The year has begun.

So most bloggers write a really self-reflective post on January 1st or shortly after thinking through what the previous year has brought, and what they would like to see come out of the new year. Welp, we are already halfway through January (like 1/24 through the whole year actually!) and I still haven’t produced one of those posts. But I should probably try. Here’s a break-down of 2012…

January- Began student teaching in 3rd grade and moved back in with my parents.

February- Learned about the chaos that is Valentine’s Day in an elementary school setting.

March- Started my second student teaching placement in 9-12 ESL

April- Applied for a gazillion jobs! Played the waiting game.

May- Graduated! Got a job! Found out I was moving to another state!

June- Started teaching summer school (3rd grade & K-1st drama).

July- Went to every garage sale in town. Did the Color Run! Went to the farmer’s market every week.

August- Started teaching a new grade level (Kdg) in a new state (CO). Met all new people. Made new friends.

September- Went Colorado camping for the first time ever! Hiking, too.

October- Turned 23. Had my first parent-teacher conferences. Learned how to party it up Halloween-style in Kindergarten.

November- Deepened my new friendships. Tried new things.

December: Went Colorado skiing for the first time ever!

 

It’s funny the things that stick out to me as I sit here typing this. I feel like these were the “big” things in my life this past year, but really? A lot of times it’s the small things that are bigger. So while I may have summed it up with a couple of grander events, a lot of the in-between things helped make 2012. Things I like to record on this blog, whenever that is.

I still hold to my (un)resolution of a few years ago, here. I can’t say I’ve excelled, but the least I can do is renew my resolve. To seek God more and ask him the hard questions.

And soon enough I’ll be back to feeling the pressures of new year’s/determination/resolutions/reflections, to post again while looking back. I just hope I do that oftener than January 1st. Here’s to 2013!

Distressed. But not really.

I’ve never considered myself to be a crafty person when it comes to furniture. I’ve never really considered furniture, actually, until now that I’m moving and most of mine is too big to move! What’s in my bedroom in my parents’ house is just a random mis-matched dresser, bookcase, and shelves. I’m beginning to think about what I want to have in a house someday, and in an apartment for the near future.

I found a dresser at a thrift store the other day. It’s a small size, and will travel nicely the almost-600 miles I’ll be driving to my new home!

Here is the before picture…

And here it is after I got done with it.

I learned how to distress a dresser…pretty simple, actually. Just rough it up with sandpaper, paint it whatever color you want, and then rough it up with more sandpaper once the paint is dry. I changed the knobs and they’re actually distressed wood, too, painted green (at Hobby Lobby for two bucks a piece). I think it’s cute.

Even though my dresser is distressed, I’m really not. I’m actually pretty excited to move, to live in a place permanently, since the last few years I’ve lived in the dorms at school, in the dorms in Florida, in someone else’s apartment for two months, and at my parents’ house while student teaching. I feel like I practically live in my car sometimes, because I bring so much stuff back and forth so frequently. I’ll be farther away from everyone I know, but it’ll be nice to try something new!

Limbo

Limbo. No, not like the crazy dance where you bend over backwards so you can go under the stick thingy. I remember always trying to do the Limbo on roller skates while at the roller rink as a kid. It seems to me that was basically asking for someone to make an emergency trip to the ER with a split-open head. Thankfully that never happened when I was there!
But I digress. This post is not about going under a stick. It’s about being in limbo. The Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary (perfect for English Language Learners like I work with!) puts it in very plain terms:

in limbo
                  1 : in a forgotten or ignored place, state, or situation
                  2 : in an uncertain or undecided state or condition

I thought college was a rough transition period of one’s life. Yes, it’s true, it is difficult being in a place where you aren’t a kid living with your parents anymore, but still are not yet an independent adult. But really, when you are on campus with roughly 6,000 other people your age in the same stage of life, you have a lot of people to relate with.
Fast forward to student teaching. I don’t really identify with college students anymore. I mean, I don’t go to class, have finals or midterms, or write 15-page papers. I’m not really there anymore. But at the same time, I do not identify with adults in the working world. In the teacher’s lounge at school, much of the time I just sat there and didn’t say anything. I can always ask questions, but I have nothing to add when they are talking about house payments, social security/retirement (I haven’t even started teaching yet, for Pete’s sake!), parenting, and little things like whether or not they had their pictures taken before or after their wedding ceremony. I feel so far removed from all of this. I feel like I’m in limbo.

So what do I do with this? Do I just bide my time here in this little realm and wait until finally I emerge out on the other side?

I know God has me here for a reason.

There are lessons to learn, some which I already have learned, and others that are yet to come. Trust is a huge one. This season of my life has revealed how little I do trust God with my plans, hopes, and dreams…quite the opposite of how much I thought I trusted before taking the steps to moving beyond college. Wanting to know how God wants to use me causes me to seek Him even more, which is 100% wonderful. During transition/unknown times of life, a common verse to hear is Jeremiah 29:11- “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” I love that verse, but for me it has often just stopped there. The next two verses have been SO good to realize as of late. Verses 12 & 13 go on to say “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart.” What does it look like to seek God with all my heart? I don’t know how much I’ve done this in the past. It is so encouraging that this is a promise, a for-sure thing. I can rest in the fact that God will reveal His plans to me, that I will know what decisions to make when those times come. Until then, I will continue to learn what it means to seek Him with my whole heart. I think that’s what limbo is for.

On a final note…please enjoy the lovely Limbo song I picked out just for this post. I couldn’t help it! :)