...and

Oh yeah. Praise to God for giving me and Derek a baby =) Due date is October 16, 2010. Found out this afternoon. WOOHOO!!

Praises

I praise you, God, for the beautiful mountains lit by morning sun, resembling crisp sheets of starched linen reflected in the still waters of the sound.

I praise you, God, for your commandment to Sabbath, to take the time to enjoy your Word and your Creation for all the glory contained therein.

I praise you, God, for giving us purpose in times of great need, and direction to best glorify you in our struggles.

I praise you, God, that my students raised more than $3,000 for Haiti and feel the joy that comes with God-given compassion.

I praise you, God, for the fullness of life that comes only from knowing you.

I praise you, God, for babies, and for all the joy and heartache in every story I hear.

I praise you, God, for endowing us with a desire to be creative as you are creative, and to enjoy created things as they pertain to your glory, not in and of themselves.

I praise you, God, for giving cats the ability to be warm, soft, and purring all at once.

I praise you, God, for giving me Derek; my favorite example of your love, mercy, and compassion.

I praise you, God, because I get to. That's the best thing of all.

A teachable spirit

One of my New Year's resolutions, and something I've been praying about, is to get to know God better and spend more time with Him. Request: GRANTED! Last night was the first night of our 15-week Perspectives course to prepare us for Missions, and it was really amazing. I admit, I walked in with fairly low expectations and a distinct lack of motivation, but the lesson was really incredible. I am so excited about the work God is doing in Mongolia and I admit, I am a little jealous of the joy the Mongolian church has for God. I often feel that joy, but I don't often express it...ours is not a church where you shout things and weep and dance in the aisles. We're too...Seattle-y. Sometimes I wish everyone would shout and clap and jump up and down, just a little, because ours is a God who is worthy of rejoicing. Lots and lots of rejoicing.

I learned a lot last night, and am busy soaking up and reviewing the new revelations about our amazing God. I have lots more, though...today I went to our church's Women's Training Day at the Shoreline campus and had an absolutely incredible day of training and fellowship with lots and lots of Mars Hill ladies. All the ladies from our community group were there (and fortunately, we didn't clump, but got to know some other ladies as well - yay!) so it will be fun to talk about what we learned when we meet on Monday. We read through James...wow. I learned a ton and was very convicted to pray more for the things that I know I can't (and CAN) do myself. Sometimes God gives us trials , but He gives us trials that we can handle when we lean on Him. Sometimes the trials are seasons of suffering, and sometimes the trials are to remove idols, like comfort (hadn't thought of that before), and sometimes the trials don't feel like trials because we're oh so comfortable in our sin. Point is, we should be praying with fervor and supplication all the time. I'll admit, I suck at this. But I know how important it is and what an amazing aspect of God's grace that we even get to have relationship with our Creator, so I'll pray that God would help me mature in my faith and improve. James says that if we ask for something that glorifies God, He will grant it. What an awesome thing.

I'm off to work on my homework for Perspectives, and I'm looking forward to what I'm going to learn about God as I work. Thank you, God, for reaching out to me. I'm glad you've got big, long monkey arms, cuz it's a long way down to where I'm at.

Resolutions

To be honest, I don't remember any of my resolutions from last year with one exception: eat more spicy foods. I did that, and it was delicious. This year, I'm going to write down my resolutions and pray about them, but I'll be happy if, by this time next year, I can remember just one. Here goes!

1. Spend more time with God. I really want to spend more time delving into the Word and learning more about the God who knows everything about me. I'm especially excited because I know that at least the beginning of this year will provide lots of structured opportunity for this: we have Community Group every Monday, Bible Study every Thursday, Perspectives on Fridays, and Church on Sundays. I like structure. And learning with people.

2. Have a baby. God willing, this could be an awesome resolution. Even if we don't have one this year, all the trying will be good for our marriage.

3. Spend less time at my job. I get paid from 7:00am until 2:30pm everyday, so staying until 4:30 on a regular basis isn't really all that good for me. I want to set a go-home time and actually stick to it. This will make me use my planning period more effectively, I hope. So, I hereby resolve to always go home by 3:30 every day and the only exception is if I have to set up for a sub.

4. Close out Dad's estate. This includes: closing out the IRA still held with Fidelity, filing tax returns, redeeming that tricky savings bond, emptying the bank accounts, and placing Dad's urn in the columbarium. It'll really feel good when that is all done. My list is so much shorter now than it used to be, and I'll be happy when there's nothing left to do but remember my dad for the great guy he was.

Four seems like a reasonable number to tackle. I'll stick with that.

Blogging

Amy and I hosted our Julie and Julia party last night, which was a HUGE success! Everybody brought delicious foods, we stuffed ourselves silly, and Julie and Julia was even better than I remembered. What a sweet movie. The winning recipe of the night went to Trish with her banana layer cake, which must have been divinely inspired. Watching Julie and Julia made me want to blog again, but I feel like I don't have anything to blog about compared to her. She had a purpose, a mission...I just ramble on about my life. It made me want to have a purpose, too, but I already feel like I have a God-given purpose and I'm already on mission...it's just not a mission like Julie's with a countdown clock and a list to check off. I'm very much a list person, but that gets tricky when I'm not the one writing the list and I don't really get to see it at all. Knowing it's there and that God will help me meet the goals on the list is enough for me.

I suppose I can blog about the new recipe I tried last night, though: Hot Buttered Rum. I'd never had it before, and it was on page 62 of Joy of Cooking, so I thought it might be a good addition to the appetizer recipe I brought (which was not the greatest success of my life). Here's the recipe:

Hot Buttered Rum

-dust the inside of a warmed 8oz mug with 1tsp confectioner's sugar

-add 1tbsp real butter (I used a little less)

-add 2oz dark rum (I like Myers)

-fill the rest of the mug with boiling water and stir

-add some fresh ground nutmeg on top (I forgot this part)

I made them a little on the lighter side since we were all driving, but they did end up tasting pretty awesome. Hooray for a successful recipe!

Pulling the goalie

This has become the new catchphrase among my friends for "no longer trying not to have kids." Derek and I have officially pulled the goalie and are just praying and waiting for God's timing for our family to grow. I'm pretty excited...but I'll be more excited when I know where we're going to be living when a baby eventually arrives so I can plan and nest properly. We had a baby shower today for a guy I work with and I got to see his 2-month-old, Cole, who is simply adorable. I was quoted as saying, "I'm SO next." God willing =)

I think part of the reason why I'm so excited is that I don't feel like I need a baby to be happy...I don't feel like I NEED anything to be happy; I'm pretty darn satisfied at the moment with everything God has given me. I no longer feel like I'm always looking for something; for a best friend, for community, for satisfaction outside of Jesus. I have all those things in Him, and in the people He has answered my prayers by giving me. I feel...complete. It's an amazing feeling, and I praise God for his mercy and grace. I know I don't deserve to be this happy (despite the fact that our culture tells me otherwise) and I am so grateful to have such a benevolent God. What an awesome time to praise God for the gifts he has given us! And what an awesome time to praise God for his ultimate gift in a baby born in a manger as an answer to prophecy and the problem of sin. Because of God's benevolence, we get to be reunited with him in heaven AND have relationship with him on Earth. That's pretty rad. As my menorah shines with brilliant, warm light into the darkness of a very cold December evening, and is reflected by the lights from my lovingly decorated Christmas tree, this Jew is pretty stoked to have a relationship with my Messiah =)

Speaking of the birth of Jesus...I think I know what would make a pretty awesome Christmas present!

Shiny!

I brought home the baby Mac (which we have dubbed the "Silver Surfer" since it is silver and used to surf the internets) and have been having fun learning to use it. So far, it has been really awesome; very easy to use and leaps and bounds beyond what I had before. It sure is nice to sit in front of a cozy fire and play on the computer on a cold winter night.

It sure was cold this morning; there was frost on my car for the first time in like 2 years! We need to clean out the garage so I can start parking under cover. There's still a ton of my dad's stuff in there that we need to get rid of. Hopefully we'll take a trip to Goodwill in the near future. I don't want to have to take ANY of that stuff with us when we move again in June. Man, I am not looking forward to that. I would LOVE to stay in place for more than a year. When we move, it'll be four moves in as many years...I'm feeling kind of unintentionally rootless and I don't much like it. If we're going to be having a family at some point in the fairly near future, I want to be able to paint and decorate a nursery...I feel like all this moving has made me postpone my natural nesting urges, but when a baby comes, there won't be any postponing. That'll be the time I will put my foot down and do what I want to do to make our house feel like a home (or apartment or condo or whatever we can afford). I am looking forward to one day painting frogs and lilypads on the walls and sewing curtains and all that good stuff. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Anyway, ranting. It's nice to have an outlet for thoughts.