our old piano and violin pieces together. We rediscovered a Dvorak piece that had been an absolute favorite several years back and we happened to end with the last grand chord right as my student walked up the drive way. It was exhilarating!

Dawn and I have plans afoot to work up a concert together, most likely at the beginning of the fall. I'm really looking forward to this, partly as incentive to practice and perfect skills I've learned (particularly ones from Mrs. Gardner), and also because it will mean lots of practices together and opportunities to play! Do any of my violin friends out there have any suggestions for pieces to consider working up for this concert? (Cheri, I know you probably have some input... ;) I'm so jealous that you're getting to study with Katie G.H.!) Any Beethoven ideas would be especially great, I'm not sure what it is recently but I've been dying to play Beethoven!

February

So a few of you know about my habits project from a few years ago. I attempted to see if, instead of having a few New Year's resolutions that I abandoned by March, if I could add a new habit each month. I only made it half way through the year, but I still think it could have a lot of potential if I could not only make it through a whole year, but keep up with each habit. Twelve new good habits could make quite a difference! And so I'd like to try it again. Last time I focused mostly on outward habits (like flossing my teeth regularly - ha, yeah, that didn't go so well...) but this year I'd really like it to be a combination of deeper things as well as more obvious ones.

In January my focus was on learning to let myself feel things deeply. "We have to open ourselves up to what we are feeling, to let those emotions flow. If we bottle them up, we will still feel them in our sub-conscious. Something will feel off, but we won't be able to identify it or know what to do about it." (Sorry for the paraphrase, Michael) And then the second half of this lesson was to "acknowledge a feeling or thought but not get caught in it." Its just a feeling, I don't have to let my emotions control me, but I can learn a lot from what I discover in them and where they are coming from and I still have a choice about what to do with them. These lessons have made a huge, huge difference in my life; I am able to tune in more easily to what is going on beneath the surface instead of merely rushing through life going from one thing to the next.

What I'd like to focus on this next month seems a little more mundane, and yet in a way it is still related to my lessons from January. Last month I learned to tune in to what is going on inside. Now I need to spend some attention tuning in to outward details. Things like being punctual (whether with returning library books or answering emails), keeping track of various things, and doing some projects to bring my surroundings to a little more order. (There's a pretty good likelihood I'll be moving at the end of the month so having things more organized by then would really help!)

So now you all know what I'm supposed to be up to this month...I'm hoping that will provide some added motivation ;)