Christmas

Christmas means:

Luke 2 - Jesus humbled himself and came to earth as a little baby so that we might live freely, we can feel joy even amongst sorrow.  These things especially bring joy to me at Christmas time:
Charlie Brown and the Grinch
Cocoa by the fire
spending time with family
singing old favorite christmas songs
christmas lights! 
christmas tree
ice skating

What brings joy to you at Christmas?

CHI

So we live in a tiny apartment.  It amazes me though how different arrangements can make it seem so much more livable.  I've been kind of interested in the idea of Feng Shui the last couple of years.  Basically Feng Shui is the idea that you want the energy (the chi) to be able to flow freely through the space.  Now I don't necessarily know what I think of the energy thing, but I do think it really makes a difference on how a room is organized and what kinds of items and colors you have surrounding you. Here's a website I started with, if you want to check it out: http://hubpages.com/hub/feng-shui-apartment.  It has more links to other websites as well.  Basically you want your life to be balanced.  So you want balanced furniture on all the sides of a room and calm vs passionate colors, and the areas of the house separated.  For example you want your desk to be in the knowledge area, surrounded by books, not by other distracting clutter.  Getting rid of clutter is a large part of this, which is really hard to do when you live in such a small apartment. 

Anyway, its kind of fun to think about how things are arranged.  Plus I like rearranging.  Not everything is feasible for us, but little things help.  We have a tapestry separating our "bedroom" from the rest of the apartment, and an area rug denotes where the living room is, the t.v. is at an angle because corners supposedly resemble a knife or pointing finger which are bad. We've been a little less of a mess the last month too which is good.

vegetarian? low iron? hm.

After dog sitting for some people who were vegetarians, we started thinking about it more.  Chickens are very cruelly treated, they are stuffed in these little wire cages all stacked on top of each other with their beaks shaved off (see http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/chicken.html for more info).  I’ve been to dairy farms and the conditions are not as bad for the cows, but the cattle industry produces way more CO2 than all the cars in the world.  It is possible to capture gasses and refine them and sell the product back to the grid, but this is not very common yet.  Another problem though is that cows are fed artificial hormones, which is a little unsettling as well. 

Solution:  Eat only cage-free chickens
Problem with solution:  I’m in debt and cannot afford cage-free chicken
Solution: Don’t eat chicken
Problem with second solution: I’m really low on iron, and meat is a great source of iron
Solution: be vegetarian and know what you are doing and make sure you have all your nutrients
Problem:  I’m a grad student and have no time to do that

My solution for now, buy cage-free eggs at whole foods, they don’t really cost much more there.  Try to come up with one vegetarian meal a week, making sure I have all the right nutrients.  Might have to eat more red meat though to get my iron back up (less chicken), I could really notice the difference in college when I didn’t eat red meat for a long time and then had some, energy was way up. 

So anyway, I know I’m not stopping the industry with my half-ass solution, but it’s a start I guess. 

Last week we made sweet potato enchiladas with black beans.  They were really good.  If anyone has suggestions for meals, I'm all ears. 

Last day of classes!  Presentation.  Then finals. 

Track!!!!

I just have a few minutes before class, but I just wanted to tell the world (or the 3 people that might be reading this) that I'm cleared to run indoor track for the CU Buffaloes!!!!!  I'm going to practice on Friday.  So excited!   I don't know what else to say, so I guess I'll just leave it at that for now. 


--Lizz--

Thanksgiving

It is the week of Thanksgiving and I have so much to be thankful for!  I'll list some of the things I am thankful for and maybe you can post things that you are thankful for as well!

I am thankful for:
a wonderful husband
not having to worry about food or shelter or heat
house sitting in this nice big house with a dog to keep me company
opportunity to get an education
Nate's job
this beautiful place by the mountains
that I can run again
for people God places in your life when you think you have no one
Christmas songs and lights and cider

I think that thankfulness can be contagious, so leave a post of what you are thankful for, or write a thank you note to someone who has been helpful or influential in your life, or give back a compliment.  Spread it around!

-Elizabeth

A running post

Its hard to not define yourself by the things you do.  Our society is constantly putting labels on people based on their job, hobbies, political affiliations, and lots of other things.  I mean even back going into junior high youth group.  It seemed like all the older kids had a "thing" that they were known for or a place that they fit in.  A comfortable spot, if you will.  People knew them and what they were about.  When you first joined you weren't known for anything, but I worried about what I would be known for.  Same thing happened in college, but since I ran and I joined a team of people that ran and loved Jesus, we had a lot in common anyway, so you just accept each other and feel comfortable waiting to be known.  And if you worked hard people would respect you even if you weren't known for anything else. 

When I graduated from college, I was injured.  I have a bad hamstring, so I couldn't run.  Now running means a lot of different things to me.  It keeps you in shape and feeling good, it relieves stress, I was a part of a team with a goal, I had friends who loved me just because, and honestly I was good at it- I loved competing, and I could compete well.  So not being able to run was difficult for me.  I was stressed about a lot of things this summer and I couldn't run plus not being able to run was stressing me out and I had no outlet for that.  But besides that, I like being known as a runner, I'm proud of it and proud of what I've accomplished, but I still think I could accomplish more. 

Then coming to grad school in a new state where I don't know anyone is hard.  I've never really had to make friends from scratch before.  So I can be known for whatever I want now.  But I like being known as a runner and I can't be.  So I've thrown a lot more effort into school, which is good. 

I guess I should just want to be known as a follower of Christ.  Its hard to put all my worth in Jesus.  Plus it seems like when you do that a lot of people judge you based on other experiences they have had with people that call themselves Christian.  Plus there are a lot of people that are good people that aren't Christian.  What makes Christians different?

Plus I have been reading Shane Claiborne's "Irrisistable Revolution"  which just seems like unless I live in poverty or devote my life to helping those in poverty and am a missionary then I'm not really following what Christ preaches.  So I feel like there are just so many things I should be doing and its overwhelming and I have no idea where to start. 

Update on Life in Boulder

Well , I guess I haven't been great at keeping up with this, but here's an update on my life in Boulder so far. 

My parents and Nate's dad visited a little while back.  It was really nice to see some family and catch up with everybody.  We got to show them where we live, which was fun because we are so busy its hard for us to get out and explore. We visited the Celestial Seasonings factory in Longmont where they make all their tea.  I'm excited to try lots of different varieties.  We showed them Chatauqua, where you can hike up the Flatirons or just see the entire area.  We live right up against the Rocky Mountains to the west, but to the east is flat, probably til you get to the Appalaichians.  We ate at a great little Italian place, so if anyone else comes to visit we know where to eat!  We also ate at the Dushanbe Tea House, which was a gift from Boulder's sister city in Tajikistan.  We saw the farmers market with Nate's dad, and the Denver zoo, and had dinner with the family Nate stayed with all summer.  We also spent a night up at the Keystone ski resort in Nate's dad's condo, walked around Breckenridge, explored Red Rocks Park, and saw a buffalo.  We've also tried out some thai recipes with spices we bought at a spice shop downtown, they turned out great! and we also made chicken parmasan and a pot roast!

I'm allowed to run a little bit.  I can walk for a bit, jog for a minute or two, then walk for a couple minutes, then jog another minute or two, etc..  I'm also still biking to stay in shape at the rec center. 

School is going well, I just started a design project for earthquake engineering, its amazing how much we have learned already. 

I'd like to start growing my own tea.  But apparently you want your tea plant to be at least three years old before you harvest any leaves, so I'm still working out the details. 

The beginning of this blog

Why did I start this blog?

It is really easy to get bogged down in the little details and dissapointments of life, or the important and stressful things.  I wanted to do something offset that.  I want to live life more intentionally.  I called the blog intentional sunshine because I want to find ways to be intentional about life and so bring in the sunshine rather than get stuck under gloomy skies.  What does this mean?  I'm not entirely sure yet.  To start with I want to be more disciplined, focus on the task at hand and take my work seriously so I can have time to play seriously.  I want to try new things and explore Colorado and take advantage of the opportunities here.  I want to keep my life focused on others and not just myself.  Any suggestions are more than welcome! 

A little about me right now. 

I recently graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI with a degree in Civil Engineering. While at Calvin I ran cross country and track.  Since graduation I have gotten married to Nate Perkins and moved to Boulder, CO to pursue a masters degree in Structural Engineering at UC Boulder.  Nate does research at the hospital in Denver. So far I have been studying, unpacking and organizing our tiny apartment, climbed a 14,000 ft mountain, and met some people.