Musical Monday

So, I thought I'd take a different route tonight with this post. Instead of sharing songs with you, I thought I'd share some of the things I've wanted to do musically for a very long time...

~ I want to sing in a cave! The acoustics would just be amazing.
~ I want to play an organ  in a cathedral (acoustics again).
~ I want to sing at the front of a cathedral and be heard in the back.
~ I want to be part of a flashmob!
~ I want to sing in a huge choir.
~ I still want to learn to play the violin.
~ I want to play in a symphony (once I learn the violin, of course).
~ I want to be able to teach piano lessons.
~ I'd love to lead a children's choir.

I don't know if any of these will happen, but I hope so!

Thankful Thursday

This has been quite the week! A lot of great things happened to be sure. I took most of the week off from dancing, and honestly, it was really nice. I was able to get a lot of good reading done, watched some great movies, and accomplished some more of my autobiography typing.
I had some really awesome experiences at work that can only be attributed to God working in the situations, and that's just plain awesome!
Tuesday was pretty exciting with a storm including rain, sleet, snow, lightning and thunder! It was very interesting.
Wednesday was also exciting with opening up at work two hours later than usual because of the weather. That also included getting stuck in my parking lot and being helped out by a friendly bobcat guy. :D Work was really fun despite it being super slow. I got to help out in the kitchen a lot more than normal. I got to frost bars and scones and cut and wrap them too! It was really fun.
Last night was also great because I got to go salsa dancing for the first time this year! It was really fun! :D

Other highlights of the week have been my German classes, which have been really great. I love my students a lot!
Hanging out with my roomie and her brother.
Having small group again.
Talking to some really awesome people (yes, that means you CNH). :P
And becoming a resident in my new state! Woot woot! :D

Thankful Thursday

I wish I could be a Psalmist.. My heart is lifted up by the greatness of my Lord and yet I have no good way to express it. Sometimes as I'm thinking about Him I just get little flashes of sentences or songs. They randomly pop into my head and are quickly replaced by another. The one bit that is staying in my head right now is from Psalm 23; "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" That is the only phrase that I connect to this past week. Goodness and mercy have continually been evident in my week, thanks to the wonderful grace of Jesus (did anyone just think of the hymn? anyone..anyone?). It is impossible to share all the wonderful things God has given me over the past week, but I'll highlight some of them for you, as usual.

I'm so thankful to have a sister living nearby. It is such a blessing to have someone who knows me so well to bounce different ideas off of, and just hang out. Ahh, thanks for coming over kid. I really enjoyed it. :)

I have been very blessed to work more the past two weeks and next week as well! It is always nice to have something to keep me occupied and it's productive! Woot! Plus, it's been awesomely busy!

I was completely blessed by my customers today, including an old/new friend!  Listening to other people with an open mind and a desire to learn can always benefit me, though perhaps not in the way my 'teacher' wants. :P I was able to have a discussion about religion and it definitely benefited me, despite the fact that I don't agree with him at all. Oh well. :P

Teaching German has been brilliantly fun! I love my students dearly and truly appreciate how they have helped me to grow as a teacher and polish up my German skills. I have remembered so many German words just from teaching them, which I think is completely awesome!

My Lord has been so gracious to me by giving me a clear picture of how He's been working in me, and how big of a difference it's making. It's honestly amazing to look at myself and see something different than what I knew before.  Another song that has been stuck in my head is:

Lord, You are more precious than silver
Lord, You are more costly than gold
Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds

And nothing I desire compares to You.

It's really great to remember how worthy our Lord is of our trust, adoration, and worship. What a blessing!

Musical Monday

I  don't know how many of these I'll do, but I figured I had some more music to share with you, so why not?

This is the song I mentioned in my last post, and I truly love it. I sing it all the time when I'm alone. Yay.

This is a worship song that has always touched my heart. I feel like we don't 'fall on our knees' enough. Perhaps we make God too casual sometimes.

Yet again, I love this song. If you haven't noticed already, I really love the slower, more passionate songs. I really enjoy upbeat songs too, but if I'm by myself, I'll almost always sing slower songs.

Anyway...the theme of this Musical Monday is "Worship".  *Happy Sigh*

Goals

I've been thinking about goals on a variety of levels lately. The most recent being about all the goals I had at the beginning of the year of what I wanted to do with my time not being in school. Sadly, I haven't accomplished many of them, but now that I recognize that, I can fix it..right?...right.

The biggest thing I have accomplished is my third piano composition! None of them are very long, and none of them are masterpieces, but they make me happy. That's all that matters, right?

I also have made slight headway in typing my great grandfather's autobiography into my computer.

I have been cooking more meals, and I now have an adorable apron to keep me clean while cooking. Yay!

I also have been working on my German as a result of my now teaching it to kids.

So, things I would like to work on more intensely or just begin to work on are :
~ Finish the autobiography...I should be able to finish it this semester if I work hard on it.
~ Begin my Germany scrapbook in hopes that it could be done by my 1 year anniversary of coming back to the states.
~ Learn violin..I still would like to do this, but am nervous to.
~ Continue improving on my cooking and German skills.


The other thing about goals that has been coming up lately are my long term goals/plans. And the thing about that is that I really have no set plans/goals for my life down the road. This seems to be perceived as a negative thing more often than not in our culture. I get a little frustrated sometimes, trying to answer these common questions. I think what it comes down to is this: God has given me many talents and passions that He could work into prominent position in my life, but that's not happening yet, so while I wait, I'm striving to continue following after Christ and continue to seek His will on a day to day basis. One song that has been on my mind particularly lately is
"One Pure and Holy Passion" and it says:

Give my one pure and holy passion
Give me one magnificent obsession
Give me one glorious ambition in my life
To know and follow hard after you

To know and follow hard after You
To grow as Your disciple in Your truth
This world is empty, pale and poor
Compared to knowing You my Lord
Lead me on and I will run after You.

It's truly beautiful, and it was just a blessing for sure. That song is what I want, I want to live like that.

Thankful Thursday

Keeping it short tonight!

I'm thankful for extra hours at work this week and next.
I'm thankful for a great small group to attend with people who love and care about me.
I'm thankful for having a chance to work on and finish my piano composition.
I'm thankful for wonderful food that I'm constantly blessed with.
I'm thankful for the beautiful snow yesterday.
I'm thankful that all the new snow melted away today! :P
I'm thankful for an awesome boyfriend.
I'm thankful for a God who uses people and circumstances to help me grow.

Thanks God!

What are YOU thankful for?

Musical Monday

I mentioned in my last post that I'm grateful for music and how it affects my attitude. With that in mind, I thought I'd share with you some particular songs that hold meaning for me and why. :D

These first few were on a cassette tape called "The Hits of the 70s/80s" or something like that. I'm pretty sure that was my family's favorite thing to listen to on our annual vacations. We could sing along to every song for sure, but some stuck out more to us. We lost the tape somewhere, and I've just spent some time trying to find some of the songs online, and so far I've found 7. No worries, I won't post them all. :P

This is the one I tried hardest to find.

I always remember this one making me cry.

And this one is just fun!!

 

Another song that meant a lot to me was "When God Ran" by Phillips, Craig, and Dean. I don't think I'll ever forget how strongly God convicted me when I heard this song after He changed my life. In fact, it was one of three songs in a row played on the radio that completely convicted me for how I was living. Again, I lost track of the song and didn't hear it for years, and the first time I heard it again was when I was in Germany and I'm pretty sure I was crying my eyes out all over again. All that to say: I love this song!

Thankful Thursday

I wasn't able to post this last week, so I'll just add those thankful bits in too. =)

I'm thankful for music! Music can drastically change my mood. If I'm feeling upset or frustrated, scared, sad, or bored, all I have to do is sing and I will start to feel better. It's a blessing to have thousands of songs that give glory to God just stocked away in my memory. Sometimes God will bring a certain song to mind, even if I haven't heard it in years! The music at church this last Sunday was especially wonderful.

I'm thankful for the ability to compose, though it might not be amazing work (I'm no Beethoven). It truly has blessed me to be writing my own music, and letting my hands express the melody within myself.

I'm thankful for the opportunity I had to travel to the City to go swing dancing! It was my first time there, and it was so much fun! It was really great being able to see how different guys lead and dance. It was also a nice chance to get to know some people from my own club.

I have many many things from these two weeks to be thankful for, but I'll just share one more bit from work yesterday. Years ago I was in a very confusing, hurtful situation, and the issues that came with that situation were never truly solved until I learned how to forgive those involved, and then it was mostly like 'forgive and forget'. I didn't think on that experience anymore...that is..until yesterday. For some reason, the main character in it kept coming to mind. When people randomly come to mind, I generally try to pray for them right away, 'cuz I figure they came to mind for a reason. I didn't want to pray for this person, because whenever I had before, it had only brought more pain. I remembered that I'd chosen to forgive them, and therefore, it would be ok to pray. Honestly, even though I thought that way, it truly was a shock when it proved to be the case. I don't I've ever been able to think/pray for that situation without feeling bitterness and anger, until yesterday. My goodness, it was such a blessing! I don't know why she came to mind, but I'm so glad she did, because it gave me the chance to truly see how God has been working in me, and that there is a definite difference. I couldn't be more thankful for that.

Another Look Behind

I am feeling so blessed right now and so I thought I'd share with you just a bit of my morning at work. I will save some of it for tomorrow's thankful post. If it hasn't previously been established, one of my favorite things about working where I do is the constant flow of regular customers that come every day. Of course, I love them all, but I do have my favorites. I've told you about "J" and about my "grandpa", but I haven't told you yet about the 'toast ladies'. Something I've learned in my 5 years in the food industry is that you really do categorize people by the food they eat. :P Anyway, the toast ladies are awesome! I love when they come in. Today I really enjoyed my chat with them.

After learning what year they were born ('24 and '34 respectfully), we proceeded to discuss WWII and the affect it had on their individual lives. The more talkative one ('34 ;P) told of how she had many relatives who fought in the navy and how her uncle fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He lived with her family before and after the war, and she said there was a radical difference in who he was as a man. I've always heard of war survivors drastically changing and here was an excellent example. She mentioned something that I'd never considered; when the men joined the forces and left for war, most likely they didn't come home again unless the war was over. There were no set 'tours of duty' like we have today where we can know with pretty good certainty the length of time our loved ones are going to be away. I don't want to imagine the anguish suffered by the mothers, sisters, and sweethearts as they waited indefinitely. The horror that the men faced is much worse to imagine. My friend told me how her uncle immediately dove under his truck at the sound of firecrackers. The constant terror he must have been while overseas is too awful for me to grasp.

Along with our discussion of the war was our discussion of the simplicity of life when they were young. They had little of our modern technology, and this helped their lives to move at a slower pace. I am happy to live in the time I do, but at the same time, I wish I could take a vacation back to those days to see what it actually was like.

The thought that this left me with was that the culture we live in now is a different world than the generations before us, but despite that fact, we can draw upon the wisdom of those older and more experienced, and we would do well to do so. I see a lack of respect in my generation for those who have gone before us, and I want to live differently. I want to be a beginning, a beginning of respect and admiration. I want to use every opportunity to learn from my elders. I want to take the time to record the memories of these men and women, and do my best to preserve history. I want to learn as much as I can from them while I still have time.