December nineth, 2010

I announced in my comment on the previous post my intention to update this blog weekly, to the best of my ability. The internet has been down for five days, to my great dismay, but here we are exactly a week later... and this post goes up. Thank the Lord for his small kindnesses, for they are still very kind.

This past week I have seen little to nothing of the male half of my family. My dad and the two most amazing guys in the world (aka my brothers) have been working sunup to 5 hours past dark every day on the church construction site, building the roof.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with The New Girl At School?

It means that with the house empty, I used a little liberty. The only mirror in my room rests ontop my bureau as a part of the whole, and thanks to my short height, I can really only see from my shoulders up. Also, my room is more or less a warm little cubicle - enough to move from the door to the bed, but not enough to open the closet if my sister is also standing in the room. So, in light of the new status of the house, I fixed these problems and carried my mirror (wow, it was heavy, elaborately framed in solid wood) into the dining hall and set it on the staircase. In this spacious corridor, with the mirror set to reveal my reflection head-to-toe, I dragged out all of my clothes from my room and had a try-on session.

Luggage limits are tight and I have a very bad habit of wanting to have at least 2 outfits for every given day, just in case. But now that some sacrifice was going to be required, I had to take drastic measures to eliminate the "so-so" pieces from the "I can't live without this!" pieces.

If this doesn't make much sense to you, consider that I have to plan for light winter weather into deep winter weather into rainy spring weather into warm spring weather into the first hot flashes of summer. That's a lot of different clothing demands. Also, the fashion guidelines for what colors to wear shift greatly over those three seasons, too! London greys and granite blues for January... daisy yellows and butterfly pinks for April...

It was fun. =) And it made me appreciate how well my parents provide for me, and how good God has been to my family in my life. Also, it made me realize that dominating color scheme of my wardrobe has leapt from blue and black, to burgundy and brown. Curious!

This week I also got over my inhibitions and climbed into the attic to retrieve my suitcases. Oh, the memories. So much traveling in my lifetime... and so many memories. Green suitcases, solid rectangular frame, HobbyLobby identity tags.

It's a little bit early to be packing yet... but I am keeping it in my mind.

As for the countdown... 18 days!!!!!!

Oh, I am so not ready.

The holidays are coming up soon, too. For the first time in my LIFE I will be greeting the New Year outside of Kharkov.... wow. And, right along the unfortunate tidings, I will be missing Christmas in the States by just a few days. Where is the justice in that? I would rather trade. American Christmas - carols, trees, lights, candy canes - in America. New Year - sleigh rides, fireworks, Ded Maroz, Ploshad Svobodi - in Kharkov. But.... it's not going to work out that way... alas.

The verse for this week is Psalm 101:2 "I will behave myself wisely in the perfect way." Wow! What a bold statement. With all the decisions lying before me (well... more like rushing at me with the speed of a super train hurtling along the rails full-speed...) in the next few weeks, it doesn't feel like that is possible. Wise... perfect... But it is a good goal to have. Isn't this verse just incredible?

My major goals for this next week are:

1) buy a bus ticket to Kiev
2) confirm arrangements for the first week in OK before the dorms open
3) get insurance on my car in IL
4) confirm arrangements for the week transitional stay in IL
5) get my AT&T contract reactivated for my phone

We'll see how it goes.

P.S. I need to finish my Christmas shopping, too!