Contentment

                                                        Source: Uploaded by user via Katie on Pinterest  

    I know I've blogged about this topic a couple times before, but it's so deep and broad. I keep learning more about it and feel like sharing it with you all.
    I've really struggled with being content in the season of life God has me for quite a while now. I would have good days and bad days. Don't we all? But it truly was a daily battle. I constantly found myself on my knees begging God to provide me with satisfaction in the only place joy could be found: in Himself.
    However, knowing that I should be content in my God and actually being content are kinda different. Watching my friends move on and start new stages of life was devastating and brought a new wave of restlessness and utter discontent. Why do I have to be the one who is always left behind?! When will my turn come?
    But praise God that He does not let us wallow in our self-pity. I was reminded of all that I have and to be thankful for. God chose me. He saved me. And most certainly not based on anything that I had done! This alone should wipe any atom of discontent with my life. It gets better. He also showed me a gentle reminder that this world is not my home. I'm not going to be satisfied by anything on earth because I was created to live somewhere else entirely. However, God has blessed me with many earthly things. I have a wonderful family and a close relationship with my parents. I have a good job that I love. School is going well and am saving lots of money by being able to do CollegePlus! All these things go to show I have no reason to ever complain.
    When the next stage of life comes, I'll sure be ready. But I'm going to enjoy whatever this season has for me because that's where God has me. And that truly is best.

Love,
Katie :)

Party Time!

                                                                         Source: piccsy.com via Katie on Pinterest

I have a graduation party in four days!!

I'm giddy with excitement!!
It's coming up so fast and the list of things to do seems to never end!
But it can't damper how excited I am to spend all day with family and friends who have meant so much to me over the years!
And today I'm out to conquer three college credits! Nothing like accomplishing something so you can relax. :)
I hope you all are having a wonderful week!
May you continue to seek HIM in all your ways.

Love,
Katie :)

Famaversary

 Say what?!
What on earth is a "famaversary"?!
Well, for any family that's adopted, it means it's the day your adopted sibling came home to a forever family for, well, FOREVER.
It's a big deal.
I love my Meddie sis.
She is my precious little girl and I can't believe I lived a day without her.
She's growing up so fast and I'm SO thankful that God chose us to be her family.
Adoption is such a beautiful picture of what God did for His children.
He reached down into our pitiful existence that was destined for destruction and saved us from utter destitution.
Can I get an AMEN?!
My sister was headed down a path for who knows where.
I know it couldn't have ended well.
She still has memories and consequences from the four years she had in her native country, but we love her more and more each day.
We show her how much Jesus loves her and that He is her only hope.

To celebrate a little, I took my beautiful girl out for some sistah time!

I taught her the best way to eat french fries :D dipped in chocolate ice cream!

My only sister is one of the best gifts God has ever given to me!
He is so good!!

Love,
Katie :)

Say Cheese!

Lissie inspired me to post some random pictures because it's fun and easy and it keeps the blog alive.
This will probably be my last post before I leave for Africa on SUNDAY!!

How bout some pics of my crazy awesome siblings?!

Peaches is such a drama queen!

Eddie Joe has always got a smile!!!

T-bird, such a beast over there.

Bring out that smolder, Rye Bread.

There are no words to describe the coolness of The Big Fella

I LOVE MY PUPPY!!!!!

We have WAY too many of these at our house.

Miss Squishalicious was helping us pack for our big trip!

....melting....

Uh yeah....I have studly muffin bruthas.

The weather has been all over the place lately....

I miss my two older CP sisters!! (India (l) and Manda (r) )

My CP sister Melody who I miss TERRIBLY!

And my crazy awesome CP bruthas Josh (l) and Robbie (r) and my adopted CP daughter BEKA!!

Love,
Katie :)

Happy 9th Birthday, Nathan!

Yesterday was my little brother's ninth birthday!
It makes me feel so OLD knowing I was nine when he was born!
The Big Fella always keeps me laughing with his random comments and intense personality.
He loves Star Wars and anything that's electronic.
My family's life would be very boring without our Super Big Jim :)

Me and the Big Fella :)

Oh Baby!

In the words of Sally Brown: "Isn't he the cutest thing?"
                                                                                                                                                                                                           

                

You gotta love baby cousins!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
May God bless this year of 2012!

Love,
Katie :)

...rambling...

                                                     Source: imgfave.com via Katie on Pinterest

It's so nice to finally have some free time to sit here and blog to y'all about life stuff.
Like, serious stuff.
What has God been teaching me lately?
Two weeks ago, I probably wouldn't have been able to answer that question.
But God used a very special Bible/book study to reveal some much needed work that needed to be done.
(the book is His Chosen Bride by Jennifer Lamp. I highly recommend it!)
The last chapter we read in this study was on discipline.
So guess what I've been convicted of?
Yep! You got it. Discipline, or in this case, lack thereof.
My eyes were opened to just how lazy I've been lately.
And it's not just in one area. Oh no, it's the whole shabang.
Everything from getting up in the morning to focusing in school to reading my Bible every morning to cleaning. That's just to name a few.
I also feel like I've been slacking at work too.
I was reading in 2 Timothy and when I came to chapter 2 I read that God calls us to be hard workers.
HARD.WORKERS
How is God glorified through laziness and grumpy attitudes?
I'll answer that for you: He's not.
We dishonor Him.
I do NOT want to live a life that's dishonoring to my Savior.
But I can't just do that by myself.
I've been praying that God will give me a spirit of discipline and HARD WORK.
I've realized that this can all be helped if I could just get up in the morning.
It seems like no matter what time I go to bed, either really early or really late, I just can't bring myself to climb out of bed. Especially in the winter. My bed is warm and cozy, and the outside world is, well, not.
I know that this above all needs work.
Progress is slow and some days are better than others.
But God is good, and I know that He will help me become more and more like Him.
Another thing that I've realized is that home schooling requires a totally different type of discipline.
I knew that already, but it's different when you're actually in it.
Coming back to home schooling after three years of going to public school has been a tough transition and I have to say I don't quite have it down yet.
I love the many benefits of home schooling, but sometimes it's a bit overwhelming.
Again, God is good, and I have seen His hand guide me along.

Here's the verse from 2 Timothy that really convicted me: (v. 15) Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Seek God.
Always.

Love,
Katie :)

A Little Catching Up

It's so hard to watch blogging fall farther and farther behind.
Ah well, such is life I suppose.
Sometime soon here I'm hoping to be able to write a nice long detailed post. :)

Here's a cool video to keep you company in my absence ;)
(and yes I do realize Christmas is over....is there a rule about when you're supposed to STOP?)



Some little tidbits of news you might enjoy:
- I got my little sister hooked on Hannah Montana.
- I got two Christmas items in the mail yesterday: one from Alaska and one from Ohio. Both of them were from dear CollegePlus! sisters.
- Last night, one of my wonderful "older sisters" got ENGAGED!!!! I'm so excited for the happy couple :D :D :D
- Spending a lot of time with my family recently has shown just how hilarious each member really is.

Happy Wednesday!!

Love,
Katie :)

What a Wonderful Christmas

                                                     Source: typetypetypeshop.com via Katie on Pinterest

What a wonderful Christmas this has been.
And it isn't even over yet. :)
It's been celebrated with my wonderful family and friends.
I'm so thankful for everything my Savior has given me.
This year I'm especially thankful for the gift of salvation.
It's become so very precious and real to me.
Thank you, Jesus, that You came to earth to die for sinners like me. Thank you that you came so that you may suffer in this world of sin WITHOUT sin, and that you are ever interceding for us. May I continue to grow in my knowledge of you.
I hope y'all are having a wonderful CHRISTmas season.
Here's one of my favorite Christmas songs ever.
May God be glorified in everything!



Love,
Katie :)

This and That

                                                                 Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

This blog has been quiet for a while and I apologize!!
I'm still trying to get into the swing of things.
Life is still crazy between school and work and now getting ready for Christmas.
I have a government final tonight that I need to study for.
Grandparents' company to prepare for.
Christmas cookies to bake.
I could go on and on, BUT I'll save you the trouble.

Life here is pretty cold in the 12th coldest city in the United States. (yeah, that's right. 12TH COLDEST! if you don't believe me...look it up)
Thankfully the snow melted.
It needs to come back on Christmas Eve, and leave again on Boxing Day.

Here's some cool links for you to take a look at :)

My friend Ruthiey blogs about drama and how it actually can be a good thing! (props to all drama queens)

Sunday night my church had a night of Christmas music in which my family sang, my brothers' band performed, and the Nativity scene  was reenacted.

Hope you're having a great week!!

Love,
Katie :)

School and Christmas and such

                                                  Source: favim.com via Katie on Pinterest

I love Christmas.
Just not winter.
(that is my quote of the day.)
A friend of mine from work was actually supposed to come over and bake Christmas cookies with me today, but unfortunately, busy-ness pushed it until next week.
Baking Christmas cookies is one of my favorite Christmas pastimes.
My mom gives us the day off school in order to stock our pantry full of home baked cookie goodness.
We have lots of fun cutting out snowmen, angels, stars, etc., and decorating them to our hearts' content.
It's a wonderful tradition that I wouldn't give up for the world :)

School is crazy town right now.
It involves lots of freshmen in college type stuff.
Boring lectures where they teach you "vital" skills.
Math and physics are really hard.
I can't wait until I can start an actual routine.
I'm still waiting for that part of the school year to kick in.
On the plus side, I submitted my very first assignment for CollegePlus! today!!
I was pretty excited about that!

I hope you're having a wonderful pre-Christmas season :D

Love,
Katie :)

Thanksgiving In Pictures

Thanksgiving this year was BEYOND wonderful :)
I have so much to be thankful for, and I got to spend with some of the best people on earth: my family.
God is so good and has blessed me beyond words.
So here's the story...(in pictures of course. I apologize for the blurriness of them. They were taken with my iPod :P)

We headed out to my granparents Wednesday night, and this picture does NOT do the beautiful sunset justice!

To celebrate my grandparents' Swedish heritage...

...we stopped at a Swedish grocery store in Oakland, NE (the Swedish capital of NE)...

...to get Knackebrod. (it's like a HUGE cracker).

When we arrived, my grandma had pie waiting for us!

My daddy - happy with his pie and coffee!

And since some of us think that pie is the worst dessert ever invented, there were also cookies. My grandma makes the best cookies over. Hands down. No questions asked.

My baby cakes kept a close eye on ALLLL the food!

We hung out with my grandparents and talked and ate and watched basketball. (Ryan and Tyler and I stayed up with my grandpa and watched Duke win the Maui Invitational :D)

Enjoying yummy food and awesome people.

Meddie and I got bored and started taking pictures <3

Thanksgiving morning dawned bright and warm. So most of us decided to go on a walk :)

I came home to find the football game on....

....and the table set!!!!!

LET THEM EAT CAKE, er, THANKSGIVING DINNER!

As we got ready to leave that night....

....poor Cody got so nervous that he'd get left behind. (it was rather cute to watch)

So that was my Thanksgiving :)
I'm so thankful for many things that I don't even know where to start!
But what I'm most grateful for this year is the wonderful gift of salvation purchased by our Savior.
And that He chose ME to be His child...not by anything that I had done. He loved me and has a plan for me :)
God is good and I just can't praise Him enough!!!

(I worked Black Friday, 1-10 PM....it sounded horrible, but God's grace did MORE than enough. I couldn't have asked for more :) )
Have a blessed Sunday!

Love,
Katie :)