Late Fall and Early Winter Review: 2012 Edition

So much has happened, yet so little has changed.

I've been traveling a decent amount. Most of the travels have been through work, a few with family or for fun. Recent trips include New Jersey, Washington D.C., Chicago, and heading to Puerto Rico next week. Also on the docket for the next few months are St Thomas and San Diego!

I have a new niece. Her name is Sophia Elizabeth and I'm absolutely in love with her. I rode across Iowa/Illinois/Indiana with my mom in a flurry and was there in time for the birth. Can't express how thankful I am that my sister and all are happy and healthy.

My niece and nephew, Emma and Luke, will be coming home soon. The adoption process has been grueling and time consuming for my brother and his wife. My heart aches for them to be at home with Drew and Melissa. Advent and waiting brings on new meaning when you experience the longing and pining of adoption through the eyes of people you love.

THIS quote by Tullian Tchividjian has resonated with me lately: 

"Our dire need for God’s grace doesn’t get smaller after God saves us. We never outgrow our need for Christ’s finished work on our behalf-we never graduate beyond our desperate need for Christ’s righteousness and his strong and perfect blood-soaked plea “before the throne of God above.”

The crafty, crazy, apron wearing, spatula weilding side of me has been having a hey day lately.
I've been working on sewing a few Christmas gifts as well as baking up a storm. I also had a booth at the work Holiday Bazaar this week. I sold homemade oatmeal bread, 4 kinds of homemade granola, and 5 kinds of biscotti. I enjoyed the process of baking and packaging everything cutely for the bazaar, but was kind of freaking out the day before/day of the event. I realized that I had never been PAID to bake treats before. Part of the fun of baking wonderful goodies is the surprise and delight when they are gifts. This sneaky and scary voice in my head was making me super nervous about putting something so dear to me "for sale". Just plain afraid. Things went swimmingly at the bazaar. I sold almost everything I had prepared and had a ton of positive feedback. I needn't have feared. Then people at work started asking if I wanted to open a bakery or do that full time. I just don't know. A part of me thinks that would be amazing -- but having to run the legal and business fronts. Or even THINKING about getting funds to start that kind of endeavor? That terrifies me. And the what ifs start all over again -- what if I stop loving to bake if it's my job? What if I lose connection with humanity since I'd be working alone or with very few others? GAH. Someday. SOMEDAY, maybe I'll look into it further.

For now - I'm loving my job. The people I work with are wonderful. I finally feel like I'm in a place with my co-workers like I was in Austin at the Hyatt. We had our days of craziness with the actual WORK, but the co-workers and interaction made those stresses melt away. The PEOPLE made the job. Yes. I'm in a role that combines my past experinces (hotel sales, DMC internships, media sales etc) into this job that uses them all.

Life. Life is good. I'm thankful. Usually quiet seasons on my blog mean that I'm too busy living to remember to tell you about it. I'm okay with that :)

Pictures to go with the recent shenanigans: 

Blue sweater = work trip

I ran a 5K :)

Loved getting to spend LOTS of time with my coworker Jess as we worked on a big program together.

Sophia is so CUTE!

  



Thanksgiving with Sophia in Chicago!!



That's right...those are matching bowling shirts. Company outing with the Pharma Team!







A snapshot.

Reading: 

Roy Hession, We Would See Jesus

This book is rocking my world. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone looking for a solid read. More than anything, I love that it's making me think and pointing me to Jesus. The book talks about one thing commonly missing in faith stories today is an ardent passion to see God. Talks about how we see people pursuing holiness with the desire to do service FOR God, rather than pursuing holiness to SEE God. Also talks about how we pursue this great feeling or experience with God rather than God himself. "Both these ends fall utterly short of the great end that God has designed for man, that of glorifying Him forever. They fail to satisfy God's heart and they fail to satisfy ours." 

Listening: 

All About Worship Collective 

Praying: 

For a bigger heart for this city. 

For God's eyes to be given to me to see Des Moines as He does. 

For the politicians and authorities of this country. 

For the health of my nieces and nephews and their safety in making it home soon -- for my sister's baby girl to be born and my brother's kids to make it through the grueling adoption process. 

Feeling: 

Eager expectation for what God is doing with the young professional demographic at Westwind Church. 

Thankful for the stirring in my soul to CARE more for people around me. 

Needy- realizing how quickly I place my worth or daily temperament in feedback or praise from people. Seeking to turn my eyes upward to the One who can and will fulfill every desire and need if my heart. 

Vulnerable because I'm happy. There's seemingly so much more to lose when you're soaring. The blessing and curse of being a passionate person that feels deeply. 

Delighting: 

In seeing new parts of Des Moines - via bicycle, kayak, car. ALL SORTS of ways. 

In making new friends. 

In sharing the day to day joys with co-workers and family. 

In loving life. 

In having so much that I have been delighting in that I don't know where to start. 

In fall quickly approaching. 

In Trader Joe's simmer sauces. No really- they are SO GOOD. Go make a curry - I dare you. 

Seeing: 

Thanks Self

I was watching "The Time Traveler's Wife" on TV the other night. If you haven't seen the movie, the premise is that a man travels through time. It's the story of how his time travel impacts his family etc.  Sometimes he travels forwards or backwards, meeting himself and other people in his life at different stages of past or future. One thing that stuck out in the movie is the way the protagonist teaches himself lessons and gives himself advice to get through whatever he knows is ahead. 

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to meet myself in 10 years. What would I tell me? Or to go back to middle school. What words would I give myself if I had 3 minutes to lay it all out there? 

I've been blogging and/or journaling for a long time. I started wayyy back in the day when xanga webjournals were all the rage (well, not really-but they were for me! Want to meet high school Anna? http://cheshiregl0w.xanga.com/). Other than that, pen and paper prayer journaling has been an on again off again trend since early college. I'm not a daily "dear diary" girl, by any means. I write down prayers/lyrics. I take sermon notes. I just try to keep it all in one place so I can know where to look back if I wrote something down. I decided to pull out my journals last night and read through some of the old entries. It's like time traveling, only through letters and prayers. Suddenly my 19 year old self is speaking gently to my heart. My desperate cries of surrender and wrestling with my idol of self sound so familiar. 

As I read the words that poured from the depths of my deepest pain and height of my soaring victories, I found myself amazed. How easily I forget that this isn't the first time God has taught me these lessons. He gently reminds me through myself that my independence is a precious gift, but can be an idol as well. That learning to surrender is a battle that I need to wage daily. That I am precious.

Thanks self.

I needed your wisdom today. I needed to pray with you. I needed to hear your authentic cries for help. I needed to learn your humility. I needed to rest quietly in God's presence with you.