The Best Things from My Birthday Month

1. Snow on the orchards, not on the roads. Sun everywhere.

2. I took a trip to JoAnn by myself. All the things I needed were on sale and in stock. But the best thing? Three very happy ladies surrounding me in line as well as two very happy children. Their kindness and smiles were infectious and warm. May their new years be blessed.

3. My mom made me buttermilk syrup and pancakes. I told her we're not allowed to worry about the effects of corn syrup on my birthday.

4. My brother and I laughed at Mormon memes and the Hey Girl tumbler.

5. Getting wished happy birthday by Super twice—once on New York time and once on Utah time. Super and I share the same birthday! Wild, I know. It's pretty much worked wonders for making my birthday a much more enjoyable day.

6. My grandpa giving me "hamburger money."

7. Getting a birthday text from my cousin Nan in the middle of the night.

8. Having our sink filled with pink water from the red velvet cake my mom made.

9. Watching Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs with my family.

10. My dad's perfect hexagonal wrapping job.

11. My brother coming to say good night when he got home in the middle of the night.

12. Hearing Super remind me how much he loves me and truly feeling loved by a wonderful man. 

13. Lunch with Elisabeth and her gift of a dinosaur sandwich maker.

14. Dinner with my good friend Jamie. If you ever think, gee I want to go to Tucanos, but I don't want to come back with a zero balance in my bank account, try Braza Express! Slightly more authentic Brazilian food for nearly a third of the price. It is very, very yummy, and there's a great atmosphere about the place with really nice people putting your food together.

15. A party with my friends! Sitting around chatting was a truly sweet moment for me. There was also lots of great food. I invented something that worked out for once! Well, first I tried to make brownies in muffin top pans, which is possible but didn't work that well for me. So then I crushed those brownies into chunks, added sliced strawberries, and a dollop of this great buttercream frosting (the best buttercream frosting ever). It was lovely.

We also made Brazilian lemonade using a bottle of Minute Maid strawberry lemonade and a can of sweetened condensed milk. It was a bit too sweet, but the color was gorgeous.

Dinosaurs strike again . . . this time, it's straightforward talk about plot

Check it out.


http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=2157

On the clatter of children

As a single woman, I've become unrealistically and unnecessarily dependent on silence. It's because I'm selfish sometimes. I think, "My brain can only handle this homework assignment if I have utter and total silence so that I can concentrate on it."

I sell my brain short. I also sell the Spirit short too. I forget that even in the noise and craziness of the world, thinking clearly is still an option. God won't abandon me because it's loud around me. We need quiet time to think and ponder. This is certainly true, and it's true that we need to search for and create that quiet time to have more intimate moments with the Spirit and with ourselves. But this need not happen at the expense of those people around us who need to share a space with us.

When I break out of my silent studying, I come to the Erying Science Center on campus, which is filled with little science demonstrations. Today as usual, the building was filled with second graders clanking ropes, weighing space matter, and generally enjoying their lunch. Rather than distracting, it was cleansing and clearing.

As part of my studying, I read a small snippet about how Americans have a sense of space, rather than one of place. We are not rooted in our surroundings, but instead fix our focus on what is outside of just where we are, riveting on a horizon and a future before us. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. I feel this endearment and this desire in my heart for the clatter of children around me, but I get nervous when it comes too close. I shouldn't be. God sanctifies us in close conditions of sound, silence, and heart beats. 

Go dinos, go: Agatha and I make friends for real this time

This web comic used to stress me out. I've been reading it over the past week, though and I think this strip is the one where I finally connected with it. I recommend skipping back a few and checking it out.

Chomping at the past

Today, I am wearing the most awesome shirt from my entire wardrobe. I use the word awesome very intentionally. There are shirts that I like better than this one in terms of fit, style, and comfort, but truly, no other shirt could exude awesomeness as this one does. 

Why? Well, because there are dinosaurs on it.

Yes, folks. It's covered in little doodles of dinosaurs, clouds, unidentified femur bones, and those little stars we draw without picking our pens up off of the paper. It's also yellow, which I like.

Sometimes I wear it just because of the reactions I get. People—friends and strangers—tend to appreciate a little bit of dinosaur in their day. One time, my coworker said, "I like your shirt." Then, she whipped back around from her computer and exclaimed, "There are dinosaurs on it! I love your shirt!" I was surprised to hear someone say that they liked it for any other reason beyond the dinosaurs. Really, what else is there to love about it? 

Sadly, it's been a while since the dinosaur shirt has seen the light outside of my closet.

Maybe it's just a girl thing, but for many of us, there are moments of life that we cannot stop associating with particular clothing. This can be a beautiful thing. For example, I love knowing that on an April day that felt like the first day of my life—in the sense that Bright Eyes sings about it—I was wearing my Irish ferry sweater, my Pocahontas shoes, and the only floral print shirt I own.

When I think about the dinosaur shirt, it's still connected to this one day when the world turned upside down on me and left me looking at my feet, when words I didn't really understand entered into my vocab, when every muscle in my body went stiff and refused to bend.

When I sit anxiously in class, I'm pretty sure the dinosaur doodles are feeling just as restless as I am. I feel as if every time I look down, one of them sounds the warning call of "Freeze!" And they would all stand still again, pretending to have gotten away with their changes.

This makes me love them and the shirt again. Besides, everything seems to be changing. I believe that God rewrites things for us. It is so necessary to seek constant revelation and to be acting on what He tells us to do now. For me, this includes God giving me new perspectives on and new feelings about what has already happened.

The days in my dinosaur shirt appear bright to me, like the yellow stars scribbled on my shirt. They mean new things: love, forgiveness, trust, faith, and a perfect brightness of hope.

And I'm pretty sure I caught Mr. T-Rex nibbling on a cloud while the triceratops and the stegosaurus played ring-around-the-rosy and all fell down.