More than enough

Sometimes it is easy for me to think that I know what's best for me. I mean, who knows me better than me, right? WRONG! God knows me better than I can ever know myself. But I get caught up thinking that I know what's best and when it would be best... and I lose sight of what the Father's rich, sovereign and not fully revealed plan for His daughter might be.

This morning I was listening to some music while correcting tests, and the song, "Enough" came on. The lyrics made me think about how I like to tell God what I need, when He already fully knows my needs and desires, and how He will provide for those things when He sees fit and in the way that He sees fit. But the song also reminded me that as I wait, or even if God doesn't fulfill my needs/desire in the way my human mind can comprehend.... He is not only enough, but MORE than enough

"All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough
....
More than all I want
More than all I need
You are more than enough for me
More than all I know
More than all I can say
You are more than enough for me"

25 big ones

 What can approximately $25 get you?

6 honeycrisp apples
3 pacific rose apples
1 bunch of asparagus
2 bunches of lettuce
3 handfuls of cherry tomatoes (depending on the size of your hand)
2 big carrots
3 packages of cut and ready to eat pomelo 
2 large bottles of fresh passion fruit juice
1/2 a kilo of red grapes
1 bell pepper
2 bunches of pretty flower
5 bananas
2 freshly made belgium waffles
a 2 mile run with good girlfriends
a sweaty taxi ride home :)

most expensive things:
1. grapes: about $4 for a 1/2 kilo. Yikes. Expensive, I know... I vowed I wouldn't buy grapes here and I didn't our entire first year, but I've learned that there are expensive things here that you just simply decide to spend your money on because you want/crave them... like grapes and cheese. But there are plenty of inexpensive things here that balance everything out, like 30 cent pineapple from fruit dude.

2. honeycrisp apples: 6 small ones or 3 big ones for $3. Pretty equivalent to how it would be in the states, I suppose

3. fresh passion fruit juice: 2 big bottles for $4. I've grown to love this stuff and definitely look forward to the refreshing tartness of it after a run.

This is what fresh passion fruit looks like (since the juice looks like mustard or some other nasty thing)

You just can't beat these prices though:

1. pretty flowers for less than $2

2. 2 hot belgium waffles for about $1.50

Guess who...? #2

Remember THIS POST?
Answer: I'm sure that it may come as surprise to many, but the answer is: Karly

And now for Guess who...? #2:

#2: Guess who loves scrapbooking?

Get in my belly!

Delightfully Delicious Dinner

Dumb plant

Remember THIS POST?? Well, that dumb plant still hasn't figured out that it's living with a plant killer. Granted, the flowers have died off, but the stupid thing has decided to THRIVE and sprout new leaves. It honestly must be because the plant was given to Mike as a gift, not me. But either way, it has truly been neglected by the both of us. We jokingly said to one another, "we must be ready for children if we can keep a stupid plant alive longer than 3 days. " HA!

Is it racist...?

It is racist to give the Asian chopsticks to eat his brownie when you run out of forks?

For all you cribbage lovers...

I started out 34 points behind Mike in this hand, and 44 points away from winning. My only goal: not get skunked (or spanked, as we like to say), which meant pegging 13 points, or hoping that Mike wouldn't  get the 10 points he needed to finish the game off. Needless to say, a near impossible feat...

It was my crib and I had kept a K, 5, 5, 5 in my hand... 14 points.
Mike had: K, K, K & 5... 12 points

Pegging round 1
Mike: K
Karly: 5 (for 2)
Mike: 5 (for 2)
Karly: 5 (for 6)
Mike: can't go
Karly: (for 12 & a go for 1)

Pegging round 2:
Mike: K
Karly: K (for 2)
Mike: K (for 6 & a go for 1)

This put Mike "in the stink hole" (last peg hole before winning). He got to count first (he won since he had 12 points in his hand), but I didn't get skunked! I unbelievably pegged 23 points!!! We played out the rest of the hand just to see how I did...

Pegging: 23 points
Hand: 14 points
Crib: 6 points
I finished in "the stink hole"after we played the rest of my hand out. :)

Needless to say, I gave Mike a bit of a run for his money. Now if only that hand had come earlier in the game...

Busted

Don't judge... you know you've done it before. :)

I walked in on Mike cleaning out the brownie batter bowl with his finger... but when I went to get my camera, he hammed it up by smearing chocolate on his face and dramatically licking the bowl out.  I think this guy loves chocolate more than I do...

Homesick

After an eventful week and looking through a dear friend's pictures on FB of her growing baby boy and the orchard last fall, I was suddenly feeling rather homesick. This morning I woke up at 6:30 to go on a little run to the park with some girlfriends, and then pick up some fresh fruits and vegetables after our run. The fruit vendor that I went to last Saturday morning was selling, of all things, HONEYCRISP apples. Honeycrisp apples, people!!! Those apples are bred in MN at the U of M! And not only that, but they are my favorite kind of apple. They unfortunately were not in season when we were home this summer either, so we haven't had them since the fall/winter of 2008/2009. What a surprise to be able to find them this morning! It was a good reminder to me of God's provision and faithfulness. It felt like He was saying, "Yeah... I know you're homesick. I know you feel like you're missing out on seeing & doing these things in MN, but I can bring MN to you! I will care for you!" So I happily bought some honeycrisp apples and then had a fun and encouraging conversation with said precious friend who has a beautiful baby boy. God is good.

Precious friends

Do you ever have those days where Satan whispers in your ear, “You’re worthless…your ministry is ineffective… you are terrible at what you do… you should just quit.”? Yesterday was one of those days for me. Despite being bombarded with so many positive voices, I listened to the one negative one and suddenly found my identity in it. I was swirling around in wallow-land because of one parent’s idea of me and I suddenly lost sight of my purpose.

I am so grateful for precious friends that speak truth into my life and who are able to encourage my burdened heart when I start believing and finding my identity in ridiculous things. My sweet friend, Holly, gave me a note of encouragement with 1 Corinthians 15:58 in it: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” I think I read that verse about 15 times throughout the day (and may or may not have gotten teary eyed 10 out of the 15 times I read it...)

Praying that you, my dear reader, find your identity in Christ alone... and that you have dear dear friends to encourage you and speak truth to you at all times, but especially when you can't do it yourself.

The happy and the crappy...

My day looked like this...

The happy:

• Making a student laugh so hard today that he was literally crying.
• Seeing my students be creative and come up with fun ways to demonstrate vocabulary words
• Watching my students interact with each other in Spanish
• Students clapping & cheering for one another during a review game

The crappy:

• Disciplining a student
• Missing so many students due to the Chinese New Year (and they're not even Chinese for cryin' out loud!!)

Thankfully the happies outweigh the crappies.