Reflecting on the A to Z Challenge

Well, I made it!!  This was my first year doing the A to Z Challenge, and I jumped in the deep end right away--not only did I sign up for the challenge itself, I volunteered to be an Ambassador for the fantastic Arlee Bird, whose idea it was to begin the Challenge in the first place.

I'm glad I took this opportunity.  It was a lot of work, but it was worth it!  I planned out all my topics in March, but I didn't pre-write or schedule any of my posts.  I like writing every day, but since I only have a certain amount of time every day in which I can do my blogging, that meant I didn't have time to visit as many other blogs as I would have liked.  I feel bad about that, and that's something I would definitely change for next year (you bet I'm doing this again!).  April was a busy month for me in other ways, but I'm proud of the fact that I did keep up with my posts, generally having them published the night before.

I am following quite a few new blogs as a result of the Challenge, and I'm delighted to welcome new followers myself!  This event has been a blessing in that area, allowing me to get to know other bloggers, some of whom have interests similar to mine, and others who I would have never found if not for the Challenge.

In terms of how the administrators organized everything, I have no complaints.  It's a massive job to host such a huge link-up, but I think they did well.  Those many of us who helped patrol the link-up list did our best to make sure everything was running smoothly.  I think perhaps it might be helpful if there were even MORE of us ambassadors/minions/whatever-we-were next year, especially if the Challenge grows in popularity (which I sure hope it will!).

I think perhaps it might be beneficial to have a few separate link-up lists, divided by type of blog (personal, writing, cooking, photography, etc).  That would make the list a lot less overwhelming to navigate, and it would help bloggers find more easily the blogs they're interested in, versus just blogging the whole huge list.

I will definitely be doing the Challenge again.  I appreciated the fact that it required me to be disciplined with my blogging.  I enjoyed the community, and getting to know other bloggers.  I definitely appreciated the major boost in visitors it gave me this last month!  I also enjoyed the mental challenge of having to come up with a post topic for each letter of the alphabet.

There are a few things I'll be doing differently next year.  I will start visiting blogs in the days and weeks leading up to the Challenge, as they are added to the link-up list.  I will plan my posts six weeks in advance and start writing them four weeks in advance.  Then I'll spend my time each day visiting blogs and leaving comments instead of writing.  I hope to be an Ambassador again next year, too (just for future reference, Lee!), and I hope to do a better job of it next year.

Did you do the Challenge?  What did you think?  Head over to the A to Z blog and share your post!

It's Happened!!

I've officially hit 100 followers!!!

This is a HUGE milestone, and I can't thank you all enough.


It's a great day, people.  I'm drinking tea, writing, and finally reached this goal.

YOU ALL ARE AWESOME!

You know what this means.
I have to come through on my promise for a giveaway... which means it'll happen sometime next week!  Stay tuned for details!!

But I promise... it will be something good. :)  And worth waiting for!

{Focus} On My Schedule

Most of my childhood, my days were fairly unstructured.  There were, of course, expectations for each day-make bed, do schoolwork, help around the house--but we were never on a rigid schedule.  That lasted through high school (one of the lovely benefits of homeschooling!), but college changed my lifestyle considerably.  Now I have to be in classes at specific times each day and I have a set work schedule.  This all changes every semester, so each semester we have to adjust our daily schedule at home a little.

I was talking to a friend yesterday, lamenting how we haven't been very productive over Christmas break simply because we have no schedule (although classes start again on Monday).  I realized that if I had given myself a schedule--not necessarily rigid, but at least some structure to a day--I could have gotten a lot more done over break.  So I've decided that, for this semester, I'm going to give myself a schedule for while I'm at home, not just at class and work.

I also want to make goals when it comes to housework.  I have a hard time getting caught up on housework once life gets busy with school and other commitments.  This semester I want to stay on top of the cleaning so it doesn't get out of hand.  I know that if I don't set small goals for myself I tend to get overwhelmed and don't feel like doing anything at all, so I'll do one or two easy cleaning jobs a day, and that way I know it will all get done.

My class schedule this semester is fairly easy; I don't start classes till noon on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  My Tuesday/Thursday classes start at 8.  I want to get up at the same time every day, so I'll be getting up "early" on MWF and, ideally, have time to get a lot of things done those mornings.  Joshua has to be at class at the same time every day, 10:00.

An ideal morning for me this semester will look like this:
6:00 out of bed, get in shower
6:15 get dressed, do hair/makeup
6:30, get tea or coffee brewing, read my Bible at the kitchen table (this will give me incentive to get the kitchen all cleaned up before I go to bed)
7:00 start breakfast (I generally make quick breakfasts--oatmeal, eggs, or something I've prepared the night before).  On MWF I'll have time to make a bigger breakfast; probably on Tues/Thurs I'll eat by myself since Joshua doesn't have to leave as early as I do.
7:30 Tues/Thurs, get ready to leave for class.  I still plan on walking/biking a lot to school, even though we have the car now, but it's a 20-minute walk or a 10-minute bike, so that will give me time to get my backpack ready.
Mon/Wed/Fri: 7:30, write/publish a blog post.
8:30, pack lunch, finish tidying kitchen.
9:00, Wednesdays, get ready to leave (we'll go to chapel together on Wednesdays).
9:00, Mon/Fri, housecleaning and homework.
11:30, get ready to leave for class.

What I am NOT going to put into my schedule is any computer time other than blogging.  This weekend I'm planning on reorganizing my desk so I can put my computer away when I'm not using it, and thus cut down on the temptation to be on it so much.  I have plenty of free time during the day, when I'm already at school, to check email and Facebook.

The chores I want to accomplish weekly are:
-clean the bathroom
-clean the kitchen floor
-dust/declutter/vacuum the living room
-dust/declutter/vacuum the bedroom
-pick up/organize the closet

Daily chores will include getting the dishes all done and kitchen cleaned up, tidying my desk, and basic wiping down in the bathroom.

Monday mornings: bathroom, and kitchen floor
Tuesday afternoons (I'll get home around 4:15): pick up/organize the closet
Friday mornings: dust/declutter/vacuum living room and bedroom

This weekend I'm going to make a master chart with both of our daily schedules on it.  This will keep both of us on task, and that way we'll always know where the other one is going to be.

I'll keep you updated on how I do with this!  I'm excited and a little nervous, but I know how satisfying it will be if I can accomplish this.  My main reasons for setting this schedule for myself are so that I can {Focus} more on being in the Word, {Focus} on being a better homemaker, and {Focus} on using my time more productively.  I hope that this will also reduce my stress!

Please be praying for me and Joshua as we start this new semester!

My Greatest Desire

If you could do anything, be anything, what would it be?
If you could have one wish granted...what would you wish for?

Would you want to be a doctor?  An actor?  An artist?  The president of a Fortune-500 company?
A missionary?  Teacher?  Pastor?
All these are worthy callings.
But none of them (well, except missionary) have ever appealed to me.

I'll let you in on a secret--which you might already know about, if you've been here with me for a while.

The two things I've always wanted to be are a wife and mother.


There.  I said it.  If I could wish for anything, it would be to spend the rest of my life as a wife and mother.
Wife, check.
Mother...someday. :)

When I tell people this, I often get funny looks.  And questions like, "So why are you in college?"  (For the answer to that, read THIS POST.)  I'm at a small Christian university that, until just about fifteen or twenty years ago, was actually called a "Teachers' College."  And I'm not in the education program.  That puts me in a minority.

When I fill out applications for jobs and there are questions like, "What are your future goals?" or "How is this job preparation for your future career?" I shake my head and smile.  Because what I write is not what most people expect.

Since the 1970's, when feminism became popular and its influence filled nearly every household in America, it has been unusual and even strange for women to want to be full-time wives, mothers and homemakers.  For many women, it is absolutely necessary for their family's financial well-being that they work outside the home.  I'm sure there are many women in the workforce who wish they could stay home with their children.

But the fact that I have a choice, and I choose to stay home, is not nearly as common now as it used to be.

I'm blessed to have a husband who plans on helping me fulfill this dream.  On his (future teacher's) salary, we'll never have a lot of money, but we will never be wanting.  He supports me completely in my desire to be a full-time mother and homemaker.

I know that the profession of "homemaker" will not make me a lot of money.  It won't earn me much recognition in society.  My promotions--from mother of an infant, to a toddler, to a child, to a teen--won't increase my salary.  Learning new skills and perfecting the ones I have won't earn me a "Homemaker of the Month" plaque.

But love and appreciation from my husband and (future) children will be worth far more than that.  When I can look back on a life spent serving my family and those around me by being a godly wife, mother and homemaker, my greatest wish will have come true.

I don't have high aspirations or career goals according to the standards of society.  But when God created Eve he made her to be a helpmeet to her husband, to take care of the home in which God had placed them, and to be a loving mother to her children.  I like to think that God has given me the same jobs he gave the very first woman.  To fulfill them to the best of my ability, with his help and forgiveness, is my "dream job."

What about you?  To what vocation has God called you?

 

Why am I in college?

I've been thinking about writing this for some time, and I decided to do so in the hope that sharing my experiences might be encouraging to someone else.

I never really thought about not going to college.  I suppose that could be partly my parents' "fault," but I'm positive that if I had expressed a desire to not go to college, they would have fully supported me.  As it was, I didn't think about anything else.  I think that made it fairly clear that God wanted me to continue my formal education after high school.

I was in Indonesia my last semester of high school, so a lot of my final college plans took place via emails.  I originally planned to go to the university that I'm at now, but there's one in the same system that's about forty-five minutes from my hometown.  They were offering me more financial aid than this one in the beginning, and they had a major that I figured would work for me.  It wasn't exactly what I had been planning on, but it would do.  I decided I could at least go there for a couple of years.

However, in June of 2009 things changed.  The school I'm at now offered me more financial aid, which made the cost of the two schools equal.  With less than two months till the first day of school, I had to make a decision again.  I decided on my birthday, July 3, to come to this school.  Several things solidified that decision.  The director of the school's major choir called me from choir tour in Spain to see if I'd made my final decision.  A couple days later the president of the university emailed me to say he was very glad I had decided to attend.  (Granted, this is a school of about 1200 students.  It was still impressive.)  Finally, and most importantly, I felt a great peace about the decision.

I came here with plans to become a Director of Christian Education, a DCE.  My mom went to school to be one.  So did her brother, and my dad's dad.  (A DCE, by the way, usually works with a church's pastor to teach Bible studies, youth groups, Sunday school, confirmation classes, adult Bible studies, and other things within a congregation and sometimes in parochial schools.)  I had been interested in that ministry for a while, and felt that it was the most practical choice for me.

However, that all changed fairly quickly when I started dating Joshua, two weeks into the school year, and especially when we got engaged six months later.  He is planning on being a Lutheran high school teacher.  A DCE does much of their work in the evenings and weekends.  A teacher works during the day Monday through Friday.  We realized that, were we to both continue in the career paths we'd chosen, we would hardly see each other once we began working.

Neither one of us liked the sound of that.

So--after much thought, prayer, and conversation, I decided to not be in the DCE program.  It was not an easy decision, but I felt very much at peace once I'd made it.  I'm now double-majoring in English and Theology.  At a school where most people are either in education or pre-seminary programs if they're not athletes or scientists (and a lot of people are education and athletes or scientists), I get some funny looks.  Especially from older people.  "What, you're not education?  So what kind of career are you going to get with that major?"

Well, honestly, I plan on being a professional writer.  That's one of the main purposes for this blog: practice writing, and a way to get my name "out there" so when I do write a book there will (Lord willing!) be people who know and like how I write and want to actually read a book I've written.  (When that happens, I will let you know.)  I believe that God has gifted me with the ability to write, and I want to use it to honor and glorify him as well as I can.  I'd really like to write devotionals, Bible studies, and Christian fiction.  We'll see how that goes.

But the fact is, since I was very young I have wanted to be a wife, mother, author, teacher, and librarian.  Wife--check.  Author--working on it.  Librarian--sort of.  I help at the circulation desk at the campus library. :)  Mother--someday.  Teacher--of our future children.  None of those things requires a college education.

My mom was in college for seven years.  She worked professionally as a DCE for TWO.  She's been an at-home, homeschooling mom ever since--but she also teaches Sunday school, leads a moms' Bible study that meets every week (and has for years), is part of the marriage ministry team at their church along with my dad, sings in the church choir, and does a lot more, all volunteering--but all using the things she learned in college and in her life since then.

That's what I want to do.  (But not the seven years of college.  No thanks.)

I want to be my husband's ministry partner.  I want to implement the principles of Titus chapter 2, helping to teach, train, and encourage younger women as I get older and have more life experience.  I want to learn from women who are older and wiser than I.  I want to teach our future children about God and how much he loves them, and how they can love him.  I want to share the good news of Jesus with everyone in my life.

So...why am I in college?
Because God wanted me here.
After all, this is where I met my husband.  That's priceless.
Because, as my dad says, no education is ever wasted, no matter how much it costs.
And because God has work for me.  He has plans to teach and bless and shape me.  He has plans that I don't know a thing about...but he does.  And this is where he wants me to be at this point in my life.

New Goals for a New Year

Everybody's doing it.

Making New Year's resolutions, that is.  It's a new year, we all feel like we have a fresh start, to try again, to do the things we didn't accomplish last year, to become better at something.

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions.  I've found them very hard to keep.  But this year, I've been inspired by several different people.  Jon Acuff was the major one.  He advised making just a few goals for the year, not a lot, and making them very specific.  If I accomplish all my goals I can create more.  And the more specific they are, the easier it will be to measure that I'm actually doing them.

I want to focus on three major areas of my life: spiritual, relational, and financial.  (Physically, I've already gotten into the habit of regularly working out, and although over Christmas break that's been set aside, it'll get going again once school starts back up.)

Spiritual: I want to spend half an hour a day, at least five days a week, reading Scripture, writing down what I learn from that day's reading, and praying about what I've read.

I want to read at least two books that will encourage me in my walk with God.  (One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp is first on that list.)

Relational: I want to learn to love my husband better.  Specifically, this means seeking out one way to intentionally love him every day (by letting him have his way in something, making a food he likes, saying something encouraging, asking what I can do to help him, etc).

I will also read at least two books on marriage and relationships.  The first will be The Resolution for Women, by Priscilla Shirer (inspired by the movie "Courageous").

Financial: I want to write out, and follow, a set, specific budget for this year.  I want to keep track of our finances and tithe every paycheck.  I would like to attend Financial Peace University (there's a class at our college this spring).

Overall, I want to revamp my priorities so that it's always God, my husband, family and friends, and then me.

This isn't going to be easy.  Please pray for me, for willpower, steadfastness, and the desire to fulfill these things.  And guess what--I'll be praying for you, too. :)

A Homemaker and Proud of It

Here I am in my kitchen, in my apron, with that big sunny window behind me.  Not the greatest picture, but not terrible for using the timer on the camera propped on the top of the fridge.  :)

I really do love having a home to take care of, for me and for my husband.  Some women--probably a lot of women--would look at me strangely for saying that.  But this is my vocation right now: wife, homemaker.  Hopefully another job will be part of that very soon.  I had a phone interview for a job the other day (didn't work because of scheduling) and one of the questions was "What are your career goals?"  I almost laughed.  I've wanted to be a full-time homemaker and at-home mom since I was five years old.  I want to write, too, but that's secondary.  So then some people would say I'm crazy for going to college and getting a degree and spending so much money.  My dad told me that no learning is ever wasted (no matter how much it cost!).  So I'm proud to say that my goal in life is to be a God-honoring, servant-hearted wife, mom and homemaker.  

Does that make me unusual in this age and society?  Yep.  But then, my whole life has been counter-cultural and I go by God's standards, not the world's.  My nickname at camp was Sonshine.  "You are the light of the world," Jesus said in the verse from Matthew I picked to go with the nickname.  We as Christians are called to stand out, to conform to God and not to the world, to be a light reflecting the glory of God.  So, yes, I'm a homemaker, and I'm proud to say so!