30 by 30 update: one more year

well, friends, it is my birthday. 29 whopping years old today. which means i have one year to complete my list. which means i need to get my butt in gear.

but here's what i got done the past month:

1) my last paper for my summer classes isn't due till tomorrow, but i [amazingly] did it early so i could enjoy my birthday. i have two [crazy busy] semesters left, and then i will be a master of students. or something like that.

11) the monthly cooking segment. i'm on pace with this one. which is logical, since i tend to eat at least once a month.

16) the book is certainly not finished, but here's the latest chapter if you didn't see it.

29) not surprisingly, as i finished up my classes, i also finished up several books: where you work matters, how colleges work, college of the overwhelmed, the idea of a Christian college, the Bible, and emotionally healthy spirituality. 6! so i am up to 24 out of 100.

so there you go. spending another birthday in a random place with random people. it's how i roll. :)

repentance is the heart of revival

i am not really sure i can pinpoint why.

i certainly do not know how.

but over the course of the summer, i have had one thought sort of lingering in the back of my head:

something is coming.

something big.

i have had some mental pictures of fire coming...racing...toward my campus.

iwu better look out.

i feel revival coming.

thoughts from the fort

i'm in fort collins, colorado, for the next week and a half. i am here because i love heather dawn dundore and her family. there's really no other reason. i just adore them.

and that's important to remember on days when mika spends the morning screaming for no discernable reason.

one of my classes has finished up, and the other one will be over in just a few days. i am SO thankful. i love my program, but not having any sort of break between spring and summer...taking two classes i am not super interested in...and feeling really busy during the summer...missing being on campus while i learn...all these things have made taking summer classes a bigger challenge than expected.

***

i don't know if i mentioned this before, but it is my goal to read through the Bible twice this year. so i am currently back in exodus. and it has been neat to see the parallels between the preparation and trust-building that God did with the israelites in the desert and what he is doing in my life right now.

i'll dig into that more pretty soon for you.

but it's been a year/summer of really intense growth and development for me. there are a lot of components. i'm excited to share some of those...and express some of those through my writing.

***

look for some new chapters within the next couple of weeks. colorado has a positive effect on my writing.

oh dear. summer has been bad for my blogging. i guess that's the way it goes. i'd like to tell you it'll get better, but i really doubt it will until i have a real schedule in my life again.

i went to the lake this past weekend and soaked in lots of sun, got my fill of bugs and lake water, laughed a ton, and ate wayyyy too much food. super unusual, huh? (i wish)

i also got some writing done. if you didn't see it over on the side of my blog, i posted a new chapter called 'slavery and freedom.' and i edited all the writing i had previously finished, so the older chapters have been cleaned up a bit.

i wrote a poem, too, so once i get that put on docstoc, i'll post it here as well.

and for your enjoyment, here's the cast of real world: okoboji.