Does it Ever Stop?

Busy, busy, busy. When you ask me or almost any of my friends how we're doing, that's likely the answer you'll get. Busy or tired. Before every semester starts I say to myself, "This semester I'll make time for friends. This semester I'll do all of my reading. This semester I'll stay on top of devos. This semester I'll practice my guitar, flute, and maybe even keyboard. This semester..." You get the point. I think it's a pretty normal thing to do; we always expect more out of ourselves than we can actually give.

Well this semester is no different for me. I knew it was going to be a doozy, but I thought I'd have time to work at least 8 hours a week. Not a chance. In my infinite wisdom I decided to add a sixth class right before the add drop date, and that took my 6 hour class day to a 9 hour class day. Now I know that some people work more than 9 hours every single day, and more power to them, but that's just not for me. This past Tuesday looked something like this: Wake up at 7:30 am to do my workout, get ready for student observation, observe two classes twenty minutes away and return at 12:30pm, grab lunch and go to my 1:05 class, sit in class until 10:00 pm, return home and catch up with the roommates a little bit before hitting the sack. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE everything I'm doing this semester. I get to observe classrooms, tutor international students, learn more about spiritual disciplines, discuss how various cultures impact the way we read the Bible, take part in an internship for a ministry that I love with Missionary Kids Ministries, and come home to four amazing roommates. BUT It's exhausting, and I'm not the only one who's tired. I think I speak for most of my household when I say that we are worn out and it's only four weeks into the semester!

In other news I've had all sorts of fun mishaps lately. Primarily my computer decided to stop working last week and it took a week to get it fixed. This actually wasn't a HUGE problem because my awesome roommate Amanda has an extra computer that she let me borrow this whole time! Talk about a blessing!!!! Unfortunately when I got my computer back the whole hard drive had been wiped, so blessing of all blessings I basically have a brand new computer! :) It's been frustrating to figure out what I lost and what I didn't, but thankfully I had to back up a lot of my computer this summer and so only lost about two months worth of stuff. It's the small blessings that keep you going :) I also recently had to get my car fixed since it failed the smog test earlier this summer, but there were some hidden blessings there too: My dad was here to take care of arranging where to get it done and help me drop it off, the US government paid for over 500 of the almost $800 in repairs, and I have this great friend Dan who let me borrow his car so I could still do my student observations and teaching. Everything is sorted out with these two dilemmas, I guess they just added a little bit of spice to my life for a while :)

Actually my favorite thing about my computer dying was that I got to walk the streets of Pasadena since I had to park so far away from the Apple store. There is this one homeless man who always sits in the same spot and somehow he was an encouragement to me. I stopped and talked to him once and it brightened my day. I don't know if I'll see him again since I really don't make it a habit of walking the streets of downtown Pasadena, but he's in my thoughts and prayers and in the midst of all the craziness that has been going on in my life he really reminded me of just how blessed I am.

While the end is not in sight for must undergrad students I am halfway through my graduate courses! I have loved these courses BUT my life will be a lot more manageable when they are done. Other things to look forward to are MLB playoffs, a bunch of awesome TCK retreats, more roommate fun, carving pumpkins, decorating the house for Christmas, and having my parents come for Christmas!