4) The days roll by...

Monday - 

Dad and I got to hang out for a few hours. ^_^ He flew into Washington in the morning and got a few jobs done, the picked me up after class and we went to Subway for a couple hours. It was great to see each other and talk.

Tuesday - 

In the evening at Young Adults group the topic was... the cross. I'd heard things like this before, but really... just, wow. This message connected all the dots and made it come alive like it never had before. Just the fact that all the spiritual battles we fight today aren't up for question. Jesus already won these victories for us, and all we need to do is enforce it. If we're losing any battle in our life, it just means we aren't enforcing the victory already given to us. Ryan, the fellow talking, compared it to a sports team. He was like, "I wish the Seahawks thought like this! They're stressing me out with the way they've been playing. They need to step onto that football field and say, 'Yeah, we've already won this game. We could have just stayed home. But we're here to enforce the fact that we've won.'" Of course, that was just an example. Jesus didn't die so one sports team could defeat another. But His death did give his children all the victory in spiritual realms. I already have victory over all my Goliaths, and I'm just going to go take their heads off to enforce it!

Wednesday - 

I was actually all ready for bed by 8:45 PM, so I got to spend two hours journaling. Woo-hoo!

Thursday - 

"Every area of your life that doesn't glisten with hope means you're believing a lie and that area is a stronghold of the Devil in your life.”

Thiiiis, this is the quote which sums up a message about the importance of Hope. I didn't used to think Hope was that important. Sure, it's important... Faith, Hope, and Love... but before Thursday I didn't understand how vitally important it was. But now, here it is. And I'm breaking free from strongholds I didn't even know I was living in. It's quite nice. ^_^

Oh! And we also had a big Fall Festival in the evening. =D Like the Harvest Festival where we got all of those goldfish, some of which are still alive in the pond today. And hey, it's fun passing out candy to children. Really it is. Even though that stuff is deadly and full of poison... still. Forget that and just think about the heart of it. Passing out candy to children is awesome.

Friday -

I biked up to the facilities in the morning and spent three hours holding babies! =D It was soo awesome. x) MOPs, Mothers of Preschoolers, happens every other Friday. I volunteered to help, and it was well worth it. ^_^ I just love little babies so much. They're so... well... they're royalty. I cuddle them, and I feel it. Anyway, Carry Abbott talked about a chemical in the brain women get whenever they hold a baby. I like that chemical! x) Plus they gave all the volunteers a free drink certificate and 3 Friday Club Credits. xD Win-win!

Afterwards, I went to the mall with Tammie and some of the girls. Shopping is exhausting, and I have percolating thoughts and feelings about different fashion. But Tammie has earned my respect in a maternal way no one else ever has. So I allowed her and the girls help me pick out clothes I liked, and Tammie bought them for me. Brand new clothes are expensive! Even when they're on sale. I've grown up on thrift stores, so it all seemed terribly outrageous, haha. Tammie is very generous.

After that she dropped Clara and I off at a bonfire at Rachel's house, where about half of our class was gathered. The train tracks run just behind their house, so we got to hear a train zoom by in the darkness! And it was moist outside... surrounded by a hint of rain, good friends, and circled around a bonfire. So cool! 

Really, I say... this Friday was my favorite day so far. Because babies are just awesome. And because I had about half a dozen level five conversations throughout the day! And because I love my people. And we're all bonding. We're all becoming the family that each GL class becomes each year. And this Friday was just so precious in so many ways.

Saturday - 

When Carry Abbott was here, she talked about how we're growing new brain all the time. And it's just like how a body grows. It grows off of what you put in it. If we eat junk food, we grow new cells which are weak. If we eat wholesome food, we grow new cells that are wholesome. We're always growing, and we grow off of what we eat. Similarly, the brain is always growing. And our brains grow off of the movies we watch, the songs we listen to, the conversations we have, the books we read. So we need to choose wisely what we will grow new brain out of! Of course, I grew up in a safe environment as far as this goes! And I took responsibility for my own media/book/conversation intake at age 16. I was very discreet about that, actually, for a year or two. I had to be. Anyway, Saturday night several of us had a movie night! And... hah... none of us have any intentions of watching the movie a second time. Alchemy was not worth growing new brain on! @_@ xD Rachel's house mom thought it was a good one, but it had been too long since she'd seen it. She kept saying, "Ooh... I forgot about that scene..." So, just a note to all of you people reading this... try to avoid Alchemy if you can help it.

Sunday -

I had a good time playing with my house niece and nephews on Sunday!

Caden and Kyla are the older ones, age 10 and 11. Baby Ryder is their little brother. Toddler TJ is their cousin. There's one more cousin, Josh, who's about 9. But he doesn't come over often because his home is broken. As far as I understand the custody situation, he has summers with his dad (Barb and Gene's son) and stepmom, but spends the school year with his mom... except weekends maybe? I'm not sure. He's a lot of fun and has lottts of energy.

Caden and Kyla... oh, those children are just so WHOLESOME!!! I just love the way they play with each other and get along... they're kind, they're intelligent, they can easily carry on a conversation with an adult. They come up with the most creative and educated things while they're playing. They stayed until about 10:00 PM, so we spent hours playing and talking and such. And Kyla is an absolute chatterbox. After watching a movie during WWII the three of us carried on for several hours with German accents. xD For about the last hour before they left Caden was playing with legos while Kyla and I put together a map of Europe like the one I have in my bedroom. We'll work on coloring it and labeling it next time, and when it's done she's going to hang it up in her bedroom.

... It was a good week. :)