Look What I Can Do!

Before:

After:
My Model:

My church here in Auburn has a women's knitting group (sorry to all you guys that wanted to participate!) whose first project was to make baby hats for the Women's Hope Medical Clinic here in town. They are hosting a baby shower for the women tomorrow night where they will give them the hats we made as well as other baby items.

The group is called K2 TOG, which in the knitting world, means to "knit two together". Thus the purpose of this group is not only to help women with children but to also build relationships between women at the church. It truly is a neat group of women!

My next project to knit is a cotton baby bib. I can't wait to see how it turns out. Note that this is only my second knitting project. It takes some time but I love the outcome!

I had a great day!

Today I went to my gym to get my reevaluation done and here are the results since Thanksgiving...drum roll please...
I've lost a total of 12 lbs!
I've lost 9% body fat!!
My at rest heart rate has dropped (thanks to a cardio class that is kicking my butt).
Go me!

My life song

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found was blind but now I see.
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieves. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.
Chorus: My chains are gone! I've been set free! My God my Saviour has ransomed me! And like a flood his mercy reigns! Unending love. Amazing grace.
The lord has promised good to me. His word my hope secured. He will my shelter and portion be as long as life endures.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow. The sun forever to shine. But God who called me here below will be forevermore...will be forevermore. You are forevermore.

This is a beautiful rendition of amazing grace and a comforting reminder that God is gracious to me. I so often forget the grace that has been imparted to me and do not give grace to others.

Probably the biggest reminder of my sin is when I am interacting with the Buddies. I so often see and hear their anxiety. Their ability to focus only on themselves is aggravating. Then like a lightbulb from the Holy Spirit I am reminded, "oh yeah...they sound kinda like me...dammit". Thank you God for being so gracious toward me in my sin. Help me to impart that same grace and love to others and continue to remind me of your grace.

My Love/Hate relationship with Technology

Why I love it:
1. It cuts down the number of hours I spend drawing things for school and coming up with craft ideas.
2. It is an easy way to turn in assignments and to research topics.
3. It allows me to keep in touch with friends that I don't get to see often whether by facebook, my blog, or phone calls.
4. It is a great form of entertainment--watching movies, news updates, etc
5. Almost any piece of information is only a click away.

Why I hate it:
1. I had 10 missed calls, 4 answered calls, and 11 outgoing calls today. I also listened to 9 messages today.
2. I spent a total of 2 hours answering emails today. (partially because some emails require searching to find an answer to questions) On average, I read and answer about 15 emails per day.
3. Nothing ever works when I need it to work.

So I guess there are more reasons I love it than hate it but gee whiz! We live in a world where you are expected to be a call or an email away. Heaven forbid you decide not to answer your phone for a few hours or not check your email for a day. I am guilty of this midset also but some days I struggle with deciding whether or not to feed my cell phone to the dog.

Life update

I am so excited about starting my last semester at Auburn! I don't want to think about leaving Auburn and my friends but I will be so glad to graduate. Last semester I taught 1st-3rd graders and although I enjoyed it, it made me realize that I am most passionate about teaching younger children.

This semester I am happy to say that for my internship I am teaching preschool! I have 3 and 4 year olds four days a week then a teacher workday on fridays. I also only have a 10 minute drive to school compared to my 35 minute drive and working in the eastern time zone last semester.

My three year olds arrive by 7:45am and leave at 10:15am. Then the four year olds arrive at 11am and leave at 2pm. There are about 8 students in each class. Most of the students have language delays or other developmental delays then we have a couple of typical students that act as peer models to model appropriate behaviors and developmental milestones.

I love my kiddos and can't wait to update y'all on what we do each week!

God is still Sovereign

Despite the loss and the sadness that Mallori's family is having to bear, God is still at work in their lives. Mallori's husband acknowledged that he was missing a lot more than just Mallori in his life; he was missing God. At Mallori's funeral, the pastor announced that her husband had accepted christ as his savior and acknowledged his need for him.
I pray that he continues to grow in Christ so his children can be raised by a Godly father and that Christ will continue to heal his heart.
There is something so healing in knowing that God can and will use things as horrible as the death of a loved one to bring about his sovereign plan and further His kingdom.

In need of prayer

Today, immediately after church, I was informed that my best friend up through Jr High School was killed in a car accident. Mallori Whisenhunt Harper was thrown from her car after it flipped on hwy 174 between pell city and odenville. Her 2 young children (bailey-2yrs and harris-3yrs) were in the car with her. Bailey came away with minor cuts after escaping from her seat and crawling into a nearby yard. Harris is currently in the ICU with multiple injuries. Among his injuries are bruised and swollen eyes, a punctured lung, and shattered leg bones.
Mallori was the oldest of 4 kids. Her siblings are Blaine, Andrew, and Abby. She was living at home with them her mom, kim, and her stepdad, kevin, and her two kids. Mallori just turned 22 years old last week.
Praise the Lord that her 2 babies are ok but the whole situation is a mess. There are so many things for which I would covet your prayers.
1. Mallori was in the middle of a divorce and custody battle. For this you could pray that Mallori's mother would receive custody of the children since the children's father's job requires him to be gone weeks at a time.
2. Pray that the custody battle would not get ugly.
3. Pray for rest for the family as they grieve. Grieving is so exhausting but it is so hard to turn your mind off and actually rest.
4. Pray that the family would find strength in God and know that they can make it through this trying time. It definitely will not be of their own strength. Words cannot describe how it feels to look back on the hardest experience of your life and realize that God was and is powerful enough to bring you through it.
5. Pray for peace for the family--that they won't blame themselves for anything and that they will be able to slowly move forward without dwelling on the accident and what they could have done differently.
6. This last request is a little selfish, but pray for me. Pray that God would use me to be a comfort to this family. Also pray that God would grant me peace as this situation brings back a lot of memories from the loss of Rachael and as I mourn the loss of my friend Mallori.
Thank you for your prayers!