Gratefully 26

So, you know all those blog photo challenges? I've decided to do one of my own. No rules, really-- because rules are no fun :P-- just a challenge to take a photo each day of some element of my day.

Day 1: This is a photo encapsulating the relaxed feeling of my perfect birthday morning...

Morning bible study on the book of Daniel, teamed with a pretty morning coffee. Simple delights!

And another, simply because I couldn't choose :)

This month is a special one because, as of yesterday, I began 4 weeks of house-sitting for some friends of mine-- the pastor of our church-plant and his family. I have been amazed at how blessed and bolstered my spirit has been in the less than 24 hours since I've been here! I have discovered that in sharing housing with people, I tend to try to make myself as small as possible-- take up as little metaphorical space as can be. Being here, in this gorgeous, white, tidy and beautiful flat by myself, I feel so deliciously liberated. I can walk around in my nightie, sing as loud as I like, bake any time day or night, take a bath with the door open so I can hear my music playing from the living room, just breathe and be. Hehe! I have been overwhelmed by the simple pleasures. And my spirit is a bundle of thankfulness to the Giver of every good gift...

So, in traditional birthday fashion, I'd like to compose a list of 26 things I'm grateful for today on my 26th birthday :)

Gratefully 26:

1. This verse in my bible study this morning: "But in the end, the holy people of the Most High will be given the kingdom, and they will rule forever and ever" (Dan. 7:18). It was a heavy dissection of some of Daniel's prophecy today and that one verse shone out like a gem in the midst of it.

2. The relaxation of waking up, not having to worry about being at work, and just sitting down in this beautiful flat to myself in the morning light with my cup of warm coffee sweetened with honey and cinnamon, and opening my beautiful bible... Mmmmmm!

3. Webcam Skype chats with my sister and the kids. They delight my heart to no end! Yes, Abby, I can't wait to read the books you are writing :) And Emmy, thank you for sharing your secret with me!! 

4. Being an auntie! My 4 little treasures-- Abby, Emmy, Tucker, and Kenan-- make my life so rich, even when our time together is so little. And soon it will be more than 4!!

5. My handsome man. I love him so. We have so much to learn and so much to discover but there is no one I would rather do so with! So so so many hopes...

6. This house-sitting month! I am blessed to the core to have this lovely place to myself for a whole month!

7. Music and what it draws out of my soul.

8. Literature & Poetry

9. The excellent memoir I'm reading: "Surprised by Oxford" by Carolyn Weber

10. My adorable cousins and aunties and uncles. And my fabulous grandparents. I adore you! You all make my life so rich!

11. My darling godchildren. It blesses my heart to be trusted with praying for you all your lives long...

12. The way scripture is alive and the same old verse can hit me in new ways each time I read it!

13. That His ways are higher than mine. That I can trust that He's always looking out for my good, as well as His glory. That I needn't let anything trouble me (Oh, if only I could learn this by heart!) because He's got it all in hand...

14. Having a balcony for a month :)

15. sugar-snap peas. Yum. 

16. The sun coming out for my birthday :) :) :)

17. That He accepts my praise as a gift fit for a King. What?!

18. Grace so amazing, so divine, that it demands my soul, my life, my all...

19. Having a bike to use for the summer! And how well-laid-out bike paths are in Gothenburg :)

20. My parents and how well they've provided for and loved me through life.

21. Thai Curry!!! Honestly, why is nothing else as good? :)

22. Acoustic guitar and it's incredible power to transform any moment :)

23. Hope. 

24. Years that carry life-enhancing wisdom in their grasps...

25. Bubble baths-- the simple pleasures!

26. God's love and the way He wraps me up in it, pours it through me and around me and over me and under me. So complete. So everlasting. So amazing...

Here's to the next 26 years. May God continue to teach me to trust Him, to follow Him into anything, and to somehow use me to bless those He loves all around me...

Now, to head out on a walk and explore!

Happy Birthday to my Big Sis!

So...

My big sis and I - June 2011

Yesterday it was my one and only big sister's birthday (yes, I know, I should have had this written then-- oops!) and each year of our sisterhood I find myself just more and more thankful that she had one of those (a day of birth) in our family however many years ago (because as we're grown up now, it's becoming time to stop telling how old one is turning!)...

I don't know if any of you have a big sister, but if you do, you probably know that it can be quite an interesting journey growing up together. You can be night-and-day different in temperament and personality, like my sister and I, and yet not only forced to do everything together (including bathe, inhabit the small space between 4 walls, share all your dolls and barbies, wear one anothers' clothes, even share babysitting clients, and friends, and sometimes, crushes!) simply because your genetics made you two "the girls" in a family of 3 brothers, but you can also grow up being mistaken for one another (And that doesn't even have to change when you grow up and take on different styles-- I have literally gotten away with just pretending to BE her when her neighbour came to the door once a few years ago in The Cities because it was easier than explaining...!).

Your big sister might use her 3-years-older status to tell you exactly what's what (as in, "I'm the boss; I'm older!"), or to introduce you to the facts of life (even if those "facts" are slightly skewed when coming from playground-sources...) and bras and the "truth" about boys, or to force you to perform various acts of entertainment for parents' friends (which would come back to haunt you in the years to come), including the ever-popular "butt dance" to an old cassette of The Hippy Hippy Shake. Yeah... Your big sister may have been like mine and had a thing for purple growing up, which meant all of her clothes, coats, dresses, etc were some shade of purple-- which in turn meant soon all YOUR clothes, coats, dresses, etc were some shade of purple thanks to the blessed practice of hand-me-downs (I don't think I own a single purple thing anymore-- but when I was looking for a scarf for Hannah this winter, I got one in a shade of purple :))

Anxiously awaiting my first niece -- 2005

I'm not going to go into the truly embarrassing stuff here (and ooooh, you're missing out, because there is a lot of it!!). After all, it has just been her birthday and the aim of this little post is really to celebrate my big sis who is every year less and less just my big sister and more and more my true friend. Perhaps the years of feeling a bit bullied and all the rashly spoken "I hate you!'s" have been made up for by getting to experience up close and personal some sides of my sister's life that I'm still waiting for in my own-- like being her maid-of-honour at 16 (and single-handedly crafting 425 wedding favours in the weeks leading up to November 16th!) and being the first one called into the hospital room after a long arduous labour to get little Abigial Cathryn here when I was 18 (and experiencing aunthood has been one of the most tremendous blessings of my life to date-- I have THE BEST nieces and nephews in the entire world and I don't mind saying so!!!). My sister still gives me an honoured place in her life and in her family and I still haven't quite figured out how we went from warring little kids to deep friends of the heart. But I am so thankful.

Mom, Hannah, and I being matchy-matchy for Easter 1987

Sisters! - June 2011

I love you, big sis! I am so thankful that God knows what He's doing and that we've grown up and now when we talk, we can truly hear one another :) I'm so thankful that we can spur one another on in seeking His heart, and loving Him and loving others. I am so thankful we can count on one another to pray. And that riotous laughter is never far behind the sometimes-tears :) I looked up to you as a little kid growing up, and I look up to you now and so admire your dedication to your adorable kids and your wonderful husband and your incredible proficiency at your job of raising your family well! I am just so thankful for you (and for my ability to school you without fail in Jeopardy on the Wii. Oh yeah!).

Happy birthday, Hannah!