May the Forth Be with You!

I've done "Birthday Posts" before. Apparently not as often as I thought 'cause I could only find TWO entries. But I guess birthday's only happen once a year (or so)...I guess it'd be easy to skip one...

especially if you were in Illinois.

training at a coffee shop.

preparing to open a shop of your own. 

on your 18th birthday.

 GIVE ME SOME SLACK, PEOPLE!

Ok. No one is bothering me about it.

 In fact, everyone is SO disinterested, that they've stopped reading my blog completely. 

You're the only one left.

{notreallybutmaybe}

Anyway. If you're STILL interested. 

OR if you're really in desperate need of a distraction. 

OR you're just a huge fan of procrastination...

here are the links to a couple of previous birthday posts I've done...

Seventeen

Nineteen

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Two. Zero.

Veinte.

Vingt.

Venti.

Zwanzig.

Twenty.

I'm a SCORE old.

SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The End.

the start of the ending {to a "meh" week}

I don't really know what this blog post will end up being about, but I feel like I need to update.

Every once in a while, I get the urge to process through the thoughts in my brain. 

And that usually means that I need to WRITE. 

Ah ha! That's what the B.L.O.G. is for!

Ok. I know what to write about now. I've got it...

I'm gonna tell you all a  story about God's faithfulness in my life.

'Cause, let me to you...He's sooooooooooooooooooo awesome!

So stinkin' great. I can hardly stand it.

WOOHOOOOO!

Ok. Back on task.

This past week has been one of those "meh" weeks for me.

 Life has just been...meh.

There's really no other why to explain it.

Maybe you'll understand, maybe you won't.

Maybe you never ever ever have weeks that pass by in a haze. 

Everything seems just a little more dull.

Everything seems less exciting.

Everything seems more useless.

{Sorry if this is depressing any of you, but it's true! And you'll get nothing but truth from me.}

Finally, this afternoon, I was completely fed up with everything.

Ev.er.y.thang.

Are any of you like me in that you have to talk out loud (or write things down) to really process through your thoughts?

I hope so.

I hope I'm not the only human being like this.

EKK!

ANYWAY...I was doing just that (talking about my thoughts) with my dad...and a couple of things he said made me realize that maybe, just maybe, this past week was a valley God took my through. 

A trial I was SUPPOSED to go through...so I could come to a deeper realization of who Christ is in my life, who He should be in my life, and what I'm going to do about it.

MIND BLOWN!

It's just kind of one of those things that you hear about sooo much 

that you forget to remember that He does that everything so often.

Valleys. Trials. Tests. Lessons. Sanctification. Purification. 

They're all key words that I didn't know I'd grown callus to. 

I prayed that God would show me His love again. 

In the kind of way that I could FEEL it.

I wanted to get fired up again!

I don't want to be callus towards anything He has to teach me!

Ever!

NEVER!

NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER!!!!!

So a little while later, I was reading my Beth Moore bible study (The Beloved Disciple)...and the chapter (21) for this week JUST SO HAPPENS to talk about satisfaction in Christ.

 About being completely on fire for Him!

 About being complete in Him! 

Whole in Him! 

WOOOHOOOO!

I felt renewed as I read & thought about this subject. 

Songs & verses came to mind all with a common theme.

It's like...Someone...somewhere...knew exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it.

Coincidence? I think not.

This seems like a good spot to stop writing. So I will. 

I have a feeling this story isn't over. 

Another Miracle!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Olive Mae Schick

"Ollie"

Born 3/29/12 @ 1:31am
7lbs 5oz
20" long

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Thank You, Jesus, 

for the safe arrival of little Ollie!

Congratulations to Ryan & Katy!

I know you'll both be awesome parents!

Showers of Love,

Aunt Katie

and it's only monday!

Sometimes..I feel like Sally from Cars. 

You know...Cars. 

The movie about...Cars.

...Yeah. Anyway. I'm NOT saying that I feel like a steel blue porsche.

But in the movie, Sally sees what a town used to be (even though she was never an eye-witness)

 and longs for the day when other people will get as excited as she is about the town's potential. 

In that way, there are some similarities between myself & Lightning Mcqueen's Gal.

********************

{The following is taken from my journal entry earlier this afternoon}

I'm sitting by myself in front of what used to be one of the nicest houses in Magdalena.

Certain details still tell the story of it's former glory.

Now it's just sitting here.

Rotting.

An old man who lives three doors down just got escorted out of his house by his daughter

 (I don't actually know if it's his daughter...I'm just guessing & it sounds nice), and it looks like he's gonna walk up and down the street a little until he feel that he's had a sufficient workout.

Then he'll sit and enjoy the late afternoon sunshine.

As he walked past the before mentioned mansion-house, he looked up, paused, then kept on with his laps. It got me thinking...this man probably remembers what this town was like 40 years ago. 

He might have even known the original owners of some of these neat places!

What does he think when he sees these buildings now?

One couldn't help but be nostalgic!

{Man alive...I'm being nostalgic about these places and I wasn't even alive 40 years ago...much less living in Mexico!!!}

Magdalena was named a

 "Pueblo Magico" last week.

That means that the government recognizes the cultural & historical significance of the town and will support programs to restore and preserve said culture & history.

Um...I'm excited!!!!

I just went on my periodic trip to the public library.

These trips are depressing and I go, for the soul purpose, to die a little on the inside.

Usually, I go for about 2 minutes.

I look at the poor selection of books, ask the lady how I can help better the place, get told I can't, then walk out...praying that things will change.

Welllllll!

This time was different!

Very different indeed!

Apparently this whole "Pueblo Magico" gig is working like a charm!

I walk in and am shocked by how clean and organized everything looks!

The place had been completely reorganized!

These annoying, useless nooks has been torn out and replaced by tables, chairs, desks & a few computers.

The place looked larger, smelled better, and was IN USE!

EKKKKK!

EXCITEMENT!!!

Ok. So...the selection of books might still be limited...but at least they had thrown out the old, moldy & torn books and had REPLACED them!

Before, I was told that I couldn't donated books because there were no shelves to put them on...

This time I was told that I could bring a whole box of books if I wanted!

And I want to!

Huzzah!

It's a start...and it's a good one.

vat a veek!

I am exhausted. 

But the good kind of exhausted.

The kind that stems from the joy of spending time with family & friends,

the excitement & emotions that comes from weddings,

the sleep deprived nights because you were having a good talk...

have you ever noticed how the conversation always gets good right when you were planning on heading to bed?

It's the time now where I just want to turn my brain off and get back into my normal routine. 

I've spent all of my emotions in the past week.

Oh! But it was such a good week.

I did this & that.

I went here & there.

I laughed.

I cried.

I ranted.

I raved.

I'm back home right now...

sitting on my couch.

My cat must be really excited to see me home because she's just curled up like a cute little fluff ball on my lap staring at me with those adorable owl-like eyes. purring!

I almost can't stand it.

It's so cute.

Welp. I'm off to bed now...

tomorrow's Monday!

Come by my shop if you want caramel rolls, pumpkin rolls, a coffee, a book, a chat...

or to laugh at the bags under my eyes.

I'm sure they're there.

{sigh. i feel so blessed.}

el mentiroso

So lately, I've just really been thinking about lies & how often I believe them.

I mean...it's super important to recognize the lies you're believing and bring them to light so Satan can't use them against you...and I'm figuring that out more and more.

I can get super disheartened and frustrated because there's always something.  

Satan tries to fill my head with doubts about myself, my friends, my God. I'm ashamed to admit that I too often believe his lies. But then it's all okay because I have the Father of Light & Truth beside me, giving me grace daily to overcome the Devil & his evil plans for me...

This morning I was listening to music while getting ready for the day...the songs on the record I had playing are like sermon after sermon...but the best kind. 'Cause they're energetic and use lyrics like "old dude" and "I feel so good I could SCREAM!....anyway...

There's a song on this record that is sung from Satan's perspective on how no one believes he even exists, so they're not looking out for his lies anymore.

{It's kind of "Screwtape Letter"-ish.} 

While I was listening to the song, I realized that even those of us that know all too well how real Satan is, and how often he's working towards our destruction, can (and probably will) believe his lies. We need to be in God's word and fill our minds & hearts with HIS TRUTH. We need to fill our prayers with confession of the things we're believing. We need to ask our Good Father to give us discernment. 

There's a part of this song that goes: 

"Oh, my job keeps getting easier
As day slips into day
The magazines, the newspapers
Print every word I say
This world is just my spinning top
It's all like childs-play
You know, I dream that it will never stop
But I know it's not that way

Still my work goes on and on
Always stronger than before
I'm gonna make it dark before the dawn 
Since no one believes in me anymore
Well now I used to have to sneak around
But now they just open their doors
You know, no one watches for my tricks 
Since no one believes in me anymore"

Satan can and will use any method of media, communication, etc. to get his lies into our heads.

He doesn't care that ultimately he'll lose the battle...he's gonna bring everyone he can down with him in the mean time.

I'm not really going anywhere with this...I just wanted to get these thoughts out.

When I leave thoughts floating around in my head, they never really get processed through. 

And then I go crazy.

0_O

look out the window!

So here I am at Sed...sitting at one of my favorite places in the whole shop...looking out the front window.

I loveeeeeee people watching so much!

I look forward to flying places because airports are the #1 spot in the whole wide world to people watch.

It's true...and if you've never done it - you're totally missing out.

I actually have a little black notebook I keep with me when I'm traveling and, in it, I write down all of my thoughts while people watching.

It's super entertaining to go back and read. 

If we're ever together while traveling - you should probably have a look at it.

There are two little boys looking at my book display right in front of me.

It's always funny to watch people on the street read book titles from the window 'cause they have to squint their eyes and cock their heads to read the binding right.

Magdalena has the most interesting people.

Interesting as in...yeah...interesting.

About 60% of the cars that pass by are barely functional...

the other 40% of vehicles are nice. Some are like...super nice.

It's interesting because (in many cases), in Mexico, you are wealthy if you were born into a wealthy family who have been wealthy forever.

Same goes for the more impoverished family.

You're poor 'cause your family has always been poor and many lack the initiative to be forward thinkers.

{as you can imagine, this is crazy frustrating for someone like me}

'Kay so, at my shop, there is like...no parking.

Like...at all.

Which can be annoying 'cause we're between all of the government offices, two banks, a shoe store, a bike shop & a computer appliance store.

There's never any parking on our street. 

...

well....right now there is 'cause it's a lazy, cloudy thursday afternoon.

you heard right...cloudy!

cloudy? cloudy. that's weird for magdalena.

and on days like today...everything slows down even more.

It's been a good day for Sed so far. 

Ok...back to people watching.

The shoestore lady just got back from lunch. 

She's really funny.

She's got super curly hair (like Tess!) that she dyes black. 

She walks really fast & it's always comical when short people walk fast 

'cause their little feet are always shuffling. 

Recently, one of the major political parties set up shop in the building on the corner. 

Most of the people are nice...but I'm a lil' miffed 'cause I really wanted that empty building for my children's museum. Now it seems less possible 'cause the hot shots moved in.

Maybe they'll lose the election & move out!!! 

keep dreaming, katie...they always win.

awh. man!

green SUV. grey truck. blue car. police truck. white car carrying water jugs. police van. middle aged man. nicer police truck. red car. middle aged man. red car. ...... red car. red truck. {popular color!} red truck. blue car. red jeep. idon'tknowwhattocallthatcolor SUV. boy with sucker. mom with two boys. mom in blue car dropping off two little girls. they came to pick up a purse they left behind the other day. they said "thank you"...that's nice. nice girls.