What now?

Here in Brazil, it's rice and beans e'ry day

I don't know what to do with myself.

Seminary is over.
One more exam and the semester is over.
Christmas is coming.
I'm almost 7 months pregnant.

I'm at home with internet and power coming on and off. No water to wash the laundry I've been wanting to tackle.
So little to do, but also so much to do. I could organize and clean and I could cook something for lunch...
When I was busy I had a mental list of all the things I needed to do when I wasn't busy anymore.

Somehow that list doesn't matter anymore. I kinda just want to paint and be creative. But I feel like somehow I forgot how. I haven't been practicing photography for a long while. That is something I used to adore.
I also want to create some kind of space for our little girl who will be entering our lives soon enough. That wasn't really important to me before. I knew it wasn't really an option financially so I let it go. Maybe I will paint her something. I don't have any paint. I could make some kind of collage just for her. Any ideas? I'm lost. In a few minutes I'll find myself drowning in pintrest pins until I find something that fits her. Somehow I feel like I know her. I should be able to make something that suits her.

I am blessed because I have been having a pretty easy pregnancy. I don't have many responsibilities at the moment. But I'm also kinda bored. I'm usually so focused and studious. I don't know what to do with this... "free time".

I'm feeling good, just a little too lazy in these hot pregnant summer months.

Hello again again

I'm feeling reflective today. I have been thinking about blogging a lot the last while. I miss it.

Today was the last day of seminary. The year has been very good. I have learned a lot. It was also challenging, especially as it came to a close. Teaching while 6 months pregnant at 6 in the morning, has been interesting.

Last day, 

missing some students, 

but its hard to get everyone there at once.

This morning I zombie crawled out of bed at 5:00. I tried to get things together quickly but I felt like I was walking through wet concrete while the clock flew with minutes turning like seconds. I left a few minutes late so I opted to take the bus first. I then stopped at a students house to pick her up and we walked the last ten minutes to the church together.

Our last lesson was on "Malaquias" (Portuguese for Malachi). It was really interesting. I was melding three lessons together so that we could finish the course on time. I wasn't behind, that how it is set up in my area. We talked about gifts. We talked about offerings.

Have you ever received a terrible gift? How did you feel?

In the beginning of Malachi, the Lord chastises the Israelites for offering sacrifices with imperfect animals. They offered the blind and crippled of their flocks. Their offerings were selfish and embarrassing.

What about our offerings to the Lord?
Do we obey the commandments with all of our hearts?
Do we give the best of ourselves?

I invite you to think about that and make a goal to create a habit of heartfelt gift giving to our father in heaven.

As the year comes to a close we celebrate the perfect and eternal give he gave to us. Our Father in Heaven gave his perfect son to die for us. Through him we are made whole.

John 3:16

Living conditions

For my humanities class, I was required to make a collage about something in my life. I chose my living conditions because they are so different than what I am used to. I thought you might enjoy seeing what I came up with.

This was made with PicMonkey.com using photos from Pedro's house.