Sweet Tea #3...Part 3

'Sup y'all?! Here's the final piece of Sweet Tea #3!!!!

It's been a really good weekend. I did a ton of relaxing, and barely any homework. Trust me, I'll be getting to that after this post is up! But the past couple of days have been foggy and rainy, so my motivation level has been pretty low. 

But my family was here yesterday and I got to spend some good quality time with my parents yesterday and today. And I was invited by a friend of mine to his hall event called Snazzy Saturday, so I got to enjoy some time with him and his hallmates and their dates. 

Anyways, lemme wrap this up!

Create!

Hmm...not sure if I've created anything recently. Well, I dabbled a little at a story I've been working on since my junior year of high school. I really wish I could put a lot of time into it (okay, technically I could have put some time into it instead of sleeping today, but the rain makes me sleepy!) I guess if I were to count my Drawing 1 class, I've been drawing a lot (and improving so much in shading and value and things like that) which is really encouraging!

What I'm Watching

Oh man, guys...Bria has gotten me into New Girl lately. If we've had a rough day or if it's the weekend and we wanna have some bestie time, we watch New Girl. I love how Jess (played by Zooey Deschanel) is so quirky and awkward and hilarious. All of the characters portray reality so well. Well, okay, the fact that she's one girl living with three single guys and then starts dating one and everyone's totally okay with that isn't realistic. But for a TV show, it makes for one crazy ride!

I don't approve of all the content of the show, such as the sleeping around and some of the worldviews that the characters have aren't right. But it truly shows the brokenness of our world today. I do, however, love how all three of the guys are willing to protect Jess and treat her as if she were their little sister. 

And last night I watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World for the first time ever. I thought it was great! Again, don't agree with some of the content, but the fact that Scott was willing to defeat all 7 of Ramona's exes because he loved her so much was great. And I do like how the movie made a twist and how it wasn't even about how much he loved Ramona, but about how he needed to have respect for himself and realize his mistakes toward his friends and his ex-girlfriend.

Here&Now

Here and now I am...sitting at my desk, typing this blog out (OBVIO.) and listening to Parachute's first album Losing Sleep as my roomie Taylor and Ellie watch Contagion. Bria just came into my room after being off the mountain. And I'm trying to get the motivation to do my homework after this :P LOL

Well, there ya have it! Whew, feels good to stretch out my fingers over my keyboard and communicate to my lovely readers once again! I'm truly sorry for the lack of posts, but college is, well, college and I've been super busy! I'm pretty sure I'll be making another post, if not in the next week and half, right after that I'll be on Thanksgiving Break!!! So, hopefully posts galore!!! :D

Love y'all and praying for y'all so much! Thank you for being patient with me through this rough semester. The Lord is faithful, and I am positive, no matter what, that He will sustain me! :) I encourage you before you get out of bed every morning to ask the Lord to help you depend on Him for everything that day. You'll be amazed at how much He can strengthen you!

Now, ONTO HOMEWORK!!! 

LOVE YA!

*~.Mishy.~* (^^) <3

Sweet Tea #3...Part 2

Hey y'all! Sweet Tea post #3 Part 2 COMIN' ATCHA! :D

Yeah, I realize that technically it's Saturday and not Friday (forgive me. I was distracted by comfy clothes, The Walking Dead, friends, and tea). But I am here nonetheless! Now that you've been updated on most of my life, now to take care of the other pieces of me...

Tunes

Oh man. SO MUCH great music has been played through my beautiful blue headphones and blasted at dance parties. It amazes me how much music is a big part of my life. I listen to it in the morning, when I'm taking a shower, or when I'm changing an outfit or making coffee.

*Sigh* It's gonna be hard to compact the music I've been listening to in five songs. But I think I can manage. Let's see, what have I been listening to lately...

1. "Love Song" by Royal Tailor - I LOVE this song!!! I never really listened to Royal Tailor that much, but I found out that they just recently released their self-titled album, so I decided to check it out. And this song, oh man...it pulls at my heartstrings. It's definitely a love song, but it talks of the love of Jesus and how we should listen and want to hear Jesus' love song to us. It's definitely a catchy song that gets stuck in my head throughout the day. So positive and encouraging!
2. "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)" by Hillsong United - Y'all...I heard this song for like maybe the first or second time at my church last Sunday...and was just overcome by how closely I could relate to the lyrics of this song. It's a beautiful song about trust, calling to our Lord and Savior, and truly relying and resting in Him "when oceans rise." It's an 8 minute and 56 second song, but oh, how it pierces my heart and convicts me!
3. "Hush Hush" by Avril Lavigne - I didn't even know Avril Lavigne was still making music, but sure enough she is! I can still remember her "Complicated" days...but yeah, this song is very simple, but has a lullaby effect. I think I like it so much because it really expresses how I've felt a few times in the past due to some unfortunate experiences. And really, what I told myself was that I shouldn't ask questions (even though I had so many), but I should just be silent. And I remained silent, until I finally couldn't take it any longer and cried out to my God for strength because I could no longer stay in the silence of my depressed state. Good song. Totally relatable.
4. "The Way" by Ariana Grande - Does anyone else think that Ariana Grande has an amazing voice that brings them back to the Ashanti days?(Does anyone even know who Ashanti is anymore?) I love the feel of her music and just how much it makes me wanna dance. This is definitely a song I jam out to a lot. 
5. "Sippin' on Sunshine" by Avril Lavigne - another Avril Lavigne song. Seriously, this song just bursts with happiness. I long for spring or summer days every single time I listen to it! Another great jammin' song. This song and "The Way" are definitely songs I do my hair to LOL

The Word

• What I've been reading: I read Psalm 3 first, the Proverb of the day, and right now, I'm bouncing around in the New Testament on which book I should read. I want to read John, but then I also want to read Romans and I also want to dig back into Hebrews again because it was a challenge for me to read it during the summer because it was a little hard for me to understand. So many books to choose from!
• Why I'm reading it: Well, I read Psalm 3 first because one day, I called Pa because I was having a breakdown. I cried and explained my frustrations and struggles and he read me Psalm 3:1-5. I brought my Bible out and read along with him, the tears returning to my eyes. Being read this psalm really encouraged me and reminded me how much the Lord sustains me. A peace in my heart settled in so well. And I normally try to read the Proverb of the day to get some bits of wisdom from good ole King Solomon. 
• What I've learned so far: Just being reminded daily that "the LORD sustains me" is SUCH A MAJOR LESSON FOR ME. Like I said, I am just like Israel in that i am continuously falling back into my sin and relying on myself and other things to make me happy or to fix my problems, when God is right beside me, asking that I just surrender and allow Him to sustain me. It's still a battle to remember to submit every morning, but it truly is a great way to start the day!

Threads

So, the mountain weather is as bi-polar as usual. It will be FREEZING COLD, then sort of chilly, to the sun shining, and then as the evening settles in, it gets colder, the fog will stop by, it'll rain, and then the temperature will drop again...ALL IN ONE DAY!!!! So, what is my favorite piece of clothing right now? I'd have to say sweaters or just long-sleeved tees. I am a bit limited on what I have, but it's a big enough variety to where something different every day and every week. Stripes, plaid, black and white, pink, "I <3 CA" text, you name it! They're definitely keeping me warm in this period of weird weather transition!

Hooray! Another blog post completed! \(^^)/

And, oh my word, I just looked at the time and saw that it's about 1am. I was supposed to be in bed an hour ago because I gotta get up early to have breakfast with my sister and Grandpa at Cracker Barrel tomorrow morning! (YUM.)

So, I gotta go! Love and blessings to you all! Enjoy your weekend!!!!!

love ya!

*~.Mishy.~* (^^) <3

Sweet Tea #3...Part 1

Okay y'all. So much has happened in my life that I'm going to have to split up this Sweet Tea post into three parts... 

Part 1 is going to consist of the section My Life because, like I said, so much has been happening that this part is going to be pretty long. 

Part 2 will contain Tunes, The Word, and Threads. 

And finally, Part 3 will be about Create!, What I'm Watching, and Here&Now.

All right! Let's get this post going!

My Life (hang on tight! This is gonna be a little lengthy.)

Well, why has it been so long since I've blogged? One word: COLLEGE. But that one word has encompassed so many areas of my life; areas that I've really been struggling with these past few months. Frankly, this semester has been one of the hardest times of my life. 

So, let's go through each part, shall we? And bear with me, it's gonna sound like a lot of complaining within each part, but at the end, I'm gonna show you how good God is.

Spiritually, I've felt just very distant from God. I've had to be reminded that the problem was me because God hasn't gone anywhere. And I've been so convicted by the sermon series that's being taught at my church called War and Peace as we study 1 Samuel. I hadn't read my Bible in a while, so I began reading it again. But even then I felt like I wasn't getting anything out of my reading. Was my spirit just not in it? But why wasn't I? I yearned to be closer to God, to feel His presence and to have that solid trust in Him. Why was I faltering so?

That was another thing. Bria reminded me that just because I couldn't feel anything, didn't mean that God wasn't present and that His Spirit wasn't working within me. It was so hard though, to go day-to-day without being sure that my spiritual life was solid. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to my room and cried and wondered where God was...but then remembered my reminders from my friends and re-asked my question: "God, where am I???"

School-wise it's just been a struggle. I went into this year thinking that I had everything down: that I knew how to study and get things accomplished ahead of time and that I'd finally be able to get to sleep early. Psh. Yeah, right. I completely overestimated my abilities to get through this semester, and let's just say, school is kickin' my butt!!!

I began wanting to minor in art (so right now I'm taking Drawing 1) and it's been a challenge. I've learned a lot of things, and my projects have come back with decent grades. But I just felt exhausted to actually draw. Sure, I was learning the correct rules on how to shade things and have the right value in them. But the more time I spent on my drawing projects, the more frustrated with it I became. I liked art because of the creativity of it, not because of strict rules and guidelines. And yes, I understood that there needed to be rules because we had to get graded somehow, but I didn't want my experiences in art to rely on those rules.

I'm taking my grandpa's General Psychology class, and loving it! Okay, at first, I underestimated how much work I had to put into it, and sorta got it handed to me on the first couple of tests. The third test, though, I got an A+ because I worked harder to obtain it. Now, the test I just took yesterday...we'll see about that one. It came so quickly that I had no time to prepare myself. I actually should be reading some of the psych chapters now instead of blogging. Oh well. It's been a while, and I miss blogging.

My rat project in gen. psych has been a pain in the butt ever since we got assigned those white, furry critters. And, okay, I will admit that it's my fault that I've procrastinated on it. But like I said before, other areas of my life had been sort of crippling too. So, after Grandpa said that all of us were behind on our rat projects, some of us started to take the initiative and finally work on it. And now, especially since it's about a week and a half or two weeks until Thanksgiving Break (and the project is due before Thanksgiving Break), EVERYONE is in the rat lab working on it. More frustration that had piled on top of my art frustration...

THEN I'm taking a U.S. History to 1877 class to fulfill a humanities requirement. I don't even need it for my major and I'm taking it. You'd think it'd be easy, right, since it's U.S. History and ya know, I have kinda lived in America my whole life and have studied this subject before. Y'all. This class is trying to epic-ly fail my life right now. I got a C on the first test and a D on the second. I missed a quiz that cost a pretty good amount of points toward my grade (how? I don't know.) And so now I have an overall average of probably a D or maybe I'm failing the class. I NEED a C. So, I had to meet with my professor, and I'll be meeting with him again next week. Oh boy.

I will say though that I thought I failed that second test. I'd barely studied for it (because I had a paper due on the same day), and the morning of the test, I woke up 8 minutes before the test began, threw on clothes, barely got my hair looking decent, and ran to get into the classroom before he handed out the tests. Got there just in time...but barely knew a thing on that test. And the essay question? SMH. 

My American Literature and Doctrine 1 classes seem to be manageable. I've improved in both classes, in my writing and in my test taking. So, I've at least been able to handle those things a bit better.

Socially?...Let's not even go there. After so many lessons learned, and realizing that most of my problems were being caused by knowing other people's business, I've done a better job at minding my own business. If people want to tell me things, that's fine. But I will not be prying into anybody's life just so I can be a part of what they're going through and to have privileged information. Nope. I'm done playing that game. 

And what do you know? After I made that decision, I've been pretty care-free in my social life. 

"What's going on with so-and-so?" No clue, you should ask them. 

"Hey, did you hear about...?" Nope, I sure didn't, and I really don't want to. 

"Oh my gosh, you won't believe what I just saw..." Yeah, I probably won't because I'd rather 1. see it for myself or 2. not see it at all.

WHEW. MY LIFE IN GIANT, NASTY BROWN PAPER BAG.

NOW...lemme tell y'all how FAITHFUL GOD IS.

God has been so gracious and merciful to me in giving me family and friends whom I can go to to cry about my problems and express my frustrations. Yes, I know that I'm supposed to go to God first, and that was such a hard thing for me to do because I felt like I was so distant from Him. But He spoke so clearly through friends like Bria and Ellie and family, like Pa. They prayed for me, read Scripture to me, and just walked with me to help me tackle my struggles. I can't tell you how many people have hugged me, written me sweet notes, given me cookies to cheer me up, and told me that they've been praying for me. I've been so blessed through my brothers- and sisters-in-Christ, and honestly, I haven't really realized it until now.

Remember when I said that I've been convicted of sermons that I've heard at my church? Well, thankfully, I'd been taking notes, so I have these sermon notes to remind me of the wonderful messages that have been spoken to me through this rough time in my life. And I was able to finally meet the pastor of my church and he prayed with me and even asked me the next week how the past week went for me. So blessed by him.

And I've been sincerely praying and asking God to change my heart and to fill this emptiness that I've been feeling for the past few months. Things still feel weird to me right now, but because I'm relying more on God to get me through the day (and by taking things one day at a time), it's okay that things are still a little weird. I think it's just because I'm still in a transition period. A growing period.

My rat project? Y'all, last night, I went in to attempt Exercise 2 of the project (reluctantly, but willingly) and I was able to finish Exercises 2 and 3 of my project!!! WHICH MEANS I ONLY HAVE ONE MORE EXERCISE TO GO AND I'LL BE DONE!!!! Well, not completely done because we have a pizza and graphing party next Tuesday to get our lab reports all sorted out. THEN I'll be done. You have no idea how relieved I am that I am more than halfway done with that rat project. It's been the ONE THING that I've been concerned about when it came time for Thanksgiving Break. I was afraid my parents would ask how my rat project went, and I'd be embarrassed as Grandpa and I both explained that I didn't finish it. Gahh!! But I'm now confident that, with hard work and determination, I can get this project done!

And even socially, things are looking up. A friend of mine, whom I haven't really connected with so well this semester, is gonna hangout with me soon. And I thank God that, even though there hasn't been much interaction with this person, He's made it evident that there's still a friendship there. Friendship is SO MUCH MORE than hanging out (as I've been told before). It's about investing in people you care about. It's about continuously forgiving a friend when they mess up because that's what we are called to do. We're called to love unconditionally, just as Christ loves us unconditionally.

I'm so thankful for all that God has taught me. Yes, this semester has been one rocky road, but I sincerely believe that every lesson that I've been taught has only made me stronger. I'm so excited for the upcoming parts of this Sweet Tea post so I can tell you which Scriptures and tunes have really encouraged me and have brought me through some breakdowns and dark places!

I pray that all is well with y'all! I'm so sorry that it's been a dry season for blogging! If any of y'all are going through a hard time, TAKE HEART! I hope that what I've been going through has encouraged y'all that GOD IS STILL WITH YOU. He's waiting for you to turn to Him and say, "Lord, I can't do this alone anymore. I surrender."

And how many posts have you read from me that have repeated this very lesson? There's been a lot, haha. But that just proves how much I am just like Israel, God's chosen people. I constantly go back and forth, from trusting God entirely, to trusting in my own abilities. We criticize the Israel of the Bible so much, when we should really be humbled because they are a perfect picture of who we are as Christians today. And Christ is so willing to love us unconditionally. To forgive us over and over again, because He loves us.

Love y'all so much! Praying for y'all! Expect another post SOON! Sweet Tea #3...Part 2 TOMORROW!!! :D

LOVE Y'ALL!

*~.Mishy.~* (^^) <3