Three Years

Who would have thought that at this spot three years ago I would begin such a marvelous journey with such a remarkable man? 

Peace

I feel like I am re-surfacing for the first time in a long time. 

Here's why: 
-Christmas time for a graduate student means long presentations, big papers, and finals. 
-Christmas time for a children's director means putting together Christmas programs and planning Christmas parties. 
-Christmas time for a newlywed means double the shopping and wrapping and baking. 

        Now don't get me wrong, Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love the beauty, the joy, and the warm fuzzies that come with Christmas time. I love that people think of other people, even if its just to buy them a gift. I love that we light our houses and our streets to keep the dark from overpowering this winter season. 
     But its so easy to forget what this season means in the midst of a million to-do's. That's why I listen to Christmas music on my way to work, or school, or running Christmas errands. They remind me how joyful this season is, the meaning of Christ's birth for the world, and fill me with the coming excitement of Christmas day. One of my favorites these past couple weeks has been "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." The last two stanzas make me want to cry every time, literally every time. 

"And in despair I bowed my head; There is no peace on earth I said;
For hate is strong, And mocks the song 
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then peal the bells more loud and deep:

God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

       So often I feel like I live in between these two stanzas. I am discouraged with the state the world is in, I want to cry about all the pain I see, I get overwhelmed with all the things there are to do in a day, I want more for the people I know, and I wonder why there is no relief. But then God reveals Himself in the midst of the chaos and the pain and brings peace. It's a beautiful thing - a Christmas thing. So I'm going to practice peace during my Christmas break. I'm going to rest and not worry about it. I'm going to spend time in quiet. I'm going to take deep breaths and sit a lot more than I have in awhile. Peace. 

My favorite version of this song is Adam's (of course, right?). But really, when I listen to it I feel despair and then victory and peace. I get so caught up in the beauty and truth of it all. Check it out: 

Thankful

I am thankful for my first Thanksgiving with Adam. 

I am thankful for family and new family. 

I am thankful for a husband that loves me to no end. 

I am thankful for a holiday set aside to be thankful. 

I am thankful for a time to reflect and realize that despite all the comparing and complaining I am blessed beyond measure. 

I am thankful that I spent yesterday with Elle and Kayla Maree, my heart was overwhelmed and spilling over with joy. 

I am thankful that I am able to continue my education and eventually do something I love. 

I am thankful for a job and co-workers that are fun and encouraging and make hours at work fly by. 

I am thankful for holiday traditions and the beauty of this season. 

I am thankful for my country home and our farmer neighbors. 

I am thankful that my life is extraordinary and beautiful and fun and busy and full of love. 

I have so many more things to be thankful for and I plan to make this a year round attitude but Thanksgiving is a good starting point I suppose. Happy Thanksgiving!

Parting is such sweet sorrow

The weather has been hinting that I am going to have to let go of Fall soon, so today I said my farewell with the last of the pumpkin frozen yogurt I have in my freezer. It was sad and delicious......but mostly delicious

Small Town Livin'

So I'm going home from work, driving through the bustling metropolis that is Upland Indiana when my eyes spy something out of the ordinary at Ivanhoe's. A white suburban limo is sitting in front of Ivanhoe's, just chillin'. A driver dressed in a suit gets out of the driver's seat and opens the passengers doors. At this point I'm expecting a local celebrity to hop out (like Garfield or something) but instead an average family of four, dressed in jeans and t-shirts exits the limo and goes into Ivanhoe's like nothing is strange about their mode of transportation. I couldn't believe it. My only theory is that perhaps they were hoping since they arrived in a limo they would be able to cut the never-ending dinner line at Ivanhoe's, if so....I think it was a solid plan. I'm hoping to find out the real explanation in the paper next week, because I know there is no way something this big would escape the Upland paper!

Mammoth Cave

This week, from Thursday to Saturday, Adam and I were in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky with a portion of the Cox family. We had so much fun doing cave tours, hiking, eating, and going to the souvenir shop more than four times (it wasn't for me, it was for the kids!). There was so much that went on in those three days that I'm just going to give a list of my top 8 trip highlights (in no particular order):

1. Mammoth Cave: kind of self-explanatory I guess, but did you know its the biggest cave in the entire world??? The WORLD. Like, the ENTIRE WORLD.

2. Sinkhole exploring: The destination of one of our hikes was a giant sinkhole (Cedar Sink). It was crazy! And the craziest part was that we went all the way into the bottom of it! And once at the bottom of it we realized how cool this thing really was, it was like descending further into the core of the earth like in Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was incredible!

3. Trying to get out of the sinkhole: After realizing how cool the sinkhole was we realized that the signs that said "don't go off the marked trail" were serious and we weren't quite sure how to get out. I used a fallen tree as my way up the completely mud-covered hill and nearly lost a shoe in the process, but I felt pretty accomplished once I was done!

4. Following 3 deer in front of our hotel room: Our hotel was literally on the edge of the national park and one morning Adam and Samantha and I left our room to find the others and we spotted three deer just chillin in front of our room. Sam kept getting closer to them and occasionally they would look up and stare at her with the signature 'deer in headlights' look and then keep chewing. They almost let her get right next to them! Adam caught it all on video, it was great

5. Dramamine-induced productivity: I get car sick pretty easily these days on long trips so I took a dramamine before we left on our trip and I was able to read for my classes the whole way there and back! I got a lot done and slept a little too:)

6. Three trips to the Lincoln boyhood home: One of our stops on the way to Mammoth Cave was Abraham Lincoln's birthplace. We liked it so much we went back two or three times (the left-behind backpack and needed passport stamp were part of the reason too)

7. Spending time in nature: In general the whole trip I just enjoyed being outside, looking at the complexity and intrigue of nature. There's nothing to figure out or to understand, its simple and beautiful and not-so-simple and not-so-pretty (I'm mainly speaking of the millipede) and I love all of that about it. Nature is a great place and I wish we spent more time together but my grades probably wouldn't appreciate that, so I'll just relish in the time we had together and say "we'll always have Mammoth Cave." C'est la vie

8. Making a new traveling tradition: In one of our many trips to the gift shop Adam and I decided that we are going to be magnet collectors:) Its not lame, I swear. We are going to fill our fridge with magnets from all the places we go together in our wonderful and adventurous life and we are super excited! Our Mammoth Cave one is already up too!

Lean on me

Yesterday in one of my classes a professor brought a much needed devotional for our class. You see it's midterm time and that means that we graduate students start to get a little frazzled and slightly out of control. She brought these verses from Exodus 17: 

"So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek. Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill. As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage. Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset. As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle."


I was really struck with the beauty of this scene when she read it aloud to us. It was a perfect picture of weakness and how God provides people to support us in our weakness. Sometimes its so hard for me though.... I tighten my fists and say 'I can do this by myself, I've got this, my arms are strong enough.' But that's not how its supposed to go. You are supposed to look at those closest to you and let them see how tired you are, how weak your arms feel and let them give you a seat and some rest from your work. Needing other people doesn't make you needy or dependent or weak, it makes you human - a human that God made with the unique desire for relationship and community.  

Relaxation

This past weekend was full of some much needed fun and relaxation! Saturday we started our day by stuffing ourselves with breadsticks from Fazoli's and then headed out for a Fall-filled day. We went to Tuttle's orchard and picked some juicy apples for me to enjoy.

 Then Adam embarked out through the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin for this year. We always try to find a pumpkin thats not quite perfect but has some character that lends itself to a fun face. Last time we picked a pumpkin we looked for a grumpy one, so this year we looked for one that might be good for a big goofy up-turned grin. I think we succeeded but we'll have to wait and see what Adam's artful mind produces!

Then.....I was sooooo excited because we decided to do some Christmas shopping in Indy!!! I love shopping, and I love shopping for other people more than anything! I was literally hyperventilating at points....Adam tried his best to calm me down and keep me from passing out. For dinner, we ate at Five Guys for the first time and talked about how restaurants should always just have one dish that they are really good at instead of serving a million different options. Needless to say, Five Guys makes excellent burgers and fries (and veggie sandwiches) and that's all they make, hence our insightful conversation!
The day ended with some pumpkin frozen yogurt (!!!!!) and a recap of what a wonderful weekend we had. We sat on bright colored couches, eating frozen yogurt and breathing deeply.... I didn't think about homework or work or lesson planning for church or anything else that frequently bogs down my thoughts. It was an absolutely perfect weekend that served to refresh us both and make us ready to face another week of busy-ness. I'm so thankful for these days where I can focus on sunshine and conversation and relationship and fun, it makes things feel right.

Turn your face to the sun

Life feels awfully sunny when you have some friendly flowers to greet you at home. 

Sick

Marriage Lesson #22: In marriage you share everything, including sickness.

Well, for the past two weeks I have been in varying stages of having sickness...sore throats, coughing, sneezing, congestion, aching, etc. And then my dear husband, who waited on me handed and foot, received his reward this week in the form of a stuffy nose, headache, and fatigue. Needless to say, we have been a lot of fun for the past few days. We have gone through several boxes of tissues, consumed two and half gallons of orange juice, and drugged ourselves with allergy medicine, vitamins, cough suppressants, and mucinex continuously. But thankfully today we are both feeling ten times better than earlier in the week. All this is to say that in the past two weeks I drank more hot drinks than I have ever in my life and I came to a realization..... I want a giant coffee mug! I want a big mug that you have to hold with two hands so that it can warm your hands while simultaneously giving you a steamy facial. You know the kind people drink out in the movies when they are home alone on a rainy night and the mug makes the way they drink it look artistic and classy. And it can't be shallow either, no one likes a shallow mug. So while I avoided homework during my sickness I looked for mugs, but to no avail. However, I did find some great pictures.....

This one is a little big for my taste, but don't you wish you lived in this town???

This one isn't out of the question, and if Amy Poehler drinks out of it, it must be great! 

So the hunt continues for the perfect mug with hope that I find it before the cold creeps in and that I don't need it due to sickness for a long time. 

Autumn

I love Fall more than any other season that Indiana gives me. I love the color scheme and the autumn sun and the way the season feels reflective. I love the way music sounds in Fall and the way a nap on the couch in the middle of the afternoon feels better than any other time. I love wearing jackets and scarves and jeans and exploring the outside without breaking a sweat. I love hot drinks and cold mornings and everything pumpkin flavored.

In conclusion, I love Fall...

And I think this year will be my favorite Fall ever. Already the field in our back yard has turned my favorite mustard yellow color and the million trees that surround our house have their edges looking slightly colorful. And I have someone remarkable to share in the fall music feelings and the pumpkin patch picking and warm naps and leaf jumping and hot drinks and reflection. This is going to be a beautiful chapter.

Ghosts Upon the Earth

For awhile now I've been slightly discouraged with the lack of creativity and beauty in the mainstream Christian music. I love worship songs but the Christian radio-style music is often times lacking in my opinion. Adam and I have discussed this issue several times and we get discouraged that as Christians who are close and intimate with the Creator we can't drum up a little more creativity in our music and lyrics.  So recently we've been on the hunt for some good Christian music that has some depth and intrigue. Our discovery....Gungor. No it is not an infectious disease, it is a relatively new Christian band. I heard one of their songs on the radio at work and Adam looked into them a little more and we discovered we had hit the jackpot! The words are full of biblical truth, the melodies are interesting and complex, and the whole thing just speaks to the beauty of our creator God. Their new album "Ghosts Upon the Earth" comes out in just a couple days and promises to be a good listen. Here's one of the new songs...

Tell me that's not marvelous and absolutely beautiful?

Finally!

Since the moment Adam and I were married we had a running to-do list of things around the house that needed to be done or bought or fixed, etc. We finished most of the things quickly but the one thing that has been on our to-do list for almost three months was "hang the picture wall." I kept seeing it on the list and we kept attempting to do it but then we didn't have enough frames or we didn't have the proper picture hanging fixtures....it was a sad and painful process (well, sort of) but.... I'm proud to say that it is finally done! Its amazing how having pictures in your house can make it feel much more comfy. I love walking past all the pictures on my way into the kitchen or sitting at the dining room table and gazing at the beauty of hard work and patience. I think that will be the end of house to-do lists for a while too, so that's nice to know.

Think.

So I'm twenty-three and I've never had my ears pierced. I know, I know....girls in my children's church group stand with mouth gaping when I show them my bare ears, but its true. And now that I'm entering what feels like official adult life I've been contemplating the idea of getting my ears pierced. But I really couldn't think of what would force me to make the decision so I decided I would start looking for earrings that are so great they would force me to pierce my ears. Here's some that I came up with......

Aren't those simply marvelous? I still haven't made up my mind yet, so for now I'm sticking with drooling over beautiful necklaces but eventually.....who knows? 

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To get to Adam and Malinda's house.

No, this is not another blog about how my niece and nephew love jokes....although I did just skype Peyton on his first day of school and the whole thing turned into another giant knock-knock joke and not a whole lot about what happened at school.

But back to the chicken. Adam and I are driving back to our house, we pull into our driveway and to our surprise there is a chicken in our yard! I don't know why he was trying to get to our house, maybe he knew I was a vegetarian and was trying to thank me. Or maybe he wanted to bask in the sunlight hitting our house? Regardless, the closer we got to our garage the more confused the poor guy got and then he started running full speed the opposite direction. Have you ever seen a single chicken run full speed? Its hilarious. It's like a combination pterodactyl and determined tri-athlete. Adam and I were dying laughing. I hope he stops by again sometime.


Did I mention I live in the country?

Please tell me this picture is real life. 

Real life, for real

All of my grad school books are here. 

That means something, I think. 

It means that life and routine are about to change once more. It means a lot less lazy day leisure reading and morning bike rides with nothing to think about. But it also means learning and changing and growing and progressing and being a real life adult with lots of things to do. I think I'm ready. I have grown-up clothes, a bag that doesn't have handmade things sewn to it, and books full of new adventure. I'm ready. 

Who's There?

The last time I saw my nephew and niece I taught them the fine art of knock-knock jokes. They loved it. They acted like they had never heard a joke in their life, it was adorable! Well, I saw them today when I had lunch with my lovely sister and they are still hard at work perfecting their own knock-knock jokes. Michelle and I were just dying listening to the jokes they came up with. Like, "light who? Light bulb." and "teeth who? Teeth that you can chew with." They obviously do not quite get the point of a pun or how to cleverly use 'who' to your advantage. I loved it though. After they finished eating they said knock-knock jokes back and forth the entire time. I had a chance to put in a few of my own like the classics, "orange you glad I didn't say banana?" and "lettuce have a  party!" They didn't get the point of them but they were cracking up anyway. Their favorite is still the "boo-who/don't cry about it" joke. That one never gets old. I had such a great time with them today. I think since I've been gone I can just see in their eyes how much they adore spending time with me. Its a marvelous feeling, and of course its mutual. I loved everything about their laughs and facial expressions, their wit and talking about everything from school to football and Hello Kitty. They are extraordinary kids that are going to grow up to be extraordinary people. I just know it.

Existence

I just finished one of the most beautiful books. It wasn't adventurous or suspenseful. It had no chapters and no plan. It was the most extraordinary meandering book I've ever laid my eyes on. It's title is Gilead. It's simply about an elderly pastor who had a very young son, whom he loved so dearly. That's what the whole book is about. The immense and unimaginable love and gratitude this father has for his son's life being intertwined with his own life. That's what just gets me about this book. The way its structured seems to say that the only important part about reading this book is getting a glimpse of how humans should love the humans around them. So deeply. So full. It has the most magnificent words and thoughts and tidbits of theology. This book is pure poetry. I just have to share some of its words because its just too beautiful not to. Here's some of my favorites...

“Your hair is straight and dark, and your skin is very fair. I suppose you're not prettier   than most children. You're just a nice-looking boy, a bit slight, well scrubbed and well mannered. All that is fine, but its your existence I love you for, mainly. Existence seems to me now the most remarkable thing that could ever be imagined.” 

“I'm writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you've done in your life- and everyone does wonder sooner or later - you have been God's grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle...if only I had words to tell you.”

“That is just a way of saying I could never thank God sufficiently for the splendor He has hidden from the world and revealed to me in your sweetly ordinary face.”

“ I was struck by the way the light felt that afternoon. I have paid a good deal of attention to light, but no one could do it justice. There was a feeling of a weight of light-pressing the damp out of the grass and pressing the smell of sour old sap out of the boards on the porch floor and burdening even the trees a little as a late snow would do. It was the kind of light that rests on your shoulders the way a cat lies on your lap. So familiar.”

“The moon looks wonderful in this warm evening light, just as a candle flame looks beautiful in the light of morning. Light within light. It seems like a metaphor for something. So much does. It seems to me to be a metaphor for the human soul, the singular light within the great general light of existence. Or it seems like poetry within language. Perhaps wisdom within experience. Or marriage within friendship and love.”

“My point here is that the great kindness and providence of the Lord has given most of us someone to honor-the child his parent, the parent his child. I have great respect for the uprightness of character and the goodness of your heart, and your mother could not love you more or take greater pride in you. She loves you as God does, to the marrow of your bones. You see how godlike it is to love the being of someone. Your existence is a delight to us.”

If a woodchuck would chuck wood

I love our adorable old house. I love how big it is and how there are no hallways and the extra farmer's sink and all the other quirky old-house things about it. However, I have never really been completely in love with the all wood paneled kitchen. And since we are just renting the house we can't exactly rip it out or paint over it or anything drastic like that. So we've tried to disguise it with big pictures or large wall fixtures but there's really no hiding that it is covered in wood. So I had a bright idea awhile ago that we should at least take care of the wood-slatted doors that hide our washer and dryer in the kitchen. It would at least break up the solid wood-ness of the kitchen a little. So we reused the head table runner fabric from our wedding and created a covering for it. Adam was such a sport in helping me with it, he even crawled behind the doors and squeezed between the doors and the washer and dryer. Anyway, we loved it when we were done and felt very proud of ourselves. Its so refreshing to look at really. Now we feel like DIY pro's and are hoping we get our own show or something. Ok, well not really. But we were super happy. One small victory for the Coxes, one giant leap for old-house owners everywhere.
Here's the before and after pics!

The lovely wood covered before pic

Yay!!! So much better!

Sleepover

Last weekend we had our first overnight guests come....my niece and nephew! They were so excited on the car ride over, it was absolutely adorable. I loved having them in our house and getting to do all kinds of fun things with them. We showed them a good time, small town style. Our first destination was the Gas City petting zoo where we fed a lot of goats and Peyton discovered that although ducks are small and cute, they bite! Adam and I were cracking up watching them feeding the animals. Peyton gave every animal one pellet of food at a time, thinking that was substantial enough, while Ava dumped her food at the feet of the goats often to avoid a ruckus. It was a lot of fun and the kids were definitely surprised by the exoticness of the animals present. Peyton looks like he's reasoning with the goats here, haha.

After the zoo we were all pretty hot so we cooled off by playing with a sprinkler rocket thing the kids brought with them. Adam loved it so much and kept thinking of things to launch off of it. We were all soaked and grassy by dinner time, but we had so much fun! 

This picture doesn't do it justice, it shot really high, I just couldn't get a picture of it!

Ava refused to wear a shirt because she said it was too pretty:) 

We spent the rest of the night decorating very sugary sugar cookies and playing piano and watching the Strawberry Shortcake movie on Netflix. It was such a great couple of days and Adam and I had a blast. I love those kids so much and I'm glad I got to make a wonderful summer memory with them. 

City Mouse and Country Mouse

Remember the fable about the city and country mouse? The Country Mouse is happy with his quiet life but his cousin, the City Mouse, convinces him he should come to the big city which is much more exciting. I forget the exact moral of the story but I think it was something about being content with a quiet life and anyway I simply mention it here to point out that I am the City Mouse but I'm shacking up at the Country Mouse's home for awhile.


It's really funny when I think about it because I didn't grow up in a big city but I was at least in the middle of civilization my whole life. I hate the taste of well-water, I despise having to drive more than five minutes to run errands, and I like a strong cell phone connection. Also, I love big city life....the hustle and bussle, the big concerts, the millions of things to do in walking distance, the tall buildings, the diversity, the food...everything really. But somehow I am currently living in Upland, IN. There are two gas stations, one grocery store (which also moonlights as a Dollar Store), a few churches, and a well-known ice cream joint. I live on top of a hill, surrounded by a corn field and a soy bean field (or so I've been told) and we own a burn barrel???


But I really have come to love parts of country life already... Like I love the stars at night in the country, there is absolutely nothing keeping them from shining as bright as possible and it is magnificent. And I'm loving the view of the fields and trees from the window above our kitchen sink while I do dishes. And I like riding my 80's bike past all the fields and old houses. The hundred-year-old curtains in our house are absolutely perfect too and I think my love of vintage things fits in well out here in the country. And all the other things are starting to not seem quite so bothersome...I barely gag on the water when I'm brushing my teeth and we consolidate errand trips so we don't have to make tons of trips to destinations 20- 30 minutes away.  So I guess the moral of this story is that the City Mouse can be content too. Because I am.