Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures

1: Read. Wrote. Rinsed. Repeated.

2: My sleep pattern was all wonky and so I did what I never do – I napped! Then spent the evening on the couch reading for one of the major papers coming up. Also, I voted.

3: Got a henna tattoo in the morning and had massive flashbacks to my time in Hyderabad. Time with Bucket in the afternoon was a little less fun for her because we couldn’t play outside.

4: I had one of those days where the whole world was awful and little managed to make me anything but angry. I’m sure I was a peach to be around. The day was partially redeemed by going to see Easy A with sister in the afternoon. Funniest movie of the year.

5: One of those days which was supposed to be lazy but got filled with a lot of nothings.

6: Sinus infections are lame. Especially when one has a “to-do” list the length of an entire piece of legal paper.

7: Surprisingly, had an incredibly productive day. Finished three papers and began a fourth, finished a novel and even managed to cook a meal!

8: Had some depressing appointments and ones which injected hope into my world. Ying and yang medical day.

9: Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester were marked with 9:30 dates at Starbucks with some of the most brilliant men at Truett. This morning also included phone calls of planning for South Africa. Such a good day.

10: We celebrated food and community that evening at the Onion and I made my famous (at least amongst my friends) Irish Stew for the occasion.

11: Was family for a favorite in the morning and then spent the afternoon snuggling with my sister while Singing in the Rain lulled us into a blissful nap.

12: Discovered that Panera has lost it’s productivity mojo for me this semester. Bad. News. Bears.

13: Worked on my last two papers I will submit to Dr. Stroope (which is a ridiculously weird thought) and read for another paper for Dr. Still. Also spent most of the day anxiously waiting for my phone to ring : BabyWatch 2010 is on for some precious Onionites

14: Breakfast with sister in the morning (at Cafe Cap, clearly) and then sequestered at my kitchen table for the rest of the afternoon to work on assignments

15: BabyWatch 2010 ended wonderfully with the safe arrival of the wee one. Precious, precious button.

16: Class. Coffee. Class. Lunch. Class. Nap. Glee.

17: Packed in a whirlwind after leaving it for far too long and watched several episodes of MI-5.

18: Woke early to drive to Austin to catch a flight to Nashville to recruit for Truett at the National Youth Worker’s Convention. Not only was it great to travel with the brother-in-law, but I got to spend time with favorites from Asbury whom I have not seen in several years. Love. Oh, and I broke my toe. Oops.

19: Had fantastic conversations with potential Truett-ites, ate a few fantastic meals and worked on a paper.

20: Got to interact with Asburians and talk about the hope of the Kingdom. Also got free ice cream and to meet boyfriends of favorites. Great day.

21: Wrapped up the conference and got to eat amazing Indian food with a fellow Baylor Bear whom I adore. Excellent evening.

22: Broken toe and my general inability to walk on it grabbed us priority boarding for flights home. Score. That evening was full of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One; a film I still do not have words for.

23: Parents arrived for Thanksgiving and we caught up on some of the TV we had missed whilst recruiting.

24: Ignored all work I had to do and spent the day with family. Excellent choice. We also watched Get Smart that evening since the parents had never seen it and much laughter happened. Brother-in-law also made Mom laugh so hard that she cried. This bodes well for family vacay next summer.

25: Our celebration of the national day of thanks was marked with too much food and a pretty epic game of Hide-And-Seek with Bucket. Very thankful for family in its varied forms and a mother who took over many of the hosting duties. Also pretty thankful for surprise phone calls that day.

26: Hauled out the holly and put up that tree before my spirits fell again! Accompanied by my Christmas music station on Pandora, the parents and I decorated my dwelling for my favorite time of year. Also exciting was the discussion about how I’m throwing my artificial tree away in January because I will not live in this house next Christmas.

27: Bid adieu to the parents and then sat at the kitchen table for the following seven hours as I finished crafting a paper.

28: Another day spent at the table, crafting a paper to turn in on Tuesday.

29: Had an excellent work-out and then a long nap to celebrate being finished with the papers. (Theme of this point of the semester is papers, can you tell?)

30: Turned in the papers, made my final presentation of the semester, arranged things for an independent study and then went to see Burlesque with favorites. I deeply hope professors find my offerings worthy.

Semesters in grad school are exhausting. We can use all sorts of sports metaphors – marathon, world series of academia, etc. – but the important thing to understand is that one is never really finished until final grades are posted. Thus, rest and victory must be claimed after major obstacles because if you waited until the very end of each semester to find pieces of peace you would never rest.

I say all of that tonight to say that I just cleared one of the largest hurdles of the semester : two research papers due on the same day for the same professor. After multiple edits and several editors, both papers are as ready as they are going to be and I will submit my offering tomorrow. I will then have a few days of brief rest before the last hurdle of this semester – final exams.

Tonight, however, I am resting in the beauty of hitting the “print” button by slowly sipping my tea and enjoying some mindless television. Thanks to How I Met Your Mother and Chuck for helping with the emotion detox process.

It was a little ironic to me that I stumbled across this video a few days ago while on a short break from writing a paper on religious violence. I am a fan of Matt Bomer, the actor in the video, but I am especially excited this topic made a PSA of this nature. The idea of religious intolerance is usually not spoken about with maturity or calm; I find this little blip a welcome change.

My favorite idea is the one cited as the title of this post: we can disagree about the past – and that is often appropriate – and even argue about the future, but the time comes when we simply must realize we are all attempting to live in this moment in this time. How can we live in grace while holding to beliefs?

1. Having my house decorated for Christmas! The parents and I spent most of the day decorating the condo and I love it. Advent is my favorite season of the church calendar and Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love it.

2. Darren Criss. Yes, I am thankful for the new cast member of Glee and no, that is not lame. Observe this and this for my justifications.

3. Avoiding Black Friday insanity. Didn’t even leave the house until afternoon.

4. I finalized my schedule for next semester (the last semester in Waco, thank you very much) and it’s pretty fantastic. Two independent studies with two of my favorite profs of all time plus several adventures… very excited.

5. Honestly, one of my favorite things right now is how little there is standing between me and the end of the semester. A few finals and ten pages left to write on my two papers : break is so close I can taste it.

A good Thanksgiving episode of a television show is one of my favorite things. So, in response to this particular bought of insomnia, I thought I’d post some clips for your enjoyment. Before I begin, let me state I am limited by what I could find on YouTube, so please post your nominations in the comment section.

First up, a few selections from West Wing.

Now, onto Friends

And, lastly, Gilmore Girls

~*~

happy thanksgiving from pop-culture land, readers.

Today’s prompt = “where you live.” So may I introduce you to Waco, Texas?

It’s a quirky little city – approximately 125,000 people – that has more birds than the rest of the country combined. It’s home to Baylor, the Texas Rangers Museum and an abundance of taquieras. I live on the banks of the Brazos River, which runs through town and may or may not be quasi-toxic.

Mocking non-withstanding, Waco has been home for the past few years. She has provided memories and scars, family and graduate degrees and I will always be indebted to her. That’s not to say it’s not time to move…

So, I’ve been at the National Youth Worker’s Convention for a few days now recruiting for Truett and it has felt a bit like coming home for my soul. Interacting with people who love students has helped me remember that I do too.

I have so many more thoughts on this – including how I question some of the theology posted around the exhibit hall – but they will wait until I’m back in Waco and not typing this from my phone.

My hope for you, my dear reader, is that you have a tribe of people who understand your calling and help you refine it. Some of the speakers at this conference have been that for me in so many years past and I am thankful they are still in the business of preparing youth workers for life. I hope you know what it’s like to sit in a room full of people and sigh deeply, knowing you are not alone.

prompt: what do you collect?

For about the past three years, whenever someone asks me if I collect something, I’ve said “passport stamps.” Honestly, it’s true. I love adventure and going to different countries and moving in their rhythms for a few days or weeks or months. I know that’s not a surprise to any regular readers/friends. I’m constantly plotting my next escape; the next one, by the way, is to Johannesburg for New Year’s and then the Mediterranean next summer.

But besides passport stamps, I also collect books. It’s a problem. I buy books the way most women buy shoes; obsessively. Whenever I see a book I’d like to read, I have trouble not buying it. I’m getting better with fictional books – opting for libraries more often than I used to – but non-fiction I’m hopeless.

I also collect quotes, cardigans, purses (preferably from other countries), photos and memories.

what’s your ultimate collection?

welcome to this week’s edition of friday favorites!

1: as suggested by lauren, doing homework when i’m sick. of course, this is complete sarcasm because i HATE doing homework when i’m sick. however, that was how i spent last weekend.

2: skype: i love skype all the time, but this week it provided some much needed phone calls to favorites who reside across the pond.

3: how life on a college campus sometimes means things like this happen

4: sorry to add another link, but i loved this unedited video of Jon Steward chatting with Rachel Maddow. i thought about creating an entire separate blog for this, but I’ve spoken about his rally enough for now.

5: sleeping with my cell phone on. i should really say my favorite is the reason why i’m doing so. i’m usually fastidious about shutting my phone off when I go to sleep – it’s a boundary for me. however, one of my favorites is moments away from going into labor and i am ON ALERT! cannot wait to welcome this new little into the world.

~*~

your favorites for this week?

photo one: me in first grade:

photo two: me in year five of grad school:

::

I want to assure you of two things : 1) my love for dressing up has not waned 2) neither has my love for princess movies

(the prompt was for one pictures of you ten years ago and one picture of you from the last ten months)