Back on the road

Happy Monday! This past weekend we were in Indianapolis visiting friends from college: Luke, Brittany, and Jamie!  I am so glad that we planned it- sometimes it can be difficult to get away for a weekend, but Dan and I always forget how close Indy is from Chicago.  (When there's no snow and no traffic on 65:) We had a blast - we stayed up until 3 in the morning reminiscing about college and discussing our faith- in a hot tub while my hair turned into icicles lol-  ate AMAZING food in downtown (we nnneeed to get a Huddles ice cream shop in Chicago!) sipped on mimosas while catching up with Jamie's friends at her house, and met some new friends that we will be going to Florida with in March!  We were so encouraged and thankful to Luke, Brittany, and Jamie for their hospitality, all the food they treated us to,  and the fact that they gave up their weekends to hang out with us!  

And, we went to College Park - Luke and Brittany's church.  It's a pretty big church and Dan and I met someone in our counseling class last summer who was on staff there so it was fun to check it out! They talked about faithfulness (in light of Christ's return in Matthew 25: 14)  and how in this fast paced society that is a characteristic that is not cherished.  The pastor interviewed an 89 year old man who has been walking with the Lord since he was in med school and it was SO sweet to see his heart for God and discipleship and how he is still pouring his life into 7 other men in the church on a weekly basis.  He is definitely the epitome of 2 Timothy 4:7: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  

As always, being gone for the weekend makes Monday a little busy with grocery shopping (thankfully we caught up on laundry yesterday!) but we hope to survive this week in light of the crazy blizzard we are supposed to get!  Have a great week!

Us at St. Elmo's in downtown Indy

Back to the grind...

The holidays are officially over and Dan and I find ourselves immersed in a new semester of classes, crazy work schedules, and trying to survive the bitter Chicago cold.  For Dan, these next three months are crazy in compensation.  For me, we have 2 big Sneak Preview events within 3 weeks of each other.  Even with one down, I still feel the pressure of the next one coming up!  But, since being back we've gotten to hang out with friends, sadly watch the Bears lose to the Packers (reallly I just want my city to be happy), watch the Steelers beat the Jets (yay Pittsburgh- I was born there so I am allowed to cheer for them lol), get new smart phones (which is SUPER exciting for us- especially for Dan who was using a Wal Mart pay as you go phone lol) and new(er) couches!

I actually wasn't planning on showing "before and after" pictures but my co workers were thinking about taking our old couches so I took pictures for them!

Before....

My parents actually bought them when they were first married!  They actually weren't in terrible condition- I caught a glimpse of the volunteers sitting on it at Goodwill when we dropped it off :) (Annnd that was an adventure getting those there in my Hyundai Tuscon!)  They were in our "living room" in our house back in Hudson and we didn't go in there too often so my parents kept them in great condition- AND they provided tons of seating.  But, when my friend Becca texted me saying her in laws were getting rid of their couches and they were in good condition, we decided to go for it!

We bought slip covers for them because the floral pattern didn't match our room too well 

I absolutely adore this pillow- we got all of them at Target for $15! That's unheard of for pillows!! (the brown were 2 for $8!)

Unfortunately, the larger sofa didn't fit in the elevator so Dan and our friend Jon (who provided his truck for us to get it back to our apartment) had to carry it up 5 flights of stairs!!! Poor guys :/  But they did it- I was very impressed :)  Too bad we will have to move again this summer - and we will carry it right back down those 5 flights of stairs lol

Hope your week is off to a good start :)

Encouragement

It's Sneak Preview week.  That means that work is crazy, which basically means life is crazy.  It consists of late nights, busy days, and basically ex communication from anyone other than my co workers.  Don't get me wrong- I love my co workers, but saying I'm exhausted by Friday is an understatement.  It's these kind of weeks where I struggle the most with selfishness: thinking only about myself and how much I have to get done, and sometimes God has to stop me straight in my tracks to get my attention.  Like this blog post.  My sweet friend, Melissa, has a brother battling cancer right now.  Not only is she an English major (can't you tell?!) but she is learning SO much through this trial.  This quote in particular is what really struck me:

 “Let me be scary graphic and honest with you for just a second. There is coming a day for you, because you live in America, it will be a hospital room, and it will be 3 in the morning, and your wife or your husband and your children will be at home asleep, and there will just be you. And your lungs will labor to breath. And in that moment a foundation built on money, a foundation built on church attendance, a foundation built on small group or a Sunday school class, a foundation build upon cognitive understanding of God will not be enough to bring you peace. In that hour it will only be the nearness of God that will be your good, and it is on its way for me...”
(The Thanksgiving of 2009 Chandler was diagnosed with a brain tumor)
 
I hope that stops you amidst your busy day as it did me and makes you think a little bit deeper about life and your purpose.

Good morning :)

Mmmm this is the kind of morning I had :) I don't have them often (mainly because I don't wake up early  enough!) but when I do I wonder why I don't do it more often!

Hope you have a great Thursday :)

More on this later

Another wonderful book (that I am happy to say I finished before classes started TODAY!) is Ed Welch's book "When people are BIG and God is small"  So many people have recommended this book to me the past year but with classes I haven't had time to read it so I was thrilled when Dan got it for me for Christmas.  Here's a preview into the book:

"We spend too much time wondering what others may have thought about our outfit or the comment we made in the small group meeting.  We see opportunities to testify about Christ, but we avoid them.  We are more concerned about looking stupid (a fear of people) than we are about acting sinfully (fear of the Lord)."

"This is one of the great blessings of the fear of the Lord.  We think less often about ourselves.  When a heart is being filled with the greatness of God, there is less room for the question, 'What are people going to think of me?' "

Icebox Cake- Mmmm

I love desserts.  I love everything about them- eating them, trying new ones, tweaking old ones, etc.  Well, this past weekend I wanted to find an easy dessert that is light but doesn't compromise taste.  Dan suggested ice cream sandwiches (really ice cream in between chocolate chip cookies), and that reminded me of a dessert my mom made a couple Christmas' ago!  Immediately I typed in chocolate wafers and cream into google, and up popped numerous icebox cake desserts (I had no idea that was their name!).  While I found many recipes (Smitten Kitchen even made their own wafers!)  the easiest recipes used Nabisco Chocolate Wafers.  How convenient that Nabisco is owned by Kraft and my husband works there :)  He went down to his Kraft grocery store (yes they have a grocery store where he works and they give great deals on Kraft products :) and bought 3 packages of them!  And came up with these:

 This is a dessert you honestly cannot mess up.  You can tell mine were made quickly- I have about 10 of these in our fridge right now (lets just say next time I won't be buying the large carton of whipping cream) and I made them in less than 15 minutes.  Just beat about 2 cups of whipping cream, 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract, and a couple tablespoons of powdered sugar (until desired sweetness).  Beat until stiff, and put between wafers.  I recommend refrigerating over night because then you give the cream and wafers plenty of time to "mesh" together, but we dug in about 4 hours later and they still tasted SO good.   I love chocolate.  Enjoy :)

Humility

As I warned earlier- Dan and I asked for a lot of books for Christmas!  I read 2 over break (they weren't that long at all) and desperately want to finish my 3rd by the time classes start next Wednesday but I'm not sure if that is going to happen :/  The first one I read was "Humility: True Greatness" by C.J. Mahaney.  My boss first introduced me to Mahaney and actually let me borrow his copy of this book to read a couple years ago, but it was so good I wanted us to have a copy for ourselves :)  It is one of those books that you honestly cannot get enough of- you can read it everyday and feel convicted about something- how appropriate for a book on humility.

Anyway, I could give you a run down of what he talks about, but I'm not a great "book reviewer" so I'll just tell you about some of the points that hit home with me :)

• Pride: When I aspire to the status/ position of God and refuse to acknowledge dependence on God.  Self glorification.
• Humility: honestly assessing myself in light of God's holiness and my sinfulness.
• The cross never flatters us.
• Where and how is pride expressed in my life?
• Each day:
• Begin by acknowledging my dependence on God- not myself.
• Take notice of all that God is doing in my life.
• Stop listening to myself and start talking to myself (be aware of my thoughts and attitudes throughout the day)
• Study the attributes of God.
• Study the doctrine of grace.
• Study sin and be aware of its ways.
• Find evidences of grace in other people.
• Am I critical of others?
• It is a joy and privilege to discern grace in others and to draw attention to how God is at work in their life.
• Ephesians 4:29: Biblical purpose for every conversation we have is for that person to receive grace from us.
• What do my words reveal about my spirit?
• Become more focused on God and His purpose and activity than myself.
• Celebrate godly character more than anything else

How is that for a lot to chew on?  I could seriously write so much more- I actually did, in my journal.  The principles in his book are not ones I want to simply skim over, they are principles I want to put into practice.  Have you ever met someone who is truly humble?  They are at peace, joyful, trusting, and are a true servant.  It is such a beautiful character trait to have.  Why?  Because it resembles Christ.  I would highly recommend reading this book- it's not long but there is a lot of wisdom packed into its few pages!

A new year.

I couldn't help but smile as I drove past the gym next to Trinity this morning.  The parking lot was unusually filled- which is quite abnormal for my drive to work around 7:30.  And then it hit me- January 4.  Oh New Years resolutions.  There is something about having a clean slate- out with the old and in with the new- a new year of opportunities, a new year of challenges, just a new year in general.  I am blessed and can't really say I am thankful that 2010 is gone- I know some people who were faced with many challenges this past year and are so thankful to see the calendar flip to 2011.  But, I can say there is something refreshing about the beginning of a new year. 

For me, the new year is about taking time to really assess how I am doing in my walk with the Lord.  Have I grown this past year?  Do I love God and people more?  Am I less focused on self and more focused on serving others?  What about my pride... my patience?  While I wish these were easy questions for me to answer unfortunately they are not.  Somewhere along this past year I have gotten lazy.  By this I mean that although I have desired to change in the areas mentioned above, I realized that I have not wanted to put in the work and the time.  I wanted instant gratification and change.  I wanted to read a book and have it change my life.  I wanted to take a class and be a perfect counselor.  I wanted to be a more godly wife by laying down my needs for only a couple days.

Today the Lord really showed me through His Word, another blog, and a sermon what my New Years resolution should be.  The blog post I read was about small successes that add up to an end goal: choosing not to snap at our children, choosing to pause before responding rudely to a sales clerk, choosing to believe the best when I doubt what someone says.  Then, I started reading through Philippians 3 "I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus made me his own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own . . . but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  Then, I decided to look up some commentary on that verse and came across this sermon titled "Going hard after a Holy God."  I love it when God so clearly shows up in my life.   

I want to share with you what I learned in the book "Humility: True Greatness" by CJ Mahaney in more detail later, but in general his book opened my eyes to what Piper calls in his sermon a "holy dissatisfaction with your spiritual life."  I realized that developing a character of humility, similar to Jesus', takes waking up early and starting my day off in the Word,  memorizing scripture, slowing down and thinking about my thought process, what I say to others, recognizing and dismissing prideful thoughts, being aware of my critical spirit and so much more.  And it takes time.  Doing these things for a week is not going to change my character or heart.  The prize that am reaching for takes a lifetime of pursuing.  Christ has already made me His own, my prayer is that I can respond to that call in such a way that keeps me desiring Him long after today when I'm not in the spirit of making New Years resolutions.

Home :)

Christmas in Chicago

Christmas in Ohio

Christmas in Pennsylvania :)

Christmas in Arizona

New Years Day in Indiana

I hope you had a great holiday!!