Procrastination

So, when I was in college the only time my room actually got cleaned was when I had a huge paper or project due. I am apparently a "procrastination cleaner." But here's the problem: I'm not in college anymore. And I don't have anymore huge projects or papers. So HOW IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO GET MY ROOM CLEANED??????????? I've been sitting here staring at the piles for quite some time now with no success...I made a microwave fudge brownie, I talked to my roommate for the first time in like 2 weeks, I checked out pictures on facebook, read my email, played with my hair, and put lip gloss on...but I haven't managed to clean up a single blessed thing!!!!! So now I am further not cleaning by writing a blog post about how I'm not cleaning...this is truly ridiculous...

Fullness of Joy

So, I have come to the brilliant conclusion that joy is a choice. You can choose to be joyful, or you can choose to be a cranky-pants. Today, for much of the day, I chose to be a cranky-pants. And I made all kinds of wonderful excuses for why I deserved to be cranky: I had to get up at 5 this morning, I had a headache, the preschoolers were not well-behaved, the kindergarteners were not well-behaved, I didn't have enough coffee, etc... But, as I went through the afternoon with this amazing, self-pitying outlook on life, I realized that basically I was just a whiner and I needed to suck it up and get over it. I mean seriously...you think Jesus didn't have to deal with headaches and not enough sleep and stupid people? Come on! He had to walk on this earth as the God-man, and he dealt with all kinds of unpleasant situations. What was His response? Complete and total trust in His Father, and an unconditional love for His creation. Who am I? What right do I have to be frustrated with these 3-6 year-olds who come from broken homes and who spend more time with me than with their parents? How could my response be anything more than love for their little lost souls and a desire to show them Jesus? So, I made a choice to be joyful, and believe me, it wasn't easy - I really had to work at it for the rest of the day. But by the time chapel rolled around, I was able to dance with my wonderful campers through two rounds of the "Round-up" song, and have a completely marvelous time!

Psalm 16:11 "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Shaina

What? Another blog??

Here are the problems with me and blogging:

1) I intensely dislike the word "blogging." It seems like some kind of weird combination of the words "blob" and "log." Who puts those words together? What does it even mean? 

2) I have a  tendency to write, read-over, re-write, read-over, re-write, read-over, etc...It'll be a miracle if I'm ever happy enough with what I wrote to actually post it :-P

3) Who really wants to read my random, hodge-podge thoughts anyway?

Here are the good things with me and blogging:

1) I am more likely to write here than in a journal

2) If I have a particularly ridiculous thought, people can comment and set me straight, "Shaina, that's ridiculous! Why would you even think that???"

3) I have a really cool daisy picture :-)

I decided to start this project after reading over my old Xanga site. Does anybody remember Xanga? Anyway, I found that it was fun to reminisce old times even if my post was only like this one from February 22, 2007:

"The Death of Me:

Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 11, Op. 26, Mvt. 3

Oh stink-face-head..."

As cryptic as that is, I remember exactly what was going on at that time and it makes me laugh! So, I guess this blog is mostly for me...sort of an online journal. Perhaps others will enjoy it...perhaps no one will read it. Either way I intend to memorialize this year so that I can look back and smile or cry or be encouraged.

Shaina

P.S. My word of the week is:

de·fen·es·tra·tion 

Pronunciation: \(ˌ)dē-ˌfe-nə-ˈstrā-shən\

Function: noun

Etymology: de- + Latin fenestra window

Date: 1620

1 : a throwing of a person or thing out of a window
2 : a usually swift dismissal or expulsion (as from a political party or office)