Satisfied

Happy 2014 y'all!  Where have I been?  Well for the month of January I had a mini-mester for grad school.  2 classes in 3 weeks.  It was a lot. But not only is it over, ALL of my classes for grad school are over.  Which is a crazy feeling.  

In addition to being busy with school the last few weeks, I ruined my beautiful Macbook with an unfortunate coffee spill.  It was not a good day, let's leave it at that.  When it happened my face looked like this:

As upsetting as it was, I remind myself it's still just a "thing" and we're lucky we also have David's PC to share and use (and my old hard drive was saved!). Time to move on.  Although i'm curious, to any of you who use PCs, what kind of image editing/storing program do you like?  I loved my iphoto program.  Needing suggestions for this department.

Now that i'm done with classes, I get a nice little break and then start my 6 months of full-time clinicals next month.  I'm excited and very nervous to start treating patients, but i'm thankful to have made it to this point and am looking forward to it.  

As the new year has started i've been thinking about goals and plans that I have for myself.  My friend Lindsay wrote this about picking a "word" for the new year, and I think it's a great idea. Contemplating this, I feel that the word on my heart was SATISFIED. 

• I want to be satisfied in God above all.  In the Creator more than the creation.
• I want to be satisfied in my current phase in life, sit back and enjoy every moment, not wishing for the next stage to come.
• I want to be satisfied in the peace that is Jesus when i'm stressed out with school or work or life.

There you have it, pretty simple.  I still have specific goals and plans, but this is the basis to focus on more than the checklist.  What will be your "word"?

Christmas

Christmas this year was different, yet wonderful.  Since my parents are living in China, and David couldn't get enough time off of work for us to go to Texas, we had our first Christmas here just the two of us.  We missed our family, but it was quite lovely.  

We spent Christmas eve outside at the park, eating Mexican food, and relaxing.  

Christmas morning we exchanged our gifts and had a big breakfast.  We video-chatted with my parents in China while we opened their gift (love technology), and talked to the rest of our family.

I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't really get any pictures on Christmas day, very unlike me.  But it was simple & sweet.  David treated me like a queen and washed dishes ALL day for me *swoon*
Later in the evening we had friends come over for dinner and fun was had all around.

This is my last Christmas break ever for school (yikes), so i'm going to try and soak it up.

A thrill of hope

Lately David & I have been reading some Advent material.  We were reflecting on just how much we need rescue, and how amazing that makes Jesus' coming.  We are so in need in lots of ways, and His birth reminds us of the unexplainable grace that comes with Him.  

No matter how "good" your life is right now, we are all depraved.

But especially for those feeling the weary world right now... those dealing with loss, those dealing with hurt, those wanting children that haven't come, those financially burdened, those who struggle with guilt, those who are sick... Jesus being born (and His death) saves us and conquers all of it.  He is the only hope that can't be taken away.  And that's the reason to rejoice.

Friendsgiving

We hosted our 3rd annual 'Friendsgiving' this year, and it was such a great time!  My sister also flew in for the week which was oh so nice.  Food, friends, family, wine, and cornhole in the front yard.  Just lovely.

Dexter couldn't quite get close enough while David carved the turkey.

Lovely ladies.

Dexter livin' the life.

Amelia wearing the best sweatshirt of all time.

Sister!

We missed seeing the our parents this holiday, but we're so thankful for the people God has put in our lives here.  Hope everyone is enjoying lots of good leftover turkey sandwiches.

Hymn Sing

Earlier this month we hosted a Hymn Sing at our house.  It's an event we do occasionally at our church where we come together to potluck and sing hymns together.  We had chili, cornbread, cool weather, friends new and old, guitars and violins all crammed into our house and backyard...it was a sweet time.  

As an adult i've really come to appreciate hymns.  I love the lyrics, often so real and relatable. One of my favorites is Be Thou My Vision.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought by day or by night
Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light

Be thou my wisdom and Thou my true word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, I, Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one

Riches I heed not nor man's empty praise
Thou mine inheritance now and always
Thou and thou only first in my heart
High King of heaven my treasure Thou are

I'll admit, I often don't act this way.  I often fail to put God first and am distracted by this world sometimes.  I often don't find my full satisfaction in Him.  There's some honesty. 

These lyrics resonate with me and pray that they will ring true in my heart more and more.

On the conversation of lyrics, I made this for my friend's 1 year-old baby girl.  I saw this quote on Pinterest and recreated it in the colors of her room.  Hopefully these words she'll take to heart some day.

And I don't know if I ever shared this, but I did another painting a long time ago in the same style but for our master bedroom.  It's Zechariah 4:6.

It's nothing fancy, but I like that I can also make a piece of art the exact colors I want and be picky, ha! And it's a good reminder to wake up to and go to sleep seeing every day.