*Cough Wheeze*

Made it!  I'm back!  Ayi, now I think life will settle down to normal.  Thank goodness the school year's starting!

Interspersed you find pictures of our latest venture, to Tennessee, to the lake house, plus some minor excursions on my part to a couple schools down there.  Bryan College and Covenant College, to be precise.  Both awesome schools, but Covenant is incredible!  And they gave me a T-shirt.  Which of course makes all the difference. :P Haha!

Aaaand just about to get my driver's license, just need to go take the test.  Nervous, yes?  But it'll be convenient so I can drive myself to school.  Maybe freaky, but still, good.  And we've created a thingummy, to remember the streets in order like you remember the planets in order.  Instead of My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas (minus the Pizzas now, poor Pluto!!) it's Queen Samantha Ate Muffins Not Rolls.  Clever, yes?

Aaaand not much crafting going on at my end, unlike all the stuff going on in the blogocosmos but I have some ideas floating round in my head!  Which is a promising sign.  Just as I plunge into the time of year when I have NO time whatsoever...

Aaaand writing isn't really happening, but it's because I'm waiting for cold weather.  It's vital to the "mood."  I'll get there, y'all.  Somehow.

Mainly still a lot of reading and studying going on!  Updated book list:

1. Understanding the Times by Doc (David Noebel)
2. Just Six Numbers by Whatsisname (Martin Rees)
3. Economics in One Lesson by The Other Chap (Henry Haslitt)
4. El Dorado by the Baroness (Orczy)
5. A Prince of the Captivity by Buchan (John Buchan.  Shaken, not stirred.)
6. Why We're Not Emergent by Two Guys Who Should Be (Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
7. Just Do Something by The Guy Who Wrote That Other Book With That Other Guy (Kevin DeYoung again)

And still to come, as soon as I can justify starting new books...

1. Starship Troopers by Heinlein (already read but WANT to re-read!)
2. Unnatural Death by Dorothy Sayers (friend gave it to me and I STILL haven't gotten to it!)
3. Books by Kuyper and RC Sproul and Norman Geisler...piles of 'em!

AAAAND we got a dog!  And he's amazing.  Perfect little puppy!  About 5 mos. old, a cockapoo who's more poodle than cocker (pookapoo?) and we're calling him Kuyper.  Extremely smart little guy.  Very sweet.  

Aaaand I think that's it!  Had a lot of fun, but it is good to be home.  Lots on my mind, lots to pray about, but life is pretty darn good.  :)

AMZi x x x x x

Breakthrough

You want to be real, you want to be empty inside

You want to be someone laying down your pride

You want to be someone someday

Then lay it all down before the king

You want to be whole, you want to have purpose inside

You want to have virtue and purify your mind

You want to be set free today

Then lay it all down before the King

This is my desire, this is my return

This is my desire to be used by You

You want to be real, you want to be emptied inside

And I know my heart is to feel You near

And I know my life

It's to do Your will

It's to do Your will

This is my desire, this is my return

This is my desire, to be used by You

This is my desire, this is my desire

To be used by You 

All my life I have seen

Where You've taken me

Beyond all I have hoped

And there's more left unseen

There's not much I can do to repay all You've done

So I give my hands to use

This is my desire, this is my return

This is my desire, to be used by You

This is my desire, this is my desire

To be used by You

Still Reading...

I have excuses for posting going down to every-other-day!  That there is the pile of books I'm currently involved in. :P  Plus I'm listening to a lot of audio lectures.  So.

My friend and I are going through the Bible in a year, using this plan.  It takes some commitment, but it's worth it!  I'm excited to get to some books I haven't read in a long time.

Last week another lovely friend drove me to see the Babies documentary.  It was very interesting....  lots of "Awwww" and "Yikes!" and laughing.  You know how babies (and documentaries) are!

Yet another friend sent me the sheet music to play this on the piano.  Instant Delight. <3



AMZi x x x x x

Edited to Add :: Contrary to popular (horrified) belief, the above song is NOT "from Twilight."  It was by several accounts (I haven't seen the movies myself) used IN it but it is an entirely independent composition.  Thank you very much.  :)

Happification

I have a new webcam.  It is shiny.  I am happified.

I (sort of) have a (sort of) new car.  It is also shiny.  I am happified.

I have discovered TtVs, whatever those are.  Basically it means I take these awesome shots and layer them over my pictures.  And they create awesomeness.  I am happified.

AMZi x x x x x

Good Day

Hullo-ullo-ullo, what's all this?

Sorry, always wanted to say that.  Anyhow.  Knitting milestone has been reached!  The...middle bits...front, back, etc...whatever!  Everything but the sleeves is finished!  I clipped the pieces together to make a sort of "mock-up" and see how it'd fit.  I'm very happy with it!  And I'm over halfway through one sleeve.  So.

Hair flower of the day. :)  My favorite color seems to be evolving through the color wheel.  Let me explain what I mean by that.  For a long time when I was younger, my favorite color was BLUE.  Then it changed definitely to GREEN and has remained GREEN for a long time... but lately... I'm noticing something.  Though I'd never given YELLOW a second glance, color-wise, it's slowly but surely becoming my favorite color.  Above all.  It just is so amazing!  I need more yellow in my life!

And here's the sleeve status, in the afternoon light which is now fading.  I might finish it tonight, or I might read one of the many books I'm in the middle of... Just Six Numbers, Understanding the Times, a PG Wodehouse collection, The Westminster Confession of Faith, Economics in One Lesson... you get the idea. :)

Quote I just heard:  "If somebody gives you a definition of 'postmodern,' by definition, it's not a definition of 'postmodern.'" I just heard it from Jimmy Long, but he may have been quoting someone else.  I'll leave you to think about that for awhile. :)

AMZi x x x x x

*Insert Snazzy Post Title*

Oeps, sorry.  I didn't mean to be silent so long, not even sure if I have any good excuses... ah well, here's what I've been up to, besides general study and thought of course.

My knitting is coming along MAJORLY, due to listening to this book, narrated by the brill narrator I can't remember the name of.  Oh well.  It's a bit "older" than the first one (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie) but still good.  Caution :: Lots of British language if that bothers you.  As for the jumper, hard to tell, but it's white and blue, and I've got the back (that's the inside of the back you can see, the other side looks just like the front of the side you can see) and one side front.  The other side front is on my needle atm.

I am, ahem ahem, writing again!!  Finally, at long last.  I am working on Chapter 8 (hitting the point where all my plans trickle off and I have to actually THINK about the writing and the plot) BUT I am also working as of now on a brand new story idea I'm really excited about.  I'm having a lot of fun with it.  Yeh.

And, big news, I got to talk to my friend Jane in Britain face to face yesterday!  Through Skype!  *cue Hallelujah Chorus*  Apparently she didn't know I wear flowers in my hair.  I do, rather.  See? :P  I have that rose, a gigantic green Gerber daisy, a frilly bluish something (can you tell I'm not really a botanist anymore?), a yellow daisy, and lots of little white rose-ish things in miniature.

And I'm cooped up inside because it's literally sweltering out.  I kid you not.  Opened my window for five seconds to take some pictures and I couldn't actually breathe.  Lately, we had a heat warning for our county with 110 degree heat index and 70% humidity.  I believe it.

Very tired now, was up like all night with ideas for the new story, so... popping off now to get some real life done. :)

AMZi x x x x x x

Waves of Stripes

Wrong side...

Right side...

And during my knitting, I'm listening to Focus on the Family's new radio drama, The Screwtape Letters.  It's FANTASTIC, so much easier to grasp in this form than in the actual book form.  Definitely recommended!

Got a lot on my mind lately but very little of it is able to be put into words.  I'm also reading Just Six Numbers, which is an amazing book.  Mind-boggling.  I like to jump into that mindset and just think about it, but take it to a different place.  For the author, it's a huge "what are the odds" or a huge "multiverse potential," but I find those far fetched.  He almost sounds like he's arguing against his own view--that everything that exists is a product of random chance.  I see these incredible numbers and mind-blowing concepts, and say, "Wow.  And this is just the Creation.  You want mind-blowing?  Wait till you see the Creator."

AMZi x x x x x