A little bit of Life

I've reached a little bit of a writer's block in that I haven't had any inspiring thoughts or deep ponderments of late.. but I don't want this blog to get boring either. :)


So my life.. Classes started a week ago tuesday and they are going quite well. There's only one or two that I foresee as difficult, and I say difficult because it will be difficult for me to stay awake and/or focused in them as the teacher's monotone voice drones on while the powerpoint slide stays the same for 20 minutes. I'm rather terrible at focusing during lectures sometimes. I haven't had to sit in a lecture hall with 100 other students since freshman year and so it's a bit of a challenge to get used to that again. 
I've rather trained myself to fall asleep to monotone voices. At home, when my siblings and I want to take an afternoon nap, we watch Planet Earth documentaries and fall fast asleep. (Last time I was home we watched a documentary on China... I was out 15 minutes in. ) So.. lectures will be a fun challenge.


Oh! And another thing about me is that I'm attempting to fix some health problems by avoiding gluten, starch, sugar, and lactose for a few months. When I was 15 yrs. old I had a bad case of food poisoning that landed me in the ER with IVs and blood tests and other such nasty needle business. Since then I've had various stomach issues with mild lactose intolerance, stomach ulcers, upset stomach.. etc. Apparently that's not normal and (hopefully) can be fixed. Woohoo! It's been a little bit of an adventure finding things that are okay to eat while my intestines repair themselves. 

Apples and Peanut butter = BEST. SNACK. EVER!

One of my most favorite discoveries has been all-natural peanut butter. :) I have never much been a fan of peanut butter. I ate it on occasion and didn't mind it with chocolate, but, it had a very sticky texture that I didn't much care for. Then! My mom brought me home this piece of heaven that doesn't have any sugar or honey or anything added to it. Since discovering it 16 days ago, I have managed to consume 4 jars of it. I eat it with apples. I LOVE apples. My most favorite snack I'd say. I've eaten so many apples the last couple weeks, I don't think the doctor could get close to me if he tried. Teehee. 

Random January thoughts

Since everyone posts all their accomplishments and proud moments (and sometimes not proud moments) on Facebook for everyone to see and "like" and comment on...  I decided not to put this on Facebook. But! I am very proud of this. While I was home on break, Young Mr. Kolby needed a hair cut. Usually Pearl does all the boys' hair around our house but as it was, Kolby didn't want Pearl to cut his hair when she was home and it was rather long and quite curly. 

I've cut my other brothers' hair before and their hair is not curly and so I found that there is a little more challenge in cutting curly hair because it does not cooperate very well. Even MORE skill is required in cutting hair for a 7 year old boy because HE does not cooperate either.. well.. he was pretty good.. just squirmy and impatient. 

Along with the fact that I attempted to give some hair cuts over the summer and they weren't as awesome as Pearl's haircuts. But, to my very pleasant surprise, Kolby trusted me to cut his hair. :) YAY! So, after I took about 3 or 4 inches off of his head.. he was free to go :) I think he said he liked his haircut too. 

Before                                                                                                                    After          

My Winter Break

One of my projects whilst being home was to take care of ceiling that has been pelted by steam from the shower for a very long time. Poor thing. 

"I have the strangest feeling you shouldn't touch that"

Scraped and spackled.

 I'm good at fixing rot. Call me the Rotmeister. No, I'm the Doctor, don't call me the Rotmeister.

Christmas at the Kohl house!!! Well.. it wasn't actually Christmas.. we didn't celebrate Christmas til Dec. 28th... but it was delightful!! All 10 of the siblings were able to be home and exchange gifts and watch Psych and play games together and just spend good time in each other's company.

Ken, Pearl, Kurt

Grace and Kit

Pearl and Kurt

Eva and Ken

:) I love my siblings!

Mom made us these sweet aprons for Christmas. :)

So, one of the things we did with all ten of us being home was played hide-and-go-seek in the dark after mom and dad had gone to sleep. One of my siblings had the idea to break glow-sticks open into a jar... and apparently flick glow-stick juice all over the kitchen floor. There were several of us sporting the glowing magic on our skin and clothing until my oldest sister who works as a Chemist intervened and stated the danger of the chemicals on our skin and made us all wash it off and clean it up. 

Rave party anyone?

As  January has brought many a day above 50 degrees, Kolby and Kyle coaxed me outside to play football with their rules. Each touch down was worth 1 point. (They wanted to play first one to 50) and what ever Kyle said was a rule counted. ....I lost.  

Football cheater.

Kolby and Kyle celebrated their victory after winning the football game via tackling me for every play and/or changing what side of the yard they had to run to to get a touch down. 

Pin the Tail on the New Years

The end has come for the year 2011 and as the new year approaches I thought it would be a good time to reflect on how I have grown in Jesus this year. Which got me thinking... it seems that New Years is advertised as a big deal because it's your time to think and reflect and start over. Of course that is what a lot of people do when the new year comes.. I mean.. people *try* to do that. They try to make the new year sound like some deep meaningful mile marker that is so great an achievement that we should all pat each other on the back and give free high fives.  It sounds silly.. but it's true. Why is it that people try to make New Years into something so big?  


I've found that people see New Years as that chance to start over, turn a new page, if you will. It's a nice concept. I feel like New Years might mean a lot more to non-believers because their chances to "start brand new" only happens once a year...ish. Thank goodness God's mercies are new every morning. No one has to wait for the New Year seeing as God is available 24/7, but since a lot of people don't see any need to believe in God or ask God for help or include God in their lives... New Years is as good a time as any to attempt to create some order to one's life.


 I'm sure a lot of people can relate to the feeling of going through life blind folded. (Christians call it walking by faith.) Sometimes life is a bit like the game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.. you're blind folded. Everyone is trying to tack a tail onto the thing and of course they look foolish as they blindly stick it where ever they think it goes and often finding themselves missing the mark by a long shot. Of course there are the kids who wait for their turn and watch where the other kids put their failed tails and attempt to grope out the right spot with their fingers while wearing their blindfolds... a noble effort.. but still off. 
People blindly try to pin the meaning of things all over their life. Death... why do people die? What comes after you die? What is one's life purpose? Life.. What did I do with my entire last year? What should I do this coming year? What's the point of New Year's resolutions if I know I'm not gonna follow through? We try to tack on the answers and meanings where we think they go. We try to follow the examples of others and feel out the answer from what others have tried.
But, Jesus is like that kind adult that would take the blind folded person's hand and guide it to the right spot on the donkey. It doesn't always feel right because there are no other tails around it cuz everyone else has missed the mark by a long shot and it feels like you're just tacking the tail on in the middle of nowhere. But Jesus know what he's doing, he's got answers. Alls we have to do is trust him. 

Christmas Cheer is In the Air!

My Calvin nd Hobbes cookie... I was told he looked like Charlie Brown..

Decorating cookies is fun! :)

Add caption

Our connection group had a cookie decorating party to wrap up a wonderful semester of growing together and uncovering Truth by reading the Word. :)

I turned the Christmas stocking cookie upside down and it looked like a llama...
So I decorated it accordingly. 

It was quite the spread we had going on.. 

Puddle Hopping with Jesus

I was originally working on a Christmas-y post... but while doing my quiet times this morning, Jesus brought up a very interesting concept that I've never really thought about before. No worries! Christmas posts will be coming soon! 




It is currently Wednesday of finals week here at Iowa and I am happy to say I'm completed 3 of my 4 finals and I have been blessed with some down until my final final on Friday morning. Last night as my roommate and I began planning out our next couple days of freedom and relaxation before we both take our last final (studying? pshh) we came up with a list of fun things to do. Somewhere in my evening whilst enjoying a nutella chocolate granita and trolling on facebook I was asked the question via text message "how are you doing internally?" 


It was at that moment that I had realized I had spent my entire day studying and taking exams and I hadn't spent anytime with Jesus at all during my day..unless you count all the prayers to do well on my exams along with a half hearted prayer of thanks for my lunch... I don't think that counts though. The text message was just like that time in the day when you've been busy all day and someone asks you "Have you eaten yet?" and then all the sudden you realize you're really hungry. 


Last night I realized that while I don't feel like I'm starving to death spiritually and I don't feel like I've put up any walls between me and God, I don't feel filled with His spirit either. I've missed that. That moment in high school when I realized what it was to fully surrender to Jesus, that was a good moment. I was so incredibly full of joy. SO incredibly in love.


Just now I was talking to Jesus and thinking about how many times since that moment that I've been stuck in the mud and mire and have needed Jesus to pull me out and place me on a rock and give me a firm place to stand. I asked Jesus, "why is it that I keep doing that? How do I keep finding myself in such deep pits?" I know if you've read my blog before you've seen me ask that question before and have witnessed my discouragement on more than one occasion. 


This morning, my kitchen was quiet and there was stillness and there was Jesus. Jesus gave me such a wonderful answer to my question. In the spring time, when the snow has melted and it rains a lot and things flood and mud puddles form all over the place, I have often enjoyed putting on my oldest, worst set of clothes and jumped in the mud puddles with my brothers and friends. It's a lot of fun. Sometimes it's so fun that we laugh until our sides ache and find ourselves hopelessly stuck in the mud whilst tears of joy roll down our muddy cheeks.I remember one such instance of being very stuck in some thick mud and laughing so hard I couldn't get out. My friend endeavored to pull me out and found herself stuck as well. We both attempted to help each other but we weren't much use to each other seeing as we were both stuck. Someone had to reach in and pull us out. Some mud puddles are deeper than others. Some are stickier, some have worms, some look small and then turn out to be much deeper than originally thought. I *hate* worms. Hate hate HATE worms. I gag when I see them on the sidewalk after a good rain. But I still jump in mud puddles because it's so much fun. 


And that's the trick of it all. As we walk with Jesus down the road of life there are hundreds of potholes and mud puddles along the way. We have to be careful or we'll fall in and get all muddy. But it would be far too much work to tip toe through the maze of mud puddles, they look fun! And  we feel so compelled to have the fun of jumping in them that we jump in all of them. We move from puddle to puddle splashing along in our merry way. 
Some times we're just splashing around and not suffering anything more than mud stains on our pant leg. Other times we find ourselves hopelessly stuck.. utterly and completely. 
The answer to how we keep finding ourselves in the pits is that we keep jumping in. The answer to why we keep finding ourselves in the mud is that we think it fun. It looks appealing and we remember times we've splashed in little puddles and giggled in delight. We don't often remember the times we came out with worms between our toes or when it took Jesus' rescue helicopter coming in with a search party. We don't like to remember the times we were in the pits. Those were bad times.. hard times. Let's remember the fun times.. the moments of silliness and harmlessness...


King David once wrote, "Restore onto me the joy of your salvation." He's asking Jesus to remind Him of that first moment of being rescued. How incredibly sweet and joyful that was. He was in a hopeless pit just before that moment and he wanted to remember how it felt to be rescued. If we don't remember those moments.. we jump in big puddles again to see if they're still as sticky and dangerous and painful as people who've gone before us have warned. We think, "well, they probably weren't as strong as me so they couldn't resist the suctioning of the mud or the stickiness as well as I could." Wrong. Mud is mud. It'll getcha everytime. 
And if you don't wash that mud off of you, it'll dry. It'll stain, it will become hardened to your person. I know a lot of people who are walking around with mud caked to their feet as heavy as cinderblocks cuz they don't let Jesus chisel it away for them. Seriously.. you're walk isn't gonna be going very fast with all that stuff on your feet. In fact, all that mud makes you clumsy and fall over a lot... into more mud puddles. 


Psalm 40

 ¹ I waited patiently for the LORD;
   he turned to me and heard my cry.
² He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
   out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
   and gave me a firm place to stand.
³ He put a new song in my mouth,
   a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the LORD
   and put their trust in him.

Lucky for us, God doesn't grow tired of pulling us out of the mud. He's excited for that moment when you reach blindly for help and He's gets to grab your hand and pull you out. But more than that moment, He wants to keep holding your hand and walking you through the mud puddle mind field and keep your foot from slipping. He wants to guide your steps and give you joy. He wants to carry you when there's only enough room between the mud puddles for one set of feet. 

Second Chance (Hillsong)

You called my name
Reached out Your hand
Restored my life
And I was redeemed
The moment You entered my life

Amazing grace
Christ gave that day
My life was changed
When from my shoulders
Fell the weight of my sin

So it's with everything I am
I reach out for Your hand
The hope for change
The second chance I've gained

On You I throw my life
Casting all my fears aside
How could greater love than this
Ever possibly exist

Consume my thoughts
As I rest in You
I'm now in love
With a Saviour
Bearing the marks of His love

So I'll wait upon You now
With my hands released to You
Where a little faith's enough
To see mountains lift and move

And I'll wait upon You now
Dedicated to Your will
To this love that will remain
A love that never fails