Courageous and Soccer

We watched Courageous on Sunday night with my great-grandma, who's visiting this week.  I was so encouraged and helped by that movie.  My hands-down favorite movie genre is usually the animated kids movies (think Up and How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story), but I think Courageous was the best movie I have ever seen...ever.  It's funny and ends really well, but it's also thought-provoking, and it deals with very real, dark circumstances in a beautiful and comforting way.  If you have not watched it, do so.  I command you.  You will seriously not regret it.   

On an abrupt topic switch, today was our second soccer practice of the season. =)  I played goalie in scrimmage.  =(  I have not played goalie since U-8, and *ahem* there's a reason for that.  But I have two great coaches, a great group of teammates, and it was a great day (meaning it didn't thunder and rain, which is what we thought it would do).  I am an avid sports fan--particularly baseball and hockey--but soccer has always been my #1 favorite to play.

I should probably stop procrastinating and go do my school work.  =)

   

Blog Anniversary!

On March 9, 2009, I posted for the first time on this blog! 

Now, you might notice that I'm about a month late.  After all, it's April, and not March. 

Really?  I hadn't noticed.  All this time, I thought we were still in March.

[the above was sarcasm]

So, Happy 3 Year + 1 Month Anniversary to this blog!  I can't believe it's been this long, and I can't believe it felt so short.  =) 

This is why we don't have to fear death anymore

I wish I could share with you all something inspiring and well-written and beautiful.  However, really, today is not about being inspiring and well-written and beautiful.  It's about shame and agony and death.  It's about justice carried out by cruelty, like a king with a crown of thorns.

Today we received news that both an extended-family member and a friend died.  One was very old and in poor health for a while, the other was a wee tyke who departed suddenly.

How apt that this should happen now, because it's about this time of year that Christians are reminded strongly of how weak the grip of death has become.  It's when, even as we remember Christ being beaten and nailed to a cross, we remember the tearing of a curtain and an empty tomb.  When Jesus said, "It is finished", He really meant it.    

Someone turned 4 today...

...and I assure you, it was not me. 

Happy 4th Birthday to Galdor, my four year old brother (insert statement by Captain Obvious)

Big day today for all of us, as the soccer season started. =)  Lots of fun, and I managed to get a sunburn of course.  It'll be interesting this year.  My age group is 12 to 18, but it seems this year we hit a wave of new kids/12-13 year olds.  Of course, this is the season we had a mass 18-year-old exodus.  What's even more interesting is that one entire field in the park has been closed for the next few week, meaning my age group has to share one field with the u-12 team.  There are...oh...'bout 36 or so kids in my age group, so we're a little tightly packed.  Just a little, though.

Has anyone else switched to the new Blogger layout thingy?  I really don't like it.  I just figured out how to use the old one (after, like, four years?), so the new look really confuses me.

That's just the way I am.  Confused.

Anyhoo, the only reason I brought up soccer (which morphed into the new blogger look) was to mention that this season is Galdor's first!  This is a snippet of my interview with him on the event:

Izori: So, how was soccer?

Galdor: *evil glare*

Izori:  Did you like it?

Galdor: NO!

Izori: *unfazed*  Did you kick the ball around?

Galdor: NO!!

Izori:  Are you Negative?

Galdor: YES!  I mean, NO!  I'm GRUMPY!!

Peter (from the front seat):  But I thought you were Galdor.

Galdor:  No!  I'm Grumpy!

Obviously, he really enjoyed his first day of soccer.  His enthusiasm is an inspiration for us all. 

'Cause it's so much easier if someone else is wrong

While watching hockey last night, I had an interesting thought: the world would be better if people stopped trying to correct everyone else and focused on correcting themselves. I realized right after that I needed to edit that thought, due to the irony.

Do you know someone who just frustrates you, and you're not sure why so you begin picking apart their whole personality to find the speck you find irksome? I wish I didn't, but I do. And it seems every single time I dissect someone, I feel more and more dissatisfaction with them.

I guess there's something humbling--a little too humbling--about realizing that the problem is within yourself. It's a whole lot easier if our issues are not our own fault, but that of someone else.

That's my philosophy for the day.

Spring Allergies, School Work, Yadiyadiya

Ah, 'tis spring! The sweet smell of budding flowers fills my nostrils with pollen, the charming cold-like symptoms throwing me into a mound of tissues like most people dive into a meadow of daisies!

Sarcasm, in case you haven't noticed.

So, you know how I do public speaking? Well, that's, like, my life for the past month or so. I was so proud of my ability to think and plan ahead and be organized last school year. This year, I've been doing things like realizing I have to give a speech in about two days and, gee, I have to memorize the thing. Plus, for an event coming up (this weekend) I have to wear red+black one day and purple+black another. Took me up until Sunday to realize that, guess what? I have no suitable red or purple! Which means today I meekly murmur to my mother if I can pretty please run over to Salvation Army this Wednesday and buy clothes. Suffice it to say that my planning ability has...uh...fled.

I've covered spring allergies and schoolwork, so now it's on to yadiyadiya. However, I have to leave in ten minutes as I haven't brushed my teeth yet, so this might be short. I have been writing again. Last week or so, I sporadically flipped open my laptop and began (wait for it) another draft on the book that I have been drafting for, like, the past three years. Ever since I was thirteen. Or maybe four years, because I thought I was twelve.

No matter. Spring allergies, school work, and yadiyadiya. The whole shibang.

Can I have a shoulder on which to sob?

After her piano lesson today, Kara said something that struck me, because it was the exact same thing I said when I was her age after my piano lessons: she sighed and said, "I wish I could take violin."

Isn't that so reflective of human nature? We have piano lessons, but we want violin lessons. Why? Is it any easier? Any more fun? Just different?

I compare myself to people. All. The. Time. I see someone with "in" clothes, and then I think of how pretty much every article of clothing that I own is either hand-me-down or Salvation Army. I see someone who is a grade 7 pianist and I think of how I'll be testing this spring for grade 4. I see someone who is brilliant and talented and skipping grades and taking all honors classes and think of how I struggle with just the average stuff and average grades and average assignments.

Today was a really bad week. Not necessarily anyone else's fault but my own. Not even super huge catastrophes, but little ones that just stack up. The kid I babysit asked me a question about the Civil War because she was studying for a test in school and I gave her an answer. I thought my answer and explanation were brilliant, and then later in the day I realized I completely botched it. I've spent the next couple days wishing I wasn't such an idiot.

So, with all my own stupidity rising in my face, I ask myself: "When will I be content? When will I learn to know that my life, with all its flaws, is mine and I can't ever have anyone else's?"

It's so easy to look on our own pianos and wish we had violins.

I guess we won't be really content until we get to heaven. And seeing as heaven will last a lot longer than earth, I'll give myself an energy boost by looking forward.