A month or two in review

The last couple of months have flown by. Here's a short, but not exhaustive recap:

• Ended one job and started a new one. It's a big change and I'm a total beginner again and essentially getting paid to go to school. I'm soaking this up for as long as it lasts!
• My life has been revolutionized from squeezing lime juice into a glass of ice water. It not only tastes amazing, and is good for your health, but it also makes nalgene water bottles smell nice. Yes, it's the little things.
• My heart melts when nephew #1 calls my name through the house when he doesn't know where I am - he yells: "Anky-Tae!" Gets me every time.
• My heart melts when nephew #2 comes prancing toward me in a quick crawl, while throwing me a big cheeky smile.
• I still have a crush on Paul Ryan. He makes economics the most exciting thing in the world for me.
• I'm training Caspian to ride and I'm happy to report that my feet don't drag the ground! Prayers answered! He's a fabulous horse, smart and willing to learn, laid back with a spark, and the nosiest horse I've ever known. 
• Mr. Darcy is looking very scruffy. 
• Wilbur Mac has taken to sounding off gentle knickers at feeding time and other random times. I think it's because he knows how to manipulate females.
• I have eaten way too much tex mex this summer. 
• I've decided to get fitted for real running shoes and train for a 5k. Yeah, ask me how that's going in about 8 months. 
• I'm looking very forward to meeting nephew #3 in a few weeks!

Little Things

(inspired by Eryn and Tiffany)

Not in any particular order…

Furry hugs from Mr. Darcy when he’s a little sleepy

Good music in the background as I work

Long conversations with my twin

Short but funny facebook messages from my lil sis

A truck that is paid off and still runs well

Wrapping my arms around Wilbur’s HUGE neck

An organized closet (a rarity for me)

Chik-fil-A waffle fries

Kissing Caspian at the base of his ear – it’s so warm and soft

A freshly dusted room (a rarity for me)

Looking a photos from the past years

Knowing that Mom and Dad are always just a phone call away

Sunday mornings at Grace

Starbucks being dangerously close to where I live, that allows for

Frequent coffee/tea dates with girlfriends

The last hour before sunset

My Ireland calendar from Kimberly

Good conversations over good food

My two small plants from IKEA that are now small-medium sized plants

Earl Grey tea in the morning

I love...

... Flagstaff AZ, particularly the mountain
... the Irish countryside
... the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon
... ML
... DW
... Mr. D, PB, and F
... chilly mornings after a long hot summer
... a frothy chai latte
... NYC
... Breckenridge in the summer; someday I'd like to go up there in the winter and ski!
... the changing light in late summer / early fall

Let's define some basics

Let's define some basics.

The below is discrimination (not an exhaustive list): 

• Women in the middle east (predominantly there, but elsewhere in the world as well): no voting rights, can't drive, have to walk behind their husbands, can't show their skin, can't determine who they can marry. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
• Unborn children: may or may not make it out of the womb with their life. This is 1 in 4 babies in the US, more like 1 in 2.5 in other parts of the world. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
• Africans during the 18th and 19th century: rounded up like cattle and hauled across the ocean and treated worse than any animal.  Praise God that this is a thing of the past. 
• Human trafficking: right in our very city, children (for the most part) are being kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
• Homosexuals in middle eastern countries with predominantly Islamic influence: killed, imprisoned, tortured for their sexual choices. This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians. 
• Christians in non-Christian parts of the world: dying for beliefs they live by.  This should not be and we all should grieve this, especially Christians.
• "Grieve this": take action in whatever manner you can to fight it - give money to causes fighting these grievances, join those causes vocationally,  pray for rescue and justice.

The below is not:

•  Me and my Neighbor (heterosexual and homosexual): stand for any belief we want to. Eat, drive, and shop wherever we want to, wear whatever we want to, own our own business or work any job we want to (within reason), get health insurance (but not for our boyfriend or girlfriend) (assuming this is part of your compensation package or you can afford to buy your own), shack up with whoever we want to, drink and smoke whatever we want to (for the most part), follow whatever religion or lack thereof that we want to, have however many kids we want to (for the most part), boycott and protest who/whatever we want to. And none of this will get us thrown in jail or killed.