HO....HEY!!!

I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart
I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweet

Read more: THE LUMINEERS - HO HEY LYRICS 

Oh love songs.....you get me every time. Especially listening to THIS VERSION OF THIS SONG! (CLICK TO ENJOY). After an intense week, I am filled with love and a calm and just a feeling of satisfaction. Everything is the way it should be. Things are moving forward, things are looking brighter. I belong where I am and I would not change a thing in the world.

I was wondering this week where I belong. Things are so up in the air. I'm a sub teacher that moves along from classroom to classroom every day. I have tupperwares stuffed under my mom's stairs, inside their barn, in Kristi's barn, and in every nook and cranny of my apartment. My church has broken up and things are changing all around me. 

But when I listen to this song it reminds me that I DO belong somewhere! I belong with Danny. Wherever he is, will be my new home. And we are actually closing on our very first NEW HOME today! Today we will have a place to put all our things and to start our new life together. 

But beyond that, even if we DIDN'T....I do have assurance that even when things all around me are uncertain I am secure in the love that I am in CHRIST and HE is in ME! So often I have looked to Danny to {Complete me...thanks to Jerry Maguire}....and I've looked to my friendships, work, church, or even being financially secure as ways of feeling like I'm on a firm foundation....But this week I was reminded through sermons, books, and conversations that no one and nothing can complete me or satisfy me except for GOD. And once God is in His right place...then everything else falls in line and things make sense again.

So I am grateful for the gift of belonging. 

Philippians 4:7 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

⁷ Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel.

These days...

We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.” 

― Oswald Chambers

Its hard not to read a blog or see a post on FB that doesn't mention Boston. Its so hard to know how to react and how to help. I loved my friend's post (Link Here) who reminded us to look for the helpers. And we are blessed to have those heroes that step up in those moments. The Firefighters, the Doctors and Nurses, the Police, the Brave and the Good who are there and willing to protect and serve.
So for Boston....for the places we don't hear of as publicly that are also suffering...and for the individual people who are hurting for all kinds of reasons--- we do remember you.

I'm thinking lately as the days tip toe closer and closer to a momentous and special day for me!!!( 40 days away now) that there are always things on peoples hearts that are large...even if its just to them... and through the past few months I've had these big things on my heart that have been so large that I haven't been able to see past them very easily. I was really reminded-- when some of it was blowing past---  that when I take my focus OFF myself its such a relief to look around and hear and listen to people that I care about. Even those I don't really know sometimes can teach and widen my eyes and views and relieve some of the worry and pressure I put on myself when I am only looking at myself.

There are so many things I am thankful for in the past few months that (yes, have been hard) so I will say a few things that have been very good:

• Sunday School. I always look forward to telling Bible stories to the kids. I got to share about Palm Sunday and Easter this year. I love looking at their faces and seeing that they are really interested and retaining the information! I love asking them questions and hearing them talk about God/Jesus! I love that.
• Art Gallery Parties: I have recently retired from this position!!! which frees up my Sunday afternoons, but I have enjoyed completely the opportunity for the last few years of doing birthday parties in our gallery and leading a craft. This helped me develop my method of teaching Art and also exposing children to our amazing Gallery we have so close by.
• Family: April and May are very busy months with a lot of birthdays, anniversarys and special days for our family so we start having get togethers and organized meals alot more at this time of the year! I look forward to and sometimes (Dread!!!) the chaos that ensues when we are all in the same room. But more and more when I realize the GIFT it is to live so close to my family. I am so blessed that I see my siblings at least a few times every week and and my other sister usually comes down a few times during the month...I wish my Grammie and Aunt and my cousins lived on PEI...but I have always been really blessed to have a few siblings close by!
• My apartment. I will be SO sad to leave my little haven by the river. I seriously am still THRILLED every morning when I look out and see such a beautiful view. I have been so blessed to have a roomie that I have NEVER fought with even once! I love living here and will miss it soo much when I move.....
• Speaking of moving....Danny and I have found a sweet little house up the road in Cornwall (conveniently near most of our family as well) and we will be closing on this house this Friday!! I can't believe it. We looked at lots of houses, but really we only looked for about a month or two before finding this and have an extremely fast closing so Danny will be able to move in a month before our wedding and we can start working away at it! I am so relieved we have a place to live that is ours and we have lots of plans and goals to making a rental basement apartment to help with the cost!!
• Friends. As I have made our wedding guest list and finalized who our bridal party is I am honestly in AWE of the kindness and help that people have given us in these past few months. We got engaged in December. I was overjoyed that I could finally be married...but honestly...even on that night I had this sense of dread and wondering HOW CAN I PAY FOR THIS WEDDING!!!! It seemed like an impossible dream because I wasn't getting steady subbing and my car died....and I just have these student loans and debt that I can't seem to pay down very easily...but in so many circumstances (some from my sweet fiance himself) I have been utterly blessed with helpers.....people have come along side us and offered (insisted!!! and sometimes FORCED) us to accept help...and I am so excited to see how things will turn out. If I had my way I'd be paying for all my guests travel and buying extravagant gifts for my attendants and going all out with flowers and decorations...but I am reminded over and over through Danny and through my marriage books and through a still, small voice in my heart that my wedding isn't about STUFF and THINGS and FOOD...but about vows, and witnesses to support our marriage and about Danny and I committing to a marriage for life. So the details aren't my favorite but as some of the stress is relieved, I am finding joy in planning even those little things like seating charts!! 
• Subbing. Oh dear. I am the girl that drives to work hyper. I have had weeks that I only had one day booked and lately (since a very popular sub went off on maternity leave) I have been booked even more! I have had the past three weeks of full or half days for most of the week. So when you come from last month of having full weeks off due to March Break and Easter....I am so relieved that I am getting more work at this critical time right before my wedding....plus I also LOVE teaching kids. I have got to teach so many kindergarten classes too which are my fave!
• Sunshine. It's bright out these days. My favorite time is twilight and I have been enjoying driving to Danny's after work for supper and seeing the sun still up in the sky! I love spring and I love the bright sunshine and clouds and the green that is poking through that dead brown grass! Yay for Spring!

So there is always good. (Always "gifts") and I'm so glad that I've had so many GREAT things in these past few months and I am thrilled to get married. Honestly! I CANT BELIEVE ITS SO SOON!

Here's one of my favorite pictures from our engagement shoot:

Soon I will be a wife!

I can't wait to be a wife. I feel like I've waited for alot of years for this and sometimes I can't believe its actually happening! I am just finally getting used to the idea of having a BOYFRIEND. That has been fun and hard and challenging....but exciting!  Wedding plans are starting to fall into place...after weeks of procrastinating and avoiding and distractions....I've said it before but I'm VERY thankful for my trusty Pink Binder of organization 

that my very organized Bridesmaid Kristin sent to me after I got engaged!

 

I've been reading a very insightful and encouraging book lately by Tim Keller called 

and this book has helped me navigate some of the toughest days of our dating lives together yet. I would love to share a few little gems of encouragement and always do benefit from hearing the advice or insight from people who are married and finding out what works for them....so leave a comment or two if you want!

• Marriage is "two spiritual friends helping each other on a journey to become who God designed them to be"
• Nothing can mature character like marriage
• Marriage is "two flawed people creating stability, love, consolation" in a safe haven
• Marriage remakes your heart
• The resources we need to be a good spouse is to worship God with our whole heart
• "Those who stop concentrating on how unhappy they are find that their happiness is growing"
• When the gospel is in our hearts "We find the power to serve, to give and take criticism well, to not expect our spouse or our marriage to meet all our needs and heal all our hurts."
• Weddings aren't primarily for how you feel now but a promise to be loving, faithful and true in whatever circumstances come in the future
• "We are never more satisfied and fulfilled than when affection and action are joined in us, when we are serving someone we delight in."
• "Your marriage must be more important to you than anything else. No other human being should get more of your love, energy, industry, and commitment than your spouse."

These are only a few of the treasures and the teaching I have received through this book, but I have also been listening to his sermons on marriage for years so a lot of the content is very familiar to me! I really admire and appreciate the teaching on this subject that he does with his wife Kathy. 

One thing he has said in his sermons and through this book that has helped me is that when all around you things are bad and your marriage/relationship is strong....then you feel strong. But if all around you things are good and your marriage/relationship is weak...then you will feel weak. This is a struggle for me and Dan as we are learning to form our own union and bond in these days leading up to the marriage. One of my friends told me that she found engagement a hard time period as you were stuck in that limbo space of building bonds yet also having boundaries that you haven't crossed yet financially, emotionally and physically....but that's why I'm glad my engagement wasn't longer than 6 months...its been a rush to plan things but I think the timing gave us lots of time to learn and grow but I CANT WAIT to be married! Its coming so soon!

 Whether you are in a relationship or not I do recommend this book to you. I have been listening to these marriage sermons for years and Tim Keller also always prefaces that these teachings are for singles and married couples as we can create those foundations and teachings to prepare our hearts to serve and love people in whatever stage we find ourselves in.

Happy Weekend to Everyone!