Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to me!

And to you!

Dreaming of a green Christmas

Merry Christmas!

(almost)

Depending on where you live, Christmas may be upon you, coming quite quickly, or something other than those options! If you read this in the weeks to come, and possibly months before I post again, Merry belated Christmas!

I wish you the merriest of a day.

Over the past several weeks and months, I have been awed by God, and inspired by His creation, His grace, and all that He has given and continues to give.

Many songs have words that are powerful, and I have found myself writing out lyrics for songs. I wish my musical mind had as much inspiration as my lyricist mine. Hopefully someday those two will align more. But for now I have hundreds of lyrics, and only about a hundred full songs! Still quite enough for now. I'm excited for the days off this next week to complete songs and put to music the words of my heart.

This song is by Francesca Battistelli. It's called "You're Here". I really enjoy Christmas songs that go deeper into how the day felt.

Hold on now, I gotta take a deep breath
I don’t know what to say when I look in your eyes
You made the world before I was born
Here I am holding You in my arms tonight

Noel, Noel
Jesus our Emmanuel

You’re here
I’m holding You so near
I’m staring into the face of my Savior
King and Creator
You could’ve left us on our own
But You’re here

Don’t know how long I’m gonna have You for
But I’ll be watching when You change the world
Look at Your hands, they’re still so small
Someday You’re gonna stretch them out and save us all

Noel, Noel, God with us Emmanuel

You’re here, I’m holding You so near oooh oh
I’m staring into the face of my Savior
King and Creator
You could’ve left us on our own
But you’re here, you’re here

Someday I’m gonna look back on this
The night that God became a baby boy
Someday You’re gonna go home again,
But You leave your spirit and flood the world with joy

You’ll be here, I’m holding You so near
I’m staring into the face of my Savior, King and Creator
You could’ve left me on my own, but you’re here… You’re here
Hallelujah, You’re here
Hallelujah, You’re here

I'll share a portion of a song I'm working on. So far I've written it with a Christmas theme for the verses, but I think that I will change it so it can last longer than several weeks each year!

Hope, peace, joy, love,

I know deep inside,

This is the reason for Christmas.

It’s the hope that lasts through every circumstance.

It’s the peace that surpasses my understanding.

It’s the joy that overfills my soul.

It’s the love that’s the reason I am whole.

Maybe you’ve lost the hope, and the peace might seem far gone,

Your eyes don’t show the joy of the Lord, and the love has slipped out of your grasp,

But I promise,

There is hope, and peace is here,

The joy can be found if you let it near,

And the love can overwhelm you if only you open up your heart,

Just open up your heart

(lyrics by Nadine Schroeder)

In church over the advent season there was a theme of four words for Christmas - Hope, Peace, Joy & Love - beautiful words really. I find I often miss church due to school work, working late, or whatever else, but somehow managed to make it to all four advent services, and I am so thankful. I was so inspired and encouraged, as well as taught new things which have helped shape me even more like my Creator! I have such a desire to seek out God, and I feel like over the past few weeks, I have found Him in new ways. This is so great for me. I am quick to be down on my faith in the past year, and it is beautiful for me to finally feel the peace, joy, love, and hope of the season fill my every day.

I wish you these as well. Whether you love Jesus or only know His name, I pray that you will know my Christ. He truly is incredible. I am so thankful for all that he does for me, and I wish it for you as well.

Merry Christmas.

One day it's summer ...

And all of a sudden the leaves are spiraling down and the wind is blowing everywhere. Breathe is visible, and change is in the air. No literally - money is flying everywhere away from you into the hands of your educator or home owner, and quite often to some guy named Bill. Bill likes to come monthly and surprise you with expenses you forgot would arrive.

There is something absolutely spectacular about the way the leaves find their way from tree to the ground. One can justify stopping on the side of the road to take a picture, and walks should be taken often to give the leaves the love they desire.

Life has a funny way of never quite acting the way I want it. In my perfect world, I really do sing all day, and when I'm not singing, it's because I'm ... well ... humming or something, or learning a new instrument maybe.

Yet here I find myself, backed up in homework, overworked by a factory(or should I say overworking myself in said factory), stressed by education, and overwhelmed by that guy named Bill we met earlier.

Somehow I find time to do many many things. I fill my time, and fill it more, and right when I am about to crack, I fit something into that crack and do something more.

It was in June that I last posted something on this little blog. I check other blogs, and I wonder about how people are when they do not post often enough, yet I find it quite easy to not write here myself. It just seems that writing to an unknown audience is both justifying and sometimes just a bit too much to fit it. But tonight I have a moment where homework is in another room, work is not for a few more hours (tomorrow luckily), and school gets to wait until Tuesday to arrive!

So here I am, back on a blog. Why? I do not even know, but yet I am here. Who knows what will come? I do promise some updates of what I have done with my life, a bunch of pictures, and some new lyrics.

Happy Thanksgiving. In case you are wondering what I am thankful for .... It is you!

Months Flying By

So it's been two and a half months since I last updated this. And even that update was just a picture!

I thought I'd write a bit today, and see where the thoughts flow.

I've been in school now for over two months. We've studied so much. Currently we're doing about two-three chapters per week on anatomy and physiology. It's quite intense. The start of the day is class, and then the last hour is phlebotomies (drawing blood). There are some really cool people in the course.

Work is good. Sometimes I question if I should be working through school, but at the end of the day, I enjoy having a bit of money to go out for dinner with friends and do other stuff, so it's good. And I love work. It has its moments, but at the end of the day, I truly love the people I work with (for the most past of course), and other than having to deal with grumpy people, I really enjoy what I do.

I thought I'd write more, but I guess not. I'll just add some pictures to show what I've been up to!

Love.

True Hearts

Marching onward.

Lynette, her kids, Tom, Greg, and a whole lot of noise are living in my house!

So ... soon after arriving in BC, Lynette and the kids and I went to do some shopping. Carrie was the cutest sleeper in all the mall! She was asleep, and I moved her around and took new pictures in various location!







Last week, I took Lucas and Sarah to Science world. We had a lot of fun exploring the lego exhibit! Some of the exhibits took hundreds of hours to make!

The Titanic was my personal favourite!

Greg seems to think that two girls in his arms is quite appropriate! I think so too!

On Saturday we had a stagette for Kirsten. It involved high tea, Gilmore Girls, lingerie shopping, dinner out, and then Sing Star and a chocolate fondu at one of her friends places.

My favourite part of the stagette was holding this little angel

February Air

A few weekends ago, my best friend Maria and I spent some time in Vancouver. She wasn't able to come until Sunday, but I went on a Friday night after work and just had a very relaxing weekend. I shopped on Robson, walked around a bit, and just had some time to myself, which was lovely.

Maria and I went to an ice cream parlor that has hundreds of options! We walked down 4th and went to the Banana Leaf for dinner. It was quite lovely!

My countdowns are getting closer:

In 2.5 days I will see Lynette and the kids.

In 5.08 days I will be 20 years old.

In 11.7 days I will see Greg.

In (let's say) 14 days (I'm not sure when he comes - I can't remember) I get to see Tom.

In 17 days I will meet Danielle -I don't know her flight time.

In 18.5 days my sister won't be a Schroeder anymore.

In 18.5 days I will gain another brother-in-law.

In 18.5 days our entire family will be in pictures together for the first time in many years.

She's going to the chapel and she's gonna get married.

In 18.5 days, I will grow several inches (high heels) and have a constant smile on.

At Lynette's wedding, my smile never left my face (except in the morning when I ruined the day in the van)

my arms get cold

in February air

please don't lose hold of me out there

So scared of getting older

I'm only good at being young.

Over the past week, my plan for the next year has changed. I had planned to work for the summer, go traveling at some point and then head back to school in August. I had been considering switching to a different school with an October start date when I got a phone message.

The waiting list for my program had lessened, and I was accepted for the April program if I wanted to start then.

I had a little bit of a freak out as I listened to the message and considered the change that would make for my life.

I wasn't quite sure, but everyone around my said that it was a good idea.

So I went in and signed my papers, and schools starts April 17th. A year from now I will be finishing school with a career in a steady job area and will be making far more money than I am now.

It is exciting and scary.

And good.

Heard it all before.

My tears have been my food

day and night,

while men say to me all day long,

"Where is your God?"

These things I remember

as I pour out my soul:

how I used to go with the multitude,

leading the processing to the house of God,

with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

My soul is downcast within me;

therefore I will remember you.

Deep cries out to deep

in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers

have swept over me.

I say to God my Rock,

"Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go on mourning,

oppressed by the enemy?"

Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

"Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth."

In the morning,

O Lord,

hear my voice.

In the morning I lay my needs in front of you,

and I wait.

January 2009

Ramble ramble around the clock ... 

I don't have much to say. I got inspired by Brenda's new look for her blog and changed mine ... can you even tell? I just changed the colours. I like my blog design too much to change a lot, and for some reason the only options for changing aren't as fun as other peoples blogs!

January.

Crazy crazy crazy.

And all this snow.

Oh my Wow! Rather crazy! I've only gotten stuck super bad once. A lovely man pushed my car out. I was rather thankful. He looked enviously at my tires. His car was stuck half a block down and his tires were not quite as nice as mine! It took three people to get his car out. Mine only took the two of us, and my scraper! It did a good job as a little shovel!

But really, I do love the snow. I think it is absolutely lovely! The only thing I don't like is scraping off my car because I'll walk outside in the morning and typically yelp (ask my Mom - she's heard it) because for some reason I just feel like snow should only come when my car is covered by a garage (which never happens) or something like that!.

It really does seem funny to me that it is two thousand and NINE! I'm almost twenty. Less than sixty days. Dang. Almost an adult or something like that.

But really - (I like that phrase today) - I'm not one for resolutions, but sometimes it's good to just make decisions to try to become a better person. So this year, I am journaling everyday. My friends bought me a journal that has a page for every year and even has the number on the top! I think it's supposed to be an agenda, but it doesn't have anything on the page, so it works just fine as a journal. I'm going to try to lose some weight. Emphasis on the lose, rather than the try. It's just a good thing to do. I want to be healthy and fit. I think it is a great idea. And since I have just over those sixty days until I am a bridesmaid, these next two months are going to be strictly healthy! Ha. Hopefully!

Other than that there's not too much. Of course I want to learn to be more like Jesus. Over this last year a lot of my "Christian" opinions have changed, and I think my heart is now more for Christ than for Christians. I love the people who I know who are Christians for their hearts to know God, but I just have different views on a lot of things. And it's good. I have good conversations with people - lovers of Christ and dislovers (? odd word).

But really - nah.

I'm redecorating my room. Well, redecorating is a strong term since I've never really set it up since we moved in. I did basic set up when we moved in, and it's not bad, but I want to put my Africa stuff on display and finally hang my pictures. I have a poster, some family pictures, and random others hanging on the wall (including a pair of flip-flops from Liberia cause flip-flops have so many memories) but other than that it is pretty basic in here. So I'm moving things around and setting it up. It should be good!

I've been working lots which is good. Income is nice. Paying off Christmas bills is good! I still have to find another job to fill up my time, but hopefully that'll come soon. Most places are laying off right now, so I have to wait for openings.

Anyways, this is a long ramble. Nothing to say, yet the words always come eh?

Keep me posted on you. If you have a blog, and your name is on here than I check it often and I love it. But leave a comment sometime so I know you do the same. I'll try to do the same.

Happy New Year!

And Jesus loves you. Don't forget. Amidst everything that goes on - he loves you.

And so do I.