Out of Time

I was going to do a more detailed update of things as I'm off to camp and won't continue being able to blog daily. If you want my address at camp let me know and I'll try to post one more time from camp.

Packing

Yesterday and this morning I packed to head home for 36 hours before going to camp. I spent all of today labeling my clothes and I will continue the job tomorrow. By 9pm tomorrow I'll be at camp and be there for the summer. You don't realize how many pieces of clothing you have until you have to pack every one of them. Such a pain. Unpacked today just to repack it all tomorrow. O well, that's all I have for right now. I'll give a good update for the summer tomorrow.

Last minutes

A wonderful dinner tonight was shared with a few friends, including two new ones from Korea. I was glad to be able to host them and chat. Then afterward I got some help cleaning and got most of my car packed. I'm heading off tomorrow morning bright and early to get my car fixed before cleaning. Please pray that my car can quickly get fixed. Having no power steering fluid is not a good thing. Anyway camp is coming soon which is awesome!

Last days

This was my last Sunday at church... so I decided to make it last as long as posible. I stayed for Sunday school (which was just chatting time), dropped a few of the boys off, had an hour to change closes before helping with wiffleball and kickball. These sports ended at 4:30 which gave me just enough time to head to Walmart before going off going to another church. I left there about 7pm in order to cook dinner and have a friend over at 8pm. So lots of good fellowship time that I'm really going to miss when I leave here.
Tomorrow will be filled with packing and cleaning!

Struggles

I have been prompted by a friend to reflect on what I struggle with. The Christian walk is hard sometimes with many hard paths, sometimes like a safari. The bumps just add to the road and while we know our starting place and our ending place (heaven), the path changes on the way. (This was stolen from a friend earlier today).
In my life I have not been making the time I should be for God. If He really is the most important thing in my life then I need to put Him first. Daily time with Him in prayer and bible study is crucial and if we don't have it we can go spiritually dry. I know that this summer will be a harder time as I will be removed from the fellowship of my friends and the Christians I know now. I pray that I will be able to find a few Christians at camp this summer and also to make it to church (no weekends exist at camp). But I will also be using my free time for personal bible study, prayer, and vegging out with God. This way my mind stays focused on Him and I can get through my job and get closer to Him. I need a break from the way life is currently going and I'm very glad for the upcoming transition and time to restart my habits. Plus I'm going kosher and attending Jewish services which could (possibly) help me connect more with Him as I experience the Jewish way of life, without going wholeheartedly into it. I know and am thankful that Jesus came to save me from my sins and to abolish the law.

The Point

I spent a few hours down at the Point today which reminded me of how much I love the lake. I can't wait to be living on a beach this summer and to be able to hear the sound of the waves. I know this summer the lake will be much smaller, but maybe I'll be able to learn how to waterski. If not, there are kayaks and canoes that I should be allowed to take out sometimes. The short trip down to the Point reminded me of God's awesome creation and how we were meant to enjoy it.

Sharing is Caring

It can make the world go round. Speaking of round: I decided to share my bicycle for the summer with one of the Korean students who is still around. I figured that instead of it sitting tied up to my front porch while I'm not using it and not even in the state that she could get much better use out of it. Now she can bike to Walmart and around town instead of walking. It also reminds me of when I was in Australia and I got lent a pushbike from one of my Girl Guide leaders. I had been borrowing a bike that was too big for me and trying to share it with the owner in order to get to my field placement every morning. It wasn't working too well nor was it the safest. But once I got that bike I felt like I could go wherever I wanted to! I could more safely bike to my placement, plus go to class, church, and on random bike rides with friends. It was such a great experience. So I'm very excited to be able to pass along that benefit to another student so they can enjoy the ability to travel short distances without walking or relying on others. Yeah for sharing the gifts that God has given us!

Un-kosher

Yesterday I had the ultimate un-kosher meal: ham with broccoli, quinoa, and couscous (could have added cheese but it wasn't needed) with a lard fried potato chips. Yum. For those of you who don't know I'm going to be kosher this summer so I'm getting in all of the things I'm not allowed to eat ahead of time. Like today I had a bologna sandwich for breakfast, leftover ham for lunch, and hotdog pigs in a blanket for dinner. So kosher: no. However, Jesus came to take away all of the Law so I don't actually have to follow it. It's just a choice. This summer the camp that I'm working at only serves kosher food so I figure it'll be a great time to try being kosher. And after just two months I can easily switch back to enjoying my pork products. Note: I'm not going to follow all of the rules about when to eat dairy, like six hours after meat or whatever those rules are.

References

I've been sitting in this same chair for at least the last two hours, probably more like three just working on my references for my thesis. I still have one subsection with complicated references I'll have to find and probably a few that aren't quite right. But, except that one subsection, they are all done. Thank goodness for EBSCO Host and the folder functions as well as the citing option. Made my life so much easier today. Well, I promised myself that I would go to bed before midnight and take a shower tonight... since it's 11:59 and I haven't showered that's not going to happen. Goodnight!

Malts

I have all of these wonderful desserts that I'm trying to finish up in my challenge to empty my apartment of everything that will expire by August. Today I made a malt milkshake of the last few scoops of leftover ice-cream. Yummy!

Citing your source

Have you ever had to cite a really long paper? Where you use about five pages of single spaced references? As I'm getting closer to done with my thesis I'm working on the reference page now (mostly cause I don't feel like writing my final sub section at the moment). Any time you use information from someone else's work you have to give them credit both in the paper and at the end.
What would happen if we had to do it in real life? If we heard a story from someone we would have to share it and add at the end from a friend in 2012. But if we heard it from someone else who heard it from a friend we would have to include both of those people in it. Very quickly we could tell if we were involved in gossiping as it became: This person, as told to A as told to B as told to C as told to D said that we should go to bed now. We are told instead to go seek out the original article instead of just using the other person's interpretation of it. The Bible warns us against gossiping (and cheating/stealing which is why we need to cite). Think about what you are saying and how reliable that source is and how close to the original person it is. Are you just listening to interpretations of people's work or are you going to the actual author of it? Also are you giving God credit for what He's done or claiming that credit for yourself as your own creation? Don't steal from God or others and watch out for gossiping.

Greek Sushi

While eating leftover greek chicken with freshly made fried rice for lunch, I received a text from a friend asking if I wanted to go to the Greek festival about 45 min away. I responded that I would if we could go another 45 min to get sushi in Canada. She agreed. So we set off on a 1.5 hour trip with the goal to make it before sushi lunch ended (4pm).
We arrived in Canada at the restaurant about 3:50 which thankfully allowed us to save the $8 a person on our meal. We enjoyed the all you can eat sushi eating way too much. Then, because we could, we stopped at Niagara Falls to admire God's creation. Here I realized that I had told the Canadian border patrol the wrong license plate number. Thankfully it was close enough that they did not say anything and the US side did not ask that question.
We returned to the US after a nice chat with the border patrol and set off for the Greek festival. After stopping to buy a wedding present and staples at Target (where they were out of staples), we continued on to the Greek festival. The food there smelled wonderful, but despite being 4 hours after we left the sushi restaurant, we just got sweets to go. We couldn't even find the thing that had originally inspired us to go to the festival. So we returned home after an 8.5 hour trip to Canada for sushi and a quick trip to a Greek festival. Yummy food :)

A Cold June

June 1:
Today is very cold... well not very cold, but too cold for June. It's about 53ºF (12ºC) tonight which is quite chilly for the summer months. I sure hope the weather improves. I took home most of my blankets and warm sheets because I assumed that the weather would be warmer. Now it's time to dig through my closet to get the smaller blankets I still have and find warmer pj pants. Monday was 90º... Friday is 60º that's just not right.