A Happy Girl

What makes me happy? This:
-Tea in my Limoges set
-Studying for Greek and understanding God's Word better
-Pink Martini's "Bolero" playing on my computer
-Elise sitting in the same room as me :)

Family, Fun, Food

Pictures of Thanksgiving Twenty10. Hope your day was just as blessed as ours was!!!
Later I will put up the recipes to some of the dishes we made :)

Allegra, Cassandra, Me

Some more family... mostly Taylors :D

Me and my Niece Adelie

Mini-Cheesecakes

Homemade Apple Pie Stage #1

Homemade Appel Pie Stage #2

Homemade Apple Pie Stage #3

Allegra's Obsession...

My families cooking trinity- onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes

Family's Secret Rice Recipe... there is never any left

And the most secret family recipe- Mama Noy's Picado

Into the Turkey it goes

Placecards for everyone, with the meaning of their names on the bottom

One of the three tables

Two of the three tables.... I never got a picture of the third one =P

Give Thanks to the Lord!

My roommate, Elise, found this video and I absolutely love it!
If you know anything abour Joni Erikson Tada, you will find this video sweet, refreshing, and reflective. I wish it would let me post the video, but here's the URL at least :D
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!!!
http://www.joniandfriends.org/radio/

For my least 'uns

Over the summer, my littlest cousins fell in love with Adrian Monk E. (my sock monkey), so this is what they are getting for Christmas :)

Thanksgiving Projects

I love Thanksgiving. It is definitely my favorite non-religious holiday of the year! For me it has the perfect trilogy- Family, Food, Fun. Everyone brings a dish to my family's house, we play board games, card games, capture the flag, midnight, and what have you :)

Anyway, each holiday I usually have projects that I want to accomplish, so here are my projects for this upcoming week :D

- Apple Pie

- Pumpkin Cookies

-Roasted Baby Pears with Goat Cheese Wrapped in Bacon

-Fingerless Gloves

-Crocheted Beret

- Crocheted Slippers

Without Him...

Without His peace, I would be depressed and worried.
Without His faithfulness, I would be lost and wandering.
Without His strength, I would become worn-out and tired.
Withough His love, I would become angry and bitter.
Without His grace, I would go insane.

Without Him, how do people survive?

Finished!!!

This is it completely finished!!! Some day I'll put together a book of all the patterns I make up... some day...

Musings @ 5am

This time change has really thrown me off!
Almost eveyday I get up an hour before daylight and walk around. I like this time because no one is up... except the security guard... and there are still stars out. So, I get up, go about my daily business, and in 2 hours I know I'll have class or work, depending on the day.
But on monday my life changed.
Monday I woke up an hour before dawn, rolled out of bed, got the tennis shoes on, and as I was heading out the door looked at my phone... 5.10 am. What??!??!?!!? Not very happy. Oh well, I was up, may as well walk. By 6 the sun was bright and shining everywhere and I began to think to myself "I wonder if all the animals are as thrown off as I am?"... and then realized they don't have to life by a clock like I do. Jealous.
Anyway, in class the other day we were talking about how busy life can get with work, family, ministry, and friends, and how you prevent burnout and insanity. I have 18 units of school (which means 25+ hours of homework each week) and work about 30 hours each week. I can truly say that the only thing that has kept me going is my early morning quiet times. The time I can do whatever I want because I know that at 7.30am, my life is everyone else's until 10pm, when it becomes my own again but I'm usually too drained to do anything.

So what do you do to keep your sanity? Tell me I would love to know!!!

Flowers in the Field

This is an afghan that I have been working on this semester for a dear friend. All that's left is to tie on all the little flowers!
I love it when crocheting ideas pop into my head and I am able to create the idea through my fingers. So often it reminds me of being clay in the Potter's hands- if we are willing to yield and be molded by Him, the result is beautiful! Same with crocheting- there are knots and tough spots along the way, little intricate details and easy going areas, but in the end its worth it :)
Here are a few pics

"A Philistine on the Sidewalk..."

While working the library today I found a treasure trove in the back room! Bill Watterson was a genius with the names of these two characters, the beautiful coloring, and the phenominal phrasings like "A Philistine on the sidewalk".

Just wanted to share that :)

Every Morning New

The other morning I was thinking about the phrase "each day is a gift" and this thought popped up in my head:
If I were to give you a gift- a book, a blanket, a teacup, a drill, whatever- and I saw that it made you happy- I would be glad that it did. But what would truly make me happy is if you used that gift that I gave you. Don't let it sit on the back of the toilet in the bathroom, in the linen closet, on the cupboard shelf, or in a box in the garage. The best way to show your appreciation for a gift is if you use it!
With that said, God gave you a gift, a present, the present. Each day really is a gift from God, so how are you going to use it?