Who Is Erika Anyway?

  At the beginning of this glorious advent season our pastor posed this thought. "Have the heart of Mary." He did an excellent sermon on this idea and it got me going on my own study. (I love those moments when you are deeply inspired to really search and study God's word)   Mary has always been my favorite character in the Christmas story (yes aside from Jesus, but he already has my heart and now I am learning to have Mary's) These last few years I think I have paid more attention to her because she could have been close to my age. I had the fairly normal thoughts of She was planning on being married by now. I couldn't imagine being married at this point in my life. She was so brave.  Yes, all of these things are true. However, there is more to Mary as you dig deeper.   For me I had to look at Mary in a more personal light. How about this? You are young girl/woman from the line of David, living in your hometown, doing life as you always have, you are pledged to...

        My dad is the most incredible man I have ever met. I love that we have little traditions we do together, I love that we can have deep conversations or silly meaningless conversations. I love that he has always made being involved in my life important.  I love that he, like the rest of my family is incredibly supportive.         On a typical day my dad gets up, goes to work, works all day, then either goes and runs errands for the family or comes to a rehearsal or drives us to where we need to be or picks us up from practice. Basically both of my parents work together so no pieces get dropped in our life. If pieces do get dropped we wok together to pick them up or we realize that we can live without it.        Dad and I hung Christmas lights on our house on Saturday and it makes me happy. We have been doing that together for a couple years now and I love the time we spend together. We watch football games together...

     We are so blessed, I am so blessed. I have an amazing family  (as anyone who is a standard reader of this blog will hear me say quite often.) I am in good health and have a warm place to live. Not only do I have clothes on my back, but I have more clothes than I know what to do with.  I have the freedom to school at home and have amazing teachers who are patient and kind. I have sweet, crazy awesome friends who are always there for me and the town where I live is beautiful. These are just some of the basic blessings that come to my mind when asked what I am thankful for. Though the may be basic and mundane. However, these things must not get forgotten in our hearts of gratitude because many are not as fortunate as I am.    At our Thanksgiving Eve service at church last night we were challenged to come up with three things we were thankful for under the categories of Body, Soul, and Spirit. Me, always being shy in groups I was trying very hard not...

 In the season of thankfulness I am truly thankful for my relationship with my brother. Sure we argue and fight like siblings do. However, we are always there for each other too. This last year or maybe these last couple of years it has seemed like my brother has grown up a lot.   He has always been sweet, kind, extremely patient and funny. He is often the first to go out into the cold to retrieve a bag of pellets. Go to the kitchen to get us snacks when I am too lazy to leave the couch ( pitiful I know!!!) He will get that goofy grin on his face in the middle of a seemingly, world ending catastrophe. Because he remembered something funny from one of his TV shows.   I love watching him serve at church. Whether it is being an usher, running sound or taking time to talk to those who need a listening ear. Wednesday nights you can find him running around in the basement of our church leading games at Kid's Club.      At my 16th birthday party he danced with ...

    My mom is an amazing, beautiful, smart, and talented person. I am so lucky to have her as a mother. I also am the one who is often arguing, complaining and rolling my eyes at her. Though I may not always see the full picture clearly and get mad instead. She is still there calmly waiting until I am done freaking out.     My mom knew what she wanted to do in Elementary school. She wanted to become a music teacher and from that point on started studying her teachers to learn how they did things. I have even heard stories that she took notes while they were teaching. The point is she was dedicated. She worked incredibly hard at music and as a result is amazing at several instruments.     She spent hours upon hours practicing her music and taking lessons. She also took AP classes, worked a job and was in several performing groups. Which pretty much confirms the fact that I don't think she slept at all in high school.     Keeping on the topic of ...

    Student Representative? What's that? It is a great  role that one girl and one boy run for every year at my co-op. Last year two of my wonderful friends were elected. Rachel and Jakob did a fantastic job. They are part of the reason I decided to run for Student Rep this year.     To start this road of politics I had to write a speech. I spent some time trying to figure out what I wanted to say. I knew what I wanted to say, but I felt like I couldn't phrase it convincingly enough. In the end I decided to state a few ideas I had and not over promise. I went with the idea that we could worry about the election and then go from there with what we wanted to do as a group.     It was a fun election and in the end I was elected the girl student rep. Luke, the boy student rep won as well and he is such a great guy to work with. I have enjoyed getting to know him and sharing ideas back and forth. Luke is so funny, smart and has fantastic ideas about what ...

   September through December is seriously my favorite time of the year. As October has shown up I have literally gone ballistic with excitement. I spent last weekend helping out at my towns harvest party. We had hayrides, straw bales, human fuse-ball, pumpkin donuts, vendors, and fun music. I love the small town get together s. It was a lot of fun and these last few weeks. The leaves have started changing colors and leaves float down in swirls. It is like God is up there with a paint brush and paint throwing splashes of color all over the world.  I love this time of year.    So now on to the list of things I love about fall.        1. Apple Cider        2. Fires in the Fire Place        3. Changes of Color        5. Coffee        6. Fall Smelling Candles        7. Meals Involving Squash        8. Pumpkin Treats ...

  Well, on Tuesday I am officially sixteen.  At my birthday last year my mom said that we needed to do something big for my sixteenth and that is when she suggested that we do a ball. I was hesitant at first, I didn't think anyone would do it. But I liked the idea a lot and decided to do it. I am so glad I did. Friday night was one of the best nights ever.    I had so many friends that came. I was really blessed by them. We had dance lessons, tons of food. My dear friend Abby Michelsen and her family made me cupcakes and Mom created a beautiful birthday cake.   The whole night was kind of dreamy. One of those dreams you know your going to wake up at, but you don't really want too. As I sat after all my dear friends had left. I smiled. I am grateful that God put everyone of them in my life. Times are changing and we are growing up. We are moving on to the next stage in life. God has exciting plans for all of us.    Some face graduation this coming ye...

 When do you say "I can't take on anything else right now?" How do you learn to say it? How do you chose what to cut out and what to take on? When faced with a decision of what the best option is, how do you know? Obviously the first step is to pray and ask God for direction. But have you ever been so confused, with so many thoughts in your head you have no idea what you are really praying for?  It is so amazing to me that God knows what I need, how I need it, when I need it. He shuts the doors I need shut even if I am pawing at them to stay open. He drags me away like my mom used to do when I wanted something in the store when I was two. Just like me mom knew that candy would ruin my dinner. God knows that, that door isn't where I need to be.  I hate saying no to things. I want to be able to do it all, sometimes I can I just have to re-arrange priorities.  Like letting go of my perfectly organized plan day. I have silly ideas that it would be so much better for me...

As we head into the school year or have just started the school year, I thought it would be fun to do a post on school related things. I have been thinking about education a lot lately as I begin my Junior year on Tuesday, there are so many roads ahead, end of high school, beginning college searches. I sometimes forget that I AM still in high school. I have always been one of those to hurry and get to where I want to be types of people. I am also one of those I always am thinking to whats ahead types of people too.  This can be fine in moderation I suppose, however I sometimes forget what is in front of me, the moment I am living right now. Life goes by to quickly to not notice the adventures before you. My mom had this picture hanging by my desk one year that said "Education is a journey, not a race" it is so true and I think about that quote a lot now, even though I rolled my eyes at it when she hung it on my side of the school room.  Now as I look on ahead I realize that...

Milestone in our home this week, my little brother became a teenager on Thursday. Now I could say James is the greatest little brother I have ever had and he is, ( he is also the only brother I have) Just kidding, James is fantastic brother we often get along though not without our disagreements. I remember Mom telling me the story of how when James was born and I went to see him, I loved going down to the nursery and looking through the window at him, however I wanted the pink baby (the girl baby next to him.)  It makes for a good story now and the picture below is proof that I loved my new brother.                                                               Holding James At The Hospital  James and I have always had a pretty close relationship and I have my parents to thank for that. They have and do make James and I...

It was a sad morning of packing up and cleaning as we prepared to make our departure from the cabin, after we loaded up the trailer and said good - bye to Uncle Rick and Auntie Al we all climbed into the jeep and drove off.                                                       Group picture before taking off A great surprise that I wasn't expecting was getting to see my cousins when we stopped at the farm. They have just moved from South Carolina and I hadn't seen them in a while or had the chance to meet my newest cousin Henry. He is so adorable I can't wait to get to know him better over the years. I had a really fun time reading books with Mary Katherine and visiting with Abby, getting to know here better. They are two really sweet girls I am a very lucky cousin.                      ...

It was a slow morning we had a fantastic breakfast of french toast, bacon, fruit, and coffee lovingly prepared for us by my Aunt and then we all went off and did our own thing for a bit. James and I decided to watch the same episode of Wallace and Grommitt again because it was stuck in the VCR player ( yes I know some of my dear readers may not know what this device is message me I'll explain) and we couldn't get it out to put anything else in. Before you knew it Mom had made popcorn and we were all gathered in the living room laughing to a man and his dog with a sheep rustler mystery. (If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. it is a riveting plot :)  Finishing the movie we all felt like we needed to get out and do something so we all loaded up and went down to the Go - Kart rink where Dad, James and Uncle Rick all proceeded to chase each other in a circle having the time of their lives.                         ...

 I awoke to the cabin coming to life. Sunshine through the windows, voices from the kitchen, coffee brewing, and creaking of floor boards. I rolled over giving one last thought to staying in bed and them decided to get up and find coffee. After retrieving my beverage I sat down at the table and visited with my Uncle while Dad cooked up pancakes and sausage. We all ate the delicious breakfast and got ready to go for a bike ride.  With air in all the tires, day packs ready and water bottles filled the six of us (and Roman) took off for the discovery trail that you can enter at the Seaview approach. It was a lovely day for a ride and the it was a nice trail that went through the dunes and was an easy ride so you could just enjoy the views.                                                           My bike on the trail   ...