Spring Cleaning

This week is my spring break. I am more thankful for this pause to my hectic schedule than I can express. I am so grateful to have a few days off from school and work, especially right before Easter. I'm so looking forward to the buildup this week has to offer, and anxiously awaiting the beauty of this Sunday. (For more on Holy Week, check out my friend Frankie's blog)

Yesterday, I woke up and decided to start a much-dreaded task: spring cleaning. It's not that I don't enjoy cleaning, ask any of my previous roommates. It's just that over the past few weeks (okay, months) leading up to break, with all the stress of school and busyness of life, our little apartment had gotten more than a little dirty. I wasn't even sure where to begin. After much contemplation (procrastination), I decided to tackle the kitchen first, starting with the pile of dishes in the sink, wiping down all counters, even cleaning the stove and the scrubbing the floors. Next I moved on to the bathroom and pretty much followed the same routine, cleaning all the hard surfaces and the floors. I felt a great sense of accomplishment (and exhaustion) when I completed my task. Today, I will move on to the living room/bedroom and do some major organizing. It feels wonderful to get everything put in its proper place. That way, maybe the next time Matt goes looking for his Supervised Ministry syllabus, we won't have to spend an hour going through all the piles of paper we have stacked everywhere.

I think that's the thing I love most about spring cleaning - clearing out the clutter I've gathered over these past months, wiping the dust off everything, and making it all shine.

I can't help but think sometimes that God must feel this way about us, as he clears away our clutter, wipes off this dust of ourselves, and puts us where we belong - with Him. Just wanted to share that quick thought. Now, I'm off to get my clean on.

Awakening

Over the past two weeks, spring has finally started to emerge from the depths of the cold gloomy New Orleans winter. The sun is shining more, the temperatures are becoming milder, and the flowers are beginning to bloom. It's as if everything is coming alive from the sleep of winter. I've been so excited for the change in season. My mood needed a season change. I was starting to feel as gray as the cloudy skies. I've noticed since the change in weather that I've been happier, more content about life in general.

Then, yesterday at Vintage we sang a new song called "Awakening", Chris Tomlin's new song off the Passion 2010 album. This song spoke to the way I have been feeling and has been on my heart and in my head since yesterday morning. My favorite lyrics (from the chorus):

"Like the rising sun that shines
Awake my soul, Awake my soul and sing
From the darkness comes a light
Awake my soul, Awake my soul and sing
Like the rising sun that shines
Awake my soul, Awake my soul and sing
Only You can raise a life
Awake my soul, Awake my soul and sing"

It's awesome to realize that in this same season as the earth begins its spring awakening, my spirit is beginning its Easter awakening. I am so excited to enjoy the beauty of the season for next few weeks as I prepare my heart to celebrate.

Photo of the Week

Here's a quick pic from yesterday afternoon at the park. We had a great time hanging out with friends on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Little Moments

For the past couple of months, it has been ridiculously cold in New Orleans. Please no comments from all our friends further north. There is no argument that is even colder where you are; it's just that New Orleanians are not at all accustomed to freezing temperatures and thus have not equipped their houses to handle sustained periods of cold. This explains the fact that in our apartment only one of our two window units supplies heat.

Tuesday of this week was a particularly cold, dreary, blustery day. Both of us spent the day out of the apartment. I was in class and working all day and Matt spent the day in the library working on a research paper. So by the time I got home on Tuesday around 9, it was pretty chilly in our place. I immediately turned on all possible warming units: the heater in the bathroom, the window unit with heat, and the stove. When Matt got home about 30 minutes later, dinner was ready and the heat was on full blast, but it was still FREEZING. We began to fix our plates and sit down at the table when Matt jokingly suggested that we eat in the bathroom, which, at that point was the warmest room in the apartment thanks to the room's size and the super-efficient heater/fan attached to the light. Despite his obvious jest and the ridiculousness of his suggestion, I took him up on the offer. We carried our dinner and 2 kitchen chairs into the bathroom and closed the door.

So there we set for the next 30 minutes, knee to knee in our tiny bathroom eating dinner, sharing stories about our day and generally enjoying the experience. When we were finished eating dinner there was a definite hint of sadness, partly because we were going to have to face the arctic temperatures in the other rooms of the apartment but mostly because our 'little moment' was over. We were about to start working on other more serious things like studying, writing papers, filling out reports.

Over the past couple of days, I've thought about our dinner on Tuesday night and how easy it would have been for us to miss that moment. I could have easily teased back with a "Yeah, right", and we would have eaten dinner quickly in the cold kitchen and hurried into the slightly less cold bedroom/living room to begin our night's work. I am so glad we didn't miss that chance to break from the drudgery of our day, and to truly connect with one another, because that little moment is a memory we will cherish forever.

So today I'm grateful for all the little moments that sneak into our days and embed themselves in our memories and make life more fun.