in this together.

without going into too much detail my mom and i had an emotional discussion tonight on needing to serve each other better. during prayer about it i was reminded that we arent here for anything other than exactly that- loving each other by serving. selflessly serving each other in our relationships.

it is so easy to be selfish. it is so easy for me to ask how can THEY serve ME? but thats not what we are to ask. its the opposite. how can I serve THEM? can you imagine if we lived in a world (and when i say world i mean our day to day life) in such a way that we each were wondering and asking how can we serve each other? that would be the nicest way to live. and in reality the way we are supposed to be living.   how incredible is that? that THAT is the way we are supposed to be living. (ephesians 5:21; philipp 2:3-4)

there were two sayings that my mom said as i grew up-- "everything. always. works. out." and "an act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever unappreciated." growing up i watched my parents do these random acts of kindness... in so many different ways. mom tutoring kids, dad eating lunch with family-less, etc. i have loved random acts of kindness (rak) and have always loved hearing stories of people making others days or days being made by these raks. my senior year of high school i founded the random acts of kindness club. this christmas my mom gave me a book of random acts of kindnesses. so after our discussion ironically i had the book out hoping to read through it.

 i also had just read through a book called sex god by rob bell (so good) and it was all about how we are all connected. that we are all one but that we live in a world of the oneness being broken. broken. and that there are few things that god has created to make that oneness in this world that doesnt have it. those things being-- marriage, sex, and relationships. it was saying that in the moments of serving each other we get a sense of what it was meant to be.
one.
together.
united.

in the introduction of the random acts of kindness book it reads- "in a sense, kindness truly is the acting out of our deep and real connection to everyone and everything around us. it is the realization that all of us are in fact-- not just in theory or theology-- in this together."

may we realize we are in this together. selflessly serving each other and seeing others better than ourselves.

heavily floured surface

last night was dedicated to baking christmas cookies and other- for lack of better words- treats with my mom. this has always been my favorite. making a list of what we want and then doing it all in one night. but, life has gotten ahold of us and we havent done christmas baking like this in 3 years. so needless to say i was really looking forward to it. this year on the list was the following: decorated sugar cookies, buckeyes  (peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter mixed balls dipped in chocolate leaving the look of a buckeye), peanut butter ritz covered in chocolate, my grandmas famous chex mix, and magic cookie bars.

the last thing i did last night was the sugar cookies. we didnt want to leave it in the fridge for an hour like most directions say to do- so we found a new recipe and i followed it strictly. if i didnt know i was literal enough already i knew after this experience. so i make the dough and put it in a ball and read "roll dough out on a heavily floured surface". so i take the flour out and pour flour and spread it around.

i plop the dough on top and begin to roll. i mention- "hope i didnt flour it too heavily". my mom looks over and laughs. hard. and says "doug look at how much flour she put on the counter." he laughs. we measured a cup and a half of flour on the surface.

heavily is a strong word in my defense.

today's selection: 2 corinth 4

being an aunt

on november 3 a little boy named brayden cooper was born. my brother's first baby, my parents first grandson, and my first nephew. which can only mean one thing... spoiled and rightfully so. he is precious.

his first two weeks of life were in chkd neo-natal care for tests and monitoring of his seizures, so when he finally came home you can guess it we never have taken our hands off him when we are visiting or when he visits. which is great for us- babies are so therapeutic, and great for him because physical touch is so important for babies.. and well anyone really. its a way to both know we are loved and show we love. (of course not the only way!)

so brayden has had many naps in our arms to say the least. i mean who wants to refuse a baby sleeping on them? it has been great but not when we attempt to put him to sleep in a bed.

today i have worked from 9-2 and christmas shopped until 530 on 5 hours of sleep so with little explaination i am a little cranky. i came in from the cold and came to bring my bags into my study and my twinkle lights are circled around brayden's little portable sleeper, my mom is sitting next to them, gently rocking this wide-awake sweet little boy and proceedes to say this little punk wont fall asleep!

so, auntie amie to the rescue and i pick him up and without fail 45 seconds later brayden is passed out in my arms. goodbye cranky attitude, hello perfection.  so here i am-- twinkling lights, blogging, light worship, and a sweet boy in my arms.

he'll learn to sleep on his own, but for now one more nap wont be that big of a deal

eh blogging?

thinking back to the bloggers life i am reminded of the horrid, embarrassing days of xanga. Middle school... when i thought i was the best thing, ever. i think my blog name was something like x__livelifeup__x. How cool is that? I have since moved on to myspace and now facebook and was reintroduced into the blogging scene when i was told about a blog by a lady going to cancer (libbyryder.blogspot.com) and i have since contemplated making one again. I caved in the beginning of october and made this blogspot member. i was thinking of blogging about my "situation" of being at home for college instead of away as i planned (dont we always feel the situations we are in are the most important to be told/ so drastic?).  but i decided not to.

so here i was tonight with two of my very best friends- lauren and bethany- and i mentioned i kind of wanted to make a blog. they said yes yes yess -that i "seem like a blogger" and they have encouraged me to do so. so here it is.

but.. i have a lot of thoughts about doing this. i am uneasy dong this because 1. it can easily turn into a selfish thing i feel like. "let me tell you about all the happenings in my day" because i am so important. 2. or i can be a bit too vulnerable for a computer and share in depth of "heres what jesus is teaching me" (which is super encouraging for others to hear) but theres a line that is easily crossed of sharing too much of my heart. right? maybe i am thinking about this too much? but it is important to have the right intention for this.

so, i will begin and attempt to find the fine line between the two. i hope it goes well, and i hope you enjoy reading.. if anyone does.

today was a sweet day. began with sleeping in until 11am, hot chocolate, hanging out with my mom... then coffeed it up with my old young life leader katie, and ended with crafts, chris graham music, and twinkle lights with two of my dearest friends-- all of this while snow on the ground outside. shlove it.