Temporary Home

I haven't unpacked or put anything away since I've been home. I'll be leaving again on Friday so I'll just have to pack everything up again.  I don't like living out of a suitcase, but it will have to do. All of my stuff just gathers in my bathroom or on the floor in my room. Sometimes I have trouble finding things :)

Right now, I am home temporarily. I can't wait for summer break, when I will be home for a longer period time; then I'll put every thing away.  


This reminds me of our time on earth. We are just passing through this earth. God gave us some time here to be His witness and love others. Am I making the best use of my time? Are you?


Temporary Home, by Carrie Underwood


Little boy, six years old 
A little too used to bein' alone. 
Another new mom and dad, another school, 
Another house that'll never be home.
When people ask him how he likes this place... 
He looks up and says, with a smile upon his face, 

"This is my temporary home 
It's not where I belong. 
Windows and rooms that I'm passin' through. 
This is just a stop, on the way to where I'm going. 
I'm not afraid because I know this is my 
Temporary Home." 

Young mom on her own.
She needs a little help, got nowhere to go. 
She's lookin' for a job, lookin' for a way out, 
Because a half-way house will never be a home. 
At night she whispers to her baby girl, 
"Someday we'll find our place here in this world." 

"This is our temporary home. 
It's not where we belong. 
Windows and rooms that we're passin' through. 
This is just a stop, on the way to where we're going. 
I'm not afraid because I know this is our 
Temporary Home." 

Old man, hospital bed, 
The room is filled with people he loves. 
And he whispers don't cry for me, 
I'll see you all someday. 
He looks up and says, "I can see God's face." 

"This is my temporary Home 
It's not where I belong. 
Windows and rooms that I'm passin' through.
This was just a stop,on the way to where I'm going. 
I'm not afraid because I know... this was 
My temporary home." 

This is our temporary home. 

Psalm 27

 ¹ Light, space, zest— that's God! 

   So, with him on my side I'm fearless, 
      afraid of no one and nothing. 

 ² When vandal hordes ride down 
      ready to eat me alive, 
   Those bullies and toughs 
      fall flat on their faces. 

 ³ When besieged, 
      I'm calm as a baby. 
   When all hell breaks loose, 
      I'm collected and cool. 

 ⁴ I'm asking God for one thing, 
      only one thing: 
   To live with him in his house 
      my whole life long. 
   I'll contemplate his beauty; 
      I'll study at his feet. 

 ⁵ That's the only quiet, secure place 
      in a noisy world, 
   The perfect getaway, 
      far from the buzz of traffic. 

 ⁶ God holds me head and shoulders 
      above all who try to pull me down. 
   I'm headed for his place to offer anthems 
      that will raise the roof! 
   Already I'm singing God-songs; 
      I'm making music to God. 

 ^7-9 Listen, God, I'm calling at the top of my lungs: 
      "Be good to me! Answer me!" 
   When my heart whispered, "Seek God," 
      my whole being replied, 
   "I'm seeking him!" 
      Don't hide from me now! 

 ^9-10 You've always been right there for me; 
      don't turn your back on me now. 
   Don't throw me out, don't abandon me; 
      you've always kept the door open. 
   My father and mother walked out and left me, 
      but God took me in. 

 ^11-12 Point me down your highway, God; 
      direct me along a well-lighted street; 
      show my enemies whose side you're on. 
   Don't throw me to the dogs, 
      those liars who are out to get me, 
      filling the air with their threats. 

 ^13-14 I'm sure now I'll see God's goodness 
      in the exuberant earth. 
   Stay with God! 
      Take heart. Don't quit. 
   I'll say it again: 
      Stay with God.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Eve.  All the relatives went to my Grandma and Grandpa's new condo for the night.  Actually, first all us girls went and saw "Tangled," a very cute Disney movie.  Then we opened presents! 

Dani and Me 

Everyone gathered 'round the tree: Uncle Curt, Aunt Chris, Grandma, Jessica, Lindsey...

Aunt Cindee, Grandpa, Codi, Mom, Dad...

Taylor, Me, Dani, and Collin.

Jess and Linds

Collin

Taylor

Kati, Taylor, Dani

Front: Collin, Dani, Lindsey, Codi
Back: Me, Taylor, Jessica

Name of the game: Throw crumpled up pieces of wrapping paper into spinning fan, in hopes of them being flung into  the box.

Christmas day we stayed home all day and opened our presents after church. Next weekend we have Christmas with my Dad's side of the family, in Illinois.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Late last night, while at church, the pastor said that Christmas is in fact a merry time of year. He said that no matter what the past year was like and no matter what the future brings, we have a peace that passes understanding because of our Savior.  God will take care of us through all circumstances.

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

~Have a merry Christmas~

Reason for the Season

~Passage taken from Humility: True Greatness, by C.J. Mahaney

"How will God save? He will save by executing His Son- for the sake of the rich young rulers, for the sake of James and John, for the sake of ten indignant disciples, and for the sake of proud sinners like you and me.  How will God free us from the prison of pride? How can we be liberated from the dominating power of the world's empty definitions of greatness?

For those who feel the effect of their serious condition, who realize their humanly unalterable condition, the good news is that there's One who appears on the scene and says this: 'I've come. I'm leading the way. I'm moving relentlessly to the place where I'll be nailed to a cross and lifted up as the ultimate example of suffering, and there the concentrated fury of the Father's wrath for your sins will be vested upon Me. And I will groan, for I am sinless and I'm unfamiliar with any sin, with even a single sin. Yet on that cross I will experience the sins of many visited upon My body. And I will die.'

This is the death that awaits Him. But joy will follow His suffering: the certain joy of knowing His death has ransomed the many!

That's the effect of the atoning death of the Son of God"

Matthew 20: 28, "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Christmas Cheer

"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear."
~Buddy the Elf


Tonight I went Christmas caroling with the GEMS group from church! It was a good way to spread Christmas cheer to the elderly people that we sang to. They were happy to see us. The girls did a great job singing; I would say we sounded great.  I sure can't sing....but everyone else can :)


p.s. the blog is currently under construction

Home for the Holidays

Dear readers,


To those of you who were wondering/concerned: I did in fact make it home from school.  I arrived home on Friday at 4:00pm and my life has been busy since.  On Saturday I cleaned the house that I used to clean before I moved away.  My friend, Stacy, took over the job when I left, so we cleaned together on Saturday.  It didn't take us very long.  Then we headed out into the chaotic mess of holiday shoppers at the local mall.  Bad idea.  I'm glad I had most of my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving.  


On Saturday night, one of the epic ideas that me and Stacy come up with was carried out.  We thought it would be fun to have a contest between our friends to see who could make the best gingerbread house.  I bought gingerbread at the store, Stacy cut out the shapes for the houses, everyone else brought candy decorations, and then we used our creative skills to design and decorate the houses.  They turned out pretty sweet.  One house is more creative and crazy and the other house is more neat and thought out....you be the judge as to who wins.  (We still haven't decided!)

Stacy, me, Julie, Jared, Kaden, and Kyle

Emily, Tori, Aubrey, Stephanie, and Alicia

Love and Friendship

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrong and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to animal. Wrap it careful round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglement; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbearable, impenetrable, irredeemable.... the only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all dangers of love is hell."


~C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves


"With the grace of God firmly holding us, reminding us that he is the source of our true happiness, it is possible to nurture and sustain deep friendships throughout our lives. We are not made to live our lives alone. We are designed to live in relationships and share in the lives of others. We need each other. God knows that. He will help us. We have only to ask and surrender, to wait, to hope, and in faith, to love."


~John and Stasi Eldredge, Captivating

Art: that's about all.

Over the past few days I have been doing nothing but art homework! Very exciting (if you like art), which I am learning to like more and more.


For my 2 art exams I have tons of homework! First off, I have to create yet another craypa piece, this last one in color again.  I have to use complimentary colors or split complimentary colors.  This piece is due tomorrow (I haven't started it yet!) Side note: I now know that I'm a crazy art person, because when I looked at my computer screen background, the first thing I thought of was that it uses analogous and complimentary colors!

The red orange and yellow are analogous colors; the complimentary color of red is green!

Color piece #1- secondary triad

Color piece #2- analogous colors

Tomorrow I also have to turn in my color workbook! This is basically a short paper that the professor made with all of the color terms on it for us to define, because our class did not know the color definitions well enough.  There are words such as value, hue, intensity, tone, shade, value inversion of a color and beyond analogous to be defined.


I also have to have my 18 pages of our other color workbook finished.  This assignment required us to mix up each individual color to match the colors on the 12 step color wheel and then use them to fill out the assigned papers. I have 17.5 pages done and I plan on completing those in the morning!

12 step color wheel 

18 page color workbook

On Tuesday morning I have an individual critique with my 2D design professor.  I have to talk for 10 minutes on each of the craypa pieces I made this semester.  Luckily there are only 9 pieces.  I have to discuss the elements of design and the principles of organization that I used in each piece.  Then the professor will tell me what he thinks of my work this semester.  I am not looking forward to this meeting :(.


And on Thursday I have my other art exam, Art Fundamentals. For this one, I have to write an essay about the major movements in Abstract Expressionism, Neo-dada, and Pop Art.  Then I have to explain "the major tenets of each movement and how they relate to one another as a whole."  I mostly have my essay all outlined and written, so now I just have to memorize it.  


The last thing I have to do for this exam is be able to identify 15 slides of artwork by which historical movement they are from. The catch here is that there are 19 historical movements that we have discussed so far: Prehistoric, Egyptian, Classical, Early Christian, Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Dada, Pop Art, Minimalism, AND Conceptualism.  I would tell you how all the art in each movement is different, but I don't want to bore you any longer!


Back to my homework!