mmm gouda

one last week! thankful for cheese, fruit, and dessert platters during a long series of final presentations. thankful for new friends to work on projects with. thankful for laughter and phonecalls and catching up despite busyness. thankful for reminder of surpassng joy, in elizabeth's and mary's songs in luke 1.

Spurgeon quote

“To a man who lives unto God nothing is secular, everything is sacred.

He puts on his workday garment and it is a vestment to him.

He sits down to his meal and it is a sacrament.

He goes forth to his labor, and therein exercises the office of the priesthood. His breath is incense and his life a sacrifice.

He sleeps on the bosom of God, and lives and moves in the divine presence.

To draw a hard and fast line and say, “This is sacred and this is secular,” is, to my mind, diametrically opposed to the teaching of Christ and the spirit of the gospel…

Peter saw a sheet let down from heaven in which were all manner of beasts and four-footed creatures, which he was bidden to kill and eat, and when he refused because they were unclean, he was rebuked by a voice from heaven, saying, “What God hath cleansed that call not thou common” [Acts 10:15; 11:9].

The Lord hath cleansed your houses, he has cleansed your bed chambers, your tables…  He has made the common pots and pans of your kitchens to be as the bowls before the altar –

if you know what you are and live according to your high calling.

You housemaids, you cooks, you nurses, you ploughmen, you housewives, you traders, you sailors, your labor is holy if you serve the Lord Christ in it, by living unto Him as you ought to live.

The sacred has absorbed the secular.”

http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols19-21/chs1205.pdf

tidbits, random

- this video. hahahaha http://vimeo.com/107476647 oh my goodness gracious
- i think my computer's dying D= i had hoped it would last me through grad school... but maybe 5.5 years is good enough for retirement. backing up all ze files! will reassess status once this term is over, assuming it doesn't crash/permanently die before then. thankful that there are computer labs at school and 24/7 access to them, just in case.
- for a while, i'd been thinking that the time it took for me to get home from school was shorter than the time it took for me to get to school from home. at first, i ascribed it to familiarity -- when you're on a familiar route (going home), you go on autopilot and don't realize the passage of time. BUT NOW I KNOW THE REAL REASON. the way home has a much higher downhill:uphill ratio, so i can walk faster without any additional effort or awareness! aha!
- i really like JHIF. this fellowship is supercute. and also gallery church. lovely spiritual homes-for-a-time. =)
- cleaning is so cathartic. haha i felt so stressed out about my poor perhaps-maybe-i-dunno-what's-going-on laptop that i cleaned the kitchen and all the common spaces in the apartment. yay scrubbing!
- and wow, God is really cool. parental relationship very much renewed. fascinating changes and wonderful! beyond my imagination.

This.

http://www.fabsharford.com/wronged-by-jesus/

Ending portion of Luke 2
Jesus's parents: "Why have you treated us so?" -- Why leave us to our fear and anxiety and confusion and hurt and worry?
Jesus: "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" -- I'm exactly where I said I would be, doing what I said I would be doing.

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Food exploration: spicy pumpkin curry (yummmm). haha what an adventure this was, since we *ahem* hadn't labeled our bags of spices (and/or they're so old that the marker faded), and used who-knows-how-ancient coconut milk as creamer-of-choice, and WOW handheld immersion blenders are so fun!

Also, most recent dessert recipe: Cranberry-Apple cake, via Ina Garten -- also known as Nantucket Pie. Can also add other spices, and walnuts/pecans.

Next up: learning to bake gluten-free...