Quote

"In all these other matters what you call obeying Him is but doing what seems good in your own eyes also. Is love content with that? You do them, indeed, because they are His will, but not only because they are His will. Where can you taste the joy of obeying unless He bids you do something for which His bidding is the only reason?"

- C.S Lewis, from Perelandra

Odds and Ends

Our garden is growing! I feel guilty that I haven't been over to Edwardsville to check on it since we first planted it some weeks ago. It seems that Karen is doing a good job caring for it though. Every time I see Aaron he asks me "how's the garden doing" as if I live right down the street from Karen instead of from him. It's a bit annoying, actually. So, Aaron, now you know how the garden is doing. As far as I know though, we are still gnome-less.

In other news, I'm almost done setting up the last 5-day Clubs for the summer. I'm just waiting to hear back from Nathan at the YMCA. I wish he would hurry up. I can't wait to post all seven full weeks of clubs on the wall of my cubicle, pump my arm in victory, and immediately receive a phone call from a club hostess saying that she has to cancel due to an unforeseen emergency. Ah, the unpredictability of summer ministry.

I am currently contemplating summer travel plans. I sort of want to head south and scope out Little Rock before I become a resident of that fine city, and I keep meaning to visit Adrienne, located somewhere deep in the heart of Texas, and witness her marital bliss firsthand, but have yet to actually do it. I also made tenative plans to go to Chicago with Karen and visit all the museums there. Joanna, Amanda, and I were planning a trip there (are planning a trip there?) this summer but I know they won't go to the museums with me. I know this because when I asked Joanna about it she made a rude noise which, when translated means, "yeah, right".

Today at work one of my co-workers was singing a song about Helen Keller and her hips (your guess is as good as mine) and my other co-worker Joe (love him!) said "get away from me, Helen Keller, you're grossing me out!" I couldn't stop laughing. There was just something about a soon-to-be journalist saying the phrase "you're grossing me out" that struck me as highly hilarious. Maybe you had to be there, or maybe you have to know Joe, or maybe you have to work with a bazillion crazy kids all day to get the hilarity of this moment. It were funny (grammatical error intended).

I think that's all the news to be had around here. I keep meaning to brew a cup of Irish Breakfast tea and finally, finally, sit down and finish reading the Lewis book. It still hasn't happened. The box of tea sits forlornly in the cupboard, unopened, and the book stares up at my from my bedside table every time I enter the room. It is angry about being neglected for so long. Sometimes I pick it up and carry it downstairs, meaning to crack open its pages and read, but something inevitably distracts me. This only serves to fuel its anger. I expect a mutiny pretty soon; Lewis will not be ignored forever.

Time for bed. I know this because I'm giving inanimate objects personalities. Again.

Goodnight!

Top Ten

On top of current activities I feel a responsibility to update my blog for all those who actually read it (thanks Karen!). This may or may not be a good time to pull out a famed Top Ten List which my friends and I are so fond of creating. Bored on a road trip? Top Ten List! Wedding speech? Top Ten List (although that one didn't work out quite so well as all of the McDonald's Canadian relatives thought I was a lesbian. True story!)! Just about any major life event? Top Ten List! What's to stop me from creating a Top Ten List in order to keep my readers (Karen) happy? Not one thing. So, without further ado...

Top Ten Things I'm Currently Doing (it's a working title)

10. Reading the last book of C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy. I love it! The dialogue is fantastic. In fact, I wish I were reading it right now.

9. Picking grass out of my hair. Today at work the kids decided to shower me with grass and clover; it was fun for them and me. Today was a perfect day to sit in the grass and just...be.

8. Eating delicious leftover cheesy green beans. Sounds gross, right? I know, I thought the same thing until Joanna made them for me and Nicole for Saturday Night Dinner. Mm, delish!

7. Missing my co-worker, Betsy. She had to go back home to Maine for the summer. Stupid Maine! Now there's no one to keep me relatively sane during the early morning hours or to listen to all of my outrageous stories.

6. Thinking about how I need to get my tires aligned. This is actually important. Today I thought I might be shaken to death as I drove from the CEF office to school.

5. Reading Isaiah. Is it okay to skip all the woes of the upcoming Babylon captivity in chapters 1-36 and just go straight to the good parts of 37-66? I'm thinking about it.

4. Praying for changed hearts. I want the infinite worth of Jesus to be valued in people around me. I want them to really, really love Jesus. Not church Jesus, gospel Jesus.

3. Praying that my life would reflect the infinite worth of Jesus. It's like God is saying "you really want them to value Me above everything else? Is that what you really want? Okay, you first." This comes with a variety of things I don't want and the withholding of a variety of things I do.

2. Digging my summer job with CEF. Today was the first official day and it went surprisingly smoothly. Tomorrow I get to clean up the big mess I made today in the storage closet. I am not a little bit excited. I love summer ministry!

1. Looking forward to bedtime. The month of May will be full of twelve hour days between my regular job and my summer job with CEF. If I can only hold out until May 27th then I will have more than one or two minutes to string together. However, I can't think of a better place than where I am now...

Bonus: I am currently conducting research on Little Rock (you don't think I'd forget why this blog actually exists, do you?). I will update you on all of my findings presently. This morning a little girl in my program passed her official verdict on Little Rock based on family reunions held in that great city : booooooring. I'm going to pretend she's just biased, and 9, which she is, so...she's probably right!