Prayer and endurance

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [the persevering Christians who have gone before us], let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him [remember, we have this joy in Christ too, as daughters by the Spirit of adoption!] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down [what He did because His work was completed] at the right hand of God." ~Hebrews 12:1-2

I sent out an email to mine and Natalie's Bible Study group, which is really just us and our friends- so fun- to see when we could do Bible Study before break, and Amy wrote back saying she'll have to skip out no matter when it is because she has papers to write. I wanted to somehow encourage her to hang in there for one more month, and Hebrews 12:1-2 is what came to mind. Poor Amy is always so stressed, and always writing papers, and I know the other girls are crazy busy too.
So I was thinking of all of you, my favorite people, and I know you are just clinging to Christ now- I know it is a deeper need for endurance, for strength, for hope, for joy, than any of us need to get through end-of-semester craziness. Know that I am praying daily, and I am so blessed to see my favorite women trusting so in the sovereignty of our God. "Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe..."
I love you :-) And I will be in Minnesota in a week!

Almost Concert Week

Next Sunday is our choir's concert, which means next week is "concert week"- we will have four hours of practice Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, a practice Sunday, and then the concert once we've practiced :P I am excited, because the pieces are fun to sing and I'm sure they'll sound wonderful in the high-ceilinged old church we're performing in. We are doing the Haydn Lord Nelson Mass and Daniel Pinkham's Christmas Contata in D (we start Chritsmas early in the music department ;))
I am off to practice now, thankfully for an hour and a half and not four hours ;)

Snack Time

One of the girls on my hall, Brigita, just brought me some trail mix/granola that she made herself. It's good! And healthy, too. It would be easy to make, and it tastes really good :-) Here's what she put in it:

- oatmeal- just plain old healthy oatmeal!

-dried cranberries

-unsalted almonds

-soybeans

-a few banana chips and maybe some dried apple pieces

It tastes like it would be great heated up with milk, too- all the oatmeal- but it's great just mixed up. Mmm! :-)

*sorry the picture's grainy... the light in my room isn't so good*

Sunday Dinner

Yesterday Mary Beth announced that our friend Jon had told her we were "still on" for making dinner at his house tonight... oh dear... what to make?? I had no idea we were making dinner tonight! So Mary Beth and I ran to Kroger today and this is what we came up with:

Roast Chicken
-A whole chicken, a little celery, garlic, onion, sage, and salt- and a while in the oven. Perfect! Mary Beth did this, and she is amazing.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
-A few red potatoes, and a lot of Yukon Gold potatoes, mashed up with garlic, half and half, salt & pepper... needed something else. The magic ingredient? Chicken broth!

Aparagus
-Tossed with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper, this cooked up perfectly in a skillet while the chicken finished. Mmm :-)

Garlic Bread
-Natalie's specialty. We just picked up some italian bread at the store, and she buttered and season it. The two loaves she made went very quickly!

And Jon's contribution: Hot chocolate to drink with dinner!
Oh, and our friend Chris, who couldn't even come, sent over an amazing pumpkin pie with Dane, and after we were all so full! Wow. :-)

After two hours of much space-sharing in Jon's counter-space-less kitchen, we ate dinner and had a lot of fun. I brought the (few) leftovers over to Paul's house, where he and was having a study "party" for Greek class. He wasn't expecting any of the food, so he was pretty happy :-) Sometime this week I will make vegetable stock with the leftover vegetables and garlic, just as soon as I can get a carrot or two and maybe some mushrooms. Yay!