Humility. God. Estate Sales?

What a day. Well, what a 2 days! Wait, that sounds weird... But this post really spans two days.
I'll start with yesterday.
I'm a volunteer for the stage design team at Blue Ridge Community Church. The goal is kind of to create stage designs that are thoughtful, creative, contemplative and welcoming without being too distracting. They get changed every few months. The whole stage area is black with black theater-type curtains and colorful stage lights. Usually, the stage designs are made of some white medium to best capture the light. This one: bubble wrap. Lots of bubble wrap. To give you an idea, about 1,600 sq feet of bubble wrap. :) It sounds crazy, but it's sooooo beautiful with light shining on it. It's like a glittery waterfall or tiny glass mosaic tiles... So, yesterday morning, I went and cleaned the stage, cleaned the cymbals from the drum set, and then hung 20 ft. long panels of bubble wrap from the ceiling. Lots of them. It was a lot of fun and it was reeeeally interesting to learn how they do all of these funky lighting designs and to watch everyone work creatively in their own niches. So anyway, yesterday morning before I got there, I was kind of having one of "those" days. We all prayed before we got started (and I had prayed in my car before that). Specifically, I asked for God to keep us safe (since we were practically hanging from the rafters) and to help me have a humble attitude. Well, "Be careful what you ask for," right? Sometimes safety + humility do not go hand in hand. Like yesterday. I was there for like 10 minutes and I fell backwards off the stage. Bruised my butt, pulled muscles in both legs, and skinned my right elbow. Not fun. Today, I've felt like I was hit by a bus. Ultimate soreness. BUT, I am very thankful that God answers prayers. This little encounter with the floor made me contemplate several things: how much bigger God is than us, how our best efforts don't impress Him (Isaiah 64:6), and how cool it is that He made our bodies and our reflexes. When I fell, it seemed to last a minute. I could think clearly.... how embarrassed I was, how much it was going to hurt, how I should try to break my fall. But it was really less than 2 seconds, and in that fraction of time, my body just reacted on its own and I ended up with no brakes or sprains (which is amazing, because I'm a master of both). I love that I serve a God who is REAL and powerful!

When I came home, I received my college diploma and my business license in the mail! Yay!! Possibilities! And today, my almost-sister-in-law, Stacy (a graphic designer) sent me some logo samples for my business and my friend, Kristen edited some of my promotional materials for me. I'm so excited to start this adventure and I really hope and believe that God will bless it! I'm also so thankful for the "gift" of collaboration that so many people have blessed me with. Thank you all!

Last night, we had dinner with some neighbors we'd never really gotten to know (even though they've lived 3 doors down for a year...). They were so much fun! Dinner was delicious. I ended up throwing some stuff together (recipe at the bottom of this blog) and it was a delicious, extremely healthy medley that I can't wait to make again. I also made a lemon berry pound cake. It had cream cheese, butter, sugar, flour, lemon zest and juice, and frozen berries... and was terribly unhealthy. It was amazing though :)

Today, Aaron was off work, so we hung out. We went downtown. We split hummus and a four cheese pizza with artichokes at Waterstone, then we had Taste Select cupcakes for dessert. Mmmmm. We also went to an estate store I love and spotted some awesome finds. Aaron got a really nice laptop bag for $7. Random. And I'm looking at getting a sewing table. They had several really old ones-- some from the early 1900's with iron sewing machines attached-- for under $40. If you're not familiar with sewing tables, they look like a plain desk or end table, but the top unfolds to twice its size and a sewing machine that sits down inside it pops up. It provides a lot of workspace that folds right back up. We're doing some research to see what modifications we'd have to make for my machine. I'm really excited to hopefully get one and restore it! :)

And that's basically all I wanted to type... Oh, and Maddie's K9 Advantix came in the mail, so no more ticks! :)