Thankful

For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies;
For the love which from our birth,
Over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the wonder of each hour,
Of the day and of the night;
Hill and vale and tree and flow'r,
Sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind's delight;
For the mystic harmony,
Linking sense to sound and sight;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child;
Friends on Earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For Thy church that evermore,
Lifteth holy hands above;
Off'ring up on ev'ry shore,
Her pure sacrifice of love;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the martyrs crown of light,
For Thy prophets eagle eye,
For Thy bold confessors might,
For the lips of infancy.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For Thy virgins robes of snow,
For Thy maiden mother mild,
For Thyself, with hearts aglow,
Jesu, Victim undefiled.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For Thyself, best Gift Divine,
To the world so freely given,
For that great, great love of Thine,
Peace on earth and joy in heaven.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

Amen.

For The Beauty of The Earth
by Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1864

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bling Blog

I’m about to show you something truly frightening.  My jewelry drawer.  Prepare yourself:

Scary, huh?

These are actually the before shots.

(Thank goodness.)

I can truthfully say that I am embarrassed it got this bad.  I truly LOVE jewelry.  It’s my thing.  But, I’m willing to confess I may have a problem with getting rid of it.  I console myself by saying that it doesn’t take up that much space (just two full drawers) and it isn’t really a big deal.  But, seriously?  This is just sad.

So, I decided to take care of business and clean house (all the sudden this blog became a really terrible reality show).  And I spread all my baubles out on my bed.

Jewelry as far as the eye can see…..

I think the reason why I have trouble getting rid of it is because you never know when you will have to go to a costume party that requires you to wear stained glass earrings…..

Or maybe it’s because I remember the time that I wore these earrings and Josh Linam told me I looked like “an Egyptian princess”.  What girl doesn’t want to feel like an Egyptian princess every day?

Anyway, here’s the finished product:

No longer an eyesore.

 

And, since I’m sure inquiring minds want to know.  I counted the pairs of earrings I had and BEFORE the overhaul, and I am sad to confess that I owned 108 pairs.  Yikes. 

After?  94.  Aren’t you proud of my sacrifice?

The Boredom Syndrome

I am about to reveal some frightening insights into my soul.

Thing #1- When I am bored I shop.
Thing #2- When I am busy I do not shop, but rewear the same clothes over and over again, wearing them into oblivion. Literally.

As you can imagine the second thing greatly exacerbates the first (Yes, I threw down exacerbates in my sentence. Suck on that). I realized this week that I only had two pairs of jeans that I like and wear and that fit. Then I realized that of those jeans, each had a growing hole. Not a hole at the cuff, that I could potentially get away with wearing at work, but at the crotch. Not appropriate. Since jeans are my favorite, I knew I needed to get to the store asap and buy some new ones.

This is where thing #1 becomes an issue. Too much time on my hands means that I start to fill that time with shopping and I now have a ton of staples that I need, which means a lot of money must be spent. I can't bring myself to confess how much money. But, let's just say.... ouch.

It's never been more apparent that I need to take up a new hobby. Preferably one that doesn't require money or ever visiting a store but that keeps me highly entertained.

Fried Felicitations

Recently I was talking with my mom and I told her that if I had to eat just ONE fried food for the rest of my life I thought I’d choose hush puppies.

Let that just sink in for a moment.

Hush puppies.

I don’t remember what we were discussing that caused me to make such a bold declaration, but I really felt it in that moment.  Never mind the world of french fries, corny dogs, fried chicken, doughnuts, fried mozzarella sticks, sopaipillas and jalapeno poppers.

But then I realized the one reason why I cannot commit to just eating the hush puppy for the rest of my life.

That reason?

The funnel cake.

(On a related note, I can’t remember a single occasion on which I ate a funnel cake that wasn’t resting on a paper plate.  I’m sure they exist but I’m afraid it wouldn’t be as good if you weren’t constantly balancing the funnel cake so that you don’t end up with powdered sugar all over your lap.)

What fried food would you choose?

What’s Next?

When I mention that I have just completed my master’s it is followed up almost instantaneously with the question, “what’s next?”.   It’s some sort of impulse, or perhaps it’s the kindest way of saying “what the heck can you even do with a Master of the Arts in Vocal Pedagogy???”. 

Well the answer to the question “what’s next?” IS (drum roll please)…

I have no idea.

And I’m not entirely comfortable with that answer.  I’m used to not having an answer, after college I couldn’t decide what to do next so I waited until I had already graduated before I finally agreed to follow God’s call to go to grad school instead of going to work.  I felt a strong sense of peace about that.  It was also a very exciting time.  A new adventure.  It felt like I was setting off on my own for the first time, (even more than moving off to college) and following my own path.

But now, two and a half years later, I feel like the time for huge life-changing adventures has passed me by.  Although I’m always game for small life-changing adventures.  And, maybe no direct command from the Lord IS a direct command.

So, if any of you have any suggestions for how a not-so-business-savvy-voice-teacher can get her ideal job (which includes over $138 being left in my bank account at the end of the month) then I’d love to hear it.  Bring on the suggestions!

Dichotomy

On Friday morning I completed my graduate studies.  In order to finish I had to sit in a room with three of my mentors/professors and answer the questions that they fired at me.  It was nerve wracking.  But, I am now (almost) officially a Master of the Arts!  There aren’t enough exclamation points in the world to convey how excited this makes me.

So, Friday morning was, arguably, the most important day in my educational and professional career and on Saturday morning I got up and baby-sat.  If this wasn’t my life I would be laughing hysterically.  I baby-sit because I love the family and I truly consider this “job” a ministry, plus the money doesn’t hurt.  Also, I realized after talking to Omar on Saturday morning that not only am I a Master of the Arts I am also a Master of Harry Potter.  He’s obsessed right now and so we spent most of the day talking about Harry.  I’m not even trying pretend like I didn’t love every second of it.