Daily 5 - Day 317

Today's Daily 5:

1. farmer's market with mom this morning
2. home-made hummus from the farmer's market
3. hanging out at Riley Park and the wading pool with A. and A. this afternoon
4. Being outside in the sun a lot today
5. time enjoying family and friends

Daily 5 - Day 316

Today's Daily 5:

1. got an early start today - was nice to get some stuff done fairly early in the day
2. spent the afternoon with my friend J. from high school.  We are actually exactly the same day (we share a birthday!) and it was fun to catch up on the changes in both of our lives since we were last together (and there were quite a few!) and to just talk about life and the issues we're both working through
3. falling asleep to and waking up to worship/teaching from a church in California that I love... I really think it's been useful and helpful in terms of sleeping more peacefully.
4. loving my iphone, and playing games on it occasionally
5. accomplished what was my goal, study wise, for the week

Thankful

The kind of week I've had this week, with it's crazy ups and downs, it's internal struggles causing distraction amidst the need for intense focus, reminds me to be thankful.  To celebrate the little things.  Things like:

1. The fact that it's not even 11am on Friday morning and I've finished making all of the anatomy chapter notes that I set out to accomplish this week.  There's lots of review left, but the notes are done.
2. Hugging friends
3. chocolate
4. a hot shower in between bouts of studying - so thankful that my "office" these days is in mom and dad's basement and comes equipped with a shower and a yoga mat, and three meals a day, plus snacks, all for the low price of some chores around the house and cooking a few of those meals.
5. little notes from friends and family that have brought smiles
6. wearing comfy slippers
7. playing simple games on the internet for a break or a distraction
8. blogging friends
9. favorite quotes.
10. pumpkin cookies
11. a day where focus comes more easily, and the distractions recede for a while
12. falling asleep to and waking up to worship and preaching online from a church I love in California
13. sunshine (finally!)

I'm going to choose to celebrate the simple things that are bringing smiles today.  And remember how grateful I am for each of those little blessings.

Daily 5 - Day 315

Today's Daily 5:

1. popcorn with lots of butter
2. house church - and watching (again for me, the first time for others) Rob Bell's "The God's Aren't Angry"
3. it was just a "good" day, without some of the internal confusion that the last few days have held
4. got lots of studying done, on track for where I want to be by the end of the week, and starting to really hit a groove for being productive.
5. laughing with friends tonight over my "should have kept my mouth shut" moment from earlier in the week, and their shared stories of similar woes.

Sad to Read This

Some of you know that Peru is a nation that God has placed on my heart for a whole lot of reasons, and I tend to follow any international news headlines that come up from Peru fairly closely.

There was an article that I came across in the BBC news today that made me sad on several levels.  On the level of someone who cares about the rights of indigenous people, and on the level of someone who prays for the country of Peru, and on the level of someone who cares in increasing amounts about environmental destruction and sees the refusal of the Peruvian president to sign this bill into law as an open door for destruction of the Peruvian amazon, clothed in the guise of "development."

Peru Leader Rejects Indigenous Land Rights Law