Windows of Heaven

The Lord promises us that if we follow the commandment of tithing, he will pour out a blessing that we shall not have room enough to receive it.
I know this is true.

Jacob and I don't make a lot of money. We most likely never will. (We're gonna be teachers, 'member?) As students, we sometimes feel overwhelmed with the many expenses we have every month. In addition to the usual rent, car, phone bills, gas, and groceries, we always seem to have ever surmounting school expenses. Tuition, class fees, textbooks, instrument repairs and supplies, insurance, etc.

Try as hard as we do, it is nigh unto impossible for us to not spend more than we earn each month.

We know there are even more expenses in the near future; labor and delivery, insurance for the little one, diapers, clothing, baby needs, etc. commuting expenses, a new transmission in the car. And the ever continuing monster school expenses.

Despite all this, we love to pay our tithing. It's my favorite check to write out each month. We don't know how the Lord does it, but we know that the 10% we give back to him is multiplied back to us in so many ways.

Just in the last month:
-I earned over $150 doing a school assignment.
-Jacob received a bonus music scholarship that was refunded to our account.
-We earned 1% cash back rewards from our credit card expenses. ..rewards we didn't even realize existed until this month.
-We prepared our taxes, and for being students, we both received an incredible amount of refund money. About 10 times more refund than I'd ever received on my own. (Wow!)
-We signed a contract at a new apartment that will save us $100 in rent every month.
-We received many wonderful baby-related gifts from family. Besides medical expenses, we've hardly had to pay for anything for our daughter at all.

You know what else about tithing is so amazing? It's compounded! Like interest in a savings account, only much better. You earn money, you pay 10%. You pay 10%, so the Lord blesses you with even more money. More money means more opportunities to pay tithing and get even more blessings!

We also know that not all of the promised blessings are financial blessings, and we didn't necessarily ask for these blessings either. God just knew we needed them. Moral of the story: pay your tithing, and the Lord will give you blessings you probably could have lived without. Will there be room enough to receive them? Well .. .maybe not.

A Typical School Day

At least we know these are dirty . . .

So are these . . .

If you know me, you know I hate leaving drawers and doors open. When I went to take a picture of the unmade bed, I wasn't at all surprised to see my sock drawer open. 

This is usually one or both of us at some point during the day. (Don't you like his new slippers?! =) Oh, and if you look closely, you'll even see the pantry door open in the background . ..at least I didn't leave the fridge open!

Feel Good Day, with Appropriate Thank Yous

-Smoothies for breakfast. Thank you, new blender! Yum yum!

-Yummy chicken/salsa sandwiches for lunch. Thank you, George Foreman!

-We spent over 3 hours in the temple today to do baptisms for some of my family names. Thank you First Saturday of the Semester for not pounding us with 8 million other things that would have taken us away from our precious temple time. 

-We made our own laundry soap! Thank you, Crystal Bahr, for the recipe and ideas. We love it already!

-A quick walk to and from campus to run some errands. Thank you, warm coats and scarves, for allowing us to still get at least some exercise in today.

-Closet/clothes organization. Thank you, long-sleeved green shirt, for reappearing after last winter. It's nice to have another maternity-appropriate shirt, especially after I put away my non-maternity clothes and the closet looked pretty dismal.

-Planning and homework. Thank you, new planner, for making academic (ahem, life!) organization so much easier!

-A refund of $38. Thank you, BYU Bookstore, for your error in (not) giving me the textbook I (didn't) need. 

-Lesson Planning for Error Detection. Thank you Error Detection class last summer for teaching me that finding mistakes really isn't that intimidating.

-iTunes shuffle on Wind Band music. Thank you, BYU Bands, for the incredible literature that both Jacob and I have played over the last several years! 

-Laundry. Thank you, drier, for not taking 3 hours to dry one load. (You know who you are!)

Thoughts on Mary

This morning we had a ward choir practice in preparation for our Christmas program tomorrow during Sacrament Meeting. We're singing a pretty simple, yet beautiful arrangement of Once in Royal David's City. I've never not cared for this particular Christmas carol, but I think it is one that is often overlooked.
As the women sang the first verse with these lyrics, I couldn't help but focus entirely on the lyrics:

Once in royal David's city 
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her baby 
In a manger for his bed:
Mary was that mother mild, 
Jesus Christ her little child.

What would it have been like for Mary? I mean, really, being pregnant is hard enough! And while back then there certainly wasn't as many comforts of birthing and delivery as there are today, I'm sure there was something better than a stable and a manger. I teared up a little bit thinking of one of the most holiest and sacred mothers of all of history. No wonder other religions worship and praise Mary as such a divine being! While I love the self-describing phrase she uses "the handmaiden of the Lord," I like to think of her best as the Mother of God. Above all else, she was a mother!

We continued singing:

He came down to earth from heaven, 
Who is God and Lord of all,
And his shelter was a stable,
And his cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior holy.

What a tender reminder to me of what Christ's live was like. He lived on earth just like the rest of us! As we continued singing, I was reminded even more of why this one man's humble existence was so unlike any one else's . . .

And our eyes at last shall see him, 
Through his own redeeming love;
For that child so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in heav'n above,
And he leads his children on
To the place where he is gone.

One day He will come to greet us 
Blazing trails of glory past.
We will bow in adoration,
For our Lord has come at last.

O the long awaited morning,
We will shout in joyous praise.
Promised Lord at last to meet us,
Christ, the King, Christ, the King of latter days.
Amen.

I was probably wiping tears from my face the whole time we sang. Perhaps it's the hormones of a pregnant woman, or perhaps it's just the Spirit reminding me of the reason why we even sing Christmas carols in the first place. Jesus was born, Jesus lived. He died and lives again. 

I love Him, and I love celebrating all that He has done for us. 

(If you're interested, here's a link to the arrangement we're singing.)

Lasting

As I sat in the stands at the last football game trying soo hard not to freeze to death, I thought a lot of this topic. I decided to make a list of things that last and things that don't last.

THINGS THAT DON'T LAST (forever):
-frozen toes
-chapped lips
-shivering
-being scared or nervous of something that you have to do
-having to pee so bad during halftime show that I was shivering out of control
-Idaho (high school) football team
-handwarmers, although they do last for a very long time
-hot chocolate. You either drink it all, or it turns into cold chocolate.
-the numb feeling in your exposed fingertips
-being a member of the Cougar Marching Band

THINGS THAT LAST
-feelings of accomplishment
-the warmth of relief
-school spirit
-the comfort of cuddling with your husband drinking hot herbal tea
-the feeling of sharing something with so many wonderful people that are dear to you
-knowing that you finished the thing you were scared of/nervous about and that everything in the long run was okay

I basically just had a bag of mixed feelings at the game. Knowing that it was my last home game in Cougar Stadium, I wanted to put forth my best effort. It was hard, and by golly, it was COLD!!!  I started feeling sick and lightheaded from the cold during our run-through before the game. After rehearsing on an ice-covered field with barely visible yard lines, I was worried to pieces what would happen inside the stadium. And sitting for several back to back hours in the stands with the possibility of even more snow?! Yikes! Because I was feeling not so great, Jacob made me sit inside as the band marched down to the stadium. (On a side note, I still remember the first time I marched down to the stadium for my very first game. I had many of the same feelings . ..Am I doing everything right? Will I remember how things go? What will this be like?) Thank goodness I was able to march pregame! My fingers had regained some mobility, and I kept a smile on my face the whole way down the field. I did it! =)
And sitting in the stands wasn't too terrible either. (Well, I say that looking back on it). I managed the first half without even putting my parka on, and my handwarmers tucked behind my ears made 'em nice and toasty. Plus, my sister and her husband were at the game, too!
Halftime. Again, big smiles, doing my very best. Thankfully, there was no ice on this field! =) Of course, by the end of halftime, I had to pee sooooo bad, that my lower body was literally shivering uncontrollably.
The good news is . ...we made it! We did it! We won! We didn't just win the game, the bowl game invitation, etc. We won a feeling of progress and accomplishment. And that's what lasts.

FALLing behind

Well, a few days after Halloween, and I'm just barely posting about our adventures. First, we carved pumpkins with our Cub Scouts. We had the greatest time!

Jacob: His is supposed to be an orc from Lord of the Rings.

Ryan: This kid is fast. He kept carving and carving on all sides of his pumpkin.

Reese: I think his pumpkin is either eating (or vomiting) the refreshments.

Charles: I don't remember what his was supposed to be . . .

Wesley: He brought his pumpkin from home .. .it was huge!

Cameron: I'm diggin' the eyes.

Brady: His has fangs!

This one's ours: Ain't it so cute? It's nose is akin to Rudolph the Reindeer. =)

 We still have leftover pumpkin seeds in the fridge, waiting to roast. We've roasted one batch with cinnamon sugar seasoning, and it was sooo yummy! We did have another pumpkin, with all the intention of carving a matching Minnie Mouse, but . ..we only got around to cutting the top and gutting it. Now, we just have to remember to take it outside before it starts rotting inside the house .. ..

Now, for the actual Halloween day, we got rill creative with our costumes. We couldn't quite figure out how to set the timer on the camera just right . ..but I'll include the attempts anyway.

We even included the baby:

So with all that, we are ready for November! =)

Uhhh . . . .

1. I killed a spider all by myself today!!! Bam!! I just took off that shoe and pounded its guts out!! Hoorah!!
2. I spent about 3 hours transcribing a Mozart duet. Did you know that you can scan in/import a pdf on Sibelius, and it can read it like a normal music score file? Yeah, way cool. And it saved a bunch of time, so all I had to do was fix some minor errors and transpositions.
3. Our car sometimes makes a weird scratching sound. We thought it was the brakes, but sometimes we're not even touching the brakes and it happens.
4. I'm listening to a Haydn woodwind quintet.
5. I am very tired . . . .
6. Hmm . ..let's put a random picture on here.

I sure like this one! This is Jacob with our nephew Mason. He's a chunkster. Yup, I'm talkin' about the adult here, not the babe. =)