I got out of my bed (excepting getting my muffin and glass of milk for breakfast and bringing them back to bed) at noon...I woke up sometime around 7 initially, but then went back to sleep until 10. In the couple hours I spent lying in bed, I explored Pottermore (finally...I was one of the original beta testers, but never got around to actually messing around on the site), chilled on Ravelry, Pinterest and Facebook, and just enjoyed being cozy and comfortable and totally relaxed.
About Pottermore. It's still in beta right now, and hopefully they're opening it up to the public next month, but until then, you only have access to the stuff related to the first book in the series. However, they added so much background information from J.K. Rowling that you wouldn't have ever known from just the books (or even the movies). There was a pretty extensive biography of Professor McGonagall...did you know that she and Professor Flitwick were (I think) in the same year at Hogwarts, and were both Hatstalls? (translation: the Sorting Hat was torn for a very long time over what house to sort them into) The fascinating thing is that the hat was torn between Griffindor and Ravenclaw for both of them. I love this series!
Anyway, I think if you want some fun stuff to do while rereading the series, or even just want a little more information about characters in Harry Potter, or how she came up with/wrote the whole series, you should check it out. //advertisement end ;)
Not that I'm going to go on about it, but I also spent a couple hours watching The Chronicles of Narnia (both the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian) while knitting hexipuffs.
Then came time for a cool benefit dinner for YMI (Youth Missions International) for my friend John. I got really inspired by all of the discussions about their missions and how to support them financially...which yes, I did sign up to donate some for them, because I really do value missions. But this goes beyond just the good food and the nice people...I follow John's wife, Rose, on her personal blog about her life, ministry, making a home with John (they're newlyweds) and just fun stuff like that. One of her recent blogs discussed some of the good/bad/ugly advice she's been given about her marriage, and the good piece of advice hit me very deeply.
Focus on serving God first, and the rest will follow.It's something I'm not very good at in my relationship with James. I often tend to try to live my life totally around what he's doing, and how our relationship is going, rather than striving to serve God first, and letting Him take care of us. Unfortunately, I'm not totally sure how to serve God. I get stuck on the thoughts about how I should just drop everything and move to a foreign country and do missions work...or how I need to be super active in my church life, while doing something like helping host a Bible study. I hate making the excuse, but I really do feel like I don't have time. This is where being a music major is tough...when you add in evening ensembles to the mix, it often feels like service-for-God time is really limited. I guess it breaks down to: what is serving God?
I know that getting closer to God will help my relationship with James...and maybe it's not great that it took wanting a better relationship with James to desire a relationship with God to in turn benefit my relationship with James. (I'll pause here while you guys all try to sort that out :P) But, in the end, isn't all that matters is that I want to pursue a relationship with God. Period. ?
*Huff* This being Christian thing is hard. I should know that already, seeing as I've spent a large portion of my life as one. Then again, it's easier to have a faith when it's just an adjective about you rather than an adverb about the way you live your life. I think I'm still in adjective state right now. (Also, all English and grammar nuts out there, I know you don't technically live "Christianally" but it was about the idea, not the technicality :D )
So, here we go...on a journey to improving my spiritual status with God...with hardly any clue how to do it. Crossing my fingers I can figure this all out!
Oh, yeah, my horn playing is going fine. I have my recital jury right after I get back from spring break, and also two days after I do a mock audition at the Northwest Horn Symposium.
Also, I get to go to Las Vegas for spring break with James!!!!! Before you jump on any weird hypocrisy you think there might be about how I'm trying to be all "Christian" and now I'm going on a spring break trip to the gambling capitol of the United States with my boyfriend...we're staying with his family, we're not doing any gambling or drinking (since we're both underage), and really, I think we're mostly going because we get to go see Cirque du Soleil :D Just wanted to clarify ;)
I'm really excited, and officially he has the coolest family ever, since they told us that this is our vacation, and we can have them around as much or as little as we want. So awesome! I think we're still going to be around them a fair amount anyway...they're cool people :)
'Til next time!
~Allie
