Purchases

Trips for me usually means big purchases. Of things I need to take with me, don't think i can get there, or just want to buy and the trip is a good excuse. I don't know where my DSLR fits... but I definitely bought one today.


Not a new one, actually quite old and used from my cousin. But he is a big photography buff so I know he took care of it, and can answer my questions, and he gave me what I think was a pretty good deal.  So I now can begin to learn photography all over again so that I know what I'm doing when I arrive in Slovakia.

Now tomorrow I need to get a backpack...

DSLR Buying

When you decide to spend alot of money on something... you really need to think about what you are getting. And when it comes to DSLR cameras, I'm clueless. Well, maybe that is an exaggeration. All I know is that I have no clue if I'd rather have a Canon or Nikon. I've seen the specs, heard the stories, talked to many, seen many floating around, but I still don't know.

So these are my trial pictures from my mom's Nikon.  I realized after that I had it on a weird setting. Which is fine, but I wanted to see what it could do on auto. Oh well. the pictures still look nice.

This is my first lens flare.. I think that is what it is called. And I LOVE IT! 

Announcement!

Announcement, Announcement, A-NNO-UNCE-MENT! 
(my brothers might realize I'm trying to imitate in writing how a certain tape we used to listen in the car would say this, everyone else thinks i'm crazy. go camp caribou anyways!)


So if you haven't heard... I'm going back to Slovakia!

This is Kosice I believe...

After hard thinking, much praying, a bit of freaking out, some waiting, and only a tad of discussion: I applied and was accepted back as staff. Which means more responsibility, more work, more blessings (I hope) and thankfully smaller fees.

I'm so excited yet nervous to go back. I had the perfect experience when I did DTS myself. How could this next year measure up to that?  Can I actually lead people in a missions trip of some sort? The list goes on.

I always hate buying the tickets. Because that is one of the biggest expenses. But that is done already. No going back now! It is just packing and stocking up and all kinds of other things left to do. And making money.  Good thing I still have a month left to work!

What I'm Reading

This picture has nothing to do with the below post. I just like it. 

Derwent, Alberta, Canada

I noticed on someone else's blog that they say "what is in my basket"  as in what they have on the go for reading and knitting.  (still don't get the reading and kitting both... but beside the point)  So the point is that I would need to call my posts on what I'm reading "What is in my stack"  because I have an entire stack of books I'm going to try and push through before they come due at the library.

So last night was back to Crazy Love again (which actually isn't a library book, but I'm already half done so I figure I'll finish it then start another so I don't have 3 going at the same time).

But Mr. Francis Chan (who I really like) made some GREAT points in my chapter from last night.  It was Chapter 6- When You're in Love (if you have your own copy) and the first thing that hit me was actually a quote from another author:

The critical question for our generation - and for every generation- is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever like, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?  John Piper, from God is the Gospel

And somehow I think it is exactly what we need to be asking ourselves.  I definitely don't think that I'm fully there, but I feel very blessed to say that I am beginning to see how important it is that I don't just go to heaven, but that I am with God.   A good friend of mine once said, "God didn't make heaven so he could chuck us in there for eternity".   God wants us to be with him, and if we only realized what that means, we would want to be with him too.   But unfortunately, we are more interested in if we might be able to bungee jump in heaven (real overheard conversation).

So as the chapter title suggests, Chan begins to talk about how we can love God more.  And then he tells us the most important thing about loving Jesus:  "His counsel wasn't to 'try harder,' but to let Him in."  I loved how succinct he made it. We can't just will ourselves to love Jesus.  Doesn't happen like that.  But we can ask him to help us love him more, and by opening our defenses we let him in to make it happen.  That is why it can say in James 4:8 "Come near to God and he will come near to you"

I'm really liking this book... definitely on my "should read" list.  ESPECIALLY if you grew up in church.  Somehow we take our relationship with God more for granted I think, and maybe we never really realize how to love him.  So Crazy Love, is a great way to spark something to change in your heart.

I LOVE Babysitting

When you don't get to spend a lot of time with kids, you absolutely LOVE when you get a chance to babysit.  Its funny, because somehow the parents think it is some imposition for me to spend time with their kids.

But these kids

 are the greatest kids on the earth. And I can say that because I don't have any kids of my own. Because once I have them, you can bet that they will be the best.   So K&A, you better enjoy your bragging rights  now, because you won't always have them.  But K will probably be teenager by the time I have kids.

The horrible thing is that the greatest kids on earth live too far away from me to be seen often right now. Good thing their parents like having a free babysitter when I can make my way to their house!

What I'm Reading

Little Women comes first. Then comes Little Men.  Now I'm working on Jo's Boys.

And this is the first book that my brand-new bookmark is getting used with.  It was a birthday present, and I think I'll get alot of use out of it. 

I just love this book. I forgot what it was about, but now am definitely enjoying it.  Way to go Louisa May Alcott. 

Confession

I have a confession to make. And since very few people read this blog (I think at least) I feel as though this is a fairly safe place to confess (but perhaps I'll be proven wrong).  My confession is:

I read mommy blogs. 

(not in this picture though, we actually are just taking pictures in apple's photobooth)

And not just normal mommy blogs. I read adoption blogs. And hippy mom blogs. And photography mom blogs.  And sometimes all three.  Overall, I read way too much about having kids, and homemaking, and the trials of such a life. At least, way too much for me to want to admit, especially with remnants of feminist sociology in my body.

But I do.  I read this blog.  And this one. And another.  And this one from California that I love! And from time to time I dabble into this one that has a wider variety of topics.  And this one got me started.

I'm pretty sure I have more, but these are my staples. I'm starting to really get to know their kids, and their writing styles and personalities. And I love reading it. Most of these women I've never met (and never will), but I want to understand their lives, to learn from them. To hear things from their perspective. To maybe figure out if I really do want to adopt one day, or if I can't handle everything that means.

So maybe it really is okay to be learning from women who are doing something amazing. To listen to their words and learn and take heed and make healthier food choices.  Maybe all of of that is what I'm getting out of it really.

PS: I don't have any kids, nor a great desire to have any in the near future... so maybe that ads to why this is a weird hobby....

What I'm Reading

I know people who blog about what they currently are reading and knitting. I don't knit. And I don't really have anything to substitute for knitting. And how can they have two hobbies like that anyways? You need your hands to both read and knit.

So instead of having a regular blog post on what I'm knitting and reading, it is just going to be reading.

And if you didn't know me in junior high and high school, they you won't know that I'm a huge reader. I love books. I devoured them in the summer all year long.  Late into the night. On the school bus.  And being in university interrupted my reading. I needed to read text books if I was going to read anything, so reading a novel wasn't very high on my list. My only fun reading would be a christian living book that I would have by my bed, but those didn't get finished very fast.  So now that I'm home for the summer, without anything very serious knocking down my door, I can read.  And it hasn't been as easy to get back into as I thought. Maybe my reading was just as much as a habit as a pastime.  But since reading Little Women over the last year on my iPod touch (that takes much longer than a real book too, even though it is more mobile. I definitely won't be a kindle customer), I've really wanted to keep reading.  I've read Louisa May Alcott's entire series a couple times already, but I'm working on my next time right now.

I just finished little men, and the book is waiting to go back to the library.  I don't remember the name of the next book in the series, but I'm probably the only person in my town that reads this series so I'm sure it won't be hard to find.  

I've also started Crazy Love, although it came to an abrupt stop when I started reading Little Men. Somehow little Daisy and Demi Brooke are much more enthralling than Francis Chan. However, now that I'm blogging that I'm reading it, hopefully I'll have reason to pick it up again.   So far I've really enjoyed it, but that isn't saying much since I'm probably only on chapter three if my memory serves right.

I have a whole bunch more books coming from the library over the next couple weeks, so I should have plenty of reading material to blog on for a while. But I won't just blog on books. I feel a renewed desire to write opinion stuff and what is going on with me too.  Hopefully today's inspiration follows over to tomorrow too.