I was sitting in my bedroom in the house of dreams, preparing for the upcoming weeks. I spied my mask from my superhero days–it had been upended in the moving process.
For old times sake, I put it on–placing my glasses overtop. I could use all the super-power planning abilities I could muster for this trip’s logistical nightmare.
Anna couldn’t help but snap a picture.
I’m desperately attempting to empty my cupboards and my freezer before I move my kitchen.
There’s no way I’ll succeed in even making a dent–but I can at least not purchase anything new.
So when my raisins ran out, I needed to find something else to put in my oatmeal. Opening my cupboards, I found little to approximate the effect. But in my freezer, I found some blackberries.
I’d have never thought to put blackberries in oatmeal except for the necessity of not purchasing anything new. As it was, I was ecstatic to have discovered a delicious new dish.
Perfect!
When you’re as busy as I am with the things I am busy with, you do what you’ve gotta do to make things work.
So if you really need to transport a bookshelf up to your new house–and you have to do it before the craziness (really) begins…
You stuff it into your car, thankful that you have a trunk that expands into the backseat. When it doesn’t quite fit, you scoot your seat up and sit with your back at an acute angle for the hour and a half drive north and west.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
I love to teach.
I don’t necessarily love to grade.
Last Saturday, I fell asleep on my grading. I awoke Sunday morning looking like this:
Gotta love mascara smudges, right?
On the day of our fantastic BET (Burn Evil Things) Party, I took some photos of my friend’s and family’s hair. I thought I’d set them up as a matching game–to see who can recognize who belongs to what hair.
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| Hair Sample 1 | Hair Sample 2 | Hair Sample 3 | Hair Sample 4 |
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| Hair Sample 5 | Hair Sample 6 | Hair Sample 7 | Hair Sample 8 |
Your choices for people are Mom, Dad, Anna, Myself, Joshua, Daniel, Debbie, Timothy, Grace, Mary, Joanna, Steve, Katie, Abigail, and Joseph.
My apologies for any differences in color due to the flash on my camera. I guess that’s what makes this fun :-)
If you don’t know these people but still want to play, you can check out the sidebar cast of characters for the first eleven names. Katie is the blonde in the fourth and fifth photos of the BET collection. Abigail and Joseph have their own album (from that same day) here
Correct answers will post next Monday afternoon–so you’ll have plenty of time to guess!
My little sister texted me this Friday afternoon to ask if she could hitch a ride to our church’s ladies retreat.
Then she asked what she was supposed to bring.
I checked the informational piece I’d been given and saw that the dress was “Conservative casual.”
Now I know how to do business casual–but I’m not exactly sure what conservative casual means. So Grace and I decided to play it safe:
Long skirts make for conservative, T-shirts for casual, right?
(Just for the record, these were on over our normal garb–school clothes for Grace and work clothes for me. I brought some casual-ish corduroys to wear with my fitted knit top on Saturday.)
My parents observed me dancing around the BET (Burn Evil Things) fire from their vantage point at the adjoining food fire and attempted a brief psychoanalysis.
They decided that I spent so much of my childhood wishing I were older–and now that I’m old, I’m now enjoying my childhood.
I prefer to think I’m now mature enough to not care how ridiculous I might look dancing wildly about a fire of burning paper.
Do you have any particularly child-like (or childish, depending on how you look at it) behaviors that you cling to? Why do you act that way?
BET photos are now available on my photos page, or view them directly here.
We closed out our evening with s’mores and singing around the cooking fire–and I was so nice as to record some of our singing for your enjoyment. (Please forgive the loudness of my own voice–I have yet to figure out how to avoid having my voice overshadow everything else when recording on my little camera!)
King of Kings sung in round.
Today is a chilly day, a curl up under the covers and read day. It’s a perfect brew a cuppa tea and watch a movie with a sister day.
And thankfully, today I have the luxury of doing so.
I spent my first day of UNL’s fall break at my other job, tying up loose ends from last week, getting things in place for this week–but today I made no such plans. Today is a day that is completely free.
Since I didn’t have labs yesterday and today, I don’t have the quizzes and questions I usually give to be graded. I didn’t have a lecture to prepare or labs to attend, so I was able to spend that time doing other things.
Now I have a luxurious morning alone around home, a fantastic afternoon date to watch a movie with my sister (who I haven’t had opportunity to spend time with one-on-one for at least a month), and another stimulating book club discussion this evening (yes, we decided to keep reading).
What will I do with my free day, I wonder? Will I curl up with a book and let time slip away? Will I clean my house (which desperately needs it)? Will I work on that huge pile of clothes I want to alter, or the other pile of household type items I want to work up? Will I take a walk in the crisp autumn air? Will I finally type up that Christmas list my siblings are anxiously waiting for?
I don’t know. I don’t really have plans for today.
It’s my free day–and I’m not going to make plans. I’m just going to do whatever I want to do today, even if I don’t get anything done.
It’ll be a nice respite from the craziness that has been my life (and that will resume again tomorrow!)
Today we’re heading to the lake to have a BET party.
If you’re unfamiliar with the BET concept, it stands for “Burn Evil Things”.
BET parties are a perfect way to close out one season of one’s life (particularly the school season) and to burn anything associated with that season (particularly old school papers.)
Beyond that, it’s an excuse to get together with a few dozen of your closest friends (Hah!) and play with fire.
This is a shot from last year’s party–perhaps I’ll have shots from this year to share next week :-)
home again, “Hurrah, Hurrah!”
Or so the song goes.
Except our Johnny won’t be marching home again for quite a while.
Today, as this posts, my brother John is on his way to Omaha. From there, he will fly to San Diego, where he will be trained as a United States Marine.
He’s the first of our family to leave Nebraska. The first (of the immediate family) to join the military. The first to miss Christmas.
He’ll be gone for thirteen weeks at boot camp–and after that? No one knows.
It’ll be a big change for our family. Pray for us all, please.
And we will be praying for John.
Praying that he will grow in the strength and knowledge of Jesus Christ even as he’s trained in the strength and knowledge of the United States Marine Corps. Praying that he’ll fix his eyes on his Supreme Commander, Jesus Christ, and walk in step with HIM; even as he barks out “Yes, sir” to an earthly commander. Praying that even as he takes an oath of fealty to this country, to uphold its constitution, he will remain strong in a much higher oath–to do homage to the King above all kings, to faithfully serve Him, to die if necessary for His name and His glory.
And I pray that when Johnny comes marching home again, he’ll come marching not as a warrior of this world, but as a faithful warrior of Christ who can say
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
~2 Timothy 4:7-8