Celebrate!

Celebrate! is my new theme in life. It's kind of like "find something to be happy about," but I'm going with the word celebrate. In church on Sunday, we talked about celebrating life, Jesus, blessings, anything. The text was Nehemiah, when the people claimed the joy of the Lord as their strength. They were basically partying after the Law was read, soon after the wall was rebuilt. It was certainly a time of celebration for them.

So, what things am I celebrating this week?

1. I got my new mattress last weekend, and it is amazing. I've never owned a brand new mattress, I can't tell you how happy I am about this!

2. I have great friends here - some who took me in last night when my power was out at my house!

3. I have needed a dresser, but too cheap to buy one. Today, I walked into my school building, and no lie---there was a dresser in the hallway with a sign on it that said, "FREE." It's got deep drawers, and though it's not in perfect condition by looks, it's certainly usable! So, I'm celebrating that! I grabbed the sign, flipped it, and wrote my name on it. Now, I just have to find someone to drive it to my house.

4. I had a great weekend with a couple friends. They go to Liberty University, but I actually know them from back in Michigan. Spending time with them was like a mini-vacation for me.

5. Christian friends are definitely something I want to celebrate! I've had some amazing conversations with friends about many topics. Fellowship and communication are great tools for spiritual growth.

6. My job! Today, I was sitting there, eating lunch, enjoying the kids, and thinking, "Wow, I get paid to play around with kids all day." Yeah, there's a lot of tedious work, chasing down missing papers, dealing with some parents, grading papers, making lessons ... but really, overall, it's an amazing job that I absolutely love. Plus, I get summers off!