It's Christmas Time!

It's 3 days before Christmas, and I'm happy to say that my shopping was done right after Thanksgiving. I've read in various news pieces that with the way the economy is right now, people are buying fewer gifts this year. For some that may be a big deal, but for others it's not. For me, it doesn't really matter. The way my family is, my sister and I were always taught that gifts weren't the main theme of Christmas. Sure when we were kids we had presents under the tree, and because we were younger we were probably more focused on the gifts rather than the actual meaning behind Christmas. As we got older, though, we learned to focus on the meaning of Christmas and time with our family rather than the gifts.

No family is without Christmas traditions. With my mom's side of the family we all get together, usually the afternoon of Christmas day, have lunch, and open gifts. We always have 2 of the younger kids hand out the presents. For a while it was always my sister and me, but now it's the younger ones. Once the presents are all handed out, we open the presents from oldest to youngest. The same goes for my dad's side of the family, though it goes much faster because there are only 3 grandchildren. Growing up, my sister and I always had "sides" of the tree. Each year we would switch sides. Don't ask me how we remembered who had what side each year, I have no idea. On Christmas eve, we would exchange family gifts. My sister and I would give our parents each a gift from each of us, and each year, my sister and I would open up 2 gifts from under the tree. We always knew what the gifts would be. Each year, my parents would give us 2 Hallmark ornaments. We used to get the Barbie ornaments and Madame Alexander doll ornaments,but as we got older, the ornaments we got were more of a reflection of who we are.

If you know me, then you know that I am a family oriented person. As crazy as my family is, and as much as they drive me crazy, I love them and I love to spend time with them. There is a family picture at my grandmother's (my mom's mother) house that was taken in front of Rockefeller Center in New York City. It was taken about 5 years ago. We drove to New York, and let me tell you it was a LONG drive. There were arguments and laughs and every other emotion one can experience while in the car with family on a 14 hour drive. Back to the picture, though. In that picture, my sister and I were the only grandchildren. Since that Christmas 5 years ago, my family has grown. My aunt and uncle adopted a little boy, who is so sweet. My other uncle got married and they have 1 little girl and 2 more little girls who will be here December 29th, if not sooner. It's amazing what God can do in a family in 5 years. Christmas is always a fun time with my mom's side of the family. We are a big family. My grandmother's house always has the pitter patter of feet, and there is never a dull moment.

So now that I've shared my Christmas traditions, I'd like to know what your traditions are. I'm leaving to go Oxford tomorrow and staying until Christmas eve. I hope each of you has a wonderful Christmas. Spend time with you family and take time to ponder on how truly blessed we are to celebrate the coming of Christ.

Much love and peace.
Laura Kate

It's A Beautiful Day

The sun is shining today, making it an absolutely beautiful day compared to the weather here the past 2 and a half weeks. It makes me happy, as does my one class I have today being cancelled. Another thing that makes me happy are birthdays. Mine is tomorrow. I'll be 22. Just typing that number gives me a weird feeling, but in a good way. These past few days, I've been taking a look back on my life. I've been looking at the way past events and experiences have shaped me into the person I am today. It's weird, really. There are many people who, when asked the question "If you could go back and change anything about your life, what would you change?", they would start naming off things. But there are those who, when asked that same question, will look the person in the eye and say "Not one thing." I'd like to believe that I am one of those people. If someone had asked me that question 3 years ago, I would have named off everything I could think of that I would change, but now I realize that past events have made me the woman I am today. I know 22 is not old, though according to the 9th grade girls I teach, I should be getting married by now. :-) I can't help but smile and laugh at that. For so long I've wanted just that, but lately I've been enjoying my life as a single woman. I know the right person will come along eventually, so I'm not really that worried about it as I have been in the past.

But back to why birthdays are something that make me happy. I truly believe that birthdays are wonderful things. My family has always made a big deal about birthdays, which is why I like to make big deals out of them, as well. It is a day to celebrate the life of the birthday person, whom ever it may be. Many people view it as "just another day", but it really is another day that you are alive and can live your life abundantly with the people you love.

I have discovered online sample sales. I'm doomed. Well, not quite. I just bought my first sample sale item. A pair of $45 designer aviators for $10. I'm pretty sure that was totally worth it. Online sample sales serve the same purpose as sample sales in places such as New York City, but can reach a wide variety of people. Many websites are "Members Only", but you can still sign up and have your name put on a waiting list. When a spot opens up, your name is put on the Invite List. It usually doesn't take very long. For most of the websites I signed up with, it only took up to two days to get my name on the list. Many of the websites also offer incentives for members, things like $10 credits for every person you invite who signs up. I'm posting a link to one of the websites I really like. It's called Gomatta Girls. This link is my invitation to those of you who read my blog and those of you who just happen to come upon my blog. Take a look through it, if you like what you see, then buy something if you want to, or just sign up to recieve their daily deals. Invite other people, so that you, too, can get a $10 credit for each person you invite. :-) http://www.gomattagirls.com/invite/77779198

Saturdays In August

There's this little cafe, The Little Building Cafe to be exact, within walking distance from my apartment. I've always passed by it when driving, and my first thoughts are always "I should stop by there sometime." Last Saturday I did just that. I left the Farmer's Market, my camera in hand, and strolled on down to Little Building Cafe. From the first look of the outside, the color of the building draws you in.

See what I mean? It just calls you in saying "Come in. Have a cup of coffee, and sit down for a while." I went in and ordered a cappucino. When they asked me the infamous question "For here or to go?" My automatic response was "For here, of course." They lady working was so friendly. I found a table and sat down. When I'm in new places I like to sit back and take in my surroundings. One of my many favorite things about this cafe was the light fixture (chandelier maybe?) that was at the front.

Unique, right? This cafe had such character, from the light fixtures to the tables. Not to mention the intersting display of art on the walls. I'll have to find a picture of the said art. The art consisted of 2 different chair halves put together to create a whole chair. I'm not sure what the artist calls these wonderful and unique masterpieces, but for the sake of this blog, I'll call it "chair art". The chair art is really ingenious. There were so many things I loved about this cafe. Take the tables for example.

So colorful, modern, with a twist of unique! I want to have one in my small apartment! The side I was sitting on was a long bench that extended down the back wall. Very crafty.  On the back wall were unique decorations such as the clothesline with clothes pins attached.

I really loved the creativity of these decorations. I'm not sure that I would have thought to use clothes pins as part of the decor in my cafe (if I had one). Beautiful work.

So there you have it. I have fallen in love with this cafe and all the charm that it holds. There will be future posts where I will share what's going on in my world of photography.

Worship...

I'm a thinker. It's what I do. I'm always thinking about something. I either over analyze or under analyze and anything in between. In the past few weeks, I've been thinking more in depth when it comes to my faith and what God has shown me (it's quite a bit to be honest, but it's so wonderful to see what He is revealing to me). I feel this closeness that has been absent for a little while, and it's such a wonderful thing to be. I really think this blogging thing is helping me grow because I'm able to see how God is working in my life. The new school year has brought many new things. We have 2 new preachers at the church and they are simply wonderful. I do miss Jason and Stacey being there. (Even though she's my aunt and I get to see her on a pretty regular basis.) I'm in a new apartment by myself (love it!) and we are getting 2 new additions (my uncle and aunt are expecting twins!) to my already wonderful family. God is so wonderful and good. He times things just perfectly. So with all of these things, I am, of course, thinking...as mentioned above.

Over the past couple of days, I've been pondering on what it truly means to worship, and when we worship, are we doing so with our WHOLE heart? Although worship is not ever limited to just singing, and can be in any form and fashion as long as you are glorifying the name of God, the singing part is what I'm going to share tonight.

I'm always thinking about some thing or another, but worship and praise are always on my mind. I was at the Wesley Tuesday night and we sang one of my favorite hymns, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. During the song, I had a friend turn to me and ask me what the line "Here I raise my Ebenezer" meant. I couldn't answer him, and it made us both wonder if anyone else knew what it meant. Another question that arose in the song is the meaning of the word "fetter".

Now, before I elaborate on what either of these actually mean, I want to first make my point. Sometimes I feel as if we sing worship songs just to sing them. We don't actually take the time to take the words in and reflect on their meaning as we are singing them. I'm totally guilty of it, as we all might be at some point in our worship experiences. To me, it is so important to not only truly mean the words we sing, but actually KNOW their meaning, which brings me to the Ebenezer line of Come Thou Fount. Up until last evening, I had no idea what the word meant, though I had thought about what it from time to time. Once I had finished my research that took all of about 10 minutes, much thanks to Google, I found the answer to what I was looking for. Now I'm not going to go into all the detail that this site went into, but I will enlighten my wonderful readers with bits and pieces of what I found. The passage is 1 Samuel and it says this "Samuel took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer—"the stone of help"—for he said, "Up to this point the Lord has helped us!" —1 Samuel 7:12, NLT. The explanation of the Ebenezer stone is that it represents a fresh beginning and it reminded the people of God's help and his everlasting mercy. It reminds them of their faithfulness to God.

Tonight we had our weekly praise band practice. At the end, my friend and I were walking to his car and I mentioned the above to him. He made a good point that the songs that we use in our worship at our church always have meaning. The songs should be engaging. They should be meditated on and thought about. For me, when I'm practicing or when I'm actually leading worship, the songs I sing have to mean something. The words have to be there and I have to focus on them, and if I have no idea of the meaning of specific words, how can I truly worship? I think things like this in songs need to be discussed, as in why this is in there or what it really means in the song. This gives the congregation some insight to why the song was chosen or why it is a worship song.

There's really no huge explanation to the word "fetter", except that it is a physical restraint used to keep prisoners from running away.
"Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee"
The word "fetter" in this context is not necessarily a literal binding, but a spiritual one. Many times we wander away from God, wanting to do things on our own and this line is us saying "Keep me close, because I don't want to wander from You, though I know I will."

I'm signing off for the night. I'm very tired, so much of this entire post might be redundant, and for that I am sorry. Go in peace, worship freely, love each other unconditionally.

LK

Everyone is going places. As in moving to other states. Sometimes I feel trapped here. Other times, I'm perfectly content. I'm ready to finish school. Then move to New York City.

Okay, so the above statements were written yesterday morning, before my Bible study yesterday afternoon. Can I just say that God works in so many different ways? This afternoon Linda, the wonderful woman who is leading the study, introduced the book we will be working from during these next 6 weeks. The book is called Get A Life. It debunks the myths that we as women feel like we have to live by and things that we believe must define us. It's purpose is also for gaining a sense of contentment with the things that surround you. The cliche "The grass is always greener on the other side" is never enitrely true in most cases. We're always looking for something better than what we have. I still do want to move away and start a new life in a different place, but right now I need to learn to be content where I am. Moving to a different place is not a way for me to find that contentment that I desire so much. The point I'm trying to make is that we can't ever be content somewhere else, until we are content with the place we are at now. It's okay to want and desire things for the future, but until those things come along, and they will on God's time, we should enjoy the things where we are at now.

This Bible study is definitely what I need and it's come at such a good time in my life, because right now I'm so restless being in Starkville. I love it here, but I feel like it's a relationship that's gone on too long and I need something new. But when reading through the first day's study, I realized that God is using me in some way and maybe, just maybe, that purpose has not been fufilled to it's potential. When is fufilled, I'll know. I'm trusting God with this. It's hard for me to do that because in my earlier post, I admitted to be a control freak about my life, when in all honestly I don't have to be that way about my life at all. God knows what He's doing. He really does.

I'm going canoeing with MSU Wesley Foundation tomorrow. I haven't been canoeing in a really long time, and the last time I went, my paddle ended up far away from my canoe. It will be fun to see how this goes.

LK

The First One

The purpose of this blog is just to share what is going on in my life with people. My thoughts and rants, but also to share what God is doing in my life. I'll do a brief recap of how my life has been since this summer. My summer held a lot of "first-time" things. I went out of the country for the first time. (I guess you can call Puerto Rico out of the country, even if it's technically part of the US? For now we'll just say I went out of the country.) I went for a friend's wedding. It was truly a beautiful place to have a wedding. The evening of the ceremony, God's hand was in it all. From the love that surrounded everyone there to the beautiful sunset over the ocean. The pictures I'll put up don't do any justice to what it was really like. One of the first things that amazed me about PR was how friendly the people were. They were so friendly and wonderful to talk to. The concierge at the hotel always had a smile on his face as he opened the doors and greeted people. I remember having a conversation with him. He talked about his love for working at the hotel. He even mentioned that a couple of hotels from the States had offered him jobs, but he turned them down. His reason being "Every morning I can greet people here and look outside to what God has painted right here for me." I was amazed at his reasoning and it made me wish I could be more like that. Here was a man who loved his job, because he could interact with people and see God's creation right out the door. He said he didn't have a need for anything else. As he told me all of this I sat there and thought to myself "Why can't I be more like him? Why can't all of humanity be more like him?" I think that we always have to be doing something in today's society. We always have to be productive. I'm guilty of it. I plan everything and I mean EVERYTHING. I rarely ever just take the time to let God handle it all, yet when it all blows up in my face He's the first one I run to. I can hear Him say "I told you to let Me handle it. Here, this is how I wanted you to do it. We can fix it though, so don't worry." It's an on-going struggle that God and I have. I'm such a control freak about certain areas of my life, but I don't have to be. I want so badly to just give it all to Him because I do know, and I do believe that He will plan everything for me on His time. The PR trip really opened up my eyes to the things that He has put right in front of me to enjoy.

On a slightly different note, I now live by myself, in my very own apartment. I feel like a big girl. I really didn't think I could do it, but it feels exhilarating to know that I am capable of living on my own. It gives me time to think about everything: my life, my faith, my beliefs, etc.

I'm trying to simplify my own life. I no longer have cable. It's not a necessity. I'm actually happier without it. I mean sure, I miss some of my shows, but I have friends who TiVo things and we watch them together, or I watch it online. I try not to use internet as often when I'm at home. It's worked well so far. I'm becoming more environmental. I actually recycle. It makes me feel like I'm really helping the world, which I am, along with millions of others. I encourage anyone and everyone to recycle. It's a big deal. We get one planet. That's it. One. Be nice to it, treat it like you would your favorite thing.

I'm pursing my photography more. You can check out my photos on my site http://www.evelynkatephotography.smugmug.com. Look through the photos. Rank your favorite ones. You can even buy one if you want to, or you can just contact me and I'll be more than happy to take photos for you. I like it. It's fun for me. When I look through that lens of my camera, everything is good in the world. I see God's creations for what they are and so much more. He's blessed me with this talent and without His direction, I never would have found it. I praise Him daily for it and the other gifts He has blessed me with.

That's it for tonight, even though I have so much more to say. That's what this blogging deal is for though. Go in peace, and know that you are loved by a God who is so amazing and wonderful that He gives us second, third, fourth and so many more chances than we truly deserve.

Laura Kate