Thanksgiving Break!

I am thankful for a brief rest from school and the rigors of my schedule this fall. We had a very fun Thanksgiving Day filled with lots of good eats. I have to say this year's turkey was my best yet. That recipe is definitely a keeper.  The pumpkin cheesecake and frosted pumpkin cookies turned out great as well. Overall I label the day a complete success.

Thanksgiving evening I stole off to see a late night viewing of the new Harry Potter movie. They did a fantastic job with the effects and all. I am thinking of putting together a piece of work on the spiritual lessons that can be derived from the series so that children can witness to their friends in an understandable manner. The overarching theme for this movie was "Lies of the Enemy" and how he preys on our fears and insecurities when we isolate ourselves from loved ones. I know there is a lot of negative press in Christian circles about Harry Potter and its magical themes, but I think it is naive to think that we can hide our children from its effects. I simply choose to view them all and discuss in depth the principles and content with my children so that they can better understand the difference between right and wrong.

I just enjoyed a visit from my sister, Denise, who is stationed in Guam. We had a really GREAT time together. Naomi and Declan loved hanging out with Aunt Nissie. Denise and I spent some time shopping, went to view the King Tut exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, stuffed ourselves on Brazilian cuisine at Fogo de Chao, and enjoyed the family tradition of unabashedly belting out some karaoke. I did not want to say goodbye come Monday morning, but I am encouraged that she is halfway through her Guam assignment and will be back home in a year and a half. Having Denise visit reminded me of how much I miss living in a place with family around. I love Denver but I sorely miss family. I hope someday we can all live closer together or at least be able to visit one another more often. Family is a treasure.

School has been quite the experience this year. I started off with a lot of momentum and enthusiasm. I am relieved as it enabled me to plow through some of the paper deadlines with flying colors. It has, however, taken a toll on me and I have not been able to devote as much time as I would like to my home and family. I have decided to take a lighter load next semester and to benefit from the intercession classes as well. I will only be taking 3 classes next semester which will allow me to spend more time at home; six was a bit much with a one year old running around. I did it... but I did not enjoy it as much as I would have liked to. And if you know my passion for study, that is saying a LOT!

I am still running even though the weather has dropped below freezing. I simply bought more cold weather running gear and motivated myself with a new Garmin. I find that technology gadgets are a great motivator for any daunting task. I run about five miles a day, five days a week. I would probably run more but that means more time away from home and so I content myself with the 45 minutes of cardio.

We are contemplating selling the house and moving closer to school. The house needs a bit of work before that will be possible so I am working on projects as I can. We put in new energy saving windows this last year and did some painting. Still need some more painting and some features like sinks, carpet, and tiles updated. We are updating the front and back yard landscaping right now. I am not very handy so you can imagine how slow my pace is. Hopefully in about a year we'll have it all done. Wish me luck!

Teaching at church has been a great experience this last year. As part of a teaching team, I teach once a month on the particular topic we are addressing. This year we taught through the fruits of the Spirit, concentrating on each fruit for 4-6 weeks. It has been quite the eyeopener. I never realized how deficient I was in the various fruits or how essential each one is to the functioning of the whole. The fruits do not function as the gifts do, where I am endowed with one but perhaps not another. The fruit of the Spirit is a network of characteristics that are interdependent and must all be formed in each individual. The importance of the fruit is that they are the evidence of our faith and relationship with God. An interesting aspect I came to realize about the fruit is that they are impossible to display outside of relationship with other human beings. I can scream from the mountaintops about my kindness and patience but unless I engage in relationships with others my words can never become actual deed thereby bearing testimony to my relationship with Jesus Christ and they are useless. This Sunday is my last teaching on the fruit of temperance before we move on to a new series. I hope to be able to write up a brief summary of them all with what I have learned once we are finished. This is truly why I love teaching so much, I learn so much in preparation. I am thankful to God for this gift He has given me and I love serving others with it.

I could keep going but I need to get back to studying and writing. Three papers left before the end of the semester and then finals! The end of the tunnel is approaching... I see the light!