Slowing down...

"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven"

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Us Bostonians are in the last leg of surviving the cruelest Winter I can remember. I whole heartedly cannot remember there being so much snow that has yet to melt by the 23rd of March. It's cold, icy, still snowy, but at least technically, it is spring. Hopeful for spring means looking at my weather app and seeing the high of the week being 55 degrees. This means that the weeks to come will bring warmth and sunshine, right?! Let's keep praying. 

Even though this winter has been dragged out far enough, I still cannot believe how quickly the seasons come to pass and how quickly life goes on, and sometimes I feel like I'm not even paying attention. I'm constantly rushing, and I have always been wired that way. I like things done fast and efficiently. I walk like a true city girl, with purpose and downright quick. I plow through books, I cook things as quickly as I can (I've mastered the art of one pan cooking since being married. Chicken stir fry? Coming right up). During the work week, I sometimes feel like I am actually sprinting through my day. Granted, running around with three year olds seems to make time run on overdrive. I arrive to school, I blink, and I'm rushing to commute home again.

So the days open and they close, the calendar moves forward, I continue to try and find the quickest way to complete tasks, whether it be commuting, teaching, cooking, lesson planning, home projects, house cleaning- I will find the least time consuming way to accomplish it. 

Since I am reliant on the not-so-reliable Boston MBTA to get me to and from work, I try and utilize that time waiting, sitting and waiting some more as productively as I can. Sometimes I read, sometimes I pray, sometimes I do a combination of both. Today, as I was thanking God for helping me survive another Monday, I felt Him put this on my heart: "Why are you always rushing and worrying? Don't you know that I take anxieties away? Be still" 

Those two words are so simple yet hold so much value that I often forget. I'm never still. My mind is never still. I am often prone to anxieties thinking of what is to come next. Where will we live next? When does a family become a realistic option for us? What will our finances look like in a year? Who do we need to connect with? What home renovation do we need to do next? It seems to be against our nature to want to be still, because we feel that by being still, we are wasting time or even using time idly. 

So I turned to this in my journal Bible this afternoon, and a wonderful and rare sense of affirmation filled my spirit. Isn't it a great relief to realize that God actually wants us to stop what we are doing, quit worrying, cease rushing and simply be still with Him?  

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him"

Psalm 37:7 

When we are still, I believe we are more susceptible to understanding and hearing what it is God is writing on our hearts. We also simply slow down and allow ourselves to examine our thoughts and our lives more closely than if we just kept rushing through the motions of our days. After all, God tells us continually that the beauty & gift of life comes first from time & stillness. 

And I'll close out this post with a pic of my loving husband interacting with who is probably the sweetest child we have ever met! 

A Rainy Weekend

This weekend was a rainy, dreary and lazy one. Dan has a major actuarial exam this Tuesday and he has been studying like crazy for the past two months! We are praying for diligence for him as he studies as well as a positive outcome!  Meanwhile, I've enjoyed and savored a very relaxing weekend and the rain gave me a wonderful excuse to lounge, catch up on housework, devotions and read. 

I'm so thankful for weekends like these and I really believe mindful relaxing rejuvenates the heart, soul & mind. Unwinding for me means quiet, peaceful afternoons in an organized and clean home. Preferably also with a cup of coffee and a book or devotional. My journal bible has been my saving grace since I purchased it online a few months ago. I can't believe I did not invest in one sooner! It has really transformed the way I read my Bible and interact with scripture. I can write, respond, underline, doodle, draw and reflect all I want as I read. So many of my beloved Bible's pages are already marked up! Before I got it, I was really struggling and feeling connected with devotional time and time with the Lord and I really can't believe what a difference my journaling Bible has made in my prayer life! It's so cool to look back and see answered prayer requests, past reflections, current prayers and just meditate on the word in a different and creative way.

In church today, the sermon was focused on Ephesians 3, and I am so glad we made it today. We haven't been able to make it to a service in a few weeks now and I was really feeling the effects of it. One point that was so sobering was this: "God looks as us and says: 'I am going to change you' and 'I am going to use you to bring my change to others'". I think I underlined this 5 or 6 times in my journal and it was so uplifting to realize that God even cares about us to change us, use us and transform our lives. I can think of so many transformations in my life that have resulted from complete trust in assurance on Him, and sometimes I can't believe how many blessings God has bestowed upon me, and I love watching the lives of dear friends be blessed and transformed as well! He is able and knows what He is doing =)  

It is so peaceful to watch the rain and read, despite the dreariness that is the strange transition into Spring.  I seized the opportunity to take some pictures around our home and attempt to capture our life moment-to-moment. 

Coffee is a must-have in our home.

3:00 PM coffee :)

Finally breaking out my camera again

And last but not least, my easter egg creations created at a dear friend's house on Friday!

Loves coffee, long walks on the beach & taking photos

After surviving a nasty flu epidemic over the weekend and finally completing the edits on my school progress reports as of 7:37 this evening (YAY), I decided it was time for a new post. Something many may not know about me is that I am obsessed with pictures. And photography. And all kids of photographs, old, new, whatever. I have been taking pictures from when I was young, starting out with those awesome disposable cameras you would get at CVS and then have to bring back to get the film developed. And then I graduated to digital cameras, where I captured (pretty much) every moment of my middle school, high school and early college years.

And then I started to be interested in taking people's photographs as something like a portrait. So I put my handy digital camera to work. I would pick out the outfit, style the hair and makeup, and it would end up looking something like this:

This is Caroline, who so graciously volunteered to trek around Boston in this get-up in the middle of the Summer so I could capture my 'vision'. 

For Christmas a few years ago, I received my first REAL camera, a Nikon! Words wouldn't be able to express the excitement. It was like receiving 20 pounds of m&ms after not having chocolate for 22 years.  (But better!)  Finally, high quality pictures and an excuse to take even more of them! I recruited friends to galavant around Boston with me and take pictures and it was a blast!

Some of my favorite photos I have ever taken from were from this time-I was using my camera like crazy, in my last years of school and living in the North End. (I also lived about 20 seconds away from a 24-hour bakery called Bova's, so that was also a noteworthy high point) I should also point out that I have absolutely no training in photography-none whatsoever. I taught myself and "youtubed" how to use my precious Nikon and passing a photography class for me would mean "graduating" from using disposable cameras. I would love the opportunity to take a formal class some day.  But nonetheless, I consider "photography" an old, old hobby and hope that it never looses it's charm in an age where not-half-bad photos are taken so leisurely on our phones. 

I had so much fun looking through all my old photos and picking out some of my favorites. And I would love to share with you! 

Eileen, lookin' beautiful in the North End! 

Cristina, in my old & tiny apartment. 

Eileen, in the Greenway. 

My beautiful best friend Annie, at Singing beach. 

Annie and Jame's engagement photoshoot on the hottest day of July. 

Dan, who I was just dating at the time. Now he is my husband. :) 

I am so anxious and excited to get back into taking photos! My poor camera has been camping out in my closet for months now. I'm not sure why i've been on a long hiatus from it, but I firmly believe that if life's worth living, it's worth capturing. :) 

Monday Funday?

Mondays. Universal word for "ugh, not again". Mondays are hard on us all, no matter where we are in our stages of life: a student, 9-5er, stay at home mom/dad... whatever it may be. And don't get me wrong- I wholeheartedly love, love, love my teaching job. I prayed for this job when I was desperate to move out of my previous job situation and was so fortunate to have wonderful connections. I love being a teacher, I love being on the school calendar and I have having complete control over my classroom. I've learned tremendous amounts of patience in my time in this terribly under-valued profession and leave each day with a full heart.This is the type of job that I feel so lucky to have.

So why is starting each week so grueling? If I love my job so much, why are Mondays so rough and why is the prospect of a new week sometimes daunting instead of inviting?

I have to "train" myself to mentally and spiritually prepare for a new week. After all, it's up to me how productive I am, how much gets done, how I decide to use my spare time and how the environment of my classroom is, et cetera. I thrive on routines {always have, and this is also how I structure my class}, and am sometimes overwhelmed when I think of all the tasks I need to accomplish in a 5 day work week. And sometimes I find myself counting down to the weekend before the work week even starts. And then I think, why am I wishing away this precious time? Why am I mentally skipping over Monday-Friday just to be excited for the weekend? Someday I might look back on the these years and realize I, in a sense, forgot to "live" during the week.

And that thought is sobering. Here I am, wishing for years to come when I'm forgetting to live in the years presently. Time and life is so precious, and the day-to-day makes it easy to forget.

There are a number of verses in scripture that address the importance of work. Yes, work is important. But besides the fact that work provides a means of shelter, food, savings, preparedness, etc, work is important in a much more complex level. God designed us to work. We were not meant to be idle, purposeless, useless. He also didn't name work by any other name; work lives up to it's meaning.  It requires ethic, hands, effort, mental and physical stimulation. It can be exhaustive and frustrating. It can be repetitive and a grind.  But it's supposed to be purposeful, and all work is considered God's work.

I think my favorite verse in accordance to work is:

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. Psalms 138:8

My Classroom Window

Do not forsake the work of your hands. Do not forsake the workplace where God has you. Do not forsake the opportunities He has given you. Do not forsake the beautiful work we create with our hands. The minds we shape and the connections we make, the relationships we build, and for me, the children who I have the privilege of interacting with on a daily basis. God made my hands to work; why dread the work week when I could instead be rejoicing and embracing it? 

Blessings upon blessings

As a constant and consistent journal keeper, I believe in power of the written word. I love all things literature, all things paper, all things scripture & have a sense of peace after a solid journaling session. I've followed blogs before, and have always thought that blogging is a hobby I could certainly take up and wholeheartedly enjoy. But, I've always put it off and put it off some more, until now. I am so excited to start blogging and look forward to keep both a paper and URL journal! I'm enthusiastic and so joyful to start a wonderful way to share and remember the memories we create.

Something that has been on my heart lately is the immeasurable amount of blessings that Lord has blessed me with this past year. I got married in October, we bought a home back in June, and rescued our first baby puppy in November. My desire for marriage had been strong on my heart for a long time, and God certainly chose to bless me with a wonderful and strong husband. Of course, God had to prepare my heart and mind for marriage in a unique way, and by the time Dan graced me with his presence, I felt more than ready. God teaches us that his design for marriage is the holy union between two souls, and I certainly believe that a Christ centered marriage is an amazing entity to pray for. Song of Solomon: "I have found the one that my soul loves".

We moved into our home and put a lot of energy into turning it from just a "house" into a "home". We painted, redid a condenmed deck (with the amazing help from Dan's family!), decorated, cleaned like crazy, and have plans for more renovations.

We rescued Cody, our first dog together and he has both drove us completely nuts and brought us so much joy! All you need is love and a dog.

We began a healthy lifestyle, which for us meant no more eating at Chipotle 2-3x a week (this was a real thing when we were dating) and started making homemade meals every day. We started working out (and I even got a treadmill!) and became an active couple. I lost some of the extra weight I put on and enjoy looking for healthy meals to cook.

Salsa Chicken

Chicken Picatta 

I started an amazing, new and fulfilling teaching job that brings so much joy to my heart on a daily basis! I work in a Christian school and so love introducing the gospel to these young and trusting hearts.

After this record breaking winter, we've got spring on our mind and I'm realizing that I only have 3 more months left of school-time is so precious yet so fleeting!

Thankyou for taking the time to read this, I am so excited to see where blogging takes me!