Hope

Adventus is here!!

These past two years I have really had a hard time during the Advent season.  I have been in the middle of finals and always felt like I couldn’t fully get in the spirit of the holidays.  I couldn’t fully prepare and get excited for the birth of Jesus.  I was too caught up in the stress of school and finishing up the semester.

This year shouldn’t be any different – I have five papers due this week alone.  And yet – something got me thinking.  This semester I have been taking month-long worship practicums that have looked at different parts of the Christian year.  Most recently, we have been talking about Advent.

Advent is not just about getting ready for Christmas.  It is not just about lighting candles, decorating trees and hooking up lots of lights.

Advent is the season of coming, waiting, expecting and arriving.  The great thing about this season is that – in all reality – you do not have to DO ANYTHING during it.  You can enter into this season wherever you are on your journey through life:  You can wait for God to speak to you, come into the lives of the people who may need your love and support, expect the unexpected and wait for the arrival of Emmanuel – the God within us all.

I never thought about it until today – but on the first Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of Hope.

Hope.

I don’t need to be free of finals, homework and stress in order to have hope in my life.  Hope – despite all else – is always alive.

Hope is knowing that I have some of the most incredible friends and family who surround me every day, help me make good decisions and catch me when I fall.  Hope is reading the stories of bloggers all over the country and seeing some of the incredible ways that they are serving their communities and our world.  Hope is feeling a call to ministry – a call that I may not be able to understand but that gives me a larger purpose.  Hope is knowing that I turn in my final paper on Dec. 11 and will finally have time to clean out, decorate, catch up with my friends and spend time with my husband.

Wherever you are in your life – you have hope.

http://www.divshare.com/flash/playlist?myId=9543773-c0c

What do you hope for this Advent season?

Weekend Recipes – Thanksgiving Edition (Pop Pop’s Corn Casserole)

Corn Casserole

(compliments of my grandfather)

1 box Jiffy Cornbread Mix

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 (16 oz.) can cream-style corn

1 (16 oz.) can whole kernel corn

8 oz. sour cream

½ c. butter, but into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together all ingredients, in the given order.

Pour into 2 quart glass baking dish.

Bake uncovered for 60 minutes or until knife/fork/toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I’ve noticed that at around 60 minutes the toothpick is not completely clean, but I take it out anyway – it will bake a little bit more after it comes out of the oven.  Just make sure that it is just starting to brown before you take it out.

Enjoy!!

Black Friday

Happy Thanksgiving!!

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7851805&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Happy Thanksgiving from Sarah Weaver on Vimeo.

I trust everyone is slowly coming out of their Turkey-induced comas?

I am spending Black Friday in sweatpants and with a pile of homework and lots of Christmas music!! (Is it just me or does Christmas music make most obnoxious tasks better?) The past two nights I have had dreams (/nightmares) that I didn’t make my deadlines, forgot about a paper or turned something in late – I woke up both times with school-induced heart palpitations so I am good and ready to make sure that those dreams do not become a reality.

Happy Black Friday!!  For those of you out shopping – did you get any good deals?

Bruce and me before we left for dinner yesterday.  Yes, Bruce does wait until I get dressed to pick his clothes so he somewhat matches.  Kind of silly, yes, but otherwise we would clash!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Drinking coffee in bed while watching Matt & Meredith welcome the parade down 34th street sounds just about PERFECT to me.

We’re having dinner with some friends of ours from school later on – I am bringing my grandfather’s “famous” (famous in our family, anyway) corn casserole so I better start cooking!!

Is anybody else out there cooking?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!  May you feel your blessings in abundance.

Sarah

Check out the photo here and read about the new parade route for this year!!

Not Yet, Anyway.

So – it’s not really feeling like, fall, Thanksgiving or the holiday season for me right now.

I blame part of it on these pesky southern winters.  And I use the term “winter” loosely (only if you count a predicted 60-degree Thanksgiving Day as “winter,” that is).  Bruce just got back from the grocery store and said it was finally starting to feel brisk outside – and even with the brisk air, it is still warm in our apartment at night and we have slept the past two nights with the slider door in our bedroom open!!

I blame part of it on the three papers, one worship service and one presentation that stand between me and the end of the semester.  Hard to get into the holiday spirit when you are burdened by finals.  At least I do not have to take any sit down exams!!

I blame part of it on the fact that I stayed inside today and watched the increasingly slow-moving traffic and treacherous airport travel conditions on the news, rather than experiencing them first hand.  No traveling for the Weavers this year.  I learned the hard way during my first year in seminary that it is next to impossible for me to travel north so close to finals.

I blame part of it on the fact that I really have no intention of getting decorated for the holidays until after I turn in my last paper (Dec. 11th) and can clean up, clean out and completely go all out.  And in the middle of finals I am driving to North Carolina for my psychological evaluation – so there really is no time before then.  Which is such a shame – because I love to go all out (and it definitely helps me study and write when I do so by Christmas lights).

So – I am not quite in the spirit.  Not yet, anyway.

I am sure that when I catch my first glimpse of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on TV in the morning, turn on Christmas music for the first time, try to keep track of the seven different football games Bruce will inevitably be flipping through and sit down to dinner with some of our friends from school, things will be different. (Maybe a cold front will come through and we will get some snow tomorrow?)

But until then, Bruce and Lilly and I are hanging out and having a Friends marathon – we have all ten seasons on DVD so we are going through them and watching all of the Thanksgiving episodes!!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!!  Safe travels to those of you on the road / in the air!!

Peace,
Sarah

p.s. If anyone needs an absolutely heartwarming story, check this post out.  Sarah and I have been reading this blog over the past couple of months – this husband and wife have been blogging about their infertility and they got really good news this morning!!

Just Ride

You wake up from your dreaming and you don’t want to face the day

You can’t find a reason to think your world will ever change

You can hide beneath the covers

Or you can run outside, head up high and carry on …

Life is a roller coaster ride

Time turns the wheel and love collides

Faith is believing you can close your eyes and touch the sky

So shine while you have the chance to shine

Laugh even when you want to cry

Hold on tight to what you feel inside …

… and ride.

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Martina McBride’s Ride made a bad day better for me today.  Listening to the lyrics reminded me that – even though my future is uncertain, even though there are a lot of transitions coming up, even though I do not know where I will be in a year – I am surrounded by wonderful people.  And I am going to be okay.

I have so much to be thankful for – and I can’t wait to talk about it for the rest of the week!!

Peace,

Sarah

Listen here for the rest of the song:

http://www.divshare.com/flash/playlist?myId=9488689-644

HomeGoods StyleScope

So my good friend Sarah and I both regularly read Young Love House, a fabulous blog with tons of decorating, home improvement and DIY ideas.  This afternoon they posted the results of a quiz that they had taken over at HomeGoods that tested their decorating style.  I thought it would be fun to think about anything other than Systematic Theology so I headed over tonight to take the quiz myself.

Here are my results:

I read the description out loud to Bruce and he said that it sounded fairly spot on.  I have to say, though – while this was a really nice study break, it just made me want a house that much more!!  And at the moment, what stands between me and a house is graduating, finishing my ordination requirements, seeking a call and moving to a new place.

So, for the time being – it’s back to Systematic Theology.

Let me know if you all take the quiz!!  What is your StyleScope?

Go Dawgs!!

Bruce and I experienced our first SEC football game yesterday!!  Some friends of ours have UGA season tickets and invited us to this weekend’s night game versus Kentucky.

SEC football is SO different from any other college football that I have ever experienced.  Girls dress up with the team colors and guys go beyond just wearing t-shirts and hats with team paraphernalia on them. (I am not lying when I say that I saw men wearing red corduroy pants with black bulldogs all over them.) The final score was less than stellar (that’s what happens when the quarterback keeps throwing the ball to the other team) but all in all it was tons of fun!!

It has been rainy and gloomy gray here all day.  We came home from church and have pretty much been laying around, watching football and napping.  I am SO happy that some of my classes have been cancelled this week and I don’t have to spend the entire week of Thanksgiving in class!!

What about everybody else?  Working this week?  Taking the week off for Thanksgiving?  Working a short week?  In school?  I can’t believe how quickly Thanksgiving is coming – I have a “no Christmas music until Thanksgiving” rule so come Thursday I am breaking out my favorite – Amy Grant!!

Fall In Atlanta

Fall in Atlanta …

… it’s really quite beautiful don’t you think?

Have a great weekend, y’all!!

I Need a Vacation

Going back to Italy, France and Spain would be nice …

… don’t you think?

Am I the only one who hates it when their passport starts to collect dust?