Gratitude

In the spirit of Thanksgiving week, and after hearing a wonderful sermon by Kristian on "gratitude," I have felt a greater desire in my heart to express my thankfulness to our ever merciful, gracious, and AWE-some God who has blessed me beyond words, despite my incredibly undeserving self. Here are just a few aspects of my life that I deeply thank our Lord for:

1. My God- His amazing grace in that He loves ME (why??? how???), so much so that He gave HIS SON for me. Maybe when I'm a parent I'll have a better glimpse (albeit still so small, I'm sure) into this kind of love, but for now, it is so mind-boggling that all I can do is be so humbled and grateful.

2. My husband- my best friend, my lover, my confidante, my teacher and guide, my biggest fan and supporter, and often times, my personal chef, assistant, manager, recording engineer, photographer, and the list goes on. My man is one of a kind and I am so thankful to be his wife. There are no shortage of reasons why I love, adore, and respect him, so if you feel like reading more about them, click here.

3. My parents- they are not only two of my closest friends, but such sources of inspiration and guidance, and such role models to me in how they live their lives. Their marriage is a witness to myself and to others and the way they carry themselves in their public and private lives are such examples of how we are called to live as Christ-followers. We have so much fun together, too- I truly love my peeps so much! Again, for more on why my mom rocks, click here and here, and why my dad rocks so much, click here.

4. My family- I also feel blessed to have a Too-daddy (grandpa) that can do no wrong in my eyes (more on him here, too), a brother who I think is totally cool and has had some of the most incredible experiences, and an extended family that pretty much gets along and has a good time together. And yes, that even includes the in-laws... well, for the most part! :)

5. My friends- despite how infrequently I may get to see or even talk with a select group of ladies, I know they are there for me and I deeply appreciate the individual relationships I have with each. I also appreciate the many friendships Steve and I have developed at Apostles, and through our church community groups. I know this city can feel like quite a lonely place when people feel isolated and I am so thankful to have such a large groups of friends in Christ in this great place. In fact, here's a slideshow of our special Thanksgiving feast with new friends here:

"Friends"giving- November 2008

6. My church- see above, partially, and check out their website. I have never been more challenged to live a life as God truly intends than I am as a member of the Apostle's congregation listening to the words of wisdom from JR, Kenny, and Kristian. I'm thankful for becoming more sacrificial and outwardly focused as a result, and while there's a lot of work that needs to be done in me in so many areas, I'm so thankful for the opportunity to learn how I can become the woman God intends me to be through their messages.

7. My city- have I ever mentioned how much I absolutely LOVE New York City? Yeah, I probably have. But boy is it true! I love the culture, the people, the food, the sights, the seasons, the parks, the beauty, the buildings, the shops, the bridges, the rivers... So much to love. A lot to dislike, to be sure, it's certainly not for everyone, (and by raving about how much this city rocks does not mean I'm knocking any other city - just a disclaimer!:), but I really am content in making this amazing city my home.

Well, 7 is a good number so I'll stop with that, although, I am thankful for so much else. To keep this from turning into another one of my mammoth posts, however, I'll end now and close with some statements that really spoke to me from Kristian's sermon last Sunday:

The greatest realization of gratitude will be found in the presence of grace.

Gratitude can be found in what God is yet to do.

Expressing gratitude is the only right response to the grace we receive.

The way to the Good Life is through gratitude.

We are made to worship, glorify, and give thanks!!!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to reflect in God's goodness in your celebration!

Falling Whistles

Just some catch-up first before I move on to the pressing part of this post.

Well, the semester is nearing a close and I've got the first draft of one of the major papers done and one recital down- whew! (The recital went well- the all "Baroque", i.e. early music, program- slideshow below, if you're interested!)

SB Baroque Recital, 11-17-08

It's been quite a few weeks, but I gotta say, I really am loving this school thing. (Feel free to remind me of that though, when I'm having a "freaking out" moment...:)

I feel like I'm finally learning many of the things I missed before and the people have been awesome. I've oddly enough always thrived on being "busy" and it's ironic these two hour train rides have become something I actually enjoy (!!!), allowing me the time to work on homework and emails. Who would have thunk it? And the patience, kindness, and support my sweet hubby has shown me over these last couple of months have just made me fall even more in love with him; so all things considered, our marriage is actually going pretty great, too!

I sure wish I had more time to practice though. Sigh.

And I sure wish I had more time for friendships.

That's probably the biggest area that I feel has been hit with this semester. I haven't been nurturing those friendships that I cherish, and haven't been cultivating and developing the new relationships I'm making. There are dear friends that I haven't talked to in ages, friends I haven't met for an afternoon chat in months, friends that I haven't kept up with through emails... Ugh. I'm not sure how many of my friends actually read this blog anymore, but if you do, then you are most likely one of these dear friends, so please know that I do love you and do think of you all the time!!! In many ways, the winter break can not arrive soon enough.

So, what's "Falling Whistles" you may ask? Well, instead of my attempt to fully describe it to you, which won't do any justice to the cause, please check out this website:

www.fallingwhistles.com/

Sean Carasso, the force behind the mission, is a close friend of one of the couples in our church community group, and Steve and I had the awesome pleasure of personally meeting him and hearing his story the Sunday before last as he was in NYC.

So, to very briefly summarize -cuz again, it's really better to get the info from the source following the above link-

Sean went on a trip to Africa, originally with the organization "Tom's Shoes," which gives out a pair of shoes for every pair bought, and eventually somehow wound up in the DR of Congo. There he met several child soldiers and heard some incredibly chilling and heart-wrenching stories.

The youngest of the boys, those not trained in weaponry yet, are simply given whistles to sound as a warning to the coming forces, and then these same boys, act basically as the first shield to the bullets. Hence, "falling whistles."

It is a terrifying, tragic reality that

IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW IN OUR WORLD!!!!

Please, please, please read the story he has to tell and if you feel so led, please link to it from your own blogs, email the info along, or even commit to praying about it. Right now, the main goal is raising awareness so please spread the word. This is how grassroots movements like these get things accomplished- through "whistleblowers" like you and me.

So please reACT and help others become aware.

Thank you.

Halloween in the Heights and Saturday in the Suburbs

We spent a great Halloween at the home of our friends, Jay and Desiree (and sweet baby James!), up in Washington Heights. With some of our other great friends from our community group, we rocked out with Guitar Hero and ate some really good food. Steve was quite the rock star... But none of us could top Pete's get-up.

David and Radhika, Desiree, Pete, Jay, Jessa, Steve, and me

Fun times! It was a great night.

Alas, thy suburbs, how do I miss thee? Well, not as much as I thought actually. Don't get me wrong- our day trip to the burb's last Saturday was a lot of fun, but I've realized I'm definitely a city girl now. At least for the time being. And for the next few years. Well, for the next several years... Well, as many years as possible... We hope at least!

So, one of the (awesome!) families from Apostles graciously loaned us their minivan,

aka "The Silver Bullet,"

for our trip out to South Setauket/Stony Brook, Long Island. Since I really needed (and wanted) to go to the orchestra concert at school that night, I figured we may as well try and make a day of it and hit a Target and some good ole' chain restaurant eats to fulfill #28:

Rent a car for the day for some chain restaurant eating and suburbia shopping

It was doubly nice to not have to rent the car, and man, what a difference it makes to drive (in no traffic) from SB back to Manhattan (at 10pm ) - an hour!!! Yep, a good 2 1/2 hrs on the LIRR/subway... sigh.

Anyhow, we spent almost two hours at the Target. Yes, two hours. Maybe that doesn't seem too long to some. I enjoyed it. Not sure if Steve was in his glory, but we got a lot of stuff, and boy was it nice to not have to worry about how we'd carry it all back on the train!!! Speaking of stuff though, just about everything we got was on our checklist of things we needed- baby shower items for the shower we threw for Heather today, "party favors" for our next game night at the Bailey Holt House, and as many toiletries, cleaning supplies, paper products, food, etc, that we had run out of.

Now please don't get me wrong- I'm definitely not trying to give ourselves any credit here or sound holier than thou; if we had several hundred more dollars to blow, we could've really knocked ourselves out! But, I really was just totally amazed at all the STUFF in that store! Do people really need some of these items (???) - dozens of different kinds of the same gardening tool, sports equipment, craft supply; rows and ROWS of Halloween stuff; photo albums, KNICK-KNACKS! Wow. I guess maybe if you have a big house, you'd probably feel like you need to fill it? It was quite a sight. But it actually made me thankful of our modest one bedroom abode...

Again, I'm not knocking Target- I love that store!!! I just couldn't get over all the s t u f f....

After our shopping spree, we drove across the street (ha- maybe the distance of two north/south blocks, and we drove!!!) to Chili's. Oh yes, you read correctly- Chili's!!! I do love those southwestern eggrolls and fajita pitas!



Still as tasty as ever. And check out the adorable three shot variety desserts!

YUMMY! Cinnamon roll, key lime pie (for Steve), and red velvet cake.

Not quite the same as the fare that can be found on many a side street in our neighborhood, but very comforting and scrumptious none-the-less.

I guess I thought I needed this trip to the burbs; and again I, of course, very much enjoyed Target and Chili's, but I'm definitely cool with it just being a "day trip." Maybe once a year will do :)