Missing home...

home

decorating!!!

I've been thinking on and off about decorating my apartment and while I probably won't we able to actually do so until Christmas, I at least have a few more ideas...

...estanterías, or bookshelves, made from old, brown crates. fun in part because we found a guy who sells crates (versus having to find this many in good shape on the street) for cheap. also fun because i'll get to design it and such.

... a floor lantern for the hallway, possibly two, one at each end, for when we have guests over. it's kind of a long hallway, but i hate leaving the lights on and wasting the electricity. plus candles are always more enchanting.


















... i'd also love a little corner in the living room with a soft, comfy chair to curl up in with a book. or maybe a hammock, although that would probably take up a lot of space.

... lots of textures, pretty earthly but also pretty. hmm...

... paint is the thing i haven't quite figured out. I wouldn't actually mind a couple shades of brown with maybe some earthly colors to accent (either real colors or whites and greens and blues and maybe the right color of coral or pink)... i really have no idea.

... i'm thinking of moving the huge bookshelf/buffet to the entryway of the hall to make more space

... the entryway needs a major overhall. i'd love to get a lot of morroccan lamps and such to make it very inviting and magical. the main question is the cost and where to find cheap, morroccan lamps. maybe i just make to take a trip down south soon. :-)

... and i think the entryway definitely needs a coat of paint, possibly a more vibrant color...

... and then there is a bookshelf that could be painted. i would totally strip it, but that is a long, some what toxic process. so... that also has to be decided, depending on where it ends up.

so... those are my rambling, random thoughts on redecorating as of late. not to mention some of the remodeling we're going to request from our landlord. i'd so love love love a new kitchen, or at least new cabinets and stove/oven. one that actually has a temperature gauge in the oven instead of just having to guess by the size of the flame and then knowing it will take longer and possibly have to be tinkered with and possibly turn out unevenly heated... i so have kitchen envy of the place we stayed in on the surf trip. cooking was so much more simple.

if i had my druthers i'd have a marble counter top. that's unlikely, but a girl can definitely dream.

At home

Over the past week it has occurred to me that my home is finally a refuge. When I am here I can really rest. I have two great roommates who are amazing. When I was sick a couple weeks ago, Chery offered to make some soup for me (which I probably would have taken her up on, other than the fact that I had just made some soup from the little I had in the fridge - gazpacho, veggies, noodles, rice, red curry,...it was really good) and they both bought some orange juice for me. Recently I've appreciated the fact that they take equal responsibility for cleaning and getting things repaired, etc., They are a huge blessing. I really can't begin to express how much I appreciate them. My apartment is actually a refuge, a place I can rest well. In fact I've noticed over the past couple weeks that I have been having the most vivid dreams and it's clear that I'm sleeping well again. All this is a very nice change.

coming home...

So... Sunday i went to church at my home church, Old Orchard PCA in Webster Groves, MO. It's not actually the church i grew up in, but it is the church that has been a family and a home church to me since i first went there, back in 1999 when I was living in the city in St.Louis. They very quickly treated me as their own and were really that, a family to me even though they didn't know me from Adam. Since then they have been my "home church."

As I walked in the doors and was greeted by countless people who know me, I felt at home. I actually felt more at home there than I have felt since I got back. It was the same. The people were the same, even though a couple years had passed and physically some of them had changed a bit. The preaching was amazing, poignant and relevant as always and firmly grounded in who God is. And it was great that all I had to do was sit and listen and take it all in.

Afterward I had people invite me to lunch and several people insist that I have lunch with them sometime this week. It was nice to have people initiate with me and to be taken care of, without doing anything. I am so grateful for these people both in the past and in the present, but also for what may come in the future. I so appreciate the realness of them, their genuine love and acceptance, and their fear and love of God as God. It so ministers to my heart.

And they are definitely AMAZING! And definitely a gift, a very good gift from God.

home sweet home - "de madrid al cielo"

there is a saying in madrid, "de madrid al cielo" (from madrid to heaven). what is meant is that it doesn't get any better than madrid. now i definitely am a bit fan, but am not quite sure i'd go that far.

having said that... i spent most of my day outside of madrid in a suburb and a small town outside of madrid (mostoles y cobeña respectfully) and spent more than a little on buses, trains, a car, and the metro. more than ever i was wishing i already had both my driver's license and a car. so... i took the train back into madrid, got off at recoletos (by colón) and walked home. i walked out of the train station onto the castillana (a huge 5 lane street that goes through the center of madrid, past cibeles and the major museums, etc) and thought, "ah, por fin, vuelvo a casa!" ("ah, home sweet home").

and it seemed a bit ironic after having been out in cobeña, a very quiet and tiny town, and mostoles, a suburb where people live who don't want to live in the city. yet despite the hustle and bustle, everything felt familiar, i'm used to traffic noise, i actually like all the people around (in part because it's fun to people watch and i enjoy walking quickly down the street). so, madrid is my little home. at least for now.