sigh

My house is a chaotic mess. I have schoolwork to do. I would like to nap. Those things don't mix well.

What I want to know, is how it got to be a chaotic mess. I was working this weekend, 2-10, Saturday and Sunday. Before I went to work on Saturday, I cleaned and tidied the whole house. It was a beautiful and relaxing place to be. And then from Saturday at 2 until, pretty much right now, I have been home for about 20 hours, the majority of which I spent sleeping. Which doesn't answer my question of how my house got this way. Sigh.


I have a really hard time getting assignments done during exam period. It seems like I have all the time in the world to do whatever I want, because my time isn't scheduled. Which leads me to end up spending lots of time doing things that are fun and healthy, but not necessarily productive in the school realm. I have to get two major assignments in for Wednesday, then write an exam on Friday, then I'm done until the next Saturday. It will be really nice to be allllll done, and working more. I'm looking forward to that!

Oh happy day!

Yesterday was my last day of classes! Hurrah! I came home, finished up some last minute work since the strike at school ended (only to get a snarky email back from the prof saying that the strike was a separate issue from my deadlines :S I hope I don't get docked a ton of marks), and then walked Charlie, had supper with James, and had a whole evening to do whatever I wanted. So I grabbed my rake and got outside. It was SO nice. Especially because I was starting to feel embarrassed about how gross our front patch was looking. So I raked, and I got my hands dirty pulling dead leaves and stuff out of the flower beds, only to find crocuses, daffodils and tulips!!! Yay! The crocuses have started to bloom, the daffodils are almost there. Very exciting.
I still have a fair bit to do for year end projects and exams, which is going to be very tricky, as the sunshine and backyard are seeming pretty seductive...

Secular Sacred

That was the title of the massey lectures in 2006 (I think...maybe 2005), by Margaret Sommerville. They were great. I don't remember specifically what she had to say about that, but something along the lines of recognizing the sacred in everyday life - not necessarily things we ordinarily consider sacred in the organized religion sense of the term.

Anyway, I was reading a segment from the Blueprint, a student publication at Laurier, and that phrase - secular sacred - popped into my head. I thought I'd share it.

"Being happy can be hard work. When we make a commitment to social justice, to change, to awareness, it often stems from a simmering anger at the oppression, injustice, and pain that we see all around us. How many of us have read or seen something that opened up our eyes and come away feeling overwhelmed instead of empowered? How many times have we seen friends open their own eyes, only to shut them even tighter a moment later? Is it wrong to empathize like this? Of course not. Is it productive? Not in the long term.
Anger is strong. Hate is stronger. Embracing them as a motivation for social change is easy, and it's seductive. I've sat in many, many rooms being dominated by whoever had the biggest chip on their shoulder about an issue. More than once, I've done the dominating. It certainly gets things done, but it also lights a fire that burns people out incredibly quickly. This is no foundation for sustainable change. Continuous sadness destroys more than it saves. We certainly do our movements no favours by talking about guilt without talking about hope.
Buddha made famous a truism about human life - that the only things we can predict at the moment of birth are suffering and death. What does this mean? Perhaps that sorrow will find us, but we must go looking for joy. Thankfully, it's not hard to find. Indeed, I'd argue that it's impossible to miss. Look around for just one moment at the world we wake up to. It's filled with more beauty, more inspiration, more harmony than any of us can possibly wrap our minds around. By all rights, tears of elation should greatly outnumber tears of frustration.
Laugh. Sing. Smile. Learn. Struggle. Find your joy wherever you can. We must not be afraid of admitting that sometimes, progress actually gets made. When we go out into the world to try and change it, we try to give a voice to the voiceless. Making that a voice of hatred does them all a disservice. There's lots to do - let it be done with joy."

Josh Smyth, Editor-in-Chief, Blueprint Magazine
www.blueprintmagazine.ca

Counting my blessings

I'm having a thankful day today. I'm thankful for the sunshine, and that it's getting warm. I'm thankful for my house, and that I had the time to clean it today. I'm thankful for the farmer's market, and that I am healthy and was able to walk there for my food today. I'm thankful for my job, and that I had money to buy food and flowers. God is so good to us.

also...I'm thankful that there are only 2 school days left and a few little things to wrap up. VERY thankful!

I am also really thankful this week for the Christian community that I am a part of. I have been really blessed this week by spending time talking and praying with people who really share God's heart for the poor and marginalized, and want to figure out what it looks like to respond to those issues. I am just so excited and encouraged after I have spent time with these people.

God is good.

One More Week...

The end is in sight! I just sat down with my April calendar and jotted in all my deadlines and exams. After Wednesday life is going to become a WHOLE lot more manageable! Hurray! One more big paper due Wednesday, then a couple little things, then exams. I actually usually really enjoy exam period - I don't mind writing exams, and the amount of unscheduled time I have is fantastic.

I'm supposed to be at school today. I got up early, got all ready, made a lunch, etc etc etc. We even took Charlie to James' parents because Monday's are long days and we have something at church tonight. I got James to work, then turned around and went home instead of going to school. I was just feeling really crappy - headache, stomach ache, tired. That plus the amount of work I have to get done in the next couple of days made going home a far more attractive option. So here I am...I think it was a good choice. It's weird not having Charlie here though! So quiet!

James is feeling better - thank God! He was on the couch for 4 days, in pretty rough shape. I don't remember him ever being sick for that long. Thankfully he's back at work today. We had a nice Sunday together yesterday, which is a rare thing. I didn't have to go to work, and I chose to leave schoolwork aside for the day. We had a good morning at church - Robin preached a really good sermon on the Parable of the Tenants in Mark 12. He taught on how the listener's at the time would have heard and interpreted Jesus' teaching according to their cultural context and knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures - it was interesting to hear it with that extra information - and realize that Jesus was making some pretty strong judgements against the Jewish teachers and leaders. Very good. You can listen to it at www.wentworthbaptist.ca
After church we had lunch together, then took Charlie down to the bayfront and walked for awhile. We met James' dad and his cousin Paul who is here visiting for the week. Then came home and had a nap :)
The evening was spent at church celebrating the ordination of Robin Ellis, our pastor. It was a good night of worship, teaching, and celebrating Robin's call.
We got home and just chatted and prayed for the coming week - I think we're going to try to make that a habit on Sunday evenings. It's a good way to connect with each other and a ground our week in prayer...speaking of prayer, I got a new Henri Nouwen book "The Only Necessary Thing" on the weekend. It's made up of excerpts on prayer taken from his many books over the years. I'm looking forward to it.

So, after our prayer time, at like, 11pm, I decided I wanted to change the furniture. As in, completely switch two rooms. So, our living room is now where our dining room was, and the dining table and hutch moved into the old living room. This all in anticipation of MY PIANO COMING ON WEDNESDAY! Yes indeed - after almost 10 months of not living with my piano, it's coming from my parents' house this week. I am very happy about that!

Okay. Time to stop writing so I can start writing....

Two more weeks....

I love how I created this blog for "big thinks" and it's really just become my ramblings on mundane everyday things. Oh well. School takes up all my big think energy lately. I don't really feel like processing more big thinks when I'm paper writing.

So. Two more weeks. One and a half more papers. One course in limbo because of a strike. Almost there.

I was all gung-ho to get down to work today. I went to bed SUPER early last night, slept in, had a nice breakfast and leisurely morning with James, and was gonna sit down and just charge through stuff. I sat down. I opened books. My gung-ho left. Now I'm struggling to focus. I'm trying to finish this little paper, and it shouldn't take long, but it's for the striking prof, and I don't even know if it's going to amount to anything, so I don't have much determination to finish it. Perhaps I should move on to other stuff for now.

I had a GREAT weekend! But it was so busy...it wasn't a work weekend, but I was just as tired at the end as I would've been if I had worked. Friday we did church in the morning, lunch with James' family, and then I had to work in the evening, 3-11. Saturday I went to the One of a Kind Show with Roz, Jen and Emily, which was fantastic. So many neat things! I bought a leather satchel/purse/bag thing - big enough to hold a lunch and some books for my travels, and goes across my body so no one can steal it. I like it.

Sunday, we were at church super early for worship team practice, then our service (which was fantastic!). Lunch with the Wallaces, then straight to dinner at Tracy and Danielle's, which was also really nice. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with everyone. But by the time I got home I was sooo tired. Not to mention I had to prepare for a presentation at school the next day. By the end of Monday I was zonked! Thus the early bed time.

Mmmm....yep. that's really all. I have to analyze a medieval manuscript and make an argument on how many scribes I think wrote it. Not really looking forward to that.

Here I gooooooo

for Dad, who doesn't have facebook...

...but likes to check out the occasional online picture.

I'll add some to this lovely, schoolwork avoidance post.

I'm kinda torn about the schoolwork, being as the professor is on strike (details at www.wlufa.ca )...what does that mean for my deadlines? Not exactly sure. Nevertheless, the paper was due yesterday, so I'm gonna get it in today, but I don't really know how that works. And only ONE MORE PAPER this term! WOOHOO!!! Excellent news.

So, I had a great day yesterday - I went "home" to see my fam, and my friend Tracy who is taking a mini-vacation at my parents' house. I successfully got my homework started...then was offered a pedicure at the spa with Tracy, then was offered a delightful roast beef dinner (which was definitely worth ending Lent early for), then, as I was about to finish my work/and or leave, Hilary asked if Tracy and I wanted to play Scrabble...which of course I did. She kicked our arses. I was supposed to leave in time to buy dog food...which of course I didn't, because I ended up talking with mom and Tracy for awhile after that...James called me when he got home at 10:45 and was like "Where ARE you? Where's the dog food? Has Charlie eaten?" I'm obviously a bad person for leaving him that long - but he did get fed. And I bought a honken (I feel like that adjective needs to come back into common lingo) huge bag today. As well as a new leash, so he won't kill my hands when I'm trying to correct him for not "walking nice".

So, today a co-worker and friend, Erine came over with her baby for a visit, which was nice. Also nice is the fact that it pushed me to clean, and now I am enjoying my delightful clean and tidy abode. I just need some fresh flowers to top it off (3 gerbers for the kitchen, and some tulips for the dining room...). I like flowers.

Speaking of flowers, I had an interview at a greenhouse today for a job for May-June. I think it went well, he seemed to like me, and he was thrilled that I'm leaving at the end of June, 'cause that's when their peak season ends and they need to start letting their seasonal people go anyway. Hopefully that works out - it sounds like it will fit well with with my weekend job at the group home, and the course I'm going to be taking. And I really like the idea of being around flowers all day - it's gorgeous in there!

So, then I went to buy dog food and leash, then stopped at Wendy's for a quick lunch, happened to see Steve Clark, a guy from Bible study there, which was kind of random. We chatted for a bit...then came home, and I have been successfully wasting mounds of time looking at websites trying to figure out if I have to do my schoolwork when the prof's on strike, and posting pictures on facebook, and blogging.

Mmmm....I think I should probably finish my paper now. Here's a few of the pics I posted today.