Psalm 65:4-10

4 How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You
To dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple. 5 By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,
You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea;
6 Who establishes the mountains by His strength, Being girded with might;
7 Who stills the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples. 8 They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs; You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy. 9 You visit the earth and cause it to overflow; You greatly enrich it; The stream of God is full of water; You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare the earth. 10 You water its furrows abundantly, You settle its ridges, You soften it with showers, You bless its growth.

...God chooses to bring us near. He invites us to His house to be satisfied with and in His goodness. He miraculously answers us. Valerie, Shin, and I stood at the edge of the ocean and stood in awe of His signs and creation.

It's been a good Val's spring break. :-)

Here we go again

1. Shin's doing well. He's getting the hang of things, keeping a positive attitude, and by the grace of God, I am too.

2. I made a 78 on my first TESOL final. That's like the worst grade I've ever made... I'm planning to keep up with the next course a little better. :-)

3. My Mary Kay party went great! I knew once I stopped fretting and just let God handle the attendance, that things would go much smoother. And they did!

4. My sister's coming on Friday night and she's staying a whole week and I'm SO excited!!!

5. India Child Sponsorship is still coming along well. It's so good to have a few people on board who really care.

6. I'm enjoying this Lent. I've given up TV. For anyone keeping score, we don't own a TV, but that hasn't stopped me from watching Conan, Castle, Saturday Night Live, New Girl, Psych, Daily Show, Colbert Report, and Once Upon a Time... What HAS stopped me from watching them is the realization that I spend at least 8 hours a week just numbing my brain. So, in an effort to spend my time more engaged in and aware of the life Christ has given me, I cut out all TV.

7. I'm reading a YouVersion (Bible) app 40 day Lent plan. It's walking me through the life of Jesus. I've basically come to realize I understand very little about the life of Jesus.

Can you recommend a book I can read to give me some of the historical background? I feel like His parables, teachings, and miracles should REALLY blow my mind, but most of them go over my head or seem normal because I've read them so much.

Please comment or email suggestions! Thanks.

Update

Okay, we're still here and life is still good. I just feel like I can't take the time to create a single, coherent post. And that when I do, I'm avoiding doing something else I should be doing. But I'll just do it anyway...

1. Shin just opened a new restaurant (he's managing, we don't own it). It's called Martha's Place and it's a southern buffet. So far, he's enjoying it but it's a lot of hours at first as he tries to figure out how things should go. (Please pray for him and me as we adjust to this new schedule/life.)

2. We are both enrolled in a Teaching English as a Second Language class and our final is due next week. It's REALLY hard. So, that's what I *should* be doing right now. I'm avoiding it for this post but I definitely need to jump on it and focus.

3. I'm hosting a Mary Kay party on Saturday and I'm nervous no one will come. Or no one will buy anything and I won't get my foundation and primer like I really want. This is clearly not the end of the world, it's just something I've been thinking out/preparing for. I'm really hoping my friends and coworkers can come through. I think it'll be a fun time if anyone actually shows up!

4. It's so humid here these days. Like, winter is 100% vanquished.

5. I miss talking to my mom. We're in different time zones now and it seems like our schedules never quite align like they did before. We have to schedule intentional talking time, which is different from when we talked just a little bit twice a day.

6. Karen and I are really trying to get in gear with India Child Sponsorship and that's exciting. I'm looking forward to strengthening and improving the program.

7. My sister (and possibly Julie) is coming for spring break. We're planning to go to the beach while she's here. This will be Shin's first trip away from the restaurant. I'm SO excited. About all of it. Really looking forward to seeing my sister.

8. I made a song about Lent to the tune of "Rent". It's pretty bad, but I still like it and it gets stuck in my head sometimes.

9. My cat's still alive and annoying. He's meowing riiiight now. (as I write this and probably as you read it)

10. Shin's home! Huzzah!