Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Prayer and Incense

I am still alive.  I have simply fallen in the depths of an academic life that has taken over any social life I once thought I had.  I am a college student right now though, so I am okay with busy with academics.  After all, I am doing what I love.  I have been going through a book lately on prayer titled, Becoming a Woman of Prayer, by Cynthia Heald.  Last week the chapter was on intimacy and how God views prayer.  I love analogies and so this comparison analogy between prayer and incense struck me.


"There is a fourfold resemblance between them [prayer and incense]: 1. In that it was beaten and pounded before it was used. So doth acceptable prayer proceed from a broken and contrite heart.  2. It was of no use until fire was put under it, and that taken from the altar.  Nor is that prayer of any virtue of efficacy which is no kindled by the fire from above, the Holy Spirit of God, which we have from our altar, Christ Jesus.  3. It naturally ascended upwards towards heaven, as all offerings in the Hebrew are called "ascensions," rising up.  4. It yielded a sweet savour; which was on end of it in temple services, wherein there was so much burning of flesh and blood.  So doth prayer yield a sweet savour unto God; a savour of rest, wherein he is well pleased."
-John Owen

It has been fun doing this study and seeing how many times I am reminded throughout the day what I was studying in my quiet time earlier.  I like it when that happens.  I don't want my quiet time to go in one ear and out the other.

I do bring some prayer requests to you though:
  • RA Retreat this weekend
  • Getting all of my observations in is proving to be a struggle
  • Many very in depth projects due before the end of the semester
  • Summer plans: I have applied to Energy Express
I trust you are doing well and that the Lord is doing a mighty work in your life!  Let me know what is going on...please!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

back at school

Just to update you all who actually read my blog...I have safely made it back to school.  We had an uneventful trip down.  We had lots of fun making jokes at each other and laughing lots.  My favorite quote from the trip was by our dear (as we heard it) Kristen W... "that car reminds me of The Lion King!"  We looked ahead to a new blue-grey car, pointed and said "that one?" to which she agreed.  We had no clue what she was talking about, and so I pointed at a black van and said "well that reminds me of Aladdin.  We laughed and continued to point things out saying "that reminds me of..."  She then talked about how it looked painted.  We were all confused, because don't all cars look painted?  Several hours later, and several jokes later, it was discovered that we had a "minor" mis-communication.  Apparently it was the sunset that reminded her of The Lion King.  Oh my, we all laughed SO hard.  It was an honest mistake on all of our behalves, but it sure made for a funny joke.  We hit some rain coming into West Virginia, but not bad at all.  Thank you so much for those of you who prayed.  I have grown to realize especially with traveling, how so many things could have occurred making it a not safe trip.  We pass so many accidents when being on the road for an entire day, but we were kept safe.  Those prayers were felt and appreciated.

Here is a picture of my sister and I over break.  I already miss her so very much!!  Love ya, Sis!
Several people say/think we look a lot alike (we have been asked many times if we are twins...thank you very much I am four years older then she is), what do you think?  If I look like her, that is quite the compliment to me!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Headed Back!

I had wanted to already be in bed, but things happen, and that is okay.  I just wanted to update my blog in order to recruit prayers for my trip back to school tomorrow.  My parents will be driving me to the same meeting spot tomorrow morning where we will meet up with my friends from Maine around noonish.  We then have an 8ish hour ride from the meeting spot down to school.  Prayers appreciated for my trip.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Spring Break #3

Well, no pictures for this post--sorry folks.  I haven't baked anything too exciting or new, and the majority of my time the past few days have been spent visiting and doing homework.

Thursday morning I visited both sets of grandparents.  It was so good to catch up with them and see how they were.  I am so thankful to have godly grandparents who love the Lord so dearly.  I have such a wonderful heritage.  I enjoyed lunch with Grandpa and Grandma Meigs and then headed back home for a busy afternoon.  When I got home, Annette was supposed to be napping but wasn't, so I had the privilege as aunt to go get her.  We played for a little bit and then she went back down.  So I got right to homework.  I got a good bit done.  We had baked potatoes for dinner with homegrown broccoli and a homemade white cheese sauce.  Dad went to Bible study and mom stayed home because she hasn't been feeling well so we decided to have a mini girl's night again.  This time it consisted of turning off the lights, and watching a movie while wearing glow sticks.  Sometimes, you just have to break up the mundane things of life and spruce it up a little bit with something out of the ordinary.  Bed early was welcomed.

Because of the early bed on Thursday, I was awake around 7ish and ready to go.  So I was doing homework by around 7:20ish.  I worked hard and got lots accomplished.  Mom and I enjoyed leftovers for lunch, and then got to some cleaning.  I was thankful for the break in the middle of cleaning for a skype visit with a dear friend.  Mom had told me nothing more then that I would be skyping someone.  It was so good to catch up with her a little bit and see her son who has grown so much since I last saw him.  We worked on cleaning a little more and then mom and I got to making homemade pizza.  We made two pineapple pizzas and a mushroom.  Yum!!

Friday night, the Baptist Bible College chorale was in so we went to the concert and had two ladies staying with us.  We stayed up chatting with them for a bit.

This morning I was able to sleep in a little bit, and then get up and get ready.  Tim, Beth, and Annette came over, and then Scott.  I got breakfast ready for the ladies and then after they went back to church Annette and I did some playing.  Now it is time to get upstairs to get lunch ready for all!

I head back to school on Monday and am still working out all of the small details with that.

Enjoy your weekend!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Spring Break #2

I made the banana chocolate chip scones and was pleased with how they turned out.  The banana flavor is very strong so if you don't like banana, I highly doubt you will like these.  We enjoyed sharing one hot one, and the rest were for breakfast on Tuesday.

Monday night's taco stuffed shells turned out well. The family enjoyed them (which is my ultimate goal).  I stayed up a little late Monday night having a mini girl's night with Mom and sis.

Our first part was making face masks.  The face masks were made out of honey, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  They smelled amazing.  I mixed up the paste and brought it downstairs and both Mom and sis turned up their noses with the looks of it.  Let's just say it didn't look to appealing to put on your face.  We applied the masks to each other and giggled the entire time.  Giggling is definitely an essential for a girl's night.  It had to stay on for half an hour.  The gravity continued to pull the paste down making it drip.  So we all sat on the couch with a magazine under our chin to catch the drips.  We were definitely a sight to be seen.  It was especially fun when the phone rang.  We had mom get it.  It was so funny watching her try and talk on the phone when she couldn't put it up to her face, and was trying to still hold the magazine under her chin.
 After wiping the mask off of our face, we decided the evening couldn't be over yet.  I needed some de-stressing, and so we all decided to soak our feet in a hot bath with epsom salt and lilac scent.  It was indeed very stressful.  Mom and sis shared a bowl of water and Sarah struggled with how hot the water was.  This is only one of her faces.
 


Tuesday morning I was able to go over to the cabin Tim and Beth are staying at and watch my beautiful niece while Mom and Beth went to Bible study.  We had such fun playing and chasing each other in circles.  One big difference I have noticed in her growing up is how her play has changed.  Her play has become much more intelligent.  She hugs and (occasionally) kisses her dolls and animals.  She runs a car on the ground on the wheels.  Beth has been seeing some organization tendencies already, and I can see it too!  She picks up her toys and reorganizes them several times.  They have to be just so.  Something else she loves is reading.  She loves having books read to her.  I put her down for a nap and enjoyed a wonderful quiet time while laying in the sun spot in the office of the cabin.


She had been in the same position for the first hour plus of her nap.  When I went in to check on her a while later, I found her re-positioned...rump in the air! 

Last night's dinner was enchilada pasta.  We all loved it!  There was just enough spice, and the flavor was just very delicious, if I am allowed to say so.

I had a bit of homework to do to make up for not getting my three hours done in the morning.  So while Mom and Sarah went to a basketball game, I stayed home and studied for biology.

Today was my day at home to plow through more homework.  I was able to get a bit of work done in math and on my Doctrine 3 outline and bibliography.  It was a long morning of homework-ugh.

This afternoon though we had a nice visit from Tim, Beth, and Annette (for Tim to collect sap).  It is so special to have Tim bring Annette inside and for her to run over to us.  Oh I love that little girl so very much.

While she was here, Mom and I worked on making some lemon blueberry pull-apart bread.  I have very little experience with yeast, and so I am actually kind of scared of it.  I enjoy cooking, and want to continually be learning new things, so I wanted to work with yeast with Mom's help.  It was a long process though.  I fixed some dinner during it's second rising.  Tonight's dinner was Southwestern Chicken Wraps, Becky style, haha. The family also gave a thumbs up for the wraps! 

The bread came out just in time for dessert...mmm mmm mmm!




Well folks, it is time for me to get thinking about bed.  Tomorrow is a busy day with visiting grandparents.  Hope you all are enjoying your week.  I am enjoying my break, even if I am keeping myself busy.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Spring Break #1

Break is going quite well so far.  I am loving the change of pace.  The trip home went fairly well, and much better then it could have been.  We were calling for freezing rain, but I never hit that (my parents did hit some bad weather driving to pick me up).  We drove through some intense rain and fog, but the Lord kept us safe and put his hedge of protection around us.  I am so thankful.  I am also thankful that I did not suffer from bad car sickness.  Since being sick I have been feeling dizzy quite often, and was very nervous about the ride.  It went fine!  I met up with my parents about 12:30am Saturday morning and we pulled into our drive at 4:30.  I was in bed sleeping by 4:50am.

Saturday was a very lazy day.  Tim, Beth, and Annette came over so that Tim could collect the sap from the buckets, and Scott had spent the night.  It was fun to be together.  We were all very blah and simply sat on the couches and did nothing.  I was excited though and eager when dinner time came.  Mom had the idea of quesadillas because we had the tortilla shells.  So I ended up making bacon, chicken, and cheese quesadillas. I was pleased with how they turned out.


I went to bed early Saturday night (like 8:30ish) and enjoy a full night's sleep.  Sunday morning I woke up to Dad knocking on the door and then bringing my sister and I breakfast in bed...bacon, egg, and cheese omlet. It was so yummy, and I don't even really like eggs, haha.  We went to church and came back a ziti which Dad had prepared.  Mom and Sarah headed off to nursing home ministry and the rest of us chatted a bit, Annette woke up, and we cleaned up from lunch.  I then made some chocolate brownies that came out soon after Mom and Sarah got home.  We enjoyed hot brownies topped with vanilla ice cream and homemade (by Mom) chocolate sauce.  Again, super yummy.

We went to the evening service and then came home and enjoyed some Hallmark movie.  We enjoyed being comfy in our lounge pants!

Once again, I went to bed early and enjoyed a night full of much needed sleep.

Today has been a restful, yet productive day, for which I so needed.  I worked on scheduling out my week (one week is such a short period of time to try and recover health wise, and get the homework done that has to, not to mention time I want to spend with family, and the extra homework I should get ahead on), and then got right to work.  I finished a scholarship essay for next year and then did 90% of my take home math exam.  Sometimes, homework is so much easier when sitting on a couch at home.  I was motivated and got a lot done this morning.  I then got some banking worked out, and got the tickets ordered (as in the tickets that the junior class is selling) for jr/sr banquet.  I am now waiting for mom's cinnamon rolls to come out of the oven so that I can make some banana chocolate chip scones.  The menu for tonight's dinner is taco stuffed shells.  I so do enjoy cooking.

Spiritually, God has recently been teaching me to rely on Him.  I constantly need this reminder.  Why?  Why can I not learn a lesson, apply it, and move on (continuing to apply the lesson for the rest of my life).  I get so frustrated with myself, and what a slow learning I am.  I am thankful that I find myself craving time with Him.  I want to always be in that situation where I simply can't get enough of my God.  He captivates me and I am head over heals about HIM.  Loving the extra time break is allowing me to spend with Him.

If you think of it, please be praying for my friend, Kari.  She is on a mission's trip with the school in Uruguay.  There are also several other groups from school going on mission's trip.  Excited to hear how they all go.

Well, I am going to see what other kind of trouble I can get in to.  I am hoping to stay organized and keep you updated on the happenings of my break (with pictures of my fun cooking adventures).  Hope I don't bog you down with boring, dry details.  Take care.