why is it so important to receive permission?? this is a question i'm thinking a lot about. there are a great number of things i have learned while in grad school that are amazing and have equipped me for the future. so...now what? the future is about 50 days away...and i have some ideas... and there is fear there...fear in sharing the ideas...what if i share them and someone says, 'no, i don't think that can work for you'...why is it that i value the words of my professors so much that i don't really feel released to do the things i feel i think i want to do until i receive their permission?
what will it look like to think outside the box a bit to consider my future-it's not safe...but it could be amazing to see how it could be possible...could i actually get paid to help people? that is what i was trained to do...i actually do get paid now for it...but outside of grad school...with my training wheels off...do i have permission to go and do it outside of biola? in the church? outside the church coming along side churches and supporting them??
sigh...welcome to my interior!!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
52 days...
There are 52 days till i graduate...things i want to do when i graduate...
1. sleep!!!
2. learn to sew
3. organize our books and all my school work
4. figure out how to run a business...i have ideas about future vocation for me and am curious to sit down with folks who i trust to run my ideas past them
5. have a weekend away with ryan
6. go on vaca with the family (i think we almost have it booked..two weeks in june-yeah!!!)
7. sit during naptime and not feel guilty that i'm not reading, writing, studying...
8. write and assimilate all my writtings in my journal about my journey through grad school. i'd love to give this to the kids for them to see later on...
9. start a date once a week with emily ( i have one with will, but not em...)
10. catch up with long lost friends
oh...one more...sand, stain, paint and seal this one piece of furniture i found in a dumpster that i LOVE and think will be amazing, but have not had the time to work on it
okay...one more...have a girls night out/over nighter with friends in my grad program before they all move away
learn how to make jewelry. my sis gave me all the tools for christmas and they've been in my bedroom waiting for me to play with. i have so many old necklaces that i cant wait to tinker around with...
i want to consider more of how to consume less, reuse more, repurpose things in our house more and teach myself and learn along side the kids on how to be a better steward of the possessions we've been given and home.
many more things come to mind...i think i'll stop for now :)
1. sleep!!!
2. learn to sew
3. organize our books and all my school work
4. figure out how to run a business...i have ideas about future vocation for me and am curious to sit down with folks who i trust to run my ideas past them
5. have a weekend away with ryan
6. go on vaca with the family (i think we almost have it booked..two weeks in june-yeah!!!)
7. sit during naptime and not feel guilty that i'm not reading, writing, studying...
8. write and assimilate all my writtings in my journal about my journey through grad school. i'd love to give this to the kids for them to see later on...
9. start a date once a week with emily ( i have one with will, but not em...)
10. catch up with long lost friends
oh...one more...sand, stain, paint and seal this one piece of furniture i found in a dumpster that i LOVE and think will be amazing, but have not had the time to work on it
okay...one more...have a girls night out/over nighter with friends in my grad program before they all move away
learn how to make jewelry. my sis gave me all the tools for christmas and they've been in my bedroom waiting for me to play with. i have so many old necklaces that i cant wait to tinker around with...
i want to consider more of how to consume less, reuse more, repurpose things in our house more and teach myself and learn along side the kids on how to be a better steward of the possessions we've been given and home.
many more things come to mind...i think i'll stop for now :)
Newest creations...
Here are some of Emily's newest creations...this one she folded in 1/2 to create her layered look
here is the front of the layered one...it bunches up at the top and is sort of gathered...amazing!!
her little rose that happens when she ties it all up going through the holes of the blanket. she's so creative! (and beautiful...look at those eyes!)
here is the front of the layered one...it bunches up at the top and is sort of gathered...amazing!!
her little rose that happens when she ties it all up going through the holes of the blanket. she's so creative! (and beautiful...look at those eyes!)
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Green ideas...
so...i found this blog on another great blog "flipflops and applesauce' today...
repurposeful...check it out!
here is a great little idea that i want to do...i'm sure i have something around the house that i can make this into...
anyone want to teach me to sew??!! i seriously...this summer..when grad school is done...want to learn how to sew...anyone have a machine or can fix my old hand me down machine??!! it could be my graduation present??...!!?? hint hint...; )
Will's new hair...
William wanted a hair cut...can a 3 yr old be that aware of his hair?! apparently...
So...i sat on the couch with emily while the boys were in the bathroom cutting will's hair off...
my little surfer man with floppy hair is no longer...he traded in for spikes
All Hall...
So...what is an 'all hall' you might ask?? Well...we have them about every month or every other month where it's an event where the whole hall comes together for community time. Some all halls have an educational purpose, but others, like this one, are purely fun. Ry has had the idea for a 'funkship' all hall (basically an excuse to play 70s music!) forever...this year's staff finally caught his vision for it and it was a st. patty's day themed funkship cruise...complete with ryan singing karaoke at the end, 'play that funky music white boy!" while the whole hall cheered on!!
Oh...living in a dorm is SOOO much fun!!
We heart hart!!
Yes, this is My husband...all mine!! : ) (p.s. all the necklaces he's wearing are mine too!)
Lovely HUOD-lums...i love these girls! HUOD is the name of the upstairs floor here in hart.
the 'bar' on the funkship...aka...virgin margaritas and shirley temples...
Oh...living in a dorm is SOOO much fun!!
We heart hart!!
Yes, this is My husband...all mine!! : ) (p.s. all the necklaces he's wearing are mine too!)
Lovely HUOD-lums...i love these girls! HUOD is the name of the upstairs floor here in hart.
the 'bar' on the funkship...aka...virgin margaritas and shirley temples...
Update..
So...there really is no update as of now about job hunt stuff. We are staying here at biola...Ry has been talking to two churches via email but nothing is concrete at the moment-but they've been great conversations...so...one of these days I hope that the conversations will turn into something more : )
New blankie dresses
Emily has been busy creating new blankie dresses...here are some of her latest..
this one is multi-layered....she made it a short one...this is her first short one...
The layering was intentional...she made a pocket! how does she do this!! It is so fun to watch her make a dress...
another layered one, but long...
The back of the one above...
the front bow is sooo cute...look how long her hair is getting!
Emily has been busy creating new blankie dresses...here are some of her latest..
this one is multi-layered....she made it a short one...this is her first short one...
The layering was intentional...she made a pocket! how does she do this!! It is so fun to watch her make a dress...
another layered one, but long...
The back of the one above...
the front bow is sooo cute...look how long her hair is getting!
Emily has been busy creating new blankie dresses...here are some of her latest..
Friday, March 13, 2009
Ethiopian Food...
The served us coffee, it's a 1/2 hour process where she roasts her own beans, then once brewed, she brought out incense which filled up the room with the most amazing scent, then poured our coffee into these little cups...like a shot. it was such a strong and sweet cup of coffee! i LOVED it and it reminded me of brazilian coffee. it was amazing. good company, good food, good coffee!
our lovely RA's!! I LOVE them!!
The men partaking in tradition!!
We just went tonight with the RA's and tried for the first time Ethiopian food. It was AMAZING!! Especially the coffee afterwards. It is a sign of friendship and a sign to show you enjoy the food if you feed each other a bite. (hence the photos of the guys feeding each other!) It was a fun night. Now, they are off watching Slumdog and i'm at home with two sleeping babies catching up on the blog and other photos...
Bethany and Michael
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we took them to bolsa chica beach after the wedding and let them play and scream to their hearts content since we barked orders at the for 4 hrs (stand here, smile here, hold this, walk here!)...they had soo much fun, but it was sooo cold! we bundled up pretty quick and went home. it was such a fun spontaneous moment, i loved it & i loved being at the beach. it is such an awesome place...
The kids were in a wedding again this past weekend...they were sooo awesome and did such a great job!! Here are some photos!!! Thank you so much for letting us be apart of your amazingly beautiful day!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
job hunt update...
well..this has been quite a week. i will try to nutshell-but this might turn out to be a novel. be forewarned... ; )
last week ry's interview with our denomination was so helpful. it really provided for him quite a list of questions he had never considered and likened the interview to being a deer caught in headlights...needless to say, we had a lot of conversations about the various questions. the biggest one being, 'am i to be a senior pastor'...that was thursday of last week...
friday-saturday-i left for my retreat (i teach a class at talbot where we take the class on a 24hr retreat up to hilltop, an evangelical retreat center...amazing...GO there NOW it's that amazing...google it and book it!) and my professor and her husband (they run the retreat center) were up there. she knows our story (she also taught ryan in his program as well) and knows who we are and what we want to do in ministry...so i told her the whole story of ryan's interview, our questions...etc...and she said, 'of course he didn't have the answers, he's not suppose to be a senior pastor-at least not yet...' i was struck by this. it's pretty split down the fence on 1/2 of our wise friends saying, 'you need to be a senior pastor' and the other 1/2 saying, 'you have a lot to offer and being a senior pastor may limit your giftedness and ability to do all you want to be about'...and judy added to our list on the other side of the fence. she also said, 'i'm going to be direct here...you need to not leave biola till you have something else to leave to. you have a family and you both to care for-this is your vocation-you ask your bosses if you can stay on till you find something else. it's not a lack of faith to stay-it's being a good steward of what the lord has given you and in faith watching him work. if you moved out now, you'd struggle to find three dead end jobs that would make your ends meet while living with your parents and trying to find time to interview or the emotional energy to look for a job...you would have no energy and be thrown into survival mode..."
wow...i was chewing on her words the rest of the weekend and dying to tell ryan when i got home.
monday-got home saturday, told ryan, had no class on monday (which was good, because i had to write a paper on the theology of family for the aforementioned professor!)
tuesday-had an early morning coffee with char (LOVE you girl!) and she added her little two cents to the whole discussion as well as a compassionate listening ear...i'm chewing on her words too...i have some ideas for ministry, but are outside of the church coming along side the church to offer assistance, and she helped for a bit more of that vision...
wednesday-the next big day for us-the interview with EV free man-Dennis Baker. okay, what everyone had told us was right on-he took such good care of us. he heard our story. our heart for ministry. he heard our story of church politics that was have experienced (which is, i'm sad to say, a lot and more than most experience in the 15+yrs we've both been in the church)...and he heard our struggle between senior and assoc pastor...and he said, 'let me paint you a scenario-you want to be an assoc. pastor who disciples young adults, who has the chance to preach 20+times a year, can play worship occassionally, and really develop leaders and mentor...and be mentored by your pastor to see if being a senior pastor is your next step...' um, yeah...dead on...
he said it was bleak out there for jobs...then mentioned three churches that we would be a good fit with...one in new mexico (jen-if you are reading this-it's in abq!!-i'll find the name and let you know what it is), one in goodyear az, and one in santa maria. the one in santa maria he said was a great fit and would be such a great place for us (okay, and happens to be on my dream list of geographical areas i'd love to live)
so...basically now we had two jobs-fix up our resume to give back to dennis for his discrestionary distribution, and to ask our bosses here at biola if we could stay on...
friday-march 6th-the day we and the lord knew we had to confirm and be confirmed if we are to stay or leave...and we (the lows) felt such a peace about staying on another year, especially in light of all the wise words we have received (thanks judy, stumps, daus, char...and many others...). ry spoke to his bosses and they totally agreed that he could stay on and continue to work here while seeking out positions...
to watch this all transpire in front of our eyes this month, let alone all that happened this week was amazing and so many little things i wont go into here that really intricately showed that the lord heard our specific prayers and even some we never uttered, and answered them. sigh...he is so good. so good. thank you lord for knowing us, our hearts, and hearing our prayers. only you could have orchestrated what you did this week-
so...let's see what happens next! till then...we continue to wait on the lord to show us where to go. we'll keep you posted.
last week ry's interview with our denomination was so helpful. it really provided for him quite a list of questions he had never considered and likened the interview to being a deer caught in headlights...needless to say, we had a lot of conversations about the various questions. the biggest one being, 'am i to be a senior pastor'...that was thursday of last week...
friday-saturday-i left for my retreat (i teach a class at talbot where we take the class on a 24hr retreat up to hilltop, an evangelical retreat center...amazing...GO there NOW it's that amazing...google it and book it!) and my professor and her husband (they run the retreat center) were up there. she knows our story (she also taught ryan in his program as well) and knows who we are and what we want to do in ministry...so i told her the whole story of ryan's interview, our questions...etc...and she said, 'of course he didn't have the answers, he's not suppose to be a senior pastor-at least not yet...' i was struck by this. it's pretty split down the fence on 1/2 of our wise friends saying, 'you need to be a senior pastor' and the other 1/2 saying, 'you have a lot to offer and being a senior pastor may limit your giftedness and ability to do all you want to be about'...and judy added to our list on the other side of the fence. she also said, 'i'm going to be direct here...you need to not leave biola till you have something else to leave to. you have a family and you both to care for-this is your vocation-you ask your bosses if you can stay on till you find something else. it's not a lack of faith to stay-it's being a good steward of what the lord has given you and in faith watching him work. if you moved out now, you'd struggle to find three dead end jobs that would make your ends meet while living with your parents and trying to find time to interview or the emotional energy to look for a job...you would have no energy and be thrown into survival mode..."
wow...i was chewing on her words the rest of the weekend and dying to tell ryan when i got home.
monday-got home saturday, told ryan, had no class on monday (which was good, because i had to write a paper on the theology of family for the aforementioned professor!)
tuesday-had an early morning coffee with char (LOVE you girl!) and she added her little two cents to the whole discussion as well as a compassionate listening ear...i'm chewing on her words too...i have some ideas for ministry, but are outside of the church coming along side the church to offer assistance, and she helped for a bit more of that vision...
wednesday-the next big day for us-the interview with EV free man-Dennis Baker. okay, what everyone had told us was right on-he took such good care of us. he heard our story. our heart for ministry. he heard our story of church politics that was have experienced (which is, i'm sad to say, a lot and more than most experience in the 15+yrs we've both been in the church)...and he heard our struggle between senior and assoc pastor...and he said, 'let me paint you a scenario-you want to be an assoc. pastor who disciples young adults, who has the chance to preach 20+times a year, can play worship occassionally, and really develop leaders and mentor...and be mentored by your pastor to see if being a senior pastor is your next step...' um, yeah...dead on...
he said it was bleak out there for jobs...then mentioned three churches that we would be a good fit with...one in new mexico (jen-if you are reading this-it's in abq!!-i'll find the name and let you know what it is), one in goodyear az, and one in santa maria. the one in santa maria he said was a great fit and would be such a great place for us (okay, and happens to be on my dream list of geographical areas i'd love to live)
so...basically now we had two jobs-fix up our resume to give back to dennis for his discrestionary distribution, and to ask our bosses here at biola if we could stay on...
friday-march 6th-the day we and the lord knew we had to confirm and be confirmed if we are to stay or leave...and we (the lows) felt such a peace about staying on another year, especially in light of all the wise words we have received (thanks judy, stumps, daus, char...and many others...). ry spoke to his bosses and they totally agreed that he could stay on and continue to work here while seeking out positions...
to watch this all transpire in front of our eyes this month, let alone all that happened this week was amazing and so many little things i wont go into here that really intricately showed that the lord heard our specific prayers and even some we never uttered, and answered them. sigh...he is so good. so good. thank you lord for knowing us, our hearts, and hearing our prayers. only you could have orchestrated what you did this week-
so...let's see what happens next! till then...we continue to wait on the lord to show us where to go. we'll keep you posted.
New Job for Em & Will
Our kids are for hire! Okay...j/k...BUT...this is their second wedding in less than a year, and have another one coming up in may as ring bearer and flower girl. And, I have to say, they ROCK at this job!! Katrina Hickle said to me yesterday, "when Em gets married, Will's speech to her will lead out by saying, ' so sis, this is the last wedding we'll be in together!!'" okay...Her delivery was much better than mine right there, but... they are quite adorable. more photos to follow...the one with all the people-it's all the folks who attended the wedding of Bethany and Michael Strawsburg who at one point lived in hart hall!! amazing!!
we heart hart!!!
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