Freedom

So the semester is finally over for me and I have some time to breathe and think about something other than Applied Linguistics. I am really glad to have the freedom but I also know that this is probably a good training ground for language learning someday overseas. When I am learning French, I won't get a summer vacation, I will have to be thinking in the language all the time and I will probably have more things in my family life to worry about like babies and such. I've heard that being married without kids is a little more "chill" than life after you have a kid or two. I am not saying that we are pregnant, because as far as I know we aren't, but I am saying that in the hope that someday there will be a little kid running around with a fro like mine. What a beautiful thing that will be.

In my free time I have been able to work on some projects around the house that have needed to get done since we moved in. Ok, so I really mean that me and my dad (read: mostly my dad) have been working on a project this weekend. We put a new door on the mud room and it looks awesome! I mostly watched and helped drill a few holes while my dad did the majority of the detail work. We hung a door at the old house I used to live in when I had just finished college but it was much lower stakes because it was an interior door. This door is effectively an exterior door and I wanted a more sturdy one just in case someone got the idea to punch out the glass on our back door and unlock the deadbolts (which would actually not be that hard). However, now any would-be thief will have their hands full trying to get through the solid wood door that now exists as a barrier between their mischief and my family. Since our house was built in the 50s (we think) the dimensions of everything are a bit off from the sizes that are manufactured today, so it has been an interesting chore to get the right pieces of wood to fit a new door jamb. However, the door jamb is now done (thanks again to my dad's hard work) and it looks so much better than the mangled mess that was there before. I am wishing I had a picture of the before and after to show you, but I didn't have that much foresight.

On a totally different note, we had three books come in the mail today. It is generally a good day when you get three books in the mail (at least in my house) even if one of those books is a text book. The most exciting paperbound surprise we received was the newest book in the Wingfeather Saga. I am sure that many of you are wondering what I am talking about so I must explain that one of our favorite artists (musical and literary) is Andrew Peterson. The Wingfeather Saga is an ongoing series of children's fiction that he started writing about 3 years ago. The third installment of this series is called The Monster in the Hollows and Cassie is excited to get started on it. To illustrate my point see the following pictures:

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and I think they are right in this instance. You are probably thinking, is Cassie really that giddy about some children's book? The answer is…yes, emphatically yes. I did have to get her to pose for this series of pictures, but they are only indicative of her behavior prior to and after the brief photo shoot. To be honest, I am excited too, but not quite as excited as she is.

Other than home improvement projects and new children's books, I plan to read some other books that are good for my soul. I am in the middle of an interesting and helpful book by Neal Lozano called Unbound, which discusses spiritual warfare and deliverance from evil spirits. It is shaping the way that I view such things and I find it a very helpful book. I also hope to read the book Cassie is clutching in her death grip, but I value my life too much to attempt such a feat right now. Maybe when she is done with it though.