Houses.

love this house.

Peace.

a little wisdom my roommate shared with me today. we are attempting to finish this semester without complaining and to be truly thankful for the bounty we have been given.

                             truth

                   + thankfulness 

                      peace.

Some nights.

          School has quickly overtaken my life. that's how i feel at least. a couple of nights ago, i realized that i have a fourth research paper due in the next few weeks. sometimes i rock at life. right now is not one of those times. :) anyways, amidst all of that, i am struggling to actually be productive on this lovely fall night. with one of my roommates taking control of the living room with a bunch of nursing students who are all studying for a big exam, me and another roommate are camped out in my room where the candles are lit, only a couple of lamps are on, iron and wine is on in the background and with hot chocolate in our hands, life is too good. i am even enjoying the biography on sitting bull that i have to read for my 19th century american history course. that is saying a lot.

          i registered for classes tonight. there are perks to being an upperclassman. for once, i got into everyone of the classes i needed. thank heaven because i did not even have a plan b. tonight when i was meeting one of the nursing students, she took one look around our living room and told me i was creative. i love being told that. after she said that she realized she hadn't even introduced herself. it went like this. katie, my roommate, said, "this is my roommate, gretchen. she's the one that made all of this." [apparently they had been talking about my stuff before i came into the living room.] i said, "hi!" and she responded, "you're creative, oh, i'm rachael by the way." ha. it's the small things that count.

          some nights i need to do something creative. i couldn't focus earlier as i was trying to read and decided to make something and switch some things around in my room. having done that, i could then focus once again on sitting bull. good thing i have found an outlet! i'm getting impatient for brookie and eric to find a house. all i want to do is paint and decorate and living in a dorm, what i can do is minimal. oh well, i'll find something to change around soon.

          last weekend i went to chicago. a few friends from this area and i took off to spend some much needed time with more friends in illinois. so glad it all worked out. i hadn't realized how much i missed some of my friends and how great it was to finally get to talk to them face to face. friends are such a blessing.

          i started a new book list. ever since college, i hadn't made a new one, so hopefully in the near future i will be able to tackle my list. so far, mere christianity and axiom. when i was in junior high i attempted reading mere christianity. the problem was that it was way over my head and i never have gotten back to it. axiom is a book we read a few chapters out of at camp this past summer. it is written by bill hybels and i really enjoyed it because it offered such wisdom in a few pages. hopefully one day i will have time to read the books i want.

          for diana's final paper, she assigned us to pick an author from the 19th century and analyze what was important in their time from their perspective. in diana's classes we do this sort of assignment quite a bit, but we usually all read the same book. this time around, we choose individually. i chose Hope, Leslie by catharine maria sedgwick. i don't really know much about her except that she had more of a conservative view on women's rights during her lifetime. usually history courses only focus in on progressive women, so it will be interesting to see how she views her position in life. i'm kind of excited for this paper. crazy? most likely.

wow, i didn't realize i had so much to say.

well, goodnight, and i hope your night was just as relaxing and enjoyable as mine was.