around campus

I am crocheting a blanket- its a greenish color. I tried winding the scans of yarn into balls while I read.

Plant with GIANT leaves

I have NO idea why parts of this shrub are dead, and others parts are fully alive...

Most of the flowers in this section of garden are pink- but a few are blue, and even fewer are purple.  I love that bees polinate flowers the 'wrong' colors :)

A giant crane came and took the pointed roof off our clock tower...

giant pumpkin in my dorm's lobby. Yes, it is real.

Isaiah 40:31

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

does God run?

yeah, I'd say so...

Craft!

I got the idea from Erin, who got it from Julia. And it looks like Julia got it from Jessica.
I adapted the recipe. Jessica mentioned her recipe made entirely too much starch, so I cut it by four.
This is the recipe I used:

1/16 cup corn starch
1/8 cup cold water
1 cup hot/boiling water

Mix cold water and starch together. Add hot/boiling water, stir.

Thats it. I know, really simple!
So, you want to know what my roommate and I did with this recipe?
We coated it onto fabric we had already cut out (with a paintbrush). Then, we put the soaking fabric on the wall, and pressed all the bubbles out. We caught the starchy drips with a papertowl.

And it looks like this:

 

 

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
264 pages; published in 2007; I give it 5 out of 5 stars

Opening sentence:

"Of all the kids in the seventh grade at Camillo Junior High, there was one kid that Mrs. Baker hated with heat whiter than the sun.
Me."

 It is 1976, and Holling Hoodhood is sure that his seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates him and is out to kill him. He can't complain to anyone, though, because the future of his father's architecture firm just might depend on Holling being on his best behavior. On Wednesday afternoons, all the students go to their place of worship for a ceremony of sorts. Everyone, that is, except Holling.  At first Mrs. Baker has Holling help with chores around the classroom during this time, but then she decides on the ultimate punishment: making Holling read Shakespearean plays!

I liked how Holling would relate what was happening in his life to what happened in the latest Shakespeare play. I have only read one of the plays he mentions, so I am sure there are many allusions I failed to catch. The ones I did catch, however, made me laugh. I have been meaning to read a few of Shakespeare's plays this year, and after reading Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, I am more motivated than I have been in a while.

1,000 words

or, just some pictures :)
(the date on the pictures is the day/ the month/ and then the year, in case you were wondering)

Ollies Follies- that is, Olivet's class competition

freshmen are yellow, sophomores(yay us!) are green, juniors are red, seniors are blue

our ultimate frisbee team for ollies follies

our campus has this skull in the science building. EDIT: I cannot remember what it is of

my roommate long-boarding while I ride my bike and try to take a steady picture

I took this pic for Maggie.

I'm Smiling

each of these things are making me smile, making me happy
*because I carry my camera close at hand now, and randomly snap pictures
*because my friend has a free subscription to Chicago Tribune, for the coupons, and is giving me the newspaper to read when she has taken the coupons out
*because its fun trying to learn how to hold and read a newspaper
*an hour and a half phone conversation with this girl
*trying new ways to wake myself up in the morning. I fell out of bed one morning this week, trying to quickly get to my alarm clock. Not one of my favorite ways to wake up ;)
*editing my novel, The Silver Flower (again)
*talking to my sister, and us laughing (almost) hysterically
*taking pictures
*riding my bike for an hour
*remembering I can ride no-handed
*realizing I ride no-handed a lot better than I thought.
*riding my bike no-handed around corners and up and down slight inclines
*finding new and creative ways to write letters
*blogs
*this song
*life
*the weather here

So very, very many things are making me happy

*slightly warm air moved by a slightly cool breeze
*my sunburn is hardly noticeable
*class competitions on campus
*colored pencils
*that I get to read so much
*that teachers aren't out to get me
*that dishes don't take as long to wash as I remember
*that we have lemonade, and hot tea, and milk and orange juice
*that next week I get to/have to read aloud for five/eight minutes to a group of college students (for my 'teaching elementary and middle school reading' class)
*that I'll get to hear others read aloud to me for five/eight minutes
*trying to imitate accents from other countries
*having the windows open during one of my classes, feeling the cool breeze, and hearing it rustle the leaves in the huge tree right outside the window
*when the plot of a book finally makes sense
*that I sit next to a friend in class who writes very very fast, so that when the Professor changes the slide entirely too soon, I don't need to worry
*spell check, because I need all the help I can get!
*colorful curtains
*when the sun seems to shine, even though the sky is covered in dull colored clouds
*flowers that make me wish I was carrying my camera
*getting emails from my Daddy
*remembering the combination to my tiny mailbox, even if it is empty
*music
*especially the kind that makes me want to smile and sit under a tree, or in a tree, and just look at clouds and breath deeply
*that I've started editing again my Novel again, and already I think it is better
*that I look at my Novel differently after not reading for at least six months
*seeing one of my professors riding around campus on his bicycle,wearing his suit, carrying books and notebooks and pens in one hand
*that my sister writes, and lets me read it
*my sister
*all three of them, actually
*my entire family and extended family including second cousins and great uncles and aunts even people related farther than that, actually
*life
*seeing God's little blessings everywhere
*journaling
*dreaming
*learning
*living