What I'm Listening To:

Howdy... and some ramblings

No, I'm not American. Howdy is a normal part of our family's vocabulary. It is not unusual for one of my brothers to say 'Howdy' with a perfectly serious look on his face, speaking to someone outside of our family. People may give them an odd look, but they see nothing strange about using the word. :)

The last time I posted was January 30. Since then I have: taken part in a play, started working as a cook/waitress in a small town restaurant, finished grade 12, graduated, participated in my last trip with our homeschool group :(, gone camping, and perhaps most importantly, confessed my faith before the church.

I am excited to be done school. I am hoping to be able to work full time for a while, and after that I plan to attend New Life Midwifery School. (I'm not sure if their website is working right now as I can't seem to get on to it, but hopefully it will be soon?) This school is in the Philippines! It is run by a mission centre. The funds to run the clinic come from the students' tuition. All the information is on the website. I just found the blog of a woman who went to school there and now works in Sudan, and another blog of a woman who just moved to the Philippines to attend this school. The exciting thing about the second blog is that the woman who writes it will likely be there when I start!! Now I must clarify that these plans are what I believe the Lord is leading me to right now. They may change. Having this goal has given me peace and motivation. It sure helps on a day when I don't want to go work in a busy, hot, steamy kitchen to know that it has a purpose: saving for school. However, I know God has a plan for how I can best serve Him. I hope it includes going to this school, but His will be done.

Now for a picture. Two very good things late at night: The Lord of the Rings trilogy and chocolate. ♥

Pretty Pictures (for lack of a better title)

Notice the rainbow in the bottom left corner above. Below is a close-up of the rainbow.

The picture below is one I took at camp in July.

And this is something that hangs on my bulletin board. A friend wrote it out for me.

Justine

Crazy Life in a Big Family

We have so much to laugh over, living as we do in a house with 12 people. Some days it seems more like so much to sigh over, but hey, that happens.
We have a little girl. That means cute little dresses, dolls, an imaginary world where everyone is some animal or other, Papa Rabbit and Mama Puppy and Grandpa Squeaky (why do I have to be Grandpa Squeaky?). It means excitement over pretty shoes, crying for chocolate at 2 am, and loving going places and seeing people.
We have four young boys. Boys mean noise and rowdiness. It means telling lame jokes on the way to church, forming a choir to sing Jingle Bells when a big sister comes in to put them to bed, arguing over Fords and Chevys and Dodges, pretending to be mountain ibexes on the stairs, and always making the sound effects of a whole battalion of artillery.
We have five "big girls". We stress over what we are going to do with the rest of our lives (as if it's in our hands), jostle for the mirror on Sunday mornings, have late night conferences sitting on the bed talking about anything, get hyper over card games, and generally have fun. Another thing we do is silent communication. One time our family was at our cousin's place and there were quite a few other people there, most of whom we didn't know. The five of us were hanging out with three other girls whom we had just met. I came in with a coke. Leah raised her eyebrows and gave a little smile. I shook my head. Leah gave me a pleading look. I rolled my eyes and went out to get her a coke. The other girls said, "Whoa, what just happened there?" We thought, "What, we do that all the time."
We have two amazing parents. The best thing about them is they are strict but reasonable. We have rules, but they are not arbitrary. They make sense. My parents love each other and us a lot.
We have so much to be thankful for in our family.

The main floor part of our addition has been finished for quite a while and we are enjoying it. The basement is almost finished and then we can move in! So exciting!

I have a new watch. My parents found it in a parking lot. :) Now I have a watch that is fancier than I would have bought myself, and I got it free. :))

Justine

Quotes from my Brothers (and Sister)

Thomas: "I know why people kidnap people - because they want more kids!"

Thomas: "Is it illegal to fight a robot?"

Gavin: "If it's a police robot then maybe."

Thomas: "Dad, do you know what it feels like when I eat Rice Krispies? It feels like I'm having a heart attack." And then, "I just heard my day imagination. I put a bite in my mouth and I heard a bang."

Nadia is very prompt to say thank-you when she is given something. But if she is not responded to with a "You're welcome" she'll scold, "Say me welcome!"

Nadia: "Mom, keep me safe!"

Mom: "From what?"

Nadia: "From the lion."

Mom: "The lion?"

Nadia: "Justine is a lion."

What I'm Wearing

Ah... pictures again! And I'm posting twice in ten days! (You are supposed to cheer here, by the way. lol just kidding)

So... another blogger was talking about how magazines etc. portray beauty in one specific way, and that way is unrealistic (photoshopped/airbrushed models), and she suggested people should put up pictures of themselves so that we have a more varied and realistic portrayal of what people look like. I thought that was a good idea so here are some pictures of what I am wearing tonight.

For most of today I was wearing old clothes. Old clothes are better suited to such activities as cutting the grass and working on the van. :) So after I came inside rather cold and dirty, I had a (hot!) shower and dressed up just for fun.

This fall I have been working on dressing more nicely. Last winter I usually wore one or other of two cozy warm hoodies. The problem with that was one was too large and the other a bit ragged. All summer I wore clothes suitable for working/being active since we were working on our house, I was working with my dad, and when we went out it was to play soccer or do some other outdoor activity.
In August we went to Value Village and found some stuff for winter and I made sure to get dressier, better looking clothes.

This outfit's info:

Sweater: Suzy Shier (I think) bought at Value Village

Jeans: Bluenotes, bought at Value Village (If I keep up with the posting an outfit thing, you'll be seeing a lot of these jeans. I love them and they are my only good pair.)

Justine

P.S. Value Village is a great place to shop. If you make sure you leave yourself enough time, you can find some really nice things for a fraction of what they cost new.

My Story Right Now

A blog writer, here, has been posting lately about writing your story. I actually haven't read many of the posts, but the snippets that come up on the blogger dashboard have been inspiring me.
My story. Where shall I start? Maybe with the land I live in.
When we moved to this area five years ago, it was ugly. Bare brown fields, November's grey skies, mud, rain. The land was flat. Not perfectly flat, but flat enough to make a girl who'd grown up among hills and forests feel exposed. There were no wild places, only empty fields of corn and soybean stubble with here and there a tame little forest. Worse yet, it was foreign. It held no little remembrances of fun or friends or events that had marked my life before. The road ways were unfamiliar.
Fast forward five years. The land is interesting. The next field is planted with soybeans, and we know who owns it and who is buying it from him and why. The field across the road is planted in soybeans too, though according to the rules of crop rotation, it should be corn. Since the spring was so wet, the farmer couldn't plant before June 15, after which one cannot get crop insurance for corn, so he planted soybeans. The roadways are no longer strange, for we can say, "That is so and so's road" or "That's the interesting way to go to soccer." The big openness of this land is actually considered an asset now. I know the joy of standing on a hill under a wide blue sky and seeing all the farms around and turning to see the town three km away. The scenes of this land are tied up with the happenings and milestones of the last five years, and I love this land so that it seems the most beautiful place in the world.
Do you have a story?
Justine