My View of Adulthood

As a child, I thought there were three kinds of adults. The bad kind (the sort of bad grown-ups that went to prison for stealing and stuff like that), the good kind (like the Wal-Mart sticker greeters and other adults that I didn't know) and the really good kind (like my parents and their friends). I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the really good kind of adult never did wrong. If they were angry it was justly over someone else's wrong. They were completely selfless, always knew the right answer and never failed to punish me when I'd done something wrong.

Imagine my shock when I grew older and realized that there were many more wrong things that could be done than the ones I knew. There were lots of things you could do even accidentally that would make other people hurt or angry with you. The subtleties of manipulation, insults and exclusion that I began to understand were mind-blowing; almost as much as the fact that "really good" adults actually committed these wrongs. Now, as a young teenager growing toward adulthood, my view of adults had changed. I was planning on becoming the "really good" kind of adult that never did anything wrong; now that kind of adult doesn't exist. Suddenly, adulthood wasn't an arrival where you instantaneously become the kind of adult you were raised to be, but merely an extension of childhood where you are bigger and more grown-up, but still struggle with doing wrong. Eventually, you are no longer under your parents authority and are responsible for making yourself do right... and if you should happen to do something really wrong, then the police would put you in jail.

Even at 19, some of my childhood ideals are still being crushed by the pettiness of most of the adults in this world; yes, even the ones that my childhood self would have considered "really good." But all this only serves to remind me that God is the fulfillment of all my ideals of the perfect "adult." In childhood, your parent serves as the "all-knowing" governing authority; in adulthood, God is the one who reminds you to apologize for your wrongs, and loves you as His child, even through all your disobedience and childish tantrums.

Announcing a New Blogging Venture

I am striking out on my own with a new blog that focused more in the same direction as my life. My interest in being a Random Digressor has waned, as has Sarah's, apparently. If my interest in blogging is revived by posting on my new blog, I may still do some random posts here, but as it is, I don't know how often I will post on my new blog.

Anyway, and without further ado, introducing: the Hopeful Aspiring Homemaker. I will be sharing projects, ideas, recipes and anything else I find interesting or inspiring in my journey towards my "hopeful" future of being a wife and mother. I hope any readers who still remember The Random Digressors will find it an acceptable substitute. ;-)

So long for now, and perhaps the Random Digressors will be back sometime in the future...

*glare* Did YOU steal my diary?

I marched into my brothers' bedroom and gave them my most intimidating stare, silently, until I had their full attention. Joel lowered his thick novel and David asked, "What?" I pursed my lips. "Did you guys take my diary?"

They looked at me and started laughing. I wasn't sure if they were guilty, or if they thought that was the most ridiculous idea they'd ever heard. However stereotypical diary-stealing brothers may be, my brothers, first and foremost, would probably be bored out of their minds if they could even read my cursive, and secondly, wouldn't invade my privacy even if it would be interesting. Still, they were more likely than my sister and parents, and I'd already checked everywhere that I could have left it.

Joel and David were still rolling on their beds laughing, Joel gasping, "I... can't... breathe!!!" when Sarah walked in. "What's so funny?"By this time, I was trying to stifle my own laughter. "Did YOU take my diary?" Sarah instantly started laughing. If I didn't know better, I would think they were all in on it, but they know enough about my thoughts to know that my diary would be redundant to them.

Sarah followed me when I went to check if Mom had seen it. After Mom affirmed that she hadn't taken it, Sarah asked, "Did you even know she HAS a diary?" To which Mom admitted that she didn't.

Daddy is already asleep, so he's the only un-investigated suspect... I just can't figure out what happened to it! It must have been me... but I only write in it in one place, and I only keep it in one place, and I looked both, and in between isn't a very far distance either... quite frustrating.

And I just wanted to copy down an interesting passage I just read.

~Lizzie

Silly quiz...

I found it on Meredith's blog, and couldn't resist. =P

1. What two qualities do you want most in your future husband (besides being a Christian)? Joy that will last through hardships and love of children.

2. Is there a fictional character you see as a model for your future husband? Mr. Knightley and Mr. Tilney (both from Jane Austen novels... =P)

3. Where do you want your wedding? In my own front yard... I have it all worked out.

4. What are your views on courtship? I've done many long rants/explanations about it, but in a nutshell, I believe courtship a mindset, and that being in that mindset while getting to know a special someone is the only way to end up with the right one.

5. Do you have a purity ring/locket? Kind of... on my charm bracelet, I have a gold heart inscribed with "He who holds the key can unlock my heart." I gave the key to my daddy, as a symbol that until the man God has for me comes into my life, my daddy is the man who protects me.

6. Do you have or want a hope chest? I do have a hope chest. It's slowly collecting things...

7. Will you wear a veil at your wedding? I'm not sure... I'll have to find one I like and that hasn't happened yet. The wedding would not be ruined in my opinion if I didn't have a veil.

8. What kind of wedding dress do you want? I want a modest, short sleeve or sleeveless (NOT strapless), full-skirt dress with no train. I'm not sure if I'll find it or make it, but I always look at the wedding dresses at Goodwill, and if I find what I'm looking for I'll buy it and save it! =P

9. What color bridesmaid dresses do you want? Well, I want a small wedding, so I might only have Sarah as my maid of honor... so I'll let her have whatever color she wants, excluding hot pink. If I have more, I might still let them wear whatever color... I'm not sure.

10. What flowers do you want in your bouquet? That would depend on what season I end up getting married, but I'd like to cut my own flowers and arrange them myself... so whatever is blooming.

11. What do you want to name one of your daughters? I like Celtic names... Moyna, Sianna, Flanna, Arela.

12. What do you want to name one of your sons? Alan, Devlin, Tiernan... Maybe one of my desired traits in a husband should be "tolerance of weird names." :\

13. How many kids do you want? My joke answer is 13... almost everyone who knows makes fun of me. Really, it's "AT LEAST" 13. Laugh, gasp or cajole all you want, that's my desire.

14. What music do you want to play at your wedding? Strings and flute... I would say piano, but I want it in my front yard, so a piano might be too much trouble.

15. Are you a hopeless romantic? I wouldn't say so. I can easily enjoy the romance in anything, but I don't look for that kind of romance for myself. My dream is just to have a simple life with the man God has for me. And then, even the normal things in life are romantic.

"It's cute... not saying I like it, but it's cute..."

- Sarah's opinion of this little arrangement.



I had been feeling sad about cutting Black-eyed Susans because they almost always have little baby buds on the stem that are too low to fit in the arrangement, but too high to avoid being cut along with the main flower. But today I decided to try sticking them in their own little vase instead of throwing them away, and they ended up looking better than I imagined they would!


This is the arrangement of Zinnias that I wanted the long Black-eyed Susans for. (It's kind of blurry, but the flash looked much worse.)

Sarah and I are very excited about Wicked coming to DPAC April/May 2010... but I am beginning to wonder if I shouldn't have a problem with the witches and wizards and magic in Wicked. After all, I rejected Harry Potter because of Christian objections to witchcraft and witches being portrayed in a good light. Glinda is a "good" witch. There is witchcraft in Wicked... flying on brooms and such. Wicked seems more like an innocent story than Harry Potter, but it still centers on witches who are supposed to be "good." I'm very torn. I feel that I should be objecting to Wicked too, but I've heard that it's such a good show, and I have the soundtrack and the music is fantastic... and it's not like I'm a child that could be fooled into thinking that real witches are good just by a show!

Also, J. K. Rowling (a professed witch) has said that she intended Harry Potter to encourage American children to experiment with witchcraft! Wicked is just another Broadway musical: typically slightly cheesy, with no mind-blowing intent beyond being a well-acted and well-sung musical... the witches are just another twist in a thread of musicals with all-too-similar romantic plots. Right? At least I have 8 months to think about it. Thoughts are welcome. =)

~Lizzie

The day of the mysterious package...

I discovered an intriguing plain box outside our door early this afternoon. It had our address, and a return address, but said nothing of the sender, only "P.O. box ****" etc. I picked it up and whatever was inside thumped invitingly... I was hoping it wasn't another delivery for Sarah's new still-secret business, and it wasn't. Mom and I opened it, and inside were Nerf basketballs the size of baseballs, and some plastic and cardboard hoops.


I looked at Mom curiously, wondering if she'd ordered it for the boys, but she was as puzzled as I was... until we read the included letter, which read:

"Dear NERF Hoop Sweepstakes First Prize Winner:

Congratulations on being a First Prize Winner!

Your entry into the NERF Hoop Sweepstakes was selected in a random drawing as a First Prize winner.

The First Prize package is: one (1) NERF WALL2WALL HOOP product and one (1) NERFOOP product. Approximate retail value of each First Prize Package is $23.00.

We hope you enjoy this First Prize package.

Cottonwood Enterprises INC.
Sales Promotion Specialists"

My first thought was: "If this is First Prize, what is Second Prize?" And my second thought was: "Good grief! All the free car, jewelry, vacation and food drawings we've entered in, and we win a NERF sweepstakes?" *sigh* :\

Oh well.

~Lizzie

"From a frustrated customer"

Dear Volvo,
I love almost everything about your cars except for the "new" seat design, which features a head rest jutting forward in a most un-ergonomic position. Yes, I realize it is artistic, but I would rather lean my head back with out getting my neck snapped forward. Also, your seat back support is backwards. It juts out at the UPPER back, and curves away from supporting the lower back. I'm not sure it could have been more badly designed if that had been the actual intent.

Sincerely,
A Would-Be Volvo Lover

Link Within

I added a new widget... let me know what you think! I'm not quite sure I like it... it seems like all the posts it suggests are repeated frequently. Plus it probably doesn't have any sort of intelligent choosing, and I do so many short, boring posts (like this) that will come up too often as well.

Hmmm.

~Lizzie

Wow, what a trip!

We managed to leave at 1:17am (only 17 minutes late!). It felt very odd, because I'd spent the whole day getting ready and I was ready to go to bed... but it was time to leave. I was hoping that I'd be ready to go in time to sleep about 2-3 hours before we left, but that didn't happen.

I made muffins and pizza rolls for breakfast and lunch on the way up. (They lasted for breakfast and lunch on the way back too, and we just ate the last pizza rolls.)


Pesto and sun-dried tomato pizza rolls.

Mixed-berry cornmeal muffins and blueberry muffins

Pizza rolls (recipe from Trina's blog). Originally pepperoni rolls... I made these with ground hamburger, and, like Trina, I put the sauce in the roll instead of dipping. Dipping was too messy for a car trip.

I made two pans of the hamburger pizza rolls.

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures on the drive up because it was either dark, or I was driving or I was asleep. Sarah got some. She will post them... or else.

This is the swimming pool at our motel room. We arrived, unloaded, got into our suits, went down the pool... got to swim a little bit and then? It thundered, and started raining, and lightening was everywhere.

This is the view from our second-story motel room of the pool. In the rain.

Joel didn't want to swim anyway.

I failed to get pictures at the rehearsal dinner. I also failed to get pictures at the wedding. I don't know what I was thinking! I was just enjoying it all... Mom and Sarah got some pictures. But Chris and Kristen wrote their own vows, and they were so sweet, I immediately wished that I had thought to get it on video!! *bangs head on desk* I also wish I'd recorded the toasts. The groomsmen were amusingly unanimous in their expressions of awe and shock that CHRIS was married the first out of all of them. And he apparently told one of the groomsmen (AJ) only about a year ago that he would purposefully schedule his wedding one day after AJ's just to make sure he won. And, uh... he lost. AJ said the purple shirt and tie (his groomsman attire) did NOT count as payment for the bet. :P

But I am getting ahead of myself. Before the wedding, we managed to swim in the pool after all. It was the perfect temperature water, and it was a nice sunny day. We all got nice sunburns. So we swam, and then ate lunch, got dressed, packed up and checked out of our motel room.

The wedding was beautiful, and very unique. Kristen carried a bouquet that I believe was composed of Gerbera Daisies. The bridesmaids were in deep purple, the groomsmen in light purple dress shirts and ties, and Chris was in a darker purple shirt and tie. (I really like the idea of having the groomsmen and groom in a color and not tuxes.) The daisies were bright pink, orange and yellow. It was all very sweet and refreshing.

The reception was a full dinner. It was very formally set up, but some people changed into more casual clothes. The men in the wedding party had to suffice with just changing from dress shoes into flip-flops.












The wedding party table.

First dance.

Cutting the cake. (Yes, like a stupid amateur photographer, I cut the cake out of the picture. Get over it.)

Feeding each other the cake. Chris suggested that they step back and try to toss it in each other's mouths... Kristen almost went for it, but didn't want to risk messing up Chris's shirt.

It was a really special trip. I'm so excited for Chris and Kristen. I wish they lived closer so that we could see them more often! Kristen really brings out the best in Chris. He's always been a great guy, and a really nice cousin, but he was usually reserved and Kristen gives him so much joy. I've never seen someone so altered (in a good way) by a special someone. I know they will have a great life together. I just hope they're around enough for me to see it. =D


And now... can you see the "I didn't get much sleep, and now we're going to travel through the night AGAIN?!?" behind Sarah's smile? We left Illinois at 8:30pm for NC. We got home this afternoon at 12:15pm.

I drove a grand total of 8 and a half hours, and 621 miles.

It was fun!

~Lizzie

I feel like blogging something...

But unfortunately, I don't feel like I have much to say. I could announce that I FINALLY got to clean my room yesterday. But unless you saw the wreck that was my room, you won't care. The few of you that did see the catastrophe are probably rejoicing... and perhaps doubting that it actually happened.

I could also talk about my recital/performance/play/life schedule that starts tomorrow, but that usually gets boring... I suppose I could try it in a different format than usual though. If you don't want to know my schedule, then skip the bullet points. :P

• Tomorrow: Dress rehearsal for You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown and the Lighthouse graduation (Sarah's playing in the band.)
• Sunday: Possibly church, voice recital (eeeeek.)
• Monday: Swimming, dance class picture day.
• Tuesday: Dress rehearsal for dance recital
• Wednesday: Just swimming... but it's not too late for something to get added...
• Thursday: Again, just swimming... but I feel like there's going to be something else.
• Friday: First performance of YAGMCB.
• Saturday: Dance recital, second performance of YAGMCB.

I'm glad I wrote it out... if only for my own sake, because now I think maybe it isn't too awfully busy... the stress makes it feel pretty crazy though. I constantly think I'm forgetting something... or maybe SEVERAL somethings. :\

I've also been debating if I should do my own love/marriage/romance post inspired by Sarah (Garner's!!!!) wedding. It has set me on an interesting morsel of thought since last Saturday, but I can't decide if I want to try to make my thoughts coherent. Or if anyone would even want to read it if I did. (... just in case you didn't catch it, that's your cue to make your wishes known... ;) )

And now, I feel that there's something I should be doing... I must go try to not stress over whatever it might be.

Oh, and don't be surprised if I don't post for the next week. =D

~Lizzie

The beginnings of my attempt at flower gardening...

As you may remember from this post that I started growing some flowers... here are the first blooms!

Several little moss roses...

I like the vibrant color...


This one is probably my favorite though. It's such a sweet pink...

These Johnny Jump Ups are cuter than I imagined! They are sooo tiny!


A little moss rose growing amongst rocks... and weeds that I didn't stop to pull. :P

Snapdragon just opening up (and still in a starter pot on the table... he needs to be planted...

And a bright orange Zinnia.

I'm really enjoying my flowers. And I'm really pleased with how well my camera took those shots. It's just a little camera (not at all like Sarah's professional monster of a camera) but it does really well.

It's a good thing I have my flowers to cheer me up, because my cooking skills continue to fail me. (Cooking skills? What cooking skills?) Yesterday I made a crockpot dish for an impromptu potluck/softball evening with some of our friends. I tried a new recipe from our Betty Crocker Slow Cooker Cookbook, "Lentil and Mixed-Vegetable Casserole." We had just opened a 5-gallon bucket of lentils, and we had everything else we needed, it looked very easy (as if cooking in a crockpot isn't easy enough anyway) and it even looked tasty! We had a lot of errands to run during the afternoon, so I could just let it cook while we were gone and then take it to the potluck.

I got it put together and ready to cook, but since we were going to be gone 3 to 4 hours, and it said to only cook it 2 to 2 1/2 hours, I turned it on for an hour before we left, kept it on "warm" while we were gone, and turned it back on to cook once we got home. It wasn't ready when it was time to leave (the lentils were still kinda crunchy) so I plugged it in to cook while we played softball. It still wasn't ready when it was time to eat. Daddy looked at it, and gently informed me that my lentils were actually split-peas, which is why they were taking so long.

Split peas.

Lentils.

I should know the difference! It's not like I've never had lentils or split peas before! I was told that the bucket was lentils, and I just didn't doubt it, or even use any intelligent brain waves on the consideration.

Mr. J kindly said that with another 30 minutes, my casserole would have been superb, Kara insisted that it tasted fine and Sarah said she liked the crunch. It was nice of them to say those things and I'm sure they meant them... but I thought it tasted like casserole with sand. And it needed more salt. Not to mention, it wouldn't have been too bad if they had at least been lentils... instead of split peas.

~Lizzie

*uncontrollable laughter*

I really love driving my daddy's car. It's a 2001 Volvo S80 automatic turbo. I get to ride the automatic seat from Daddy's long-leg seat position to my very short position. I accelerate out of turns easily because the steering is soooo smooth. I stop for stop lights easily because the breaks are so responsive. And when I get on the interstate, the car accelerates to 70mph so quickly and gracefully... and then, at the end of the entrance ramp, there's a Chrysler minivan RIGHT next to me, who won't move because the driver is too busy talking on his cellphone! *sigh*

Voice, dance and theatre were fun today. Everything is finally falling into place. We know our dance, we have our dance costumes... almost everyone knows their lines for the play, except for people who got to go on exotic vacations (Greece?!?!? NOT FAIR!!!) or even just regular vacations.

You probably had to be there, but Mr. Green tweaked one of the scenes, and it was so funny, we all burst out laughing! And then they tried to run the scene again, and they couldn't even start the scene without everyone cracking up again! After many tries, they finally got through it without TOO much laughing. And then they ran it again about a half hour later, and before they got to the funny part, Mr. Green cracked up, and everybody lost it again. It's going to be HILARIOUS.
Anyone can come! It's at NRCA (7300 Perry Creek Rd. Raleigh, NC) Friday, June 12th, and Saturday, June 13th both at 7pm. Tickets are $5/student (18 & under) $7/adult. Sarah and I will be in the Friday show, but Kara will probably be in the Saturday show. I don't care if you come see me, just come to either show if you can. It'll be great.

~Lizzie

I'm BACK!!

I know, I didn't announce that I was leaving. Nor am I going to oblige you with a lengthy and juicy account of all the busy-ness that has kept me from posting for the last month. Hint: it was mostly baseball... baseball game on top of baseball game... and if there wasn't a game, there was a practice. All that on top of everything else I'm doing was too much. But the tournament was May 7th-9th, and now that I've recovered from the team losing, here I am, with PATTERNS!

I splurged on patterns today. I decided about a month ago that I wanted to make a really nice summer dress, because I have two weddings to go to, and my 18th birthday is coming up, so I thought it'd be nice to have a dress to wear to all 3 occasions. (Shh, don't tell I'm wearing it more than once!)

So you might be wondering why I said "patterns" plural. If you are, congratulations on being observant. And thanks for not assuming that I accidentally added the 's'. I got patterns because I couldn't decide which one I wanted, they were all on sale anyway, and the store was getting ready to close, so I didn't have time to decide.

I got Simplicity 2965:


I like the one in red, only they're all kinda short, so when I ever get around to making it, I'll make it longer.

Simplicity 2917:


Either the short sleeve, or the sleeveless.

New Look 6589:


I like the style of the black one, but I've got a plain soft yellow in mind for it that I borrowed from Mom's stash...



It's between this one and the next dress for the dress I'm going to try to make in 2 and a half weeks!

Vogue 8470:

I really like the white one, but I'll probably make the skirt a little shorter, because otherwise it takes FIVE yards! Which I don't have in the pretty yellow material.

And I really liked the Vogue 8489, but they didn't have it:

I like the green, but if I ever get to make it, I want to make it with the accent trim like the tan and brown.

And you're probably overwhelmed with patterns already, but I also got two apron patterns.

McCall's Retro aprons:




And M5358:



For this one, I'm planning on making view C (the lime green at the bottom) but with the tie and pocket in this green checkered, and the main part in the brown. And I also want to add a ruffle in the checkered material.

I was going to go ahead and cut the apron, but I got distracted and did this blog post instead... and now it's late, so I should just go to bed. Hopefully I'll have some "finished apron" pictures eventually!

Oh, and I made the cinnamon rolls Abigail mentioned here for Mother's Day. My icing didn't turn out right, (probably because I didn't want to use our entire bag of powdered sugar... and I didn't have any coffee) but the funny little clumps of sugar didn't dissuade my family. And I thought they turned out okay... next time they'll be better, though.



~Lizzie

AHH! It hurts...

Can you hear it? Oh, it's like fingernails on a chalkboard... only worse. Daddy likes to play it and watch my face contort in agony. =P

Created by Train Horns

It has been requested...

and now will be fulfilled... however unsatisfactorily. A new blog post...

Last week, I did school. This week, I'm doing school.

The end.

Just kidding.

Unfortunately, my life has been somewhat uneventful, and there isn't much bloggy fuel. We've had so many basketball games that they all run together in my head, and I can't say more than that Middleschool lost today, and JV and Varsity won. I don't remember how the games Saturday went. That's how bad my memory is. Swimming has been normal. My water polo team won both our games Wednesday. School is school, and I hardly have time to get it done. Voice is getting harder, I have a song that's pretty high for me, and I can't get up high enough on command, so I'm working on that. Dance is fun. Theatre is cool. We don't have the play cast yet.

I've been feeling kind of subdued recently, which could be why I haven't come up with anything to write about (yeah, my life is usually uneventful, just the same things over and over. Which is nice, sometimes). I have my posts where I'm in the "depths of despair" and all I do is whine. And then I have posts where I'm feeling happy and somewhat hyper and I just talk.

Subdued is a new feeling for me. I'm not depressed, sad or angry, but I'm not exactly happy either. I'm just listless.

I made bicuits to go with soup for supper yesterday, and they turned out better than I've ever had biscuits do (biscuits are so awful for me. Sarah's usually turn out lovely, and I just have no natural cooking skill) and I was pleased that they turned well, so I tried them again tonight. And they weren't as good at all. But they have progressed well enough that my brothers still complained that I didn't make enough. That's always comforting.

I've also gotten it into my head that I would like to make a quilt. I have never made a quilt before in my life, but all of a sudden I just want to try one. But I've decided to put it off until I get a collection of material from other, smaller projects. I hardly have time for homey projects though, with all the time we spend running all over the place.

And it's also starting to get to me that I'm going to be 18 in early June. Every since I was 10 or so, I looked forward to 18 as the age where I would probably have everything together, have become the person I wanted to be and be at the beginning of the next stage of my life. But here I am, with only 3 and a half months to go, and nothing is together, I'm nowhere near the person I want to be, and I don't see my life changing any time soon. I'm very much afraid that 18 is going to be just as disappointing as every new age always was. I always hoped that "13 will FEEL different! There's just something about 13..." Now I know that mental change happens slowly, and doesn't have that much to do with age.

I think I've exhausted everything I could think to write about. I'm sorry, Abigail, this was pretty dreary, and probably not what you had in mind... :)

~Lizzie

Superbowl XLIII

I'm not a huge football fan (this was the first game I watched this year), but I do enjoy the superbowl. It's always nice to have a good excuse to eat tons of junk food, drink soft drinks, go crazy and shriek like a maniac. And I always enjoy watching commercials that are apparently worth millions of dollars. This year, the minimum was 3 million for 30 seconds.

However, this year I was actually cheering for a team. Just a combination of liking Kurt Warner, and somehow acquiring a dislike for the Steelers (despite never watching games... need to reconsider that one). I'm not going to describe my feelings during the game because I don't know any of the terms (I know touchdown! hehe... he. Heh. Never mind) so I'll just say, if you don't know, the Cardinals lost, and I am sad.

The commercials were also sadly disappointing. For at least a third of them we had to take regular breaks to check the weather (oooh, the temperature is steadily dropping AFTER NIGHTFALL and the doppler is totally clear. Amazing) and the acceptable ones were generally boring.




The career builder one was my favorite. I was seriously laughing. Sadly though, it doesn't seem that funny now.

This is Jessica and David waving cell phones during the halftime show... like all the people in the stadium were.

It was a lot of fun. Even if the Cardinals did lose. I guess I really don't have a right to care since I didn't follow the games all season.

Happy February!

~Lizzie

New Year’s Goals

These are just some things that I’ve been wanting to do. Hopefully they will be much more satisfying than my usual New Year’s Resolutions; which are generally made at 1 o’clock in the morning on New Year’s day while high on chocolate, sugar, caffeine and running on adrenaline, and then dropped after a week of attempting whatever it was. Like, crunches every day. That was a really bad idea. Probably inspired by the insane amount of food I had consumed over the holidays.

Goals have two main differences from resolutions for me. My resolutions are usually something that I HAVE to do every day, or the resolution fails, while goals are either a one-time accomplishment, or something that I want or need to do and can keep working at, even if I don’t succeed every day. And the second difference is, with goals, if I don’t accomplish it I feel like less of a failure, because it was only a goal, and not something that determined the year’s value.
And so, without further ado, my 2009 goals.

Long-term Goals for the year:
Get on a better sleep schedule.
Improve my cooking skills, especially in areas that I don't enjoy.
Find some way of earning income.
Improve my singing ability.

One-time projects:
Finish redecorating the bathroom.
Finish setting up my sewing area.
Finish sewing the shirts Kara, Jess and I began last year.
Get my bookcases organized and neat (this might begin with a post publishing a picture of the very embarrassing condition of my bookcases before and end with a picture of my success... :P )
Begin the skirt I've been wanting to make.

I've been considering these since a little before New Year's, and I've already begun the long-term goals, so I know that I'm serious about wanting to do all these things. Next year we'll see how well I did. :D

~Lizzie

AHHH! It snowed!

I can't believe it!! I was completely skeptical. Snow? Yeah, right. But it snowed! Probably because I didn't believe it. And I was so shocked and excited!! I'm going crazy!!!!!!!!! I'll probably post pictures later.

*squeals*

~Lizzie

Slowly but surely...

I've been raised in a Christian home, and I've been told that I asked Jesus into my heart when I was 4. I don't remember it. I spent most of my childhood trying to be good, but not really with the changed attitude that Jesus brings. I truly became a Christian when I was almost 12. And subconsciously I think I expected an immediate change. I was free from sin, right? So all I had to do was choose not to sin. That should be easy. Not.

I continued striving to do what I knew was right, read my Bible, pray and conform my entire life to what the Bible says. Then somewhere along the way, I realized that it wasn't me that was doing the work. Everything I tried to do because I knew I was supposed to failed, but God was doing good. I was trying to change my actions without changing the heart attitude that caused the actions in the first place, and God was changing my heart so that my actions were also what they were supposed to be. But He's certainly not done with me yet.

I'm not sure if it's supposed to be such a long process, but it has been with me, and I've noticed that many things that take a long time are more steady and lasting. For example, I've been staying up way too late for the past year or so, and I took a lot of that year to get used to going to bed at 12-1am. And I've tried many times to trick myself into going to bed earlier by getting up at 7 no matter how late I went to bed, and then eventually I'd be so tired that I would go to bed earlier, right? Well, it would work for a little while, usually until I got a cold (which got a foothold in my lack of sleep) and then had to get extra rest. Getting back to a good schedule will probably take about a year of consistent work. (Kind of daunting...) But if I do take a whole year, it will be easy to go to bed early, and harder to stay awake late.

So here's to slow consistency.

~Lizzie

The Old Theme is Back!!

Thanks to Jos, who edited the template so that the pictures were no longer partially transparent! I'm so happy to have my lovely winter theme back.

And today was such a nice day!

~Lizzie