Busy week so far. Monday I had an interview at Providence School, which got cancelled because of Jeanne. Tuesday I taught the Homeschool Orchestra (two groups, everything from violin to bass). Their usual teacher was out of town, so I got the opportunity to work with these kids Tuesday and then again on Friday. Wednesday (that's today) I actually interviewed at Providence. It was wonderful. They want me to teach music three days a week to the K through 3rd grade classes, and the school is actually small enough I'll be able to see all the kids within a week. The school environment seemed really great, and the other music teacher (who will be doing 4th grade and up) was really excited about having me come. She and the principal were very impressed with my portfolio, so if any of you UNF folks wind up doing education, the professors are telling the truth when they say that you *will* use your portfolio! Those bazillion hours of stress and work are (probably) worth it!

As I was driving home, I realized that, assuming I take this position, I will have five jobs. How crazy is that? Two different jobs teaching private violin lessons, then one teaching group violin lessons after school, then one substitute teaching, and teaching part-time at Providence. Of course, only the last two of those are more than two hours per week. The rest range from half an hour per week to two hours per week. And really, they're all teaching music--just different methods.

But I'm really praying about accepting the Providence position, and so far I think it's a go. Please pray I make the decision God wants me to, not just the one I want to do! There's even a possibility of the position becoming full-time later on, but right now I'm just concerned with doing the part-time position. I'll have to be "on the cart," which means I'll be moving around from room to room with just whatever musical instruments and such that I can fit on a small wheeled cart. That's not my favorite way to do things, but I'm willing to do it if God reassures me that it's going to work out.

Perhaps I'm just spazzing a little because of all the stuff I still have to do this week (make this decision, then do lots of prep work for starting my after-school string program). Just pray for me! I'm praying for all of you. (Yes I am--if you think I'm not, leave a comment and ask if I've been praying for you--or do it face to face!) Sorry if this post is a little incoherent--I'm tired right now.

Before I close, let me tell you something to do next time we have a hurricane in the middle of the night (shall we shoot for three months in a row?) Station yourself inside a big window where you can watch the wind whip the trees all around. Listen to the soundtrack from The Village. Whatever you think of the movie, Hillary Hahn is a great violinist. The rippling arpeggios fit perfectly with wind and storms. Then it gets to about track 4 or so, when they introduce Those We Must Not Speak Of, and the experience changes from a wonderful, wild storm to a spooky, scary storm! It's a little freaky when you're not expecting it!

Over the last few days we've been having trouble with the phone line here at my house. Periodically the phone will quit working--no dial tone, no nothing. When people try to call us, they just get a busy signal. The phone company is supposed to come fix it Wednesday, but until then we never know when we'll have a working phone and internet connection. So if you try to call Lauren or me and get a busy signal, keep trying, or maybe send an e-mail. I'm going to try to go to the library or someplace and check my e-mail whenever the phone line decides to work, and Lauren can check hers at school. Hopefully on Wednesday they'll be able to find and fix the problem. It's just really weird not to be able to pick up the phone and talk to someone!

Here's a notice for the few human beings who are as pale as I am: When you leave the beach to prevent sunburn, don't forget to close the sunroof at the same time, or you will still continue to bake! Yes, I didn't think about that, and yes, I am sunburned on my shoulders and knees. But I had a good time anyway. Danny B. had another day off today since schools were closed, and he's been wanting to go drive on the beach at Huguenot Park. I didn't have any lessons to teach today, so we went out there, and I found a few cool shells. But in the future I will consider sources of sunlight. And re-acquaint myself with my best friend, the bottle of 50 SPF sunscreen. To all of you with natural, built-in sunscreen, you don't know how lucky you are!

In other news, our neighborhood has regained power! My mom is still getting nervous every time we have a thunderstorm, though. If we were to lose power at this point, I'm sure it would be quite some time before they fixed it!

Enjoy the weekend, everyone.

Today I went to the beach with Chris, Lauren, and my mom. We didn't go in the water, we just walked up and down the beach from Orange Street almost to the pier. The sand was very soft (even the wet part), so my legs were very tired by the time we got back to the car. People say you should go to the beach after a storm to see all kinds of cool stuff washed up on shore. However, I think the hurricane must have been too big of a storm. There was seaweed and some broken shells, and a few bottles, but nothing very interesting.

We are the only people in our neighborhood to have kept our electricity all this time. Our neighbors heard it might be until Saturday before they get power restored! We're trying to help out with ice and stuff, but there's only so much we can do. Hopefully power gets restored soon.

My family went with Dan Bauerkemper to see The Village last night. Rather thought-provoking, but there were several big plot holes. How could such a tiny settlement be self-sustaining? They would need to have metal and fabric shipped in, yet even the Elders were supposed to never go out of the Village, and no one from the outside world was allowed to go in. That said, there is the whole idea of being able to get rid of evil by getting rid of evil society. Back at the beginning of the 20th century, many people espoused the belief that evil is not inherent in humanity--that people are corrupted only by contact with corrupted society. In the movie, the people had carefully excluded evil society, yet Noah, the one who was most "innocent," acted in an evil manner. Not only that, but those who were trying to create Utopia did so by using lies and fear. This gives a very weak foothold to those who try to claim moral superiority in leading the people. Unfortunately, there is no way to get rid of evil in society. It is inherent in each of us, and can only be gotten rid of by re-creating individuals so that "old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

We haven't had a hurricane in Jacksonville since forty years ago when Dora hit--twice. So I can think about this in one of two ways. Either it's, "Hey, we haven't had a hurricane in forty years--we're pretty safe," or it's, "We haven't had a hurricane in forty years--we're due for a bad one." We'll see which way it goes this weekend.

So are we going to be under hurricane warning every other weekend? :-P

BTW, assuming we're not in the middle of a terrible storm, we're having a party Sunday night after church. Everyone is invited! (If you're not sure how to get here, hit the "contact me" link.)

First: Did you vote today? If you don't have any idea who to vote for, get online and find out about the candidates. Yes, it's just a primary, but you still need to go out and vote!

Second: Happy birthday to Lauren! (She voted on her birthday.) She's wearing a shirt and shoes she got for her birthday, so be sure to compliment her. I must say, the shirt is rather appropriate for her, and especially applicable during the school semester! ;-) Lauren, I hope you have a wonderful day and a great year.

I'm a bad blogger--it's been almost a week since I've posted. One reason for that is that the subject that's been on my mind the most was Lauren's surprise birthday party, and I couldn't say anything about that until after Friday night. So happy birthday Lauren (a day early)! Tomorrow she will be 21. She just got one of her birthday presents from our parents--a set of two-way radios. She got them early so she can use them tomorrow, and she's having fun figuring out how to use them. Did you know you have to have an FCC license to use them, even though they're basically glorified walkie-talkies?

I've been redecorating my room, and part of that is putting in new curtains. One set is vintage white curtains with pink eyelet embroidery, and the other set (that I'm making to coordinate with the vintage ones) is white eyelet with pink embroidery. I'm having to put new curtain rod hardware into the wall, and it's becoming a lot more trouble than I was planning on. Because Lauren's old bed is in the way, I can't get the drill to the place on the wall where I'm trying to put the curtain rod. (Actually, Daddy is doing the drilling--I'm doing the saying where the drilling should be.) The beds in my room are loft beds, which means the bed is set up on top of a bookcase and a chest of drawers. That means I had to pick up the bed from its location at head height and, once the pegs got out of the holes in the top of the furniture, scoot it over several inches. If that sentence was hard to understand, it was even harder to actually do. But it's done now, so that's good.

I've actually gone to Home Depot twice in the past week, and I need to go again tomorrow. The first time I was shopping with my mom who was looking at exterior house colors. I was trying to find spray paint and wood putty to fix a chair in my room. In the second trip I actually got the paint (I hadn't been sure if it would match or not). This final trip I'll be getting *another* can of paint because I didn't have enough. So it looks like my dad's saying about every job requiring three trips to Home Depot is true! But I'm rather proud of my skills as a handywoman. Next thing you know, I'll be fixing the plumbing! J/k, not really. We ladies have to leave some jobs for the gentlemen. ;-)

I haven't had any really deep thoughts in the last couple of days, but I figured I should post anyway.

I started a new violin student this evening. I think she's about five years old. She played violin for about two months back in February and March, so she thinks she knows stuff, but when I ask her to do anything, she's forgotten how. Six months is a long time for a five-year-old! She's also very precocious and likes doing things her own way. For example, when I asked her to put the violin on her shoulder, she started off with it on her head, then moved it to her nose. But I've had another student who really prepared me for this one--he was an ADD four-year-old boy! If you ever want to test your patience and see how well you can channel someone else's energy into something productive, try teaching violin to a hyper four-year-old boy!

I'm trying to redo the decor in my bedroom, and I'm looking for a lamp. You'd think it would be fairly easy to find a pink or white lamp, especially since pink is a popular color right now. Not so. There is just one in all the stores I've looked in that would be good, but I was trying to spend less than $25, and it costs exactly $25, plus whatever I spend to get a more interesting-looking shade. But then I went to a lamp store where most everything was around $100, so now spending $25 doesn't seem so bad. It's just that I don't want to spend tons of money on a lamp I might not be able to use in my decor when I move out, which I will presumably do in the next few years. Oh, well.

Every time I try to type a "br" tag to make line breaks, I try to type "bre"! :-P

I hope everyone who is starting school this week is having a good time with their classes. Monday I went to UNF orchestra (we didn't play, we just met and talked), and I met a new freshman girl. She's somewhat freaked out about the whole thing--specifically orchestra, but I think all of college is scaring her right now. I talked to her for quite some time, and I think I was able to help. I'm going to try to become friends with her and see if she's got a church she's going to and so on. Hopefully I can be a witness to her if she's not saved, or an encouragement to her if she is.

This is the most up-in-the-air my life has ever been. I figured out in my senior year of high school what I wanted to major in, and UNF offered both the major and scholarships, so I didn't really have to make decisions there. When I was going through all the stuff with my hands I was afraid I was going to have to come up with a new major and all, but God healed me, so I didn't have to make a new decision. Now I've got a very part-time job, and all kinds of decisions to make. I won't go into everything, because it's late and I have to get up early tomorrow morning to get my oil changed before I go shopping for all kinds of stuff (Lauren, I might even pick up a present for your birthday :-P ).

Because of this, I've been thinking about how to find God's will. I've always heard that you should just pursue God, and He will guide you into His will. I had pretty much just let that go in one ear and out the other. But it is very well supported by Rom. 12:2, which says to be "transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." That certainly sounds to me like if I am being a living sacrifice (verse 1) and allowing God to transform me, that He will show me His will. But as I think I said in my last entry, there's a big difference between knowing that something is true and actually knowing it through experience. So here we go with experience! God's already proved that He keeps His end of the bargain.

Last night's sermon and a discussion we had recently got me to thinking about counting trials under the "asset column." I was trying to think of some ways in which problems I have had have worked out to the glory of God. I knew there was supposed to be something good there, because God promises it, but I hadn't recently sat down and tried to find it.

The first time I ever really thought about it was a few years back when I was in tae kwon do. I had failed my red belt testing because I didn't break the board with my hand technique. My mother told me to remember how it feels to fail. That failure (whether or not you could call it a "trial" or "testing") helped me to be more understanding of others' failures. I tend to be pretty sharp in a lot of stuff, especially academically, and I would normally be annoyed when people seem to be acting stupid. But failing that testing reminded me that everyone fails sometimes, and when we do, we want people to be understanding, not to discard us as idiots.

A much bigger trial came during the last several years. During the fall of my sophomore semester I started having a tingling feeling in my fingers, especially when I would play violin. Over the course of the year it worsened. I was constantly wearing wrist braces, taking multiple medications that put me to sleep (or messed with my brains so bad I could almost as well have been asleep), and leaving red fingernail marks in my arms from trying to stop the pain. The doctors couldn't diagnose me (actually, they gave me about five, and the last one was a vague and inaccurate "overuse injury"). I couldn't take notes in class, or even take long written quizzes, and I couldn't play violin. As far as I could tell, I might not be able to have the one career I wanted or even live on my own and raise a family. Through a series of miracles (e-mail me if you want the long version), God has almost entirely healed me. That alone is enough to bring Him glory from me. I also have a much greater trust of God than I did before--He really does know what He's doing! All the people who were praying for me over those three years saw their prayers answered. I'm not at a place where I would ever want to go through that again, but as I look back I can now start to rejoice because of the results I see.

It's difficult to see good in trials as you're going through them--like not being able to see the mountain because you're in a tunnel--but God has promised that the good is there. Hopefully as the years go by I'll find more ways in which this trial has glorified God, but I am sure there are other ways I won?t find out about until Heaven. I would like to hear some of the ways God has worked your trials to his glory, if you don?t mind. (BTW, the sermon text was James 1:2-4, if any of you are confused as to what I'm talking about).

Disclaimer 1--I don't want this to be a game of, "so you think that was bad?" If it was a trial to you, and you?ve seen how God was glorified in it, I would like to hear!

Disclaimer 2--I've never written about this (not even in my private journals, because when I was going through it, I couldn't write). I want to give God all the glory due Him without sounding like I'm complaining. If you think I should have explained more about what God did for me or less about the pain, please let me know!