Who's in Charge Here?

Sometimes I forget who is in charge.  Maybe it's me being an older sister, maybe it's me being a teacher, maybe it's just me being stubborn...sometimes I just like to think that I have it all planned out and it has to go my way or else.  But then when I see an answer to a prayer or when I see a beautiful picture of our world, I realize that no, it's not me in charge here. 

All We Have Are Stories

Due to my current substitute teaching employment situation, I am constantly meeting many new people each day.  By the end of a day in which I've subbed in music, sometimes I've had about 90-100 students come in and out of my classroom in one day.  When I sub in a general classroom, I have the students names down by the time lunch comes around, but it is on my drive back home that I begin to think about what each of their stories are.  For I only get to be with them for 8 hours of one day--out of their life. 

Think about how much and how little has happened in your life up to this point and has shaped who you are as a person.  If we pass someone in the street, we probably could never even begin to guess their story...but the thing is is that their story isn't stopping the moment they leave our classroom or the moment they are past you are on the sidewalk. 
Along those lines is a story about one of my friends.  She was heading home on the interstate for the weekend when due to a semi crash, all lanes of traffic were completely stopped.  Not only stopped for a few minutes, but at least 2 hours!  She was supposed to meet her husband at 5:00 and when she was still stuck on the interstate at 6:00, she knew he would be getting worried.  The problem was that her cell phone had died an hour into the trip and she had no way of connecting with him.  She saw another single woman sitting in the other lane in her car.  So being pretty gutsy, Mel decided to actually get out of her car and ask to borrow the woman's cell phone in order to call her husband.  Believe it or not, the other woman was supposed to meet her husband as well and was stuck in the crash traffic obviously.  I just found that story so interesting because as we drive on the busy streets with tons of people, we never stop to think about their story and how it might be very similar to our own.

I read a really good article recently called All We Have Are Stories by Hal Green.  I'm trying to find the link to post on here, but for now I just wanted to share a few paragraphs from the article.  Hopefully it gets your mind going as well, because it did mine!

To live a life is to play a role, hopefully the protagonist, in our very own most personal story, drama, comedy, play - call it what you will.

There are doubtless as many stories out there as there are variations of musical melodies, of which there shall never be an end. 

So, which melody should or could be determined as not essential to the wondrous whole of music?  None; they are all essential, and there forever, whether someone has yet heard them or not.  

Even in the final book of the Bible, the book of "Revelation," it is said that the heavenly residents sang new songs with new melodies which had never been heard or sung before.

How might it affect your life, if you understand that yourself as well as those around you are in the midst of your respective stories?  Surely you would quickly see that no life is truly boring; unexamined perhaps, but never boring.  

Who knows but that meaning of our life is hidden in our stories.

The Follow Up

Christmas tree mostly up and getting decorations around our apartment---check
Substitute jobs lined up for this week (thank goodness for getting them in advance)---check
A great Thanksgiving week and spending special time with families---check
Christmas lists finally made and shopping in progress---check

To follow up on our previous post, we lost our battle with the heater sadly.  After a rather cold Thanksgiving, Braedan came back to our apartment to find it rather chilly in here...when we talked on the phone that night (I came back on a different night) he said he had a sweatshirt on, blanket on top of that, two pairs of socks and my slippers on his feet.  Why my slippers you ask?  First of all, they are appropriately Hawkeye slippers, but slippers are on his Christmas list, so he had to make due with what we had.   So all in all, we made it to November 25 until turning on our heat.  Not too shabby...

We hope you are all staying nice and toasty these days :)

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,  
For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Stand Off

We are in a stand off with our heater.  Braedan and I are determined to make it at least through November until we turn on the heat.  We both much prefer being cold than too hot, so maybe that is where this idea comes from.  We've put the wool blanket on our bed and basically we live in our sweatshirts or under blankets, but we are winning thus far!  I mean, if it gets ridiculously cold, well then we'll have to concede, but right now we are still on track.  There are pros and cons to living on the third floor of our apartment building.  A con is that carrying up groceries by yourself sure stinks...but a pro is that when our downstairs neighbors are using their heat, we get some of the warmth as well.  So right now as I see the wind starting to blow around outside...I'm hoping we'll win the stand off..but we'll have to see...'tis the season!

Words to Live By

Live simply

Laugh often

Love much

Speak kindly

Care deeply

Expect little

Give generously

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

It's Coming!

Well folks, believe it or not the holidays are right around the corner!  If you can't tell, in this household, we are excited!  It means seeing family and eating good food, what more can you ask for?! 
Anyways, B and I are getting in the holiday spirit and decided to make a list of things we are thankful for about these days.  You know that family and friends are always on the list, so here's some other fun things we are thankful for right at this moment.  

*

Taffy

Sudoku

back rubs

my camera

 a cute niece

vanilla candles

college football

Christmas music

a clean apartment

Seinfeld on at 6:00

Flamin' hot Cheetos

Friday nights at home

Mama's choc. chip cookies

the warm afghan on our couch

everyone who reads our blog :) 

  having visitors at our apartment

leftovers in the freezer for busy nights

finding enough quarters to do laundry

not having to scrape off car windshields before work

**AND the fact that 2 years ago today we got engaged and that 3 years ago tomorrow was our first date!