Advent.

I pray my heart will remember this, in this season of Advent:

Christmas is the promise that the God who came in history and comes daily in mystery will one day come in glory. God is saying in Jesus that in the end everything will be all right. Nothing can hard you permanently, no suffering is irrevocable, no loss is lasting, no defeat is more than transitory, no disappointment is conclusive. Jesus did not deny the reality of suffering, discouragement, disappointment, frustration, and death; he simply stated that the Kingdom of God would conquer all of these horrors, that the Father's love is so prodigal that no evil could possibly resist it."
                                                                                    -Reflections for Ragamuffins
                                                                                     By, Brennan Manning

In a New York Color Minute.

One of the best $1.29 I spent all week.  

Canal Street by NYC. 

Give Thanks to the Lord, for He is Good!

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"Be honest is the turkey's name Paul? No, it's Hank...Hanksgiving"

Oh my goodness, this is the funniest episode of New Girl yet. So, if you aren't watching the show yet you need to get with the program, set your DVR, and catch up immediately. Did I mention that I have become friends with a guy who works in the Set Dec department on New Girl. Well, over Labor Day he invited me and my friend Melissa to come visit the set, since I want to work in Set Decorating. It was really neat to hear all the inside scoop and we even gotten to see Zooey film a scene! She is just as adorable in person as she is playing Jess (who's that girl, it's Jess!) and singing with M. Ward in She & Him. Happy Hanksgiving Eve everyone!

Casa Bonita.

There are some days living in Los Angeles that I miss Dallas so much it hurts. Today is one of those days. It isn't Dallas the city that I miss so much, it's simply my life in the Big D. Good friends that I know well and know me well, knowing where everything is and how to get there (in under 10 minutes), Matt Chandler, the ease and convenience of the AI computer labs and light boards, Chuy's queso and Gloria's margaritas, Chick-Fil-A on every corner, Kidd Kraddock in the mornings, the clean Kroger on Mockingbird, walking Katy Trail, just the history of living in a place that makes for a strong rhythm to life, and my precious house on Bonita Avenue that really felt like home.
There is something about a place feeling like home that is hard to move on from. One of my old roommates, Melissa, took some pictures of our old home over the past couple years we lived together and they are really beautiful. She is so wonderful at catching the light at just the right time and place that it makes our dusty little house look like it should be in a magazine.

"Home wasn't built in a day." 

-Jane Sherwood Ace

Team Peeta.

And, I read that this trailer will show before Breaking Dawn Part 1, which comes out Friday. I can't wait to see it on the big screen! Countdown until March begins now!

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

I want to be friends with Mindy Kaling. She is super smart, a hilarious writer, friends with John Krasinski, my same age, and lives in the same town as me. Meant to be besties? I think so. She wrote a new book, so maybe it will feel like we are friends after I read it. 

But, I kind of feel like Mindy and I already are friends after reading this quote by her today on her website: 

"I am so terrified, you guys. Not because I don't think the book is great-- which it really is, I swear-- but because it is the first thing I've ever done creatively that is 100% me. There hasn't been a more complete representation of who I am then this book. So win or lose, it'll all be on me." 

I feel so much the same way about simply being who God made me to be. It's not that I don't think who God made me to be isn't great. It's just that when I am only that, it leaves me open to being simply being me, comfortable in my own skin, secure knowing Jesus died for me, without the bells and whistles I usually try to be as well to make sure people like me. So, Mindy, one day I hope we meet here in L.A. And, if we do, I hope we get to talk about this quote. And, being 32. And, John Krasinski. 

Birds.

What an amazing God we have that can create birds that can do this...

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

From Me to You...

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Color Coded Bookshelves.

I am thinking of doing this in my house...

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It just makes things look so put together, but unboring (I don't think that's a word).

Heavenly Fire.

"O for a spark of heavenly fire,

From the Redeemer's throne,

The pure and permanent desire

Of loving [God] alone!

The pure desire unquenchable

Ev'n now I seem to prove,

But only Thou, my God, canst tell

If Thee I wish to love.

Vouchsafe me then the wish sincere,

The wish sincere fulfil,

And stamp me with thy character

According to thy will:

Accomplish'd see thine own desires,

And O! be satisfied,

When singing with th'immortal squires

I triumph at thy side.

-From The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, Vol. 3

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