Tuesday, October 1, 2013

It has come...I have arrived



30.

That big number that I've been sliding to (according to my brother) for the last decade.

30.

  It's here.  And it is strange.

  Not strange bad.  I'd much rather be 30 than 20 again.  And not strange because its so diametrically different than my 20's.  I didn't wake up wiser, or stronger or more courageous on the morning of September 12th.  I woke up the same old Megan.  Late for work, with my lunch packed in a plastic shopping bag.

  Its strange, because I woke up happy and content.

  Not that I was unhappy, or discontent before.  Not at all.  29 was a fabulous year.  Probably the best on record.

  The happiness and contentment came for a sense of arriving.  I want to be here.  I want to be 30.  I'm not waiting anymore for the important birthday to come.  I'm not constantly looking towards the future when I believe I will 'arrive'.  To be really touchy feely, its like I've arrived in the meadow of a quiet and peaceful valley in my age where I can rest and be satisfied.  There is a big sigh as my body relaxes, followed by a little smile to myself.

  Now that does not mean I have come into an easier season of life than I have been in before.  Life recently has been hard and really stressful (from good stress and bad).  And I'm really tired.  But there is a sense that I have now that I didn't have before that I am going to be ok.  By God's grace I am no plagued by the same fears and insecurities I had in my 20's.  I've learned how to get out of my own way.  Again, by God's grace, I've learned more and more the truth of the statement, "You are much worse than you think you are, but you are also much better that you think you are."  And it gives me peace.

  Maybe that's it.  30 comes with peace.  The peace that the Lord tells us passes all understanding.  And it truly does.

  So here's to you 30.

  A good year with the promise of much work, but also much joy.  I look forward to you with a peace and contentment of someone who's learned a little bit more of what it means to laugh at the days to come.

  Soli Deo Gloria.

And for your viewing pleasure, a picture of an incredibly beautiful man that I can't wait to see in 54 days!


Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Decorating Hard Working Places in Your Home


Ever since I started my devoted use of Pinterest a little over a year ago, I have secretly wanted to be one of those women who write engaging blog posts about home improvement projects they've been working on.  I have been so inspired by what other normal, everyday, average people have done in their homes, that I hoped to be able to attempt to do the same thing at least once, with at least one project.

Enter my laundry room.

Back in September or October of 2012, I read this blog post about decorating our work spaces.  As most of my apartment, in terms of decor, is a carbon copy of my last apartment in Beaver Falls, I thought that decorating my Laundry Room would give me an opportunity to have a new design project.  But I needed inspiration for a color pallet to get me going.  Pinterest again provided what I needed when I found the color swatch below:


Color me inspired!  I love bold colors, I'm IN LOVE w/this color blue currently, and I happened to have almost the exact color orange left over from painting my living room.  Ding!


Since I moved into my apartment last June, my laundry has had several "looks".  


The above picture was the first.  Just plain old moved-in and functioning.  The white shelf came with the apartment.


Then my amazingly handy father came to visit in July, 2012 and helped organize the room some what by getting things off the floor (such as the step ladder you barely see to the right) and my bin for paper recycling (which you see hanging over the washer and dryer).  He also hung my ironing board on the left wall and gave me a rack for hanging things like my broom, mop and strangely, a level...


I then bought the paint in October or so, but didn't actually start the painting until March...2013...sometimes I'm not great at follow-through on projects...  I started by removing the shelving and all the hanging items and then wiped down the walls with a damp cloth. 


Then I cut in with the blue.  I only wanted to paint from the middle of the wall up because the washer and dryer covered most of the wall below-and well, who wants to go to the trouble of moving them?  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of the finished project of the blue...which wasn't finished until my mom came and visited me and spurred me on.


The next step was to paint an orange stripe around the bottom of the blue.  Again because of the issue of follow-through, this didn't happen until my mom came back to visit last month...  Above you can she her taping off the area to make the two stripes...which she thought was my idea, but was totally all her.


And after two hours of tapping, painting and being stuck behind my washing machine, I have stripes!! It.looks.awesome.  In my personal (and oh so humble) opinion.  



The final step was to cover cardboard letters I got at Jo-Ann's with fabric that brought the whole color scheme together.  (This was another idea inspired by a pin on Pinterest.)  I bought a window topper that I found at Lowe's (another great idea from mom-instead of spray painting which is what I originally wanted to do) and together my amazing mother and I cut out the fabric and applied them to the letters using Mod-Podge. 



We applied the Mod-Podge to the letters to get them to stick, then covered the fabric in another layer.  Here they are drying.  


And DING!  You have an amazingly fun and funky laundry room that makes you excited to go in it and do your laundry.  Now all I need is a glass drink container like this one, to put my detergent in, and some red organizing bins to hold the miscellaneous items on the shelf to complete the look.  And all I need for that is money...

Speaking of money-I spent a total of about $9 on this project.  How is that possible?  

1.)  Well, in PA I was a part of PNC bank and their PNC points program.  When I cashed out my account, I cashed out my points and got a $50 gift card to Lowe's.  When I received it, it ended up having $100 on it.  Which I call awesome.  That covered the blue paint and fabric (I used the rest to create my first window box!).  Those points programs can be great!
2.)  The letters were paid for curtesy of a gift card my amazing friend Nico got from her sister.  In exchange for driving to Jo-Ann's and picking up some items for her as well (including command stripes which I used to hang the letters) she let me get my letters on her dime!
3.)  The hardware used for hanging items was purchased by my father as a gift. I already had the rack and bin for my paper recycling from my last kitchen (shop your own closets!)  
4.)  In the end, all I bought was the Mod-Podge.  Which was about $9 with tax.

A huge thanks to my mom for the kick in the pants I needed to finish the project. 

What is a way in which Pinterest has inspired you?  Where else do you find inspiration?  Is there a project that you've sort of started but need motivation to complete it?  What kick in the pants would help you to get it done?  I'd love to hear your ideas!!


Friday, June 28, 2013

My First Stay-cation

Next week is the 4th of July and as a gift from my employer I am getting to take Thursday AND Friday off with out having to take any vacation days.  Can you say AWESOME?  Cause I can.

The last month has been a crazy (and good) one for me.  I've gone from spending Memorial Day with my family in Kentucky to preparing for a conference to being in Idaho for a week for said conference, to June Orientation, to having my boyfriend visit for a week, to my mother staying for the weekend.  And that is just the 30,000 foot view of the last four weeks.  Here are a couple of pictures from these adventures:


 Team CLCS-aka Team Awesome-after rocking our presentation at ACSD!


One of the best parts of ACSD was seeing great friends who live all over the country.  Some of them even presented!


 Being in Idaho we wanted to eat potatoes...so we asked around and found this place.  And can I say SO GOOD!  I ate purple potatoes and a bison burger.  The best part was the sauce and salt bar.  9 different types of salt and 7 different types of sauce.  I had rosemary and garlic salt on my fries.  Delicious!


The week after ACSD was summer Orientation.  We played off of the Man of Steel movie coming out that weekend and had a theme of "Be Super".  It was pretty great if I do say so myself.


 Troy Trevecca with Super Girl.  So. Much. Cuteness.


The highlight of June Orientation is Trevecca Inside-Out.  As my boss says, a college fair and a carnival met, got married, and had a baby named Trevecca Inside-Out.  To go with the "Be Super" theme, we have Planet Krypton, the Daily Planet, and a photo booth where incoming students and their families could dress up as their favorite super heroes and have their picture taken!  Way to go Nine-Inch Neely for your creativity!  And T-Middy for coming up with the theme in the first place.


The week after Orientation was over, this guy (aka-the best man I've ever known) came to visit for the week.
  

If you can't tell, we went to the pool one day, and got amazingly sunburned.  I mean it was really, really, bad.


And we went to one of my favorite places in Nashville ever-McKays.  The Reverend found just a couple of books to purchase.  I don't think he should be left alone in this store.  But for that matter, neither should I...

Whew!  That's a lot.  As a result, I decided that I am going to take some intentional time to recharge my introvert batteries by staying in town for my 4th of July 4 day weekend.  Now a little bit about my history with stay-cations and what I plan on doing for mine:

I first heard about the idea of a stay-cation when I lived in Beaver Falls, PA.  One of my co-workers, who I'll just call DJ-RJ, was going to be taking a week off and enjoy a stay-cation with another co-worker and her husband, who I'll just say enjoy Grimm tales.  They were going to see the sights in Pittsburgh, play board games and generally relax and enjoy tourist activities with the bonus of not traveling and getting to sleep in their own beds.

The idea intrigued me, but as I lived 7 hours from my family and therefore didn't get to see them often, I took every opportunity I could to go and see them.  So I was generally always out of town for holidays and used my vacation days to travel.

Then another colleague of mine got married (this couple enjoys wrestling up some Grubb) and decided to use the second week of their honeymoon for a stay-cation in their new home.  Just having time to spend with one another putting together their home with out the stress of jobs and other responsibilities.  What a great idea!  One that has stuck with me since then.

Come back to this summer.  As I thought about taking a four day weekend next week, I remembered the idea of the stay-cation and thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try it out for myself.  So this is what I plan to do...

***Firstly, in my family any day off at home is an opportunity to do chores and projects around the house.  Not so for this stay-cation.  My stay-cation will be similar to a traveling vacation in that I'll prepare for it ahead of time.  I will clean up my apartment, do my laundry, shop for groceries and pay bills before Wednesday at 3pm (that's when we're allowed to leave work for the weekend).  This stay-cation is for relaxation and rejuvenation, not working on my to-do list.  (I'm a productivity junkie, so I have to make this conscious decision before hand, or I'll just spend the whole weekend feeling guilty for not 'being productive').***

Secondly, it is important for me to do things that fill me up.  The busiest and most stressful times of my year are ahead of me, and I want to face them with a full tank.  There is also a lot of uncertainty right now in my life and the life of my family and I need some space to allow myself to reflect on these things instead of avoiding them or burying them (which I confess is my default coping mechanism).  

The Plan/Schedule :

*It might not seem resting or relaxing to have a plan/schedule for a rejuvenating stay-cation, but I'm an uber 'J' on the MBTI scale, so this is actually fun for me and allows me to enjoy my time more.*

Wednesday:
  • Pool and read
  • Dinner on the Patio (my mom is bringing me patio chairs this weekend!)
  • Choir (Not really a normal stay-cation type activity, but its our first rehearsal after having a month off..and I enjoy it and I get to see and hang out with friends.  So it's still awesome).  
Thursday:
  • Staying in PJ's until an indecent hour watching movies and TV shows on DVD and Netflix.  (Hey, everyone needs a Do. Nothing. Day.  And I have a lot of Parks and Rec to catch up on..)
  • Fireworks!  The school I work at is 2 miles from down town on a hill.  I plan on grabbing a chair, an Iced Chai Tea Latte and tuning my radio to the station broadcasting the Nashville Symphony and watch the fireworks with out crowds, parking hassles or traffic.  If you'd like to join me, I'd love a buddy!
Friday:
  • This is getaway/day trip day.  I found out yesterday about a farm an hour and a half away from here where you can go and pick your own blueberries (and potentially other seasonal fruit).  They also have walking trails and picnic areas and encourage people to come out and make a day of just hanging out at the farm.  So I think this will be my reflection/solo day.  A chance to just allow myself to think about and pray through the uncertainties of life right now.  Having worked with experiential education for the last several years and encouraging my students to do this, I realize I am pretty much NEVER intentional to do this myself.  Well solo time-here I come.  A picnic lunch and camel back will be my companions on this day.  I might be looking forward to this the most.
Saturday:

  • Project day.  Not to contradict myself and the long paragraph I wrote about not doing work on this stay-cation, I will clarify by saying this could be called 'arts and crafts' day.  I want to do fun home improvement projects on this day that allow me to work with my hands and engage my creative side.  Things like sand down and repaint the patio chairs my mom is bringing me.  Making presents for people.  Rearranging furniture.  I LOVE the Pinterest and this is my day to delve into the projects that have been inspiring me for the last 6 months or so.  I'll say that this is the day I'm the second most excited about!
Sunday:

  • Church
  • Lunch
  • A walk at my park
  • A Nap
  • This might be the lowest of low key days.  Limited technology, media and 'doing'.  Soaking up the rest that the Sabbath provides and was created for.  
And just like that, the stay-cation will be over.  I know my plans may change and I'm more than willing to be flexible and adapt.  (I may be a 'J', but it doesn't rule my life, I rule it!  Kind of...)  But overall, I just want to be.  To stop.  To listen.  To breath.  

I'll let you know how the stay-cation goes.  In the mean time, have you ever been on a stay-cation?  What did you love about it?  What would you change?  Have you been dreaming about a stay-cation but still haven't taken it yet?  What do you want to do?  How can you make plans to put it on your calendar in permanent ink?  



Monday, January 28, 2013

All Bookworms Unite!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a book lover.  My most prized posessions (outside of Bertha the bassoon) are my antique books inherited from my grandfather.  I will take a free book ANY day of the week and entering a bookstore with any form of cash, debit card, etc is dangerous for me if I don't have strict rules laid out about how much money I can spend before entering.  I LOVE BOOKS!

Enter Hearts and Minds Bookstore.  An independent, family owned bookstore in Dallastown, PA where Byron and Beth Borger share books with there customers (who they regulary refer to as their friends) on faith, culture, literature, politics - you name it, they've got it.  This is what they say about themselves on their website:

"Welcome to a bookstore which attempts to create a new space for serious, reflective readers. Unabashedly Christian, we are often told that we are different than most religious bookstores. Our name, we trust, gives a good first clue to what we are about.

What distinguishes us most is our enthusiasm for the development of a uniquely Christian worldview where Christ’s Lordship is honored and lived out in relevant ways in the midst of our highly secularized, post-modern culture. We offer quality books for the sake of faithful Christian living. We serve business folk, scientists, artists, college students, moms, dads (and kids!), pastors, poets and politicos. We believe Biblical faith leads to "thinking Christianly" about every area of life."

So great.  Every year Byron publishes a 'best of ______' list consisting of the best books from the previous year in different categories.  If you love books, you'll want to read this!  Go here: http://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/booknotes/ to read more! 

Monday, January 21, 2013

Why College Matters to God - A Summary (among other things)


My job is -unusual- to say the least. It has a definite ebb and flow and there are various seasons, but generally speaking no two are alike. The busiest part of my year is August. Hands down, I will work 80 to a 100 hours most every week and only see my apartment long enough to shower and sleep.

Then there is January. Before student hiring begins in February and before conference season, I am in a quiet place of not having a pressing task or appointment I have to keep each day, and my inbox stays at zero for an entire week. It's at times like these that my imagination gets to roam and I get to work on one of the favorite parts of my job: research and development.

Now, I don't have Ideation as one of my top five Strengths or even Futuristic, so sometimes my love for research and development is strange to me (if you don't know what Strengths are, check out this website: www.strengthsfinder.com). But I do have Developer, though it generally refers to developing people and not programs, which gives me the strength of wanting to see things grow and become better (deeper, bigger, more refined) than they are now. I also have Analytical, which generally is my least favorite Strength because it means that I can't turn my brain off, but for the purpose of research and development is fantastic as my little problem solver upstairs can just go to town.

This semester, I am trying my hand for the first time at curriculum development. I teach and am the administrator for the Learning and Transitions Course that all new freshmen take at the institution I work for. Currently it covers aspects of leadership (mostly self-leadership, character development and personal mission statement creation), while providing a place for students to be with a group of peers while they go through the often tumultuous transition from high school to college.

However, looking to the future I would like to include broader philosophical questions in the class about why they are even in college and what the purpose of college, specifically a Christian Liberal Arts college, is for. So I am beginning this research and development process by reading-a lot. Two days ago I finished: Make College Count: A Faithful Guide to Life and Learning by Derek Melleby. A small, thoughtful, engaging introduction to the seemingly simple yet very deep questions a student should ask themselves before they begin college.

Today, I finished Why College Matters to God: An Introduction to the Christian College by Rick Ostrander. For me the first reaction (besides that it was a summary of my entire graduate degree) is that it felt very devotional for me. As a book about the purpose of Christian liberal arts education, it really gave me a renewed sense of purpose for my own vocation, which is working in Christian higher education. I am often torn after seeing images of fellow believers evangelizing or making an impact on critical social and injustice issues around the world. I can see how desperately important their work is, which causes me to question the importance of my own work.

But Ostrander's book has reminded me of just how critically important the work I do is. In his book he challenges his readers (his audience being new students to college) to realize that as Christians we have a responsibility to glorify the Lord with our minds, not just to see schooling as the world so often does-as a way to get a job to get a paycheck and pay for the things that we want. But that by educating ourselves in how the world works (socially, biologically, politically, artistically, etc.) we are then able to play a deeper role in transforming the world to the way it should be through the redeeming power of Christ. And by my raising student's awareness to this need, I am doing the critical work of opening their eyes to see how important this call is. My call and the call of our students is critically important.

Ostrander begins his book with an introduction to the concept of worldview, stating that it is a set of beliefs that dictate how we effect how we view the world and then how we choose to take action in that world (Ostrander, pg. 19). He tells the reader that a worldview is an important concept to begin with as every education comes from a specific world view perspective which then affects and shapes our worldviews. Christian education is no different and he lets us know that for most of Christian Higher Education there is a unified worldview that drives the function of those institutions.

He articulates this Biblical worldview being that of the meta-narrative of Scripture set in three parts: 1. Creation 2. Fall 3. Redemption and Consummation. He unpacks these in 3 subsequent chapters (after a chapter summarizing a brief history of Christian higher education) discussing how each of these parts has (deeply) impacted every aspect of higher education.

Creation-every aspect of this world has been created by our Lord God for good things. And He set Adam and Eve into the garden to cultivate the earth that He had created. As Christians, studying and interacting in this world is a part of understanding the Creator God and His heart for us and in that world.

Fall-the fall tainted and covered every part of this creation. There is no part of this creation that is clean from the effects of sin. Therefore higher education has been affected as well. We need to keep this in mind as we engage higher education in order to recognize the systemic evils that are in place, how the fall has impacted individual disciplines and determine what the gestures and postures are that we take in response to these things (he borrowed from Andy Crouch's Culture Making for the gestures and postures conversation-a book that I am currently reading at home!).

Redemption-the world as we know it will one day be redeemed and parts of our cultural heritage will be a part of that: the best parts of cultural that are worthy of being in a heavenly palace. So in education we should be working toward creating cultural goods that are worthy to be a part of that palace. We should be a part of redeeming creation to the way that God intended when it was created; from politics, to the environment, to sex to food and nutrition to our health, our science, our literature. It all needs to be redeemed. And as we study in higher education from this Christian perspective, we are learning the deep roots of our majors and disciplines which allows us to see the systematic evils, learn how to ask the good questions (such as what would my discipline look like if it were totally redeemed) and then have the skills and tools to go into the world making change.

The second to last chapter of the books talks about what it means to have an integration of faith and learning. That it is not just praying before class, and it is not just relegated to the disciplines of theology and religion. Every discipline needs to take heed to the Christian worldview and see how this worldview explicitly and implicitly effects how we see and understand truth in our majors.

Finally Ostrander discusses the importance of a Christian liberal-arts education. He explains that if we believe the Christian worldview to be correct, then a liberal arts education helps us to the end of redeeming creation by giving us the tools to think deeply and critically about the whole world, not just our disciplines. Creative, deep and critical thinkers are also the type of individuals that employers are looking to hire now, more than people with a specific skill set.

  Ostrander’s purpose in writing his book was to help Christian students to understand how important a Christian liberal-arts higher education experience is to the Lord and His calling for us in this world.  But, whether intentioned or not, it is also a book for the professional in Christian Higher Education, urging us to continue in our calling to help transform our students so that they can then transform the world (transform language stolen and slightly edited from my friends at the Coalition for Christian Outreach).  I recommend this book to any student wondering why they should attend Christian higher education, but more so to any professional needing help renewing their passion for work in Christian liberal-arts education.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Sliding to 30

The year is 2013.

The year that I turn 30.

When I was barely in my 20's, my wonderful brother composed a song for me that he has lovingly sang every year since called, "Sliding to 30".  In the most  nauseatingly country music star voice he could muster he would sing this for me whenever he wanted to annoy me.  And let me tell you...it worked!

But now I stand staring down the barrel of the gun of the year I actually turn 30, I realize, "You know what?  There were great years in my 20's, but I'd much rather look forward to 32 than be 22 again, so bring it.  Bring.On.30." 

So thus the name of the Blog.  Sliding to 30.  Adventure (and misadventures) of a woman trying to live everyday glorifying the Lord in everything that she thinks, says and does.